Baseball and the Media: How fans lose in Today's Coverage of the Game

In this article, Chicago Cubs baseball beat writer George Castle takes a different side on how fans are beginning to miss out on coverage of baseballs game due to the non-stop flourishing of technology and all of its advancements. Castle believes that "Baseball is the most media-accessible professional sport, but increasingly, fans are receiving far less information about the game for a myriad of reasons, including the shrinking news holes, a re-emphasis on high school sports, the pervasiveness of sports talk radio, the 24-hour news cycle and the neogig." With this being said, he emphasizes on how less and less people are going to games and can just check the statistics and scores on their different techonology devices. I chose this article because it shows the argumentative side of my groups webisode but also gives more resources and details that we used in our project. As the future comes closer and technology progresses, many fear that fans will lose the vast information that they would normally recieve about the game due to relying on the technology that is here now and what's to come in the future. As far as a real world example goes, this is similar to online shopping now adays. Because shopping online is now offered, employees working in stores fear the loss of their jobs and the decrease in sales at malls and stores due to competition. In our class textbook, Media Programming, they mention that megasports events such as NBS, NHL, and MLB games are all covered by ESPN, which has talk shows on highlights and such that can appear live a dozen times a day or be cut back so that fans don't even have to watch the game. This idea is very similar to Castles article and shows the more defensive side of the effects of media on fans and everyday people.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25413623&site=ehost-live

MLB's Real Competitve Advantage

The questions of when and how major league baseball will use cutting-edge technology to rake in millions of dollars by cellular devices, live streaming via internet, and other technological media over time has finally been answered. Nowadays, with technology being as vast and ubiquitous as it is, game content streaming on cellular devices has taken off and been a huge success for the MLB industry. According to MLBAM chief executive Bob Bowman, "Somehow the strategy of putting baseball games on every device that has a plug or a battery has worked for the business partners. Even more important, it's worked for our fans." While at first many were uneasy about the streaming of live game videos online, (due to the fear of ratings being hurt) MLB has proved that right fees, attendance, and viewership is up making it a win-win situation for both parties. People love going to baseball games and living and seeing the action for themselves, however for those who can't always make the games, technology has been made portable and convenient for them too, pleasing all parties. As of now mobile devices revenue don't bring anywhere near as much as television does, but thats all in the future. While the fear of television ratings possibly suffering is controversial and still in the air, Bowman sticks with his strategy and motto of "If you serve the fans, you take care of your business." I chose this article because it related to my groups baseball in the media webisode perfectly. Throughout our webisode we tried to show how baseball in the media is on the rise and how technology has made it so convenient and portable for its fans. The article touches on what is to come in the future of media as far as technology and MLB which is an important insight to fans, coaches, and players everywhere. The fact of the matter is that technology is only progressing and now is starting to show how it can be applied to everyday things such as entertainment and sports (in this specific case baseball). In our text, Media Programming, it was said that "As connection speeds improve, future attempts may meet greater audience acceptance. Major League Baseball began offering on its site mlb.com, live streaming video pregame shows before every postseason game (including the world series)" (332). This goes to show you just how baseball has made its impact in the technology world and how the future may be unpredictable but in the end can only progress and continue upwards.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080828

Interview with Media Professional Linton Weeks

For my second interview wth a media professional, I interviewed Linton Weeks who works as an national correspondent for NPRs digital news. I attended high school with his son and he spoke to us one year about careers and the future. Mr. Weeks graduated from college as an English major and took his first job as a writer for a small weekly newspaper in Arkansas making a hundred dollars a week. When asked the sole purpose of his job was he replied that "Someone once said that journalism was storytelling with a purpose." After nearly 20 years at the Washington Mr.Weeks decided to leave the paper with some money in his pocket and interview at NPR and got the job the same day. There are many components that go into being a national correspondent and the thing that Mr.Weeks both likes and dislikes about his job are the certain people that are involved with his work. Although Mr.Weeks is intrigued by the never ending techno-evolution, he believes that the most important thing is being able to tell a story in both a concise and compelling way. As far as students getting started somewhere, Mr. Weeks states that you should "decide what you want and do everything you possibly do-legally and ethically--to pursue your dreams. He also believes that its not about money, it's about meaning, and that people should try everything and embrace change. He says to read as much as you can and recommends that students do what they enjoy, and enjoy what they do. Experience is everything, and to become indispensable by working for free at a place that you love at first then go after that job.

Interview with Media Professional Gonzalo Accame

For my first interview with a media professional, I interviewed

Gonzalo Accame. Mr. Accame is not only a national and international award winning bilingual producer, but also juggles production as well as being a cameraman and the co-owner of Visual Edge Productions. He started at the lowest position in his business and worked as hard as he honestly could to work his way up from there. In addition, he began his broadcasting career in 1978 in Boston as the associate producer of a Spanish program. From there he was promoted to story producer and was fortunate to have produced or been apart of productions for many major tv networks such as the Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, and the History and Learning Channels. Later on he joined forces and became co-producer of his own production company. I came into contact with Mr. Accame seven years ago when I became good friends with his daughter in high school. I knew that he did media work, however I wasn't aware of the extent of his work and what exactly went along with it until I did this interview. When asking Mr.Accame of what his many jobs consisted of he replied "the fun stuff like getting to wear many different hats, as well as producing, managing, and marketing and public relations." This was a lot to take in because I quickly understood that it was a huge responsibility and a large workload trying to balance everything and keeping it stable. When asking Mr.Accame what he disliked most about his job he responded that dealing with the day to day management of owning a business and having to deal with everything that comes into the mix. However, he counteracted this by stating that he loved working in unison with his crew, great actors whether pro or not, and the famous personalities that come with his line of work. I was intrigued by the fact that he has worked with many of our Presidents dating from the Carter and Reagan Administration to Obama today, and traveled all over the world in maing documentaries and filming stories. As far as the future goes, Mr. Accame stressed that the web was the place to be, and that with all of the technological changes that have taken place that it's really had to keep up with. In the past we were satisfied by the print media and tv, however now we don't need them becuase we can put all types of information and videos on the web. When I asked of advice for students wishing to pursue the same type of line of work, Mr. Accame stressed students to work hard, not get discouraged, and to put as much time into learning as much as you possibly can, whether it be by volunteering or getting an internship with a smile on your face at all times. Last but not least, he told me to give it my all and work super hard as well as to not rely on luck and that opportunity and preparedness were the most important tools to success. When doing this interview, I learned so much more valuable information I had never known or even thought about. This summer I was invited to go on a couple of shoots with Mr. Accame to see him at work, which I am really excited for and can't wait for the experience.

Warner Bros to axe licenses for free streaming services

Warner Brothers music group has finally announced that it will no longer be offering licenses of its music to services that offer free streaming, in hopes of people realizing that free streaming services aren't realistic, and work against the industry. Because of this, Warner will now begin to pay more attention to having people pay subscription services on their licenses. While this would be considered great news all around in a utopia that we will never have, Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan stated that "The majority of consumers simply have no appetite for paying for digital music, and that free and subsidized services are quite simply part of the future." With that being said, this article is important because it shows just how far people will go in resorting to stealing just so they get what they want, when they want it. Sadly, greed takes a large toll on people's lives, always has and most likely always will. Nowadays, it's all about convenience and free stuff. Each of these things rely and balance each other out. Convenience makes the world go round, and free stuff makes people feel extremely happy. Because of this, when people are charged by a service that makes you pay, they begin to lose interest and quickly proceed to begin the process of rebrowsing all over again until they they come across a service that allows them to download and listen for free, making them happy once again. Ever since file sharing and free downloads became big in the beginning of the 2000's, it has been almost impossible in working backwards and getting people to pay again. Although the industy and artists have already lost so much revenue from the past 10 years of illegal downloading, they still have managed to be successful at selling CDs and getting their songs out there. While this may not be as much as they had hoped for, technology is constantly blossoming and no matter what, people will find ways to get what they want, when they want it, and for a very small to nothing price. Everyone has been taught that stealing is immorally wrong, but when it comes to getting caught, its a risk their willing to take (in the case) not pay for at all. In Media Programming, it states that one ray of hope for the music industry is getting existing customers to "use social networking to promote content to potential buyers, which helps encourage more paid downloading" (335). Social networking is a hot commodity and remains huge today. Could it possibly be the answer paid downloading has been searching for? http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2010/02/warner-bros-to-axe-licenses-for-free-streaming-services.ars

The Uncertain Future of Radio

Since the invention of the radio, we have clearly seen how it has been one of the most important and powerful communication tools that have ever existed. We have also seen how people have truly relied on it for updates in what was going on in, and around the world throughout and over time. However, as this thing we love to call time has passed and technology has boomed, radio doesn't have the same meaning or effect it once had on people. At one point in time, radio was the only medium people had, whereas today television and internet have taken over to the point that turning on the radio is a last resort out of desparity. Although the idea of radio coming to an end constantly goes in one ear and out the other, people like myself rarely stop to think what the end of radio really means. Because of the vast variety of competition radio faces such as; ipods, mp3s, and podcasts, radio analyst Michael Harrison believes that radio itself has less than 5 years left in it before the internet ultimately takes over, and revolutionizes the medium that has always been there through the good and the bad when we needed it. I chose this article because it never really crossed my mind that we could truly live in a world without radio, and it was quite an eye opener that this analyst believes that radio won't even exist in 5 years. It also makes me wonder what will replace radio and what the future holds for all of us. One real world example of this that I also found very interesting was the idea that as time goes by and new updated versions and inventions come out, people tend to get curious and greedy and forget about the gadgets they once had to have or loved so much in excitement for the new ones due to the fact being simply that things go out of style and the famous saying of "the grass is always greener on the other side. Although the internet imay be taking over the world, I find it really hard to believe that radio could really burn to ashes so soon and so quick. According to our Media Programming book, "Radio was slow to warm to the online world, and stations and listeners were constantly frustrated by the technological problems that made it difficult for the stations to deliver high quality content." (343). I don't really see radio going anywhere especially in the next 5 years, due to the fact that I still haven't warmed up to online radio and don't plan to in the near future. Because of this article, I will continue to tune-in anytime I can just so that I can say I wasn't an accomplice in the death of the trusty and once loved radio. http://seekingalpha.com/article/140094-the-uncertain-future-of-radio