Category: Nicole

UVA Story

I think the biggest mistake of the Rolling Stone story is that Jackie’s story was never truly corroborated. The entire piece is based almost solely around her account of the night, which is hard to fact-check because she is the only facts that the story has.

I think there are a few people that could have really prevented the entire debacle. The first being the lifeguard, but obviously Jackie was unwilling to provide a name until after the story was published. Knowing that he was a lifeguard at a specific pool and a member of a specific fraternity could have been enough, however. Moving past there, the most important sources that could have prevented the entire story are the friends that picked Jackie up after the entire incident. They were the first people to see Jackie, to hear what she initially said. Since then, she has had time to shape a story and portray it the way she wants to. If the reporter was to talk to those three individuals, they could have given a more realistic account of what the night was like and what Jackie’s state was at the end of it. If she was covered in blood with broken ribs, I find it very hard to believe that any logical person would have prevented her from going to the hospital, which was also a major red flag.

I understand how the whole debacle happened, however. As convincing and detailed as her testimony was, I would have likely believed it too.

Clark and Instagram

I decided to go out on a limb and click ‘random article’, because why not? I ended up reading about how Instagram is ruining vacation, which is somewhat true, for my generation especially. I could go on and on about how much time people spend trying to portray a perfect lifestyle, but that’s a different story for a different time.

As I read this article, I felt it best connected with Clark’s tool 25, ‘Learn the difference between reports and stories.’ A lot of this article is an opinion, almost like a column, but it does contain information found from reporting. Clark emphasizes that the balance between reporting and stories is important to creating the best overall piece, as it levels our emotions with our knowledge.

If Pilon would have written this whole piece based around her opinion, I probably would not have credited her as a legitimate source on the matter. But she backs up her opinion and her own personal experiences with facts about what is happening around the globe, like the ban of selfie sticks at Disney and the increase in deaths by selfie.

The reporting and facts that she presents opens the reader up to feeling emotion, as Clark notes as being important if the reader is going to connect to the piece. To an extent, while her own experiences definitely qualify as stories, they can also qualify as reports. That exact reason is why it is important to understand both the difference and the necessary balance when writing. A story comprised of anecdotes will only go so far if it has no fact.

Pictures can also tell both stories and reporting, which is one of many reasons why having a good photo editor who can tell them difference can be so important.

Pilon does a good job of using stories to draw emotion from the reader. The emotions, in this case, can be anywhere from anger to curiosity. If I’m being honest, it could have used a bit more reporting to could less column-like, but either way, she demonstrated why the differentiation between stories and reporting are important.

Outline

Don Collins is mapping a square in his head.

Don Collins helped his dad at their family funeral home, but the outside is refreshing to him.

Collins starts digging a burial. It is hot.

Collins decides to pick up his dirt.

Soldiers showed up to the grave Collins dug. They have guns.

A lot of people lined the streets for the funeral procession, led by Collins Sr.

It took a while, but the procession gets to the cemetery.

The casket was specially made for soldiers. People packed around the tomb.

There was a prayer, some bagpipes and some songs.

Seven guns go off in unison.

An authentic bugler plays.

The bugler plays notes that are good.

The bugler contemplates emotion.

Folding the flag is emotionally tough.

Soldier had kids.

Folding flag got emotional.

Flag has shells inside.

Flag is passed.

Brigadier General Belinda Pinckney is randomly assigned officer at funeral. She remembers bits and pieces from every funeral.

Pinckney told soldier’s wife, Missie, it is ok to cry.

Pinckney drops to Missie’s knees.

Funeral’s are very emotional and Pinckney makes failed attempt at not humanizing tragedy.

Flag folding is ideal for being held to widow’s chest.

Missie is presented flag.

Service is over and people go their separate ways.

Sod is placed over burial and temporary tombstone is added.

SGT. JOE MONTGOMERY 1977–2007

Gail Bond remembers when Montgomery was baptized at her church.

Gail smokes and has two black leather bags to hold cigarettes and lighter. Hasn’t quit for a reason.

Gail is Joey’s mom and has experienced a lot of heartbreak.

All family is in attendance and church is overflowing.

Not many people in attendance ACTUALLY knew Joey.

You can and cant tell a lot of things about Joey by looking around at funeral.

Joey’s body was escorted from airport to home.

There was a 3 mile long procession.

The Patriot Guard protected family from Westboro Baptist haters.

Micah Montgomery has death paperwork and medals for Missie.

Gail’s brother is mayor and drove a car in the procession while crying.

Vicki says its tough to see people emotional. Mechanic stands out.

Joey used to be a mechanic.

Joey was going to be best man in his best friend Joey’s wedding.

Ryan and Joey were different in high school.

Joey and Ryan helped each other out.

 

Hi so I know this isn’t complete but I’ve been working on it for a while now and honestly, would just love to read and enjoy the story. I will come back and finish this as it is a much longer homework assignment than originally intended.

Nicole Personal Story

I’ve done three formal and one informal interview thus far. Two with triathletes at Cornell, one with a cross country coach at Cornell, and the informal with an NCAA triathlon coach at West Alabama. As discussed in our meeting, I’m struggling with this as I don’t feel there is a story so much there. To find a story, I think I really need to talk to organizers in the NCAA and at USAT to find the true purpose of NCAA triathlon, although I can assume the goal of it is to enhance the talent development pipeline. I need to also talk to both athletes and coaches.

While I have not come to the complete decision, I am more leaning towards writing about how talent identification is shifting from high school to club sports. This would include talking to college coaches about recruiting, club coaches, club athletes, high school coaches and high school administrators.

If I were to pursue this story, I would compare two sports, say cross country and soccer, where cross country recruiting is done via high school and soccer is focused on club. I would prefer to avoid UGA coaches due to a conflict of interest, so I would shift my focus towards Georgia State and interview Coach Chris England, the cross country head coach, and Coach Brett Surrency, the men’s soccer head coach. Ideally, I could talk to athletes on both of those teams, but I am less picky about who there. As far as high school coaches go, I would shift my focus towards McIntosh High School in Peachtree City because they have had great success in both cross country and soccer over the last decade. I would like to talk to their athletic director, Ms. Stacey Smith, cross country coach Jason Newton and soccer coach Bunky Colvin along with some of their top senior athletes.

Open Records

For Ashleigh and I’s part in the team story, most of our information is already available to us. We are most concerned with the changes in GHSA policy regarding transfer, which we have been able to track from year to year. I’m not sure if these even qualify as open records, but if there were any kind of meeting notes that discussed the thought process behind the changes, that would be of great use to us. It is definitely apparent that the committee shifted focus from year to year, making large amounts of changes to one specific topic. Additionally, this would probably be of use to the entire team, but just knowing the amount of transfers within GHSA over the last few years and what their cites causes were would also give me a better idea of what the actual trend is and how GHSA is managing it as they continue to update policy. As far as retrieving them, it would likely be easiest to go through an administrator or secretary at the GHSA office.

For my personal story, I would need to see a budget breakdown of a NCAA team’s expenses. USA Triathlon has given grants to NCAA teams so I would like to know how they are spending their money, whether it be on equipment, coaches salary, travel, etc. I would go through a point person at the university for that request. Since USA Triathlon is a private company, I unfortunately cannot dig into their records, although they have the most valuable information to me, like how spending on elites has changed over the last few years, changes in USAT personnel because of NCAA or success in the sport, along with the amount of athletes competing in general.

Jenkins vs. NCAA

I’m no legal expert, but it seems to me the root issue of the Jenkins vs. NCAA case is the classic argument that the NCAA is exploiting its athletes. The four athletes who serve as plantiffs in the class-action lawsuit claim that they should be compensated because they generate an extreme amount of revenue for the NCAA and that the NCAA holds little interest in maintaining their amateurism as STUDENT-athletes. The case then goes into defining the terms, allegations, etc.

I think there are a lot of interesting stories that could stem from this. Should college athletes be paid is an age-old debate that always sparks interest, but that is the obvious route. This case could call into question the rules set for playing in professional leagues. To enter the NFL, players must play in college for three years. If an athlete does not have the financial means to do so, they could be missing out on an opportunity, likewise with basketball players.

Another interesting discussion that could stem from this case is whether the NCAA or the schools should profit the most from ticket sales, television deals, etc. If individual schools profited as much as the NCAA did, many schools could afford facility renovations, more staff, etc.

Tom Brady Season Interceptions vs. Team Losses

https://public.tableau.com/views/Brady/Sheet1?:embed=y&:display_count=yes

sheet-1

I struggled with the logistics of this so apologies if it doesn’t look too great.

 

Anyways, I did Tom Brady’s season interceptions against team losses. With the exception of a year he didnt play and an anomaly year, basically the more interceptions he threw, the more the team lost. While this may seem like basic thought, one poor performance could affect an entire season, but this seemed to be more consistent. The years the Pats won the superbowl, he threw minimal interceptions for the entire season, which sometimes included more games than others.

Personal Story Memo

For my personal story, I intend to write on the current state of triathlon in the U.S. and more specifically, diving into how the addition of women’s NCAA triathlon could impact the sport in the upcoming years.

Several junior athletes choose to compete in either swimming or cross country and track in college and either give up triathlon or return after college. This exploratory piece will examine top triathletes, some who are in NCAA triathlon and others who are not. Additionally, I hope to spend a day with the Queen’s University NCAA triathlon team and examine a day in the life.

Team Budget

Ashleigh just recently finished going through the GHSA eligibility rules from 1979-2015.

Now that that is done, she and I are going to go through them to see if we notice any patterns.

More specifically, we will be looking for which rules change the most, which rules become more specific overtime, and if rules are added or deleted. Once we have noted the most prevalent of the previously mentioned, we can cross reference it with any athletic “scandals,” for lack of a better term, from the preceding year. That way, we will be able to see if any eligibility scandals directly influence by-law changes.

Furthermore, we can also make some graphs for those rule instances we feel are the most important and or have changed the most over time.

Lastly, we are going to do some research to see which counties/regions get the most transfers, what the transfer’s cited reason is and how strictly GHSA rules are enforced.