ASU Examining Media Involving Slam Dunk Contest Essay – Description
conduct a media analysis.
Each assignment will analyze coverage of a different type of sport:
Your first media analysis will cover a solo athlete sport.
Your second media analysis will cover a minor league sport.
Your third media analysis will cover a major league sport.
In each analysis, you will look at four different types of media coverage:
Traditional media coverage of the sport (coverage in independent digital, broadcast and print outlets of all sizes)
In-house media — the team’s or league’s own coverage of the sport or the event’s or association’s coverage in solo sports (typically found on the team’s website, blog, social media handles and other platforms such as podcasts, YouTube or similar venues)
Citizen media — fans’ coverage of the sport (on blogs such as SB Nation and social media)
Personal media — athletes’ own coverage of the sport on their personal social media (not the team’s account), website and other digital platforms
For each project, you will:
Select a team that meets the criteria of the assignment and that has coverage by all four types of media.
Research coverage of the team in each of the media sources mentioned above.
Write your analysis of the media coverage of this team. I am not looking for a simple summary of the coverage. Dig deeper by comparing and contrasting the differences in content, tone, etc. depending on the outlet, and share what this exercise has taught you about where in the sports media landscape to find certain types of stories/coverage and how that might influence the way consume it moving forward.
Due to the research involved, these media analysis projects will take you more than a day to complete, so you should work ahead during the weeks when they are due. You may also want to consider what teams or athlete to select early on in the course.
In this assignment, you will look at a solo athlete sport (examples: BMX racing, skateboarding, downhill skiing, gymnastics) and pick an athlete who competes in it.
The athlete you choose may be part of a team (such as the Olympic U.S. Alpine skiing team), but must compete individually to qualify for this assignment.
Spend a week researching different types of media coverage of this athlete pursuing their individual sport, including:
Traditional media. Coverage in independent digital, broadcast and print outlets of all sizes.
In-house media. The team, sport, league or event’s own coverage of the sport. It’s typically found on the team’s website, blog, social media handles and other platforms such as podcasts, YouTube or similar venues. In the solo sport example, this might mean stories from the Olympic website or the individual organizations (for example, U.S. Ski and Snowboarding).
Citizen media. Fan coverage such as blogs (SB Nation, Reddit and similar) and social media.
Personal media. The athletes’ own coverage on their social media, website and other digital platforms.
Select two pieces of media from EACH of the four types above (eight total pieces)
Give each one a label describing its content or purpose (a recap of a team’s game, news story about a trade or injury, feature story about a player on the team’s life/backstory, analytical breakdown of team’s strengths and weaknesses or other relevant categories)
Give each one a sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) based on the tone of the coverage. Keep in mind: Just because the content of a story is “bad” (for example, the team lost the game) does not necessarily mean the sentiment of a specific piece of coverage is “negative.” Examine the differences between independent journalists and citizen journalists who are passionate fans (or detractors) of the athlete, and even the differences between reporters and columnists (whose job is to share their opinion) at traditional journalism outlets.
Then, answer each of the following questions:
What do the stories that you researched about your player/team have in common?
What do you notice is different about the coverage of this athlete/team from platform toplatform?
What have you learned about media coverage from this analysis?
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