What Could Have Been: A multimedia look at a sad day in sports

A new rookie class will be drafted on June 26 for the National Basketball Association (NBA). ESPN.com takes a look back at one of the top players from the 1986 NBA draft and remembers the legacy he left behind in a special report. The elements brought in to telling the story enhanced the interest in a highly debated topic. The person is Len Bias, who was a two time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. He played for the Maryland Terrapins and was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Two days after the draft, Bias died of a cocain overdose. Twenty-two years later, the issues surrounding the death remain topics of discussion. The photos used throughtout the story connect readers to the situation. For instance, the picture of Bias' grave, which is located next to his little brother, Jay Bias, is really a sad photo to see. For added feeling to the picture, the Boston Celtic jersey of Bias is layed over his grave and the high school jersey of his brother is layed over his grave. According to the article, Bias was held at the standard of Michael Jordan when he was drafted to the Celtics. His legacy lives on to this day because of the changes his death caused to laws regarding illegal drugs.

The story overall is very well done because of the different perspectives. In one part there is a segment about his mother and how she believed her son died to be used as an example to the world. Another example is told from a buddy of Jay Bias and how the effects of Bias' death changed his life negatively.

The different videos posted tell additional stories, such as an Outside the Lines report discussing the social impacts of Len Bias' death, which is located in the story. Also, the highlight films which cover the on the court success of Len Bias.

An additional picture of Jay Bias crying at the funeral was posted with the story, which is very vivid and gives a feel to how devastating his death was to his brother. As explained in the story, Jay Bias never really recovered from the death of his brother and eventually died less than five years after his older brother. The photos from the funeral and of Len Bias on his draft day are easily distinguished as old photographs in comparison to the new photographs in the story. The older photos have an orange look to them, but there was a good editing job done to these photos.

Overall, this is a good job of multimedia uses in telling a sad story, which took place 22 years ago.

Happy Father's Day from MLB.com

I know Father's Day is over a week over due, but I really liked the multimedia presentation done by Major League Baseball in honor of the celebration. Father's Day and baseball seems to be a sport closely linked to this special day celebrating fathers all over the globe. The MLB website does a great job of providing a human interest element for their players. Leagues always need to do public relations assignments like these to portray their players as more than athletes. For examples, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has a campaign called NBA Cares, which is a program that allows players to become involved in their surrounding community. The National Football League (NFL) has a campaign teamed up with the United Way, which is the same as the NBA by involving players in their local community. To bring this back to baseball, the NBA and NFL profiles certain players in their public relations campaign for human interest.

The page dedicated to Father's Day begins with photos of players with their families. There are photos of players with their fathers, mothers, children, wives, other family members or a combination of these people. One of my favorite pages is of Lastings Milledge, who is a player for the Washington Nationals and they are relatively close in geography from the Richmond area. He has a picture with his father, who obviously played a big role in his life.

I also like the PR the MLB uses to get people to buy tickets by putting on the link to purchase 'Take Dad to a ballgame: Buy tickets now'. Also, a link to shop for MLB merchandise to 'Shop for Dad'. They are at the top of every player profile for Father's Day.

Interactive Sports Websites

CBS Sportsline has an interesting multimedia format, which allows readers to receive their report on headline news and have access to other neat tools. For example, headline news yesterday was of Atlanta Braves third basemen Chipper Jones being hit in the face with a baseball. I could only find the link to Jones being hit in the face with the ball on MLB.com. I notice many news outlets showed the amateur videotape on television, but chose not to post the video next to their stories on their websites. The story is not very long, but at the bottom is a place for fans to comment. The website seems to have a focus on this aspect of multimedia to have fan involvement.

Sportsline has created a cult following for fans of a sport and of specific teams because there is information on each fan that posts a comment. Each fan has a link to their own personal fan sports page. On the Braves website I looked at the first comment that appeared at the top of the fans comment link and it was by the user BravesGurl1983. In her profile there is information on her personally and there are links to her other favorite teams and tracks her latest postings. The top rated Braves fan is SaintsFan85.

To come back to the story on Jones there are links to other headline stories in the organization and each story has a number beside it. The number tracks the amount of comments on stories, which allows users to see the popularity of certain stories. There are links to other Braves headline stories and a section of headlines of Major League Baseball.