Data and Info graphics

In the FiveThirtyEight article titled “Team USA’s Women Are An Olympic Powerhouse” uses two different graphics to get its point across.

It compares two things, shows the differences between the two, and integrates numbers and words. There are scales of measurement used and they are appropriately labeled. The graphic isn’t over cluttered with various fonts and unnecessary colors. Everything is neat, organized, and easy to follow. You’re not “drowning in data” but the message still gets across.

The overall point of the article is to show how women are dominating the summer olympics for the US and bringing home more medals than the men, especially gold. Of the 46 gold medals, 27 of them went to women. The graphics included in the article provide evidence for this trend.

The first graphic compares the number of men’s and women’s olympic events over the last 100 years. The trend line shows how, over time, the number of women’s olympic events are near comparable to men’s.

The second graphic displays how many gold medals men and women have won in the summer olympics since 1900. Women took 19% of the medals in Rio compared to the one’s 12%. The author then uses this graphic to transition to the third graphic about US women winning gold medal’s on a national level.

The third graphic shows how many medals US women have won since 1900 compared to the rest of the world’s female competitors. Since the 1960s they have won 25 or more gold medals.

These graphics further illustrate the point that US women winning gold medals at the olympics is an upward trend.

Georgia Southern FB

I had some trouble finding the salaries because Georgia Southern recently got a new head coach and a new staff

Name	Rank	Salary
Tyson Summers	head coach	$500,000 before incentives
Lorenzo Costantini	defensive coordinator	new coach
Rance Gillespie	co-offensive coordinator	new coach
David Dean	co-offensive coordinator	$97,586.40 at Valdosta
Pat Bastien	linebackers coach	new coach
Chris Foster	running backs coach	new coach
Jimmy Lindsey	defensive line coach	new coach
Chad Lunsford	tight ends/special teams coordinator	$78,500.00
Allen Mogridge	offensive line coach	new coach
Jeremy Rowell	defensive backs coach	new coach
Cymone George	Director of FB Operations	$23,722.90
Steve Dennis	Director of FB Administration	not listed
John Douglas	Director of player personnel	not listed
Rico Zackery	Director of Recruiting Ops	not listed
Adam Brooks	Equipment manager	$17,916.65
Chris Ball	video coordinator	not listed
RJ Canty	GA	not listed
Sumner Ellis	GA	not listed
Sean Fitzgerald	GA	not listed
Darius Safford	GA	not listed

Ivy League

Name of conference: Ivy League

Year of report: 2013

Revenue broken out by source: $39,180

Expenses broken out by type: $39,198

Distributions to members: not sure what this means

Salary of commissioner:

Names, titles, and salaries of 2 employees with the highest pay: None listed on form

Personal Stories

The first story I’m considering is the one about the expansion of lacrosse as I mentioned earlier. One idea I had was seeing how many high schools across the country have lacrosse programs and create a graphic. I’d probably keep a narrower focus on Georgia and possibly interview members of the club lacrosse teams here.

My second idea is further research on concussions. I really liked the trend story I wrote in multi platform and wouldn’t mind doing something along those lines.

My third idea is to write about soccer and how it’s a growing sport in the US. I know football players in high school play soccer in the spring especially if they’re kickers or punter.s

My fourth idea is to investigate why international students come to the US to play college sports instead of possibly going pro in their home countries.

Finally, my last idea is about the emergence of neutral site games in FBS and if this will be a regular thing in every college across the five major conferences.

5 Stories

So I completely misinterpreted the first assignment. I do not want to report on Ryan Lochte. I just found that how the story was covered was surprising.

What I want to write about is lacrosse and how it has slowly spread down the east coast over the last few years.

Here’s an article from the AJC back in 2011 talking about how lacrosse was starting to spread across the Metro Atlanta area.

Last year, in 2015, lacrosse debuted in northwest Georgia in Dalton at Dalton Parks and Recreation.

Another article from 2011 talks about setting up lacrosse programs in high schools in Richmond County.

This article from 2011 as well talks about Curt Gary. The man who brought lacrosse to Augusta.

Finally, there was a piece back in 2012 on Lakeside’s Abby Harrover.

My initial questions would be as follows

When and where was lacrosse first introduced to Georgia?
What level was it introduced at?
Has it seen significant growth?
How many middle and high schools in the state have programs?
How many club or rec teams are there in the state?
Is the sport concentrated in certain areas of the state?
Do players get signed to play at colleges?
Do they stay in-state or go out of state?
Is there a “powerhouse” program?

I think those questions are a good place to start and then I would probably interview club players and high school players.

Keeping track of material and writing

When I sit to write down a story it’s slightly haphazard.

I can’t outline. I’ve tried. Constantly. It just doesn’t work for me. So I assemble all of my materials in front of me and just write.

All of my notes are in the form of outlines however. Everything has dots, dashes, and is indented. That’s the only way I can take notes. I’ve been taking notes like this since 7th grade.

All of my background and interviews are in this format. It just makes sense to me even though I can’t form a story from an outline.

As for holding onto materials, I jot random things down in whatever I have near me. If I have a notebook I write it down there. If I have my phone I type it in the Notes app. If I’m on my computer I write it in a word doc and save it for later.

So when I sit to write a story I have to find where I wrote down whatever I’m writing abut and go from there.

Once I start writing, I just take an idea and run with it. (I have to type it though, mostly because I don’t want to write it all out and then have to retype it) I write as much as I can and put in quotes then I step back.

Some paragraphs get cut and pasted to other sections of the story while some get cut all together. It’s a process that would drive most people crazy but it works for me.

Ranney School

I found a piece on my school back from when I was in 8th grade.

It was posted in the Monmouth Journal and the focus was on the fall drama of that year, “Nagasaki Dust.” I actually went to see it and remember it being very good.

One thing I didn’t realize, which the article revealed to me, is that the cast calls for 19 while the play I saw only had 10 in the whole cast. They were still able to pull off a really good show.

The director, Mr John Doyle, who I’ve known since I was eight or nine, is someone who is able to pull something like that off. I don’t know how he does it bit he’s able to scale down these bigger shows, if needed, and his message always comes across clearly.

The reason I chose this article is because I was having trouble with Newsbank and I couldn’t seem to find any sports releases. My high school was not the most gifted with athletics and tended to excel in the classroom more so.

Questions for Lochte Gate

This is how I think I would have approached Lochte Gate:

Ask for the time, date, location of incident, and those involved – What type of gas station was it? What time did it happened? Where is the gas station location? Who were present at the event? Swimmers and everyone else in the general area.
Obtain security camera footage — Could we obtain a copy of the surveillance footage of that night?
Get a statement from Ryan Lochte or his publicist — What happened as you remember it? Why do you think what happened, happened? Did anything provoke them?
Validate statement from Ryan Lochte’s mother – What did your son tell you? How did he phrase it?
- note that she was not present during the alleged robbery
Get statements from USOC and IOC – Why do the USOC and the IOC comments about the situation contradict each other? Is one committee covering something or does one not have all the facts?
Interview those involved in situation and or obtain statements from the representatives of the swimmers — (asking Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, or Jimmy Feigen) What happened that night? Why were you at the gas station? What started everything? Was a gun really held to Ryan’s head? How much of Ryan’s statement coincides with what you saw?
- There was little to no reason to obtain a statement from Micheal Phelps, he was not directly involved in the situation
Interview police and determine severity of damaged property — How did the police obtain the necessary information to take their stance? Did they just talk to the people in the gas station? Did they talk to the swimmers as well?
Assess why there was a gun in the first place — Why was there a gun? What are the laws concerning carrying a gun in Rio?
- note law differences about gun control in different countries
Once all of the information is then gathered and verified, write the story

Ryan Lochte

One thing that surprised me about sports, as of late, was how “Lochte Gate” was handled.

Lochte first told USA Today about the incident on August 14. The USOC spokesperson, Patrick Sandusky, made a statement about the incident but then an IOC spokesperson denied the allegations.

The only other people quoted in that article about the incident were people who were not present for it. Lochte’s mother was quoted as was Michael Phelps. Two people who had nothing to do with the situation and we’re going off of here say. Neither of the other two swimmers with him were asked about the incident.

I feel like asking the two swimmers who were with him would have been the most logical thing to do.

Gunnar Bentz didn’t even release a statement about what happened until nearly a week after the accused situation occurred.

The way the handling of this incident surprised me because the reporters, and or media outlets, seemed to speak to Lochte and everyone else but neglected to speak to the two other swimmers.

I believe this could have been handled in a much more efficient way. Unfortunately, it was not and now Ryan Lochte has a long road a head of him.

PSU Reaction

When the Jerry Sandusky-Penn State case broke I was in high school. I really didn’t care much for college sports yet but my first reaction was “all of my friends who are penn state fans are going to be pissed.” That and I was appalled at how something like this is able to go on for so long without anyone saying or noticing anything.

After reading the articles from the Patriot, a few things surprised me. The first is how it was swept under the rug for so long when there was comparable evidence.

The second is the fact that so many people showed their pride. To me it displayed one of two things. The first is that they didn’t really care about what happened and just cared about a winning season. The second, however, is that they stand together as Penn State and will continue to wear the blue and white through the good times and the bad times.