Taking the Keys to the Athletic Department

Athletic administrators probably dream of getting a chance to run their own college athletic department, with huge budgets, incredible facilities and national exposure. I'm not sure how many of them, though, would jump at the chance to take control of Maryland's. The big money-makers - football and men's basketball - aren't in a position to do so anytime soon. Eight sports are getting cut. The department is drowning in debt. Oh, and many teams aren't winning as much as they used to.

(Other than that, things are great.)

Yet, here you are, through the power of this blog, with the chance to right the ship. What would you do to fix the Maryland athletic department? What do you need to address first? Where do you go afterward? Why do you feel this is the proper way to go?

No answer is right or wrong. If you want to discontinue the football team, go right ahead. But whatever you decide, explain it well. Please post you replies by Monday at noon. Thanks.

Alan

Media coverage of Penn State

Suffice to say, the information released and the events that have occured at Penn State over the past week have been shocking, even to the most cynical. So much has been impacted/examined: the welfare of children, the chain of command in a large institution/business; the place of athletics in a scholastic setting; the identity of someone long revered for his morals and generosity, in addition to his professional success; the identity of an institution and small community that relies so much on a singular entity. There are many more, but this is your blog, not mine.
Clearly, the media has had no shortage of topics to cover with respect to this story. Your assignment is to examine the media coverage of this story. What has it done well? Where has it been lacking? How would you cover this story?

This is not a discussion about how you think the Penn State administration handled things, but rather how the media has reacted to and reported everything. After all, that's what you will be doing as journalists: making judgments on how to cover the news, not whether or not to fire Joe Paterno.

Please post your responses by noon on Monday.

Alan

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

I've got this idea ....

Twenty years ago, I'll bet a lot of people told Mark Potts he was crazy for eschewing the printed newspaper to focus on creating electronic outlets for journalism. Today, I'll bet a lot of people are apologizing to him.
Now, here's your chance to take a stab at innovation, which, as you realize, is not so easy. Write about what you would do if you were given the freedom to create a new product or means of distributing news? It could be a device (like an iPad or SmartPhone), or a niche service that provides information for a specific audience or on a particular topic, or it could be a way of gathering information in a unique manner.

Remember, the means and method may change, but many skills and requirements of reporters remain constant: gathering and disseminating truthful information in an responsible manner while remaining accountable and free from outside influence. Those who have taken JOUR 300/600, Ethics, recognize much of that comes from the SPJ Code of Ethics.

Post your replies by Monday, Oct. 3, at 12 noon. Thanks.

Alan

The future of college sports

A Texas school is a menber of the Big East Conference. Colorado is heading to the Pac-12. With those three rivers running through it, Pittsburgh must've thought that was ample reason to join the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The geographic and financial alliances that gave distinct identities to the highest levels of U.S. college sports are on the verge of collapse (though Thursday's actions by the misnomered Big 12 might be a temporary stop-gap).

Regardless of what - if anything - happens next, the realignment of schools that participate in major college sports has radically altered the way the games are played, and how fans and college student bodies experience this. What do you think about it all?

Please post your reply before coming to class Monday at noon.

Not to get all existential, but ...

... why are we here? By that, I mean, why are you taking this course? What was it about JOUR 328 that jumped out at you and made you want to spend three months or so learning about sports writing?

Put your answers in the comments section of this post before noon on Monday, Sept. 12.