Football: It's way more interesting than Baseball

           As I watched the rangers lose tonight, I couldn't help but remember why I'm watching this game in the first place. And then I remember why: because football is better. It's just that simple. The game, the rituals, the drama- it's all just so much more interesting.

           O the glory days of fall- the smell of sausages roasting on the grill, the crackle of leaves under foot as you make your way from the backyard inside to watch the pre-game. I really don’t know why they call baseball “America’s past-time”, because from my viewpoint, football is king.  When I have kids, and if I have a son, I’m envisioning small helmets running through my house, minus the muddy footprints.

            So you’ve heard about the Coach Leach and ESPN drama right? Here we have this dilemma with a football player, his coach, and an ESPN announcer who, oh yeah, is the football players dad.  The story goes that Coach Leach locked up this player in a dark room during practice because he claimed he had a concussion. The dad of the player (aka ESPN announcer) then makes a comment during his son’s football game (which he is one of the announcers for). From there, ESPN has a formal investigation of the allegations, which ultimately ended in the release of Coach Leach.

            Now I’m all for parents rights to support their children, whether that means yelling at the referee in the stands, or in this case announcing their game on national television.  Where I start to have a problem is when parents take advantage of a situation (like being an ESPN announcer) and using that platform for their own personal drama (issue that happened between the coach and the player).

            Some of the questions that come to mind are, do parents of players have enough self control to be unbiased during a game do they announce? Where does ESPN draw the line on investigating a story when it comes to one of their own?  During the investigation, both sides claimed that the other side was at fault. So was ESPN unbiased during their investigation? What about the school? After the fallout of Coach Leach, it would be hard to argue that potential recruits would think twice before going to team where you’re locked up like prisoner for health issues.

            Here, the reputation of Leach was impacted negatively, and the credibility of ESPN’s investigation team was comprised. In the end, ESPN should put more thought in the scheduling of announcers when it comes to relations, for the protection of all parties against unintentional bias, and the school should probably put all of its coaches through anger management training.

            So lessons learned: a wrong action can impact not just yourself, but every circle that you are apart of. And football is much more interesting than baseball.

 

Blogging is tough stuff

So I really thought that I was going to be able to blog every day, and I've come to the realization that it's probably not going to happen. With school and work and life and life... and then life again. Maybe if I was paid to blog about stuff (which I'm NOT just FYI), but maybe if I had that kind of motivation I could be more committed to this.

But from what I've heard, it's tough stuff to be a professional blogger. With all of the rules and guidelines and corporate BS, you've got to cover your butt. If you're getting paid though, I guess I'd do whatever it takes. In my ethics class today we were reminded of all the hoops you have to jump through now with all these issues popping up about social media and representation.


Makes me wonder about all the different hoops out there, and if there might be too many hoops (ie- rules or codes).

What would your mother think?

Remember when you first started driving? Your mom in the passenger seat, making you nervous because every time you hit the brakes or popped the clutch she would yell at you. Driving in an empty parking lot is easy, but once you got on the road with real human beings it was another story. Did you drive on your “best behavior”? When you came to a stoplight that was in the processing of turning from green to yellow to red, did you stop or did you haul it through the light? Did you take the time to evaluate all of your options? What if I get a red light ticket? What if I hit someone else? What if my mom makes me pull over and won’t let me drive?

Ethics in media is a lot like learning how to drive and how to drive legally.  There are so many decisions that need to be evaluated before a decision is made. Does this ad promise false hopes and dreams? Is? Is my boss going to throw me under the bus if this turns up bad press? 

You may have to work on an account that is in the tobacco industry.  When you’re working on this ad, you know that smoking is legal, but is your ad ethically suspect? Knowing the rules and how to use the rules will always give you the upper hand.  Would you know what is needed to substantiate a claim from an ad you create? If your mom read your article, would you be ok with that? Do you have a code of ethics that you follow (and actually understand)?

The study of ethics is needed because as strategic communication professionals, we need to be able to stand by and have a strong working knowledge of both business and our own moral principals. I know where I stand on certain issues, but am I strong enough in my own convictions to be able to say no or walk away from an account?

How do ethics drive your decisions? 

Last Day of "First day of School"

Hello blog. I am completely new to your world. I'm a girl growing up, and have come to realize how much my life is going to change in the next few months. I want to share my journey with you. I love that you can't talk back or tell me I'm being irrational or roll your eyes at me. I have only read a handful of blogs, and I really don't know the first thing about what to do with you. Do I tell you my darkest secrets? My little love stories? What about my silly observations of life and all the crazy things in between?



I don't know where to start. How about with today.


Today is the last day of my "first" day of school. How weird is that? "I came to this institution to leave" (unknown). Hmmm... isnt that an interesting thought? I'll never have to register for classes again. Never again will I have to fight the archaic online system that is my.unt. Forget standing in line for an hour to pick up books that I pre-ordered to "save" time. Ha. Well the jokes on you school!

I had this great sense of power as I walked across campus, silently laughing (wait no,  I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud) at the poor souls we call freshmen, walking around with maps in their hands, their eyes darting from building to building searching for the right one. After scheduling my classes in the same three buildings most of my college career, I don't even think about where I'm going now. It's just autopilot to me at this point.

Walking into my evening class (which I absolutely love) was like homecoming for most of us ad majors. Oh, did I mention that I'm an ad major? I love it. It's awesome. Maybe I'll share my work some day. Anyway, it's a very weird feeling walking into a class and knowing that this is the end. As one old friend after the other walked into class, I had this weird sad-yet-happy feeling, knowing that this class was probably the last time I'll ever see most if not all of this people again.

But really who am I kidding? I'm graduating in 15 weeks.


Let's see how I'll grow UP.