New Coach Gets Covered...

University of Memphis paper The Daily Helmsman covers the new coach and APPEARS to be a little more calm:




[will add more later...]

Media Attention

Question: How do we decide which cases get the most media attention?

[img source]
I remember last year when California was about to allow gay marriage. All of America was talking. By all of America, I mean celebrities - Elton John, Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Ellen DeGeneres, etc- were talking for months... demanding media attention, DEMANDING to get things done.

But, this month Iowa and Vermont have approved same-sex marriages and no one is really talking about it.

I am yet to see about it on television, hear about it on radio, read about it in a newspaper, and barely click on anything about it on the internet.

I also feel that way about missing persons cases. According to the latest report by the National Crime Investigation Center (associated with the FBI), over 800,000 missing persons cases were reported in 2007. However, as late as last year, missing persons cases like Natalee Holloway's (pictured to the right) were still making headlines.

I just don't understand how some cases are oversaturated and others don't even get a drop of gravy...

Effective Immediately- Commercial Appeal brings changes...

Comics, TV head back to M section
By Staff , Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, April 5, 2009

Changes are coming to The Commercial Appeal beginning Monday.

We're returning the comics and the television listings to the M section.

An improved, redesigned weather map is moving to the back of the Sports section, and the digest of sports news will return to Page 2 of the section, along with the sports TV-radio listings.

We will no longer carry classified ads on Mondays and Tuesdays, but in the back of the Sports section, we will publish all legal ads and the comics that always run on the cover of the section.

These changes are our response to readers' concerns about the placement of regular features and to declining demand for classified ads on Mondays and Tuesdays."

That last sentence is supposed to be their reason, or is it their excuse?

This is another sign that ad dollars are down...

Twitterism.

Convert now or you shall be doomed to the fate of the fail whale!



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I forgot to come back and update that ordeal with adding Twitter to my cell phone was because my computer is slightly bootleg. Well, Firefox is, anyway.
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my first big twitter experience:



On April 1st when the big news got around that UofM basketball coach John Calipari was leaving the team...I updated my Twitter with a cover of our school's student newspaper, The Daily Helmsman, and within 15 minutes news organizations were following me! It was so exciting. I felt compelled to continuously update throughout the day about things people were saying and the players that I saw.

For me, it felt like a replica of the most tweeted about event, when US Airways flight 1549 crashed in the Hudson River.

[click here to see the infamous pic that caused the revolution]

Everyone was Twitter searching to find people who could give updates about what was going on...amazing.

John Calipari has Ruined my Last 48 Hours

All of Memphis is in an uproar. Why? John Calipari[img source], University of Memphis basketball coach, has decided to leave the team. I really don't understand it though because people have been leaving positions at Memphis for over a year now taking severance packages and early retirement deals since Governor Bredeson refuses to invest in post-secondary education. But, because the famous basketball coach is leaving....there's a ruckus?! I'm sure I am not the only person that feels this way...but, I really don't care. People are really starting to work my nerves.

It started when I was at work yesterday. Nick, the guy that delivers supplies walked up to me with my daily paperwork and asked, "Well Ronald, what are y'all gonna do?" And, since I don't pay attention to sports I had NO clue what he was talking about.

After seeing the clueless expression on my face, he added, "You know Calipari leaving y'all for Kentucky don't you?"

Since, I believe the money wasted on sports should be invested in education, I was elated! Our FAMED Calipari has decided to leave for an eight-year, $31.65 million contract with Kentucky State University. First, the basketball team lost the championship and now they lose their coach!?

Nick, stared at me while I did my mini-victory dance. DOUBLE WHAMMY!

As a student at the UofM [img source]I see first hand EVERY day this pedestal our team sits on. I feel like they walk around as if they are God's second best creation and everybody treats them that way. People say I'm silly. But, for the first time ever, somebody else noticed it. The day after the team lost the Elite 8, my cashier at the Tiger Den spoke greatness: "they could have won if they didn't have those bad attitudes." Her exact words. I wish I remembered her name, wish I had it on film!

Back on subject though...
Later yesterday evening after work, my friend who I ride home with (who's a little older and doesn't go to the school) decided to share with me as SOON as I got in the car that the UofM would be facing a deficit, enrollment would go down the tubes, and tuition would face a drastic increase due to Calipari's leaving.

You should have heard my laughter. It was very therauputic. Memphians are so phased by this man. It's like they are hypnotized. The school has been in a deficit for years now, enrollment has actually been steady, and tuition was already facing a double digit increase before this whole thing came about.

Anyway...I get home to the dorm and there are at least 20 people in the lobby at 11 p.m. discussing how crazy his decision was and that how the players are doomed without him. My theory on that is as I've heard time and time again. 'You can lead a horse to the water. But you can't make it drink.' Calipari is the the leader but it's up to the players (or horses) to decide if they wanna drink or not.

All of what you just read means nothing compared to this...the front page of our school paper the next day:



shock value to the maximum.

Now, everybody feels like the paper was inappropriate for putting a bold statement like that on the front cover. Well, our jobs as reporters are to report what we see and hear in society. That statement is a blunt, direct interpretation of how our most of our school, and Memphis, feels about Calipari's departure.

In class today, we discussed the ethical and unethical things about the front page of the cover. I say the cover did exactly what it was supposed to do. It represents how the majority of students and memphians feel as well as get the attention of innocent people who run across the paper. But, some say it was too mean because it uses the word "DEAD" and the play on words didn't work. Others say the cover should have represented the years calipari was involved with the University instead of the years of his whole life.

I can already tell that this is gonna be a hot topic until this semester end...

But, if I've already grown sick of it....how am I ever going to survive?

comments? questions?

Twitter: Add Me to the List

OMG. So, like just about everybody seem to be obsessed with Twitter, right? And, I don't want to be the only slow bunny NOT on twitter, right? So, it ONLY makes sense that I sign up, right!?

Well...I just did!

https://twitter.com/mediamaxim

The sign-up process was REALLY easy! Now, I see why congressmen/women want twitter accounts...another reason to NOT pay attention in a business meeting. YAY! I hope the update while they are laundering the nation's money.

Anyway, I'm having a little trouble adding my cell phone device, though.

(insert sad face here.)


According to Twitter FAQ's my screen should show this:

but mine shows this:

Where is my box to enter my cell phone number?

Where is my ability to ALWAYS tell my loyal followers what I am doing?

HELP!

Media portrays Athletes as Heroes?!

Earlier this week NFL fans got the news of a lifetime about the oh-so-loved/ever-so-hated Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens. [img credit]

I was sitting in the barber's chair as it came across the screen that Owens had been released by the team for his on the field antics and off the field drama.

When Sports Center went to commercial my barber STOPPED cutting my hair (which made me mad because in today's world EVERYBODY is on a time restraint) to rant about how the media portrays athletes as heroes.

These were his three main topics:
1. The all around glamorous life athletes supposedly have.

2. The peachy-keen endorsements

3. All of the fine print of their contracts that requires them to do SO many hours of community service with the United Way and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

I agreed whole-heartedly with EVERYTHING the guy said. Here at the University of Memphis it seems like EVERYBODY flocks to the jocks of their favorite sport. Then, next thing you know the players are arrested and interrogated for following their girlfriend's home from the club and slappin' them upside their heads and everything goes down the tubes.

Or, on a national level, Michael Phelps, hero from the latest Olympic games, lost his endorsements after being photographed inhaling marijuana. He was supposed to be such a good guy since he had done SO much work charity work and seemed to have such a promising future...

[img credit]Then, they go to the ULTIMATE extents to tear them down. In the article "Sheriff Too Aggressive in Phelps Case?" a defense attorney tells his opinion about the sherriff investigating Phelps case.

"The efforts that are being made here are unlike anything I've ever seen before," said Jack Swerling, a defense attorney in South Carolina. "I know Leon Lott, I know him to be an honorable guy. I've known him for 30 something years. But the efforts here are extraordinary on simple possession cases."

source

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott arrested EIGHT people and questioned them to death about a man they know NOTHING about except what they've seen on television.

I'm sure those eight people were just stunned/amazed to see Phelps with a bong (as if ANY of them were even there) and wanted to photograph it to tell their friends how outrageous it seemed.

Anyway...
this is the end of MY rant.

Do, you think the media portrays athletes as heroes?