image from weebly image bank ESPN, or the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen, his son Scott Rasmussen, and Ed Eagan. ESPN is an American cable television network that broadcasts sports-related shows and sporting events. Social media is very important to ESPN because in January, it was announced that ESPN would be putting 500 live shows on social media. So social media is very important to their business because social media is an outlet for them to share their programming, sporting events, and shows along with television and radio.
According to Troy Dreier of sportsvideo.org, for ESPN’s online strategy, “’more is more.’ Reaching more people on more social platforms grows the base overall. Appealing to new viewers creates lifelong fans. Every platform needs its own tailored approach, but a success on one helps build the overall ESPN brand.”. Since their strategy is more the merrier, ESPN uses all social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and among others. According to unmetric.com, ESPN owns 68 social media profiles. They have 37 Facebook pages, 20 Twitter handles, eight Instagram accounts, two Youtube channels, and one LinkedIn account (unmetri.com), and of course, they also have ESPN+. ESPN has even developed their own social platform called “ESPN+”. They’ve selected these social media platforms and their own platform so “ [they] can have a complementary sports service in the over-the-top environment, thinking about how we’re presenting our programming and our content and our storytelling across platforms to reach and engage new audiences.”, per Connor Schell, who works with content at ESPN. As Connor Schell said in his statement, to engage with their audience, ESPN engages with their audience by sharing their content and their story telling across different platforms. The audience engages with ESPN’s content by subscribing to ESPN+ for $4.99 a month. The audience also engages with ESPN’s content by watching the content that ESPN puts out and share their reactions on various social media platforms. This is known as “live-tweeting”, live tweeting is when someone is tweeting their reactions to something their watching that’s happening live. I have live tweeted before in the past and it’s a great way to give your thoughts on an event that’s happening live and have discussions with others who are also witnessing the live event. The audience makes effective “produsers” of more content and information because it gets people talking about the event and interacting with others and often times, the event will be on the trending page on Twitter. Considering ESPN’s business goals is to “increase brand awareness” according to Katie Richman, the director of social media strategy for ESPN, ESPN does use all social media tools effectively. According to Katie Richman, their approach to social media is “Our approach is to look at our demographics; who are we talking to? For example, with espnW we’re talking to women, and there is an active female audience on Pinterest.” (Katie Richman). ESPN does use all social media tools effectively because they scope out the demographic of each tool or platform and fit the needs of the demographic they scope out. This scoping out of demographics also shows that ESPN is leveraging its social media for the best effect/impression because they’re specifically scoping out the demographic people who it would effect the most. They’re trying to zero in on one group of people so their content is guaranteed to have a positive impact and help in spreading awareness of their brand. While there are pros to ESPN’s social media use, there are also some cons to their social media use. One pro of their social media use would be that they allow people to watch sports anywhere they want whether it be on their phone of their computer. Another pro would be that they use social media to break sporting news that people can conveniently check their phones for any breaking sports news. The pros for ESPN’s social media use is based around convenience. One con for ESPN’s social media use is that some information that ESPN shares is unnecessary. According to Michael Rudd of sportsnetworker.com, this unnecessary sharing of news forces “anchors and writers to try to create excitement to you when it’s not worth batting an eye.” (sportsnetworker.com). The social media platform that seems to be the most popular for ESPN is Facebook because ESPN has the most accounts on Facebook than any other social media site. If it’s working on that site, then they should exploit it. ESPN is effective at maintaining their social media accounts up to date. On this specific day, March Madness, the MLB, MLS, and NHL season has been suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak. Now it was not ESPN who specifically reported this it was but it was an ESPN writer, Adrian Wojnarowski, who was the first to break that the NBA was suspending their season due to coronavirus. Wojnarowski tweeted this at 9:31 pm on 3/11/20. Social media allows people to interact with others over the internet. Social media has many different uses though. News can be broken through social media, businesses can use social media to spread the awareness of their company by putting advertisements for their brand on several different social media platforms. As we learned with ESPN, you could also watch sports on social media. Social media’s main impact in my own opinion is that it has allowed us to communicate in ways that weren’t possible, social media has made communication easier and the ability to gain information better. If I were to make any recommendations to ESPN it would be to personalize interactions with their audience members. Improving online interactions leads to better engagement, more satisfied customers, and higher brand loyalty which increases sales. Another recommendation I would make for ESPN would be for them to level out the type of content they send out. ESPN way more content related to basketball and football than they do baseball and hockey. If they can evenly distribute the content for each sports they will be able to get more fans of different sports involved. I may be a little bias because baseball is my favorite sport but I feel like for a company that broadcasts a show called “sports center”, they should release content for all sports. References - https://digiday.com/media/espn-marketing-espn/ -https://khoros.com/blog/how-espn-stays-social# -khoros.com/blog/espn-rob-king-social-media-engagement
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The news story that has been extensively covered in the past three to six months will be the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Towards the end of the 2019 calendar year, an article on The Athletic was released breaking the news that the Houston Astros had been illegally using a video camera system to steal signs signaled from the catcher to the pitcher during the 2017 season and at times during the 2018 season. The scandal was confirmed by former Astros pitcher, Mike Fiers, who was a member of that 2017 Houston Astros team. The way the Astros conducting their cheating seems blatantly obvious at the surface but unfortunately, it was not proven to be true until recently. The Astros would pick up on the signs for each pitch that the catcher was using and when they were able to pick up on the sign for a breaking ball, they would bang a trashcan back in the hallway of their dugout to let the batter know what was coming. Unfortunately, this Houston Astros team went on to win the world series. It was later revealed that they even cheated during the postseason that year. Including in the world series. I am choosing this topic because baseball is my favorite sport. Writing about topics I care about makes doing the assignment enjoyable for me. In fact, just as I am typing this, I have a baseball game on in the background. I have been so passionate about baseball for so long and I like to think that that is because of my two late grandfathers who were both huge baseball fans. Baseball was the way I connected with my two grandfathers. Chances are that I am probably not as into baseball as I am now without those two. Another reason why I picked this topic is because I do not believe the punishment given to the Astros was enough so any way to keep this scandal relevant and talked about only tarnishes the Astros’ “2017 World Series Title” even more. Scene Setter: https://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/minute-maid-park/ This is a picture of Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. This is where the Astros conducted their cheating. The offensive statistics for the Astros that season at home vs. on the road are egregious. According to 12up.com, at Minute Maid Park in the postseason, Jose Altuve’s offensive stats were as follows “.472 BA/.513 OBP/1.028 SLG/1.541 OPS, 17 H, 6 HR & 12 RBI” (12up.com). His stats on the road during the post season were “43 BA, .268 OBP, .229 SLG, .497 OPS, 5 H, 1 HR & 2 RBI” (12up.com). Completely obvious. What should be in this picture is an indicator of where the Astros had their cameras set up to steal signs. The framing of the photo is very effective because it captures the entire playing field. Medium Shot: :https://nypost.com/2019/11/14/alcs-whistling-video-emerges-to-support-ridiculous-yankees-accusations/https://nypost.com/2019/11/14/alcs-whistling-video-emerges-to-support-ridiculous-yankees-accusations/ This is the Astros dugout just a few feet into the hallway leading to the dugout is where the Astros were watching the catcher’s signals and banging a trash can to let their batter know what the pitcher is about to pitch. What should be in this picture that is not is monitor and the trash can that they used to cheat since the cheating happened only a few steps away. The framing of this photo is quite effective because not only does it capture the scene of the crime, but it also captures the players who were receiving these signs that were given to them via the banging of the trashcan. I also think the framing of this picture is very effective because it not only captures the players but it also captures the fans who are not cognizant of the cheating that is being done by the Astros. The Portrait: https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1196203106347945987?s=20 In my honest opinion, this will go down as the most iconic picture of the whole scandal. This picture is missing nothing, it captures the scandal perfectly. It is a little grainy, but it says it all. One can clearly see someone setting up the monitor that they used to steal signs and behind the person setting it up is the infamous trashcan that they would bang to let the batter know what pitch was coming. Also pictured is Jose Altuve who not only won the world series with the Astros but also won the American League MVP award that year. What really contributes to the meaning of this picture is the world series patch on the sleeve of Altuve’s jersey and hat to have that and the monitor and trashcan in the same pictures is such a disappointing realization that they were cheating in the world series. Capturing Detail: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fthe7line.com%2Fblogs%2Fthe-7-line%2Fmets-fans-guide-to-2017-playoffs-houston-astros&psig=AOvVaw2po6_VfvdC6m1OYeimjck2&ust=1582954659042000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMDNnuXD8-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP This picture provides a really good transition towards the end of the story because this picture doesn’t capture the Astros winning the world series but it still captures them experiencing the a part of the large amount of success that they experienced that season. In this picture, the Astros are celebrating their American League West division title. Again, I think the unaware fans being in the picture is very powerful for the telling of this story. Capturing Action: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fhouston-astros-win-their-first-ever-championship-in-baseballs-world-series%2Fa-41202157&psig=AOvVaw1eEMQNGiq-qTHS4ZmgZew5&ust=1582954777367000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjxv57E8-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
The most unfortunate part of all of this is that this Astros team won the world series during the 2017 season in which they cheated. The framing of this picture is good. It captures a team who did not deserve to win the world series celebrating winning the world series. I think they’re facial expressions are a little telling. Yes, some of them are smiling but most of the players in this picture are not smiling. It is almost like they know they didn’t deserve this title. I chose these specific pictures because I really think that these pictures followed the story in the perfect way. The pictures I chose also included a lot of detail which adds to the story and the overall visual presentation. If the arrangement was changed, the story would be presented at the time the actual scandal came out. I would change my “capturing action” and the “portrait” because the cheating scandal was leaked after they won the world series. If there was ever a perfect situation to talk about the ethical concerns in regard to picture selection, this would be it. In the required reading about the ethics of visual presentation, writer Austin Clines states “One of the ethical problems of reality television is the fact that it isn't nearly as "real" as it pretends to be.” (ethics article). In the capturing action picture, the Astros are celebrating their world series title and at the surface, it can be viewed as real but what they did was not ethical and their title should not be considered as real. This is a major issue with visual presentation. There may be visual detail but the context is not always there and people will not always be able to tell what is going on behind the scenes, which can lead to a faulty story being told. The future of visual presentation is exciting. Since technology is revolutionizing everything, it is really interesting to see how creative people get with visual presentation. According to |
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