For our current event, we decided to do things a little bit differently and choose one huge event with a couple of smaller stories that happened during the event. The event we focused on was the 2015 NBA All Star Weekend that occurred over the past weekend. The specific articles that we chose to focus in on were Carmelo Anthony’s decision on how much he was going to play in the All Star game, Kevin Durant firing back at the Media on Saturday, and Saturday Night Live dominating the ratings versus the All Star Game. Carmelo Anthony has had an injured knee all season, and he told reporters on Friday that he was going to shut his season down after he played for a couple of minutes. From a media standpoint, I believe that this story shows a break in the chain from the owner/management side of communication to the player side. If Anthony truly believes that he should not play any more then the team’s personal media staff should have came out with a statement regarding Carmelo’s health, and then they should have consulted with him about future statements that he should make to the media. The next smaller article that we focused on was Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder lashing out at the media at first in defense of his coach, Scott Brooks, but eventually ranting a little bit more on the award voting process and talking to the media in general. From a media standpoint, I believe this story is important because the way that we see players interacting with the media within the next 5- 10 years could completely change. It is becoming clearer and clearer that many players are beginning to have a problem with the media and how the media is misrepresenting the players. Also it is very different to have a player like Marshawn Lynch, who has been someone who has never been in the limelight and doesn’t enjoy talking to the media, and a player like Kevin Durant who is one of the young faces that will make up the face of the entire NBA, and someone like him needs to be able to talk to the media. The last article we did was about the television ratings during last Sunday night’s All Star Game; during the game, Saturday Night Live aired it’s 40th Season reunion special, and the ratings at the end of the night ranked the All Star Game with a 5.5 and SNL ended with a rating of 14.2. From a media communications standpoint I believe this story is relevant because if one of the league’s marquee events during the season gets that outshined, then there is a problem. Right now the NBA is making the most money, has more viewers, and there are more marketable stars then the league has ever had before, but that can all be overlooked if you cannot keep your viewers for one of the best events of the season. The key is to make the game itself more interesting and more enticing for the players to actually try, watching a little bit of that game like I did, it was easy to tell the lack of willingness to play the game and more just going through the motions.
All of these articles are relevant to this course in slightly different ways; the first story about Carmelo Anthony was about keeping possible injury announcements internal within the organization, and if an announcement is going to be made, then it should come from a team official so there is no grey area in the report. The next story regarding Durant is relevant because as possible members of the media someday, the player-media relationship is something that is going to change and we need to be ahead of the curve for it. The last story is relevant because every league has an All Star Game, and it should be must see TV, but with the way things are going, All Star Games are more out than in right now, and that is something that needs to be changed.
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Analysis by Jesse Moses in SRM 334 (section 1)
Our current event focused on the NBA All Star weekend, and more specifically three articles of events that occurred during the weekend. It was a star studded weekend with some very interesting topics that we got to cover. The first article that we will discuss is about Carmelo Anthony dictating his minutes in the All Star Game. He has been fighting a knee injury basically the whole season. In the article they quote Carmelo saying that it is “very likely” that he will not play the rest of the season after the All Star break, even though later in the interview he told reporters that he will play in the All Star Game, “Even if I come out and just play a couple minutes and just wave”. The second article is about Kevin Durant and his comments about the media and the voting for the MVP. He lashes out at the media saying that he is only talking to them because he has to. He then goes further into the whole media relationship with the players and comments on how they should not be the ones voting on the MVP, that in fact it should be the players because they play with the candidates. Finally in the third article, they discuss the competition between Saturday Night Live Forty and the NBA All Star Game (the two broadcast at the same time on Sunday). SNL stole many viewers from the All Star game and the article goes in depth into that competition.
In the first article there is a direct tie into the media and communication standpoint of this course. Carmelo Anthony went onto ESPN Radio and told them his plans for the rest of this year and more importantly the future. It is directly associated with communications between the player and the coach/front office and the team’s media sources. He went through an outside source of media instead of talking directly to the New York Knick’s reporters. On the coach/front office side, we wonder if he spoke to them before going through with this interview. We wonder if the team was blindsided or not by this comment. This ties directly to our course because we might someday have to deal with an athlete that is going through a similar situation. In the second article they speak about the tie between the media and professional athletes. Kevin Durant spoke out at the media telling them “"You guys really don't know s---". This was a direct shot at the media, that really got out Durant’s opinions. He believes that they are glorified and that they do not deserve the power that they are given. This article and story relates to our course because someday we could be the media and this is a statement directed at us. We have to know how to cover a statement like this and how to evaluate the situation and not let it get out of hand. Finally in the third article, they speak of SNL 40 and how it stole views from the All Star Game. The media/communication aspect of this article and of this story is very important in our field. As a part of the media we will have to promote events, such as the All Star break, and be successful in competition with other shows. This directly ties into our course because of the fact that we have to be able to deal with a situation like this and draw viewers to our program. We may face a very similar task at some point in our career and we need to mull down the situation and find a solution.
The NBA All Star Weekend was a long one with many different events. It was entertaining at parts and others were bland. The events were only half of the excitement, with Durant and Melo being in the headlines as well as the SNL 40 dominating the TV ratings. All in all it was better than it has been and people will definitely continue to talk about it.
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