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21
Oct 25

Of course it’s good, a Kenny did it

I’m feeling better today. Yesterday was lousy. I blamed the back thing, which was 11 or so days ago. After sitting outside in the chilled evening air I did feel better. Ibuprofen probably helped, too. And then I got in bed, feeling fine, and completely forgot about this, right until I tried to wiggle into a better position. And I wiggled so hard that I thought I tore the wound open.

I did not.

It felt sharp anew, though. And so I lay there wondering if I gave myself a setback. But it seems not. And, hey, stitches come out Friday. And maybe I will be able to stop itching. The tape holding gauze in place is not agreeing with my skin.

Anyway.

This is my artistic interpretation of my day. The view of the sunset, through my blinds.

It was up early, work from the home office, and then work at work, and then work back in the home office again. I am, believe it or not, catching up?

In my Criticism in Sport Media class we discussed two stories. I picked them this week. Both of these are pieces I saved from this summer, for just such an occasion. (I have a remarkable folder with stories that can all be useful in making this point or that one.)

The first one we discussed was: How 3 Muslim sisters helped change the rules of American women’s wrestling.

Jamilah, Zaynah and Latifah McBryde never expected to become college athletes, much less change the rules of American women’s wrestling.

The sisters are devout Muslims who were homeschooled and grew up wrestling one another in Buffalo, N.Y.

“We always said we would never be able to wrestle in college,” said Jamilah, 22.

Coaches recognized their talent when they were teenagers, but they couldn’t wrestle with boys, nor could they wear the required wrestling singlet — due to their faith.

Eventually their passion for the sport – and their perseverance – led to rule changes allowing Muslim women to compete in full-body uniforms at collegiate and national levels.

My impression is that more of the people in my class should read these stories. And I’ve now got half a semester to figure out how to make that happen.

I really like this story. There’s so much you can do with it about story structure, quote selectivity, tone, and the pure efforts of reporting. Plus, it lets you talk about youth sports. And it has the added benefit of being ridiculously infuriating. ‘They control everything’: How the Dallas Stars monopolized Texas youth hockey:

Unlike the NFL, NBA and MLB, a handful of NHL teams are intimately involved in running the youth levels of their sports in their regions – perhaps none more than the Stars. In Dallas, the Stars spent decades turning what was once seen as a community good into a lucrative arm of their for-profit enterprise.

Stars executives addressed some of USA TODAY’s questions in a 35-minute interview and emailed statements, but left other questions unanswered.

“We’re really proud of everything we built here, and we’re committed to continuing to grow hockey in the community and across the state,” said Dan Stuchal, the Stars’ chief operating officer. “We’ve become the model for all non-traditional NHL markets that both the NHL and USA Hockey continually point to in terms of how to grow the game, because that’s the focus for everybody.”

At a time of increasing commercialization of youth sports nationally, hockey is particularly vulnerable to capture by corporate interests. Whereas baseball and soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts are ubiquitous in parks and schools, fewer than 3,000 ice hockey rinks exist across the U.S., largely because running them is so expensive.

Plus, I got to make a Kenny joke here. The author is Kenny Jacoby, an extremely well-regarded investigative reporter. And I told my class that all Kennys are fantastic writers. Some of them got the humor. But it’s a story designed to inform and aggravate and shed light on some predatory tactics of people who are sometimes a little too desperate. It’s terrific journalism and there’s a lot to glean from it. Probably because a Kenny wrote it.

In my Organizational Communication in Sport class we talked about media strategy and planning. This is the fun stuff. It’s brain work. It’s a bunch of puzzle pieces in a sandbox displayed on an Etch-a-Sketch, where the real decisions are made and money and personnel are figured out. It’s a bit difficult to just teach it. So I’d run a point out there, and then try to get the class to put this to work in a hypothetical context on their own campus. The best part is that no matter the question, and no matter the answer, there’s another consideration, another possible or additional approach. It demands you limber up your mind before you wade in. It’s a perfect thing to do at 3:30 in the afternoon, when a roomful of people’s post-lunch blood sugar is plummeting.

In first class they’ll have a midterm on Thursday. In the second class, we’ll do a media planning assignment. And after that I’ll have to decide which one was easier to grade.

But that’s a problem for Friday and Saturday.

Enjoying Catober? Be sure you are up to date. Click that link to see them all.

adventures / photo / Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
16
Oct 25

Theory, and zooming in

It was another afternoon in class today, which meant it was another night of doing slide deck prep and a morning of getting the final details in and then the afternoon in class. At least it was warm and sunny out, and so it didn’t feel like I should be somewhere else while sitting under florescent lights.

I’m kidding. There are giant windows in the classroom I’m in right now and the natural light is plenty. We don’t even turn on the lights some afternoons.

In my criticism class we talked about this episode of Bomani Jones’ podcast. If, for no other reason that everyone loves Deion Sanders and, Jones is right, Spencer Hall is one of the best writers going today. I’ve been reading him for decades. Had him on a podcast in 2006 or so. And look at him now.

So we’ve now heard two different styles of podcasts in the last week, a narrative-documentary hybrid and now an interview show. We’ll have another variation for their midterm next week. I will be asking them questions they should be used to by now. After that, it will be back to video products. We’re going to spend a day on short form packages. I’m waffling on what I want to use for that day.

In org comm I followed up the Tuesday conversation about social identity theory with a talk about Role Identity Theory. These two approaches complement one another, and they cover a lot of ground about

Social identity theory gives us the in-group and out-group concepts, and tries to explain how we define ourselves based on their group memberships, like religion, nationality, or, in our case, fandom. In SIT identities come from difference based on the activities in which we partake. Role identity theory concerns itself with the meanings and expectations associated with various roles we play in our lives. This is all shaped by social and contextual factors and, interestingly, acknowledges the conflict that comes within our many roles, because of those expectations. These two ideas, SIT and RIT, work nicely together, but it’s all about cognitiion; they don’t get to emotion.

Which allowed me to talk about identity fusion theory. It has become an important psychological theory in the last few decades, and tries to explain how we develop these profound senses of alignment and unity with a group. It’s an interesting area because it gets into the extreme pro-group behaviors, including self-sacrifice that people make. The theory goes through the deep emotional investments that motivate action, while allowing people to maintain their personal agency. The general idea, in a sports context, is that we see these personal connections and interactions in shared spaces.

It’s an interesting approach, because what is fandom but a huge expression of emotion?

Identity fusion is currently the leader for a class I’m teaching in the spring, too.

The view from our office. If you look closely enough, you’ll see my lovely bride, who is walking back from a class in another building.

And now the rest of the week will just be computer work. There will be plenty. I have a great deal of grading to do. I am already plotting out how the next three days will go, based on meetings and batches of grading. I think I can get it all in over the wekend, without going too crazy, and just in time to start the cycle over again next week.

Sometimes it is difficult to see how you can get all of your work done when so much of your time is spent on part of your work.

I took this photo of the honeysuckle last week and never got around to sharing it. Safe to say that the radical pruning we did on the thing in the spring has been overcome. It has grown a bunch over the summer and fall, and is still flowering a great deal.

This variety has no nectar in it, however, and that’s a shortcoming. It’s a disappointing under-performing, over-performing, bush vine. But it has covered much of the new garden trellis in just six months, so there’s that.

Are you all caught up on Catober? It always over-performs. Click the link, and see them all. And come back tomorrow for more.

adventures / football / history / photo / Rowan / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
14
Oct 25

Between Saturday and the Revolutionary War

This is how my back feels. I carefully squatted down to pick up my mostly empty backpack. I put my mostly empty backpack on my home office chair. I slipped my laptop and my notebook inside. I zipped it up and carried it downstairs. Because I was being helpful, I went back upstairs I did the same for my lovely bride’s backpack. Same procedure, squat, chair, laptop, two notebooks, zipped it. I carried it downstairs. And there near the end of that little trip the muscles around my shoulder where this little incision suggested they might not like me to do that anymore.

So I did not.

How it works this semester is that we drive to one building, where she has her classes, and I drop her off. Then I drive over to the building where our office is, and where my classes are. There’s a parking deck right behind it. (We have, probably, the best parking arrangement on campus.) I go to whatever floor, park, and then walk down the stairs, around the side of the building and about half a block to the door. Up the elevator to the office, and so on. And about the time I got off the elevator, I didn’t want to carry my bag for a while.

Again, this is basically an intense pulled muscle sort of sensation. A “hey, you really shouldn’t” kind of thing. And I am fortunate in that I can obliged that feeling, follow the doctor’s advice and still do the things I need to.

Which, today, was class. In Criticism in Social Media we talked about this story which was OK enough to make two or three small points on. And we also talked about this story, which was worth a bit more dissection. Back with Dodgers, emotional Freddie Freeman details son’s health scare:

Max woke on July 22 with a slight limp and went into full paralysis four days later, prompting Freeman to rush home from a series at the Houston Astros. By Wednesday, doctors removed Max from his ventilator.

Five days after that, Freeman was back in the Dodgers’ lineup for the start of a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies, playing first base and batting third. He finished 1-for-4 in the Dodgers’ 5-3 win and was greeted by a long standing ovation before his first at-bat. The Phillies joined the applause from their dugout. The pitch clock was stopped as he stepped out of the batter’s box, removed his helmet and waved to the crowd, before then touching his right hand to his chest.

“I was doing OK tipping my hat and then my dad was sitting first row with my stepmom, and he was — I don’t know if I could call it crying, but he was choked up and teary-eyed,” Freeman said. “That’s what really got me going.”

Max spent eight days in a pediatric intensive care unit before being discharged Saturday. The next day, he began physical therapy.

At my next opportunity, I’m going to have to pick a few stories that aren’t emotional stories, lest I give my class the wrong idea about this. And looking at some of the documentaries I’ve selected for later in the semester … I need to do that soon.

In Organizational Communication in Sports my normal slide deck theme gave away to egregious fandom. And since Auburn got ripped off Saturday — this was one of about four games I’ve watched in three years, and what a clown car the whole thing has become — I turned it into hating on fans. My hope was that it would make for a comedic, and memorable, conversation. So it started with this.

I rather like that shaker theme, though. So I put up all sorts of unflattering photos of Georgia fans — I won’t reproduce them here, but they’re out there — and talked through Social Identity Theory. There was one photo of a Georgia fan, in his best Georgia t-shirt (it only had three stains on it) proudly shaking hands with some klansmen. Then I said, “whereas my guys are good Christian boys.” And here’s a shot of a big chunk of the team praying in the end zone. “And patriotic?” Boy you’ve got no idea!” And then there’s a shot of them celebrating with some ROTC students. It just went on like this for a while, talking about the cognitive choices of Social Identity Theory, the purpose of it all, the In-Group / Out-Group nature of sports. Most of this we all inherently know, but some days you get to put a name and some scholastic explanation to things.

I pointed out that, of course this is unfair. I’m cherry picking these guys in outlandish ways to try to make a point. You can do this with any fan base if you want to. It’s just easier with some then others.

We talked about Presentation of Self, which let me show people dressed up all nice for something as silly as a football game. We talked about Goffman’s notions of front stage and back stage. We talked about social identity as our fandom extends beyond the venue. Look, I’m wearing this tie, and this tasteful lapel pin, and so on. And then we came around to highly identified fans, and I talked about the most highly identified fans I know. And that’s where I played clips of Bama fans.

I ended it with mascots. Here’s a shot of 11-time mascot of the year Aubie in a library. And here’s Rowan’s mascot, with the way the university describe’s Who R U on his own page: fierce, ready to attack, full of aspirations and expectations. I dug up a shot of Rowan’s next football opponent’s mascot, a big black bear that’s goofy in the appropriate sort of mascot ways. Pio is his name, and his site says this bear represents the values and attributes of their students: gritty, confident, persevering, fun-loving and the first in the family to attend college.

Because, ya know, he’s a bear, and not a lot of bears go on to higher education.

The Yankee came to see what that lecture turned into. She said it went well. Said she might steal some of that material the next time she teaches this class.

We left our building and went across the street for a special presentation. Some of the faculty here know the filmmaker Ken Burns, and he graciously allowed them to screen the first episode of his upcoming documentary.

Six episodes, starting next month. We were asked to not discuss it at length, and I’ll respect that. But I’ll say this. Episode one was quite good, I can’t wait for the rest. Also, the voiceover casting is just incredible.

One of the professors, who is a professional film critic, talked a bit. A history professor, a public historian who is a key figure in the ongoing work at a nearby Revolutionary War site also spoke. She’s the perfect kind of historian, in my view. She has such an enthusiasm for her work that it makes you want to be enthusiastic about it, too. Maybe all teachers should be that way. I try to be that way. Maybe it comes through. For Dr. Janofsky, though, it is obvious, and infectious.

She passed around this piece of shot that had recently been pulled from the ground. For 250 years this had been buried beneath the soil, and just before that, it was hurtling at an enemy with great urgency.

Janofsky did not say whose shot this was. I’m assuming they know. We also know a lot about the muzzle velocity of 18th century cannons, and we know there was a fair amount of variation between them having to do with a lot of different variables, the type of shot, the canon, the powder and so on. I’ll just go with a number that keeps popping up for British cannons of the era, 487 meters per second. That’s a bit over 1,000 miles an hour. No one wants to be standing downrange of that, in any century.

And then something controversial, that had nothing to do with work or the Revolutionary War happened. I’m running out of pixels today, so I’ll type about it tomorrow, when there will surely be more to know, anyway.

cycling / photo / podcast / Rowan / Thursday — Comments Off
9
Oct 25

Classes and bicycle clicks

Once again, a quickish post, because that is the theme of late. It is a necessary theme. Why, I do not really understand, but it just is.

We’re entering a little podcast section of the criticism in sport media course. Today was our first. They’ll listen to a different style of production next week. And, two weeks from today we’ll have a little midterm exercise on a third style of podcast. After which, we will move back into video products. By then we’ll also be halfway through the term, and I am hoping we’ll start turning a corner into some real critical analysis. But, today, we discussed this.

It was clear that some people actually listened to this episode. And not all of them especially liked it.

There are six or eight general styles of podcast, this sits in perhaps two of those little worlds, and it is well done. Also, the story is a good one, and it is well produced. But it didn’t land to the degree that I’d hoped. One key task in teaching media criticism is to convince people of the need and value of critical analysis even when it’s not your favorite subject matter. The episode above is the final installment of a four-part serial about money in college basketball. The exploitation and the exploited. That should be fairly mainstream for a sports media audience. The podcast they’ll listen to next week is a bit more of a back-and-forth talk show. Maybe that’ll solve our problems.

In the org comm class I returned the students into their groups — they are running a fantasy football league as part of the class — and pretended to be their GM, telling them each to nominate and pitch one of their players as a feature story for Monday Night Football. At the end of the class they all gave a give spiel. Then we all voted on the best one. One group got a few extra points for having the best story and best pitch, almost by unanimous consent. And, truthfully, they were ready to help the MNF producers tell a great story.

When we got home this evening my lovely bride told me to go on a bike ride. I do what I’m told. She had to go do something else, but I got to pedal away into the early evening air.

Normally, I would avoid or crop or otherwise edit a little power line out of my photos, but I liked the way the sunlight was bouncing sharply off the underside of this one.

And my timing was just right, such that i got a terrific shadow selfie. I’ve almost got the technique here down, as you can see.

It was just a little 50-something minute ride, through and around town, but I was grateful for the chance to get out and do it. (Thanks, hon!)

This is going up the little hill where our subdivision is. So, once again, I was able to time this out pretty well. Power lines notwithstanding.

That’s it. Tomorrow will be less fun than this, but at least it starts the weekend!

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8
Oct 25

An open house day

We spent much of the day on campus. It was a welcome back open house. We were all encouraged to attend, make nice, be in our offices and look refreshed and recharged. We are six weeks into the semester.

Branding issues aside, it was a big success. There was a fire alarm and firefighters and students interested in our programs and a lot of life and energy and vitality, which is what we were hoping for. And I even got some grading and other work done.

I am never going to get caught up, though. Maybe next week. Or the week after. Definitely by the week after that one. That’s what it might take. Today didn’t cause the problem, but there were about four hours that didn’t get devoted to the problem for all of the fun of seeing friends and meeting new people and so on.

The best part, perhaps, was listening to the young woman standing outside my door telling someone else she was going to finish this degree, and then get a master’s degree in that, and another master’s degree in this other, and then maybe an MBA, and then get a PhD. I applaud that enthusiasm, would that everyone had it in the classroom. But I wondered: has she discussed these ambitious plans with her parents and financial advisors? And, also, will I be working for her one day?

Somehow, when we left, it was almost dark. I mean, come on, I took this photo at 6:22 p.m.

Surfers chase an endless summer, I just want to chase long daylight hours. Hours which I can sit in my house or office and admire as the day passes me by, mostly, but still. Don’t judge me, I have fair skin and a lot of reading to do.

OK, the continuation of a light week. I also have two classes to prepare for tomorrow, and then the rest of everything else, as well. Until tomorrow, enjoy Catober!