Category: Nicole

Heptathlon/Decathlon Infographics

I’ve always been super intrigued by decathlon, heptathlon and pentathlon scoring, just because I like numbers, but this fivethirtyeight article triggered even more interest. I personally think the article combined data and infographics very well, and most of our reading agrees.

The infographics were effective in that they were simple, not over-cluttered and easy to interpret. While there was diverse color, the colors had meaning, especially in the bottom two graphics, showing what types of events they are by color.

Additionally, the infographics were content focused and easily comparable. Pagels used color and bars to easily illustrate the differences in event’s points. The percentages could have been better described though, as it was rather unclear what exactly the axis was.

In the first two graphs where the lines where very cluttered, Pagels wisely used white space and avoided too much on one infographic. The eye is directly drawn to where it should be–the data. The grids in the last two infographics were subtle, but could have definitely been toned down in the first two.

The graphs were great supplements to the story itself, which was very data heavy. Could be a little bit heavy for a non-math person, but that’s fivethirtyeight for you.

5 Story Ideas

  • Come up with at least five story ideas for your personal story (one paragraph per idea) and post in your personal category using the tag “brainstorming” by September 2.

 

  1. My first story idea is the multisport athlete story I posted about on Wednesday. Multisport athletes tend to begin their sport later and life and have more success at an older age compared to other athletes in one of their sports. For example, most elite triathletes find the sport after competing as a swimmer or a runner in college and begin triathlon after graduation.
  2. College’s phasing out Olympic sports has become a huge issue in recent years. The USOC recently created a position solely to work on keeping Olympic sports, such as wrestling and men’s gymnastics, at the collegiate level.
  3. Women joining men’s sports teams has increased drastically over recent years, namely in high school football. The kicker position has attracted a lot of females looking to play football with no other place to go but their high school team. Last year, Northview’s Olivia Mitrovich became the first female to score points in a GHSA Football playoff game.
  4. Since our team story is about high school transfers, an interesting take that I know I already discussed with you (Suggs) is the turnover of college coaching. Not just in football, but in all sports. It seems like every year there are huge questions of who is going to become XYZ’s next greatest coach and lead them to the playoffs. When that coach is only as good as the last one, they are out the door again. Do athletic departments have unrealistic expectations of their coaching staffs?
  5. Lastly, this is almost a little contradictory to my first story idea, but diving into the emergence of women’s triathlon as a Division I sport and identifying how that will effect swimming and running programs across the country, as opportunities arise for women to choose triathlon in college. Also could discus how this will impact the Olympic pipeline.

It looks like you have a lot of well-thought out ideas. I like the idea of multi-sport athletes the most, especially since it’s something we don’t hear a lot — do they take the risk in playing the sport they might not be as good at? When and how is the decision made to focus on one sport? Is the prominence of that sport a factor in the decision? What is the general policy amoung the USOC about promoting or discouraging in multi-sport athletes? How does school fit in? How does it affect family life? I think that this is very prescient given Rio last month, and could be a good way to explore that as well as the debriefing that comes with the end of the games and the transition period back into training and the other sports or activities the athletes may participate in.

—–Evan

Also completely misinterpreted the original assignment. Don’t want to write about #LochMess so shifting gears to you guessed it…..multisport athletes. Specifically, the tendency of multisport athletes to end up in their sport later in life than say, a basketball player. Additionally, how we are beginning to see a slight shift coming from the younger generation.

Recent Olympic triathletes are great examples. Of the five athletes to represent the U.S. at the Games, only one, Ben Kanute, grew up in triathlon. The rest found their way to the sport post-college.

Story 1: Gwen Jorgensen. 

Story 2: Ben Kanute

Story 3: Specialization

Story 4: Sarah True

Story 5: Not a story, but a good enough source. 

Questions for late bloomer athletes:

  1. What led you to multisport?
  2. Did you specialize in one sport through college?
  3. Do you see more success in multisport or in your individual sport?
  4. What has your physical health been like since taking up multisport?
  5. How often do you deal with injury?
  6. Why do you think younger generations are straying away from multisport?
  7. What are the pros and cons of specialization at a young age?

Schooldays/String

I chose to go way back with my school post, found here. This is an article about my high school, Starr’s Mill, getting ready to open in 1997. It’s a sweet piece for me, as I grew up going to school in the complex mention and gives me a little bit of history about where I spent 12 years of my life. I did not know there was a Starr’s Mill school in Fayette county long before ours opened, I thought the name of the school was based solely off the mill that was a mile down the road.

 

In regards to Clark’s writing, I probably need a better way of keeping track of my material for stories. Although I know we briefly discussed in class, there are some really great resources out there. My best method is a little bit of organized chaos, but it works for me. I have grown very fond of Google Drive, so I make a folder in Google Drive for each piece that I work on. I have a doc for story links, a doc for transcriptions, one for background facts and one for the actual story. I intend to use the same method for this class but hope I can weave in some new techniques as we learn them.

More #LochMess

While Ryan Lochte is the easy culprit to target in this incident, in my previous post I made an emphasis on the media that surrounded him blowing over the story once the truth came out.

Sticking with that theme, I think there is a story in how the coverage was handled. Some journalists inserted their own opinion whether it be via Twitter, a column, or on broadcast coverage. I am interested in, in this case, how journalists chose what to report and if their personal opinion effected their coverage once the REAL truth came out.

Here are some questions:

  1. What did your coverage of the Ryan Lochte include?
  2. Did you have a personal opinion on what the consequences should be?
  3. Did you voice your opinion? To whom?
  4. What is your opinion?
  5. Did you read the apologies and statements from all four swimmers?
  6. What were your thoughts?
  7. Did you watch Ryan Lochte’s interview with Matt Lauer?
  8. Why did you or did you not choose to bring Conger and Bentz’s innocence to light?
  9. If not, were you simply tired of reporting on the story? Or did you feel a certain way about how clicks would come to your site?
  10. Did you continue Olympic coverage post- Lochte story or did you simply end there?

I think so many of the questions depend on how these are answered, but this is a starting point.

 

#LochMess

Yes, I realize that probably everyone is writing about the same thing here, but I feel as if I offer a unique perspective to the situation, being so close to the UGA swim team and being at the Olympics.

We all know the story, Ryan Lochte and friends celebrate a little too much after the swimming portion of the Olympics conclude, Lochte rips down a poster at a gas station, lies about the situation….and here we are: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/20/sport/us-olympics-swimmers-reported-robbery-future/?sr=twnewday082216us-olympics-swimmers-reported-robbery-future1104AMVODtopLink&linkId=27902532.

I am by no means surprised by how this whole story spiraled out of control. Michael Phelps’ 23rd gold medal and retirement might as well have been a year ago and who is Lilly King again? The drunk actions of a few American swimmers absolutely took over all Olympic news feed. Everything.

Journalists were lacking anything juicy at the Olympic Games. Personally, I didn’t see a single mosquito during my time in Rio. Nobody really saw any mosquitoes. And what about the water? Yeah, that was fine too. The Lochte story was the first REAL thing that journalists had to cling to to prove themselves right about all the predictions they made about the Games. But that’s still not the surprising part.

What did shock me is how quiet nearly all media members became as the TRUE facts came out. Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger both released statements giving their versions of the story, which have held up to be true. People who were calling for the swimmer’s heads all of a sudden fell silent. Christine Brennan led the charge for a lifetime Lochte suspension, but made NO mention of either of the swimmers statements once the truth came out.

To me, this just proves that journalism is moving more and more towards clicks. I worry that the profession is losing its integrity and journalists are spending more time presenting their own commentary, as either absurd or accurate as it may be, than chasing facts. And that’s what is surprising.

 

Vox/Sandusky

I chose the stack on Transgender myths because honestly, I live a rather sheltered life and love taking any opportunity I can to learn. I was particularly intrigued by the card that explained gender identity in children, which I was honestly under a different impression of. I did not know that a child could determine a gender identity, considering their brains are not fully developed and they have experienced so little life. In terms of presentation, there are things that I both like and dislike about it. I like that the presentation is unique by the means of cards and that the colors blend well and seem appropriate for what the site is being used for. I also liked that you could see all the headlines in one screen so that you could easily pick what you wanted to read. However, I went to vox.com and could not find the cards from there, so if they are trying to gain attention and reads, it may not be the best idea.

When I first heard about the Sandusky situation, I did not know what to think about the situation. The news broke when I was in high school and if I’m being honest, I was not huge on the news in high school as I was too involved with my own athletic career to really spend time doing anything else. Pathetic excuse, especially considering where I am now. When I really took the time to learn what happened, I was disgusted. Purely disgusted. How could someone do that and how could someone else, someone so loved by so many, just let it happen? I was curious and wanted to know more, but also in too much of disgust to search for more answers.

Being a little bit older and a little bit wiser, reading the Patriot News now is even harder. I actually googled ‘Jerry Sandusky’ and learned based on recent news that he is now trying to appeal and actually appeared in court today. To me, that is just sick and cowardly. Why not take responsibility when all these people are scarred and suffering because of your actions? Reading the specific allegations are the hardest part for me, simply because of what they are; specific. Imagery, in this case, is not as welcome as usual. I commend Ganim’s reporting and I can only imagine how hard it must have been with her, having an even closer look at the case. As a women in sports media, I can only imagine the stigmas she encountered and roadblocks, considering the situation.