Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of shape

A study that lasted from 1999-2002 titled "Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents: United States" reported that over 9 million adolescents 6-19 are overweight or obese. The study also showed that this number has tripled since the 1980’s.

There’s plenty of blame to spread around on this topic. You could take the easy route and place the blame on television, Internet and video games. Some will blame the parents for not stressing the importance of exercise to their children. But the problem could very well rest in our schools.

The National Association of Sport and Physical Education recommends 45 minutes of gym a day for middle and high school students. This sounded pretty damn sweet, but not too fast! Cornell University later found out that most children were averaging only 16 minutes of actual physical activity per class. Reading these articles on this subject made me realize how physical education is deemphasized as you progress in the school system.

When I first started elementary school it was normal to have gym 5 times a week and a daily recess, but that only lasted from grades 1-4. For grades 5-8 gym was cut to only 3 days week, and recess was no longer offered. In high school physical education takes an even bigger hit, because in order to graduate from high school only two years are required. And throughout the course of those two years the time is split between health/sex education, and driver’s Ed.

For a society that’s so obsessed sports you’d think gym would seem as important as English, math and science. While not it as crucial as those subjects tossing gym to side does send a message to kids that it doesn’t matter. Thus resulting in more out of shape kids, who could at least receive some mandatory exercise if it was available to them.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/childhood-obesity-statistics-facts.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6109027

Sports Coverage : Old and New

I really loved the Costas Now clip that Mike showed. In that small one minute and 54 second piece Buzz Bissinger, Will Leitch and Bob Costas touched on all the major issues that come into my mind whenever I’d think about blogs and their legitimacy.

Bissinger expressed his feelings on how he believes blogs can be mean-spirited and unprofessional. Leitch eloquently stated, that in order for a blog to achieve great success, it requires the same amount of time, skill, dedication and effort, that a “traditional journalist” would need to produce a quality story or a daily column.

I don’t think there’s a need to choose between old school and new school reporting techniques and styles. There’s a need for both in today’s market. For readers that want straightforward news, and expert analysis will turn to Sports Illustrated or ESPN. They have to be objective and give little to no biased opinion at all. Journalist just interpret the facts . And while that is the proper way to deliver the news it's not always entertaining, which is why people turn to blogs. They're looking for a partial viewpoint that they can share and agree with, to help validate their own beliefs.

While some blogs are serious in the vein of mainstream sports websites, others take a more humorous approach, take Deadspin.com for instance. While everyone and their grandmother’s uncle has already posted content on the Alex Rodriguez controversy, Deadspin decided to take the story in a different direction. Instead of grilling the steroid angle they decided to goof on A-Rod for how orange his skin looked when he was interviewed on ESPN. (Think Oompa-Loompa) Going as far as to jokingly ask "What Color is A-Rod?". Sharp humor is a great way for blogs to stand out from the pack. Humor has always been apart of covering sports sometimes it works (Pardon The Interruption), sometimes it fails (Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football).

In the end traditional sports coverage and blogs alike will continue to serve the masses leaving them both informed and entertained.

Kobe vs. Lebron, and demise of the knicks

Kobe or Lebron? Kobe or Lebron? This week saw two of the NBA's premier players put all-time career performances. In the very same building on back to back nights. Kobe blew into Madison Square Garden setting a scoring record for a visiting player with a shattering 62 Pt's.

Not to be out done King James would make a little history of his own. On Wednesday Lebron went on tear becoming by he first NBA player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 to have a 50-point triple-double. Lighting the Knicks up for 52 Pt's, 11 asst, and 10 rebs. Clearly inspired to top Kobe's performance in MSG from the previous day.

These dual virtuoso performances have once sparked the question of whose the true heir to the Jordan throne. I can't wait to see the two collide this Sunday.

The story that isn't getting much play is the continued floundering of the New York Knicks. Once one of the league most respected franchises, the Knicks have spent nearly an entire decade being the joke of the NBA. From Isiah Thomas' reign of terror and utter confusion, the insane antics of Stephan Marbury, poor roster choices, bad spending, and losing season after losing season. Now they've hit another low giving away over 100 points to just two players is a real problem. What can be done to turn this team around?

Storytelling Methods

Advanced Sports Reporting class week two went pretty well. Mike and Howard gave the class mostly positive reviews on our first batch of blog posts. Howard found just enough time to get in a entertaining rant on the importance editing your work. Its quite telling how just simple mistakes can bring down an entire piece, no matter how good you think your work may be.

This week's assignment was to take look at different storytelling techniques and give our opinions about them. There are many ways to deliver a story. You do straight-forward no frills news or you can dress it up with graphs, and other visuals. With many online media outlets its become crucial to find a niche to make your content standout. Mike gave the class a few examples of websites that have done as such.

New York Times: Blowing Off Steam

This piece is a slideshow that uses still photos, ambiance sound, and sound bites. To tell a story of corporate co-workers growing closer by team sports like dodgeball and basketball. I really liked this a lot. The sound of the dodgeball colliding with the players was captured perfectly. Bringing back fond memories of high school gym for yours truly.

I really liked that the producers of this piece chose a slideshow instead of using regular video and having voiceovers over the footage. The slideshow is better because the still photos provide a smoother transition for soundbites. Editing together a bunch live shots could make a story come off choppy, the audio may not natch up properly. I'd definitely would consider using technique for some my own work in the future.