How Big is Big…

Covering high school and local sports isn’t quite the same as going to the Super Bowl four times, the World Series three times, the Stanley Cup Finals twice, the N-B-A finals four times or the Olympics…But on your road up the sports journalism ladder you’d be wise to treat it that way…Because to the people who are involved, it’s just as important…

For aspiring journalists working on the student paper, radio or television station, a Beanpot final or an occasional League tournament might just be as big as it gets….Those rare N-C-A-A appearances are to be savored…Just ask the pair of  announcers from W-T-B-U who got to go to Fargo, North Dakota this year…

You rise to the occasion…

“If you treat an assignment like its just run of the mill, another thing and you mail it in, the readers will know almost immediately and they’ll tune out and they’re not gonna read you”…So said Greg Bedard this week at the final edition of the 2017 Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series…That just happened to be the answer to my very first question and when I heard his answer I felt like I had gotten my point across and the seminar could have ended there…

It’s not as if you have to make every story big, but it’s important to find those nuggets, go behind the x’s and o’s and most importantly, inform your readers…

As the season goes along, the games get bigger (usually)….they determine what is often termed a successful season…and as such, they draw attention…Like athletes, journalists need to learn how to pace themselves, how to sometimes NOT make every game, every play seem like it was an “instant classic”…That’s not always easy, taking individual events into play but it’s almost as if you have to detach yourself from the game…”They (veteran reporters) have a poker face”, Bedard told the audience, “nothing phases them…especially on deadline, you have to keep your cool, you have a job to do.”

While I know students love war stories and want to be connected to the events they hope to some day cover, I sometimes struggle with “bringing them into the tent” fully…Thus i didn’t press Bedard when he talked about not really caring about the outcome of the game he might be covering….It sounds jaded perhaps, but the harsh reality is, it becomes a job…More times than not, better than any other you’ll ever have…In the television news business there’s a saying, “we don’t care who wins, just get it over by air time” …(editors note-stations can’t use highlights of a game until it’s over and there’s nothing worse than doing a sportscast and having to tell the audience what happened instead of showing them.)…Everyone says to themselves that will never happen to me…Work the beat for thirty, forty years in my case, and watch…It just happens…But I digress…

The other issue that jumped out at me as a result of our discussion was offered by Ben Watanabe, one of the Senior Editors at NESN.Com who also joined us…Watanabe hires many young journalists and he’s found that there’s a correlation between deadlines and the internet, and not always a positive one…”Writers that I see coming out now that have only written for the web are not as comfortable with it (deadlines), game ends you get twelve minutes to get it (your story) in. I don’t know that they get it drilled into them that there is a deadline”

So don’t get too high, don’t get too low…Every story is a big one to somebody…Tell ’em something they don’t already know and you’ll do just fine…

 

10 Comments

Shelby Reardon and Marisa Ingemi posted on May 1, 2017 at 2:29 pm

https://soundcloud.com/user-128935005/the-w-column-episode-9-the-big-story-and-the-last-podcast Marisa and Shelby talking about the ‘big story.’

Chris Picher and Jarett Leonard posted on May 2, 2017 at 3:34 pm

Seminar Strategists Episode 11 https://soundcloud.com/jarett-leonard/seminar-strategists-episode-11-the-big-story

Curtis Stoychoff posted on May 3, 2017 at 1:59 pm

I think it’s definitely true that coming out of college we may not have it drilled into us yet that we have to get work done by a deadline. If you think about all of our classes, yeah we have deadlines – weekly ones. We have assignments due each week on Monday for instance. But we had the entire week leading up to that to get it done. We haven’t really been pressed by our classes to get a story out in 12 minutes after a game ends. (Maybe some of us have if we did work for other organizations, but I mean strictly experience from class.) So it’ll definitely be an adjustment we have to make at our first job.

I don’t necessarily think not caring about who wins after years of doing the job is a bad thing. No matter what it is, if you do it for thirty or forty years it’ll become monotonous. Yeah, maybe we won’t get the rush of excitement to see that game winning shot or the last second field goal, but in the end it’s probably just a good sign. A good sign that we’ve been in the business for long enough for these things to become commonplace. If we last that long it means we’re doing something right.

Overall, I thought this was a good seminar to wrap the class up with. We’ve gotten a taste of a lot of different things this semester and we wrapped up with great pieces of wisdom from Bedard and Watanabe. Looking forward to getting out there and doing it for real.

Channing Curtis posted on May 3, 2017 at 3:07 pm

I personally cannot wait to be back in the real world and out of the school environment. Yeah, the deadlines will be harsher but I think that’s pretty standard even if you’re not working in journalism. There’s no such thing as excuses, second chances or not turning something in at a given time.

I remember in undergrad I took two classes on play-by-play. The professor would have us watch a game with our favorite team and attempt to pull against them for the entire game in order to learn how to be impartial in our broadcasts. It actually ended up helping but it did change the way we all looked at the game. It didn’t matter if it was football or lacrosse but once we took away our “fandom” it became more serious and more like a job. It was definitely still enjoyable and fun to watch but it gave us a different perspective than we had before.

I completely agreed with both speakers when they said that you have to not only remember that your story is important to someone but also keep in mind that not every story is as important as the next. I think this is something you learn how to do over time and the more that we gain experience in the field the better we will be at this.

Daniel Choi posted on May 3, 2017 at 8:20 pm

Are deadlines like death and taxes? Some of us are leaving school, but none of us are leaving deadlines behind. Wherever we go, and whatever we do for work, we will have deadlines to meet. I have forever despised deadlines, but I respect the necessity and value of them. Throughout my educational career, deadlines have induced anxiety and reduced half-baked ideas to passable material. Or…they helped transform thoughts into acceptable work product (that otherwise would have remained as intangible junk) and served to motivate a procrastinating slacker.

I wrote for a community college campus newspaper some years ago. It was for one semester, a three-month stint. The professor chewed me out one day. He called me into his office and asked, “Why are you here? Do you want to be here?” Sadly, I don’t remember much else – which goes to show the visit was warranted. I know I told him I like journalizing, but I don’t think I gave an answer as to why.

Missed deadlines didn’t compel this visit. I wish. Rather, I half-assed my assignments at the midway point of the semester. I knew I was slacking and my submissions reflected this irresponsible, unprofessional mindset. It’s a shame that I re-centered myself only after the professor voiced the issue. But it worked. And the professor’s questions stick with me.

When I agreed to cover a drug-addiction seminar, a dance and music recital, an administrative meeting, and etcetera, I didn’t merely assume the responsibility of churning out work for the journalism team. I also agreed to accurately report event details for the community. To share the stories provided by relevant characters. To palatably inform readers. And when I chose to take such assignments lightly, I failed to satisfy the needs of the team, the community, story characters, and readers.

Like deadlines, integrity is necessary everywhere and for whatever. Meeting deadlines and acting with integrity are not the magic ingredients for landing a big story. But they will create opportunities for finding one, or at least keep those channels open. At worst, they will more likely than not help journalists keep their jobs.

Best wishes to you all. I look forward to reading/watching/listening to your work in the years ahead.

Cassidy Kelly posted on May 3, 2017 at 9:00 pm

With the semester at a close and the last seminar done, it’s hard to believe it’s all coming to an end. Having only a journalism background from my COM101 and 201 classes, it was inspiring to sit around so many passionate peers who give so much to sports and journalism each day.

What stuck most with me this week from Greg Bedard besides his own passion would definitely be the quote mentioned in the blog post. The most important part of anything in life is to put your all into it and treat everything with the grandiosity it deserves. That idea applies to not just journalism as it was in reference to during class, but any first job no matter how mediocre it may seem. Even though I may not be doing glamorous work at the moment, I know that the best thing I can do is put my all into it because that is what will pay off in the end and result in the promotions I will be looking for through life. Making the things special that at the surface may not seem to be is the best outlook on life.

One other thing mentioned in the blog post that also stuck with me was Bedard mentioning how monotonous his job can be at times and going to games is no longer as glamorous or exciting as it used to be. While I can truly see that as the case for seasoned professionals of the job and of any job in general, I truly hope that I keep my curiosity and passion for sports and events far into life. It may sound cheesy, but despite being in countless stadiums and rinks and arenas more times than I could even guess, I still can’t help but think of professional sports as “magical”. Knowing that every game, there is a kid there for with his or her parents for their very first professional sports game and enjoying themself beyond belief is enough for me to smile when I walk around the Garden or Gillette on a game day. This one thing that brings so many people from every walk of life together to cheer together and boo together is incredible. While it may sound naive for me to still think this way, I hope to never lose this touch of magic.

Dylan Jones posted on May 3, 2017 at 9:32 pm

The biggest thing I’ve gotten out of taking this class in general is that we all need to be different, whether that is in our writing style, what we cover, what skills we can show to our first employer, or the places we’re willing to go. Greg Bedard and Ben Watanabe echoed this when talking about their respective work, as both talked about how they make sure to infuse a certain level of passion into each piece because they know that if you write something half-heartedly, you aren’t going to get page views.

I agree with this generally, as I know when I read a sports article, I always find myself asking: what’s the point. Anybody can dig up some stats about how good LeBron James is, but somebody who can take those stats, tell us their significance, and analyze them and use them to predict what might happen in the rest of the series is something I’ll actually care about.

In regards to deadlines, I was surprised to hear that most people who are first getting into the industry don’t take them as seriously. Even the student newspapers I write, where you can write about basically anything, have deadlines. Regardless though, it was good to hear about the expectations for us when we get our first job within the journalism industry, as well as get different perspectives from someone who has been in the industry for a long time in Greg, and someone who is newer in Ben. In both cases, their passion got them into the industry, but they realized it was a job, adapted, moved around, and in Greg’s case, are looking for what to do next. It’s a good lesson for us, especially as many of us leave college in a few weeks and try to get that first gig.

Stephanie Schalago posted on May 3, 2017 at 10:07 pm

“No one really remembers who’s first, they’ll remember if you got it wrong… I do not want to be wrong..”
This quote from Greg Bedard really stuck with me after this seminar. No one remembers who does something first… but they always remember if you report something wrong.

To have this seminar be our last was really great. I think it’s the one I will remember the most. It gave us a sense of reality about what to expect in the real world. I disagree with Curtis though, I am not ready to be in the real world. I think that’s the scariest part of this semester being over… I’m officially in the real world. When I’m at work, I will always remember this quote from Bedard, I will never be wrong.

I loved listening to Bedard and Watanabe talk about their first experiences, for example, Watanabe’s high school story. He followed that high school player for so long because he believed in him. I hope one day I’ll have a story like that to share with a class. I hope I can see something in someone so special to devote my entire time to them because I know that they’ll make it big.

Overall, I think this was the best seminar we could have. It showed us that you need to start in the little leagues to make it to the big leagues. We just need to find something or someone special enough to devote our time to, and make their dreams and our own come true.

Jake Reiser posted on May 4, 2017 at 12:49 pm

One last time here on To Be Frank!

https://youtu.be/aoBTy8Ct1EM

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