Extra Credit Blog from Mass Comm Week

I attended the presentation by Mark Ethridge during Mass Communications Week. The week brought in many people in the communications industry for speeches, presentations and forums. The week gave students insight into the communications industry. The week was a good alternative for students to listen to someone other than their teachers. To be honest, I am sure students were happy to have class cancelled because of the week. This week also gave professors the excuse to not have class.

According to the Virginia Commonwealth University Mass Communications Web site, Ethridge is the current president of Carolina Parenting Inc. The company prints Charlotte Parent magazine and parent magazines in other major regions in North Carolina.

The presentation concluded with a book signing by Ethridge. His book is called Grievances and chronicles his reporting experiences.

In the podcast below, Ethridge talked about the advantages local newspapers hold over other news sources. The first point he made and stressed is the ability to cover local news. He stated there are many ways to get international, sports, stocks and movies. He also said there were usually more reporters with the newspaper than with the local television station.

The second point was that newspapers can report in depth, with detail and authority. He stressed authority because there are so many ways of getting news by way of traditional outlets and new age outlets. He used blogs and Twitter as examples and he said we are "overwhelmed" by news in this new age.





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Sportscenter.com

Sportscenter is probably the longest running program on ESPN and probably the longest running sports program on any network. This is the best sports show and it never seems to get old. Now they have finally caught on to the multimedia wave with the launching of their site.

The main page is simple and easy to navigate. The top half of the page begins with top headlines in sports. The site is heavy with video coverage. Nowadays, video is a good way to draw viewers on the Web.

Having a time stamp is a popular method with news organizations. The site has their update at the top of the page. Currently, the last update was at 3:05 a.m.

Everyday, there is a new Sportscenter anchor featured. The feature is at the bottom of the front page. For Sportscenter fanatics (like me), I am able to learn more information about the people I watch everyday. Today, the featured anchor is Scott Van Pelt.

Next to the feature sports anchor are the featured Sportcenter anchor blogs. I find this interesting because like normal anchors they are supposed to stay neutral when reporting on television. It is hard to get a feel for their personalities when they are reporting on the air. The blogs of course let readers know what they are really thinking on certain issues.

The main page has the ESPN television lineup. The best part of this site is the archives of ESPN commercials. They are all entertaining and having this up is smart to draw fan interest to the site. Also, there is a discussion forum for fans about these commercials.

Here is one of my favorite commercials. This includes current professional football players Peyton and Eli Manning. They are quarterbacks in the National Football League. They are taking a tour in the ESPN studios. The funny part is they are acting like two little kids by messing around with each other when their parents are not paying attention. Their father, retired professional football player, Archie Manning also appears in the commercial.