The Other Side with Gary Williams

Former Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Willams stopped by class to provide a perspective reporters need to acknowledge: what it's like to be covered by the mass media. He shared not only how he prepared both himself and his players to interact with reporters, but also how to work with people who, at times, may not see eye-to-eye on the same subject because they look at it from different vantage points.

There are a lot of ways to engage this topic. Please post your replies on what you took away from speaking with and listening to Williams by noon on Monday, Oct. 24. Thanks.

Alan

Storytime with Bill Nack

Bill Nack talked to us last week about the skills used to tell a story. He just happens to have told many of them about sports, but what he discussed could have been applied to any subject (as you heard, when he talked about one of his stories from early in his career dealing with sewage-treament plants on Long Island).

Storytellers, like Nack, and long-form pieces, like the ones he used to publish, are becoming increasingly scarce. You could consider that a bad thing, or it could be just another sign of the evolution of sports writing and sports media toward a shorter, more concise format, concurrent with electronic media.

Post your thoughts on what you took away from Nack's discussion. Did you love it? Were you inspired to go out and do what Nack regrets he never did - write a 7,000-word piece for Sports Illustrated entirely in iambic pentameter? Or, on the other hand, did you find some of the stories he told a little too long and labored? Do you think there's no place- or, at least, a much smaller place - for those kinds of tales in the new media market? Or did last week's class leave other impressions upon you?

Please post your replies by noon on Monday. Thanks. See you Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. at the Newseum.

Alan