When I first proposed a sports journalism seminar series some dozen years ago here at Boston University, my hope was to bring industry professional on campus who could share their insights into the jobs and experiences my students aspired toward….I hoped an offshoot would be the beginnings of a networking process that would help the transition from student to working journalist…Little did i know it would survive all this time…<\/p>\n
I mention all of that brief history in the context of our recent seminar about women in sports…I could not have imagined what an impact a simple Q&A session could have…Lesley Visser<\/a> of CBS Sports and Carolyn Thornton<\/a> of The\u00a0Providence Journal<\/em> jumped to the top of the all time rankings… The topic of women in sports (journalism) was certainly important enough but the ladies brought a vitality and genuine interest in the students that took over the room…<\/p>\n The goal of the night was as much to offer all the students, not just the women, hope and information that could move them forward in their careers and their thinking…Thornton isn’t sure we’re where we should be just quite \u00a0yet when it comes to equal opportunity for women; “I’m dismayed that all not all the changes have been for the better. \u00a0 And there may be more opportunities but I don’t know that the quality of the opportunities is where it should be”…Visser sees many women entering the field for the limelight and she doesn’t like it…”There are two kinds of women who do what we do. \u00a0There are women who love sports and wind up on TV or in print and then there are women who just want to be on TV and wind up in sports. \u00a0The fans can see through it.”<\/p>\n When planning this particular seminar, I often wonder if talking about this issue perpetuates the idea that women working in the field are different and are \u00a0on a level playing field with their male counterparts….Neither guest was ready to say this is something that’s behind us…”I have a nine year old daughter who is very vibrant. \u00a0My job as a mom is to develop all the skills that she’ll need so that when she gets her foot in the door, whatever door she decides that will be, she’ll also have the skill set to back it up so she’s not just some cute perky (female)”…Thornton’s intent certainly is to prepare her daughter, but the words apply to the guys as well…<\/p>\n Visser took it a step further; “Make your emphasis knowledge, because knowledge is not negotiable. \u00a0And if you don’t have the passion for it, don’t do it. \u00a0 Do something you have the passion for because the job is too hard.”…Impossible to say that doesn’t apply to everyone…<\/p>\n We haven’t solved the problems, faced all the issues but on this one night, anyway, I think the students felt like there was someone out there who wanted to hear their opinions, wanted their input….You can teach stuff like that….Lesley Visser and Carolyn Thornton came to listen to the students and we’re the better for it…Thank you ladies…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thornton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first proposed a sports journalism seminar series some dozen years ago here at Boston University, my hope was to bring industry professional on campus who could share their insights into the jobs and experiences my students aspired toward….I hoped an offshoot would be the beginnings of a networking process that would help the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}