UB Rowing in The Buffalo News

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/05/04/1040436/campus-watch-ub-rowing-leaps-ahead.html

Its amazing what you can do with a flip cam and a mac… check out my video

MY PRODUCTION EXPERIENCES

Well, this has been a semester of a lot of ups and downs (sorry for the cliche) but honestly it has. Spring semester is always very difficult for me because I spend every weekend travelling across the country for regattas. But my Grandpa’s sudden death mid-semester really through me off  track. With an already loaded schedule, there is no room for tragic events. So i tried my hardest to push through and catch up on all my work.

Somehow I made it through, but it left me little time to really focus on this project. However, since I was doing my story on my team it was possible for me to record a lot of good material. I loved this project and I have learned a lot of stuff I never really thought I wanted to learn. So I guess it was fate that took me into this class, perhaps this will benefit me in the near future!

Review of “Gatewatching”

As I was reading this  chapter I couldn’t help but notice this is exactly what we’re doing as a class. TOPICEXCHANGE is more of collective blogging rather than collaborative. I don’t have conversations with other classmates. We simply post our own thoughts on the same thing.

So someone could read my blog and be like “WOAH this is boring, I wish I hadn’t wasted my time reading this” and read one of my classmate’s blogs and actually learn something about online journalism. But I think it would be more interesting if we did interact with one another.

We discuss many of the same things, so why bother repeating what someone else may have already said. It could be more interesting to have a ladder blog. One person posts something, the next reads the first post and says something new.

Collective blogging turns into a lot of repetition, after writing this blog I doubt I want to hear what anyone else has to say about the same thing because it likely isn’t very different from my own blog. Or perhaps it is completely different and would attract a different audience than mine would? … One of the many questions this whole world of online journalism introduces.

Review of “Opportunities and Challenges”

Potential. What a coach of mine once referred to as THE P WORD. The worst word an athlete could ever hear, OR anyone for that matter. So you have the potential to be good, but if a coach is telling you that you have the potential that must mean you’re not living up to it or it wouldn’t even need to be mentioned.

When I read this chapter this word stuck out to me (perhaps because my coach says it at least once a practice) but also because I know the potential that online journalism has. It can go anywhere, do anything. But will it? Or has it? Well I don’t think it already has because I can think of about 10 ways online journalism could improve itself just off the top of my head. But I do believe it is making progress.

The chapter coins the term “shovelware” to mean the content from print or television that has been redirected to fit the online world. But it also discusses how much more online journalism can be. Throughout this class we’ve seen many examples of online journalism that has come close to reaching its potential and are even experimenting with reaching that potential ourselves. We’ll see where this new medium takes us….

Review of Looking Through the Viewfinder

What I get from this chapter is that videos can only show a close-up of one part of the story as a whole. That a good reporter must understand what parts are the most important to focus on and run with that. But in my own experience (which is relatively limited) there is almost no way of actually determining what this aspect is. For my story, it was not difficult to find what part to focus on because I am emerged in the team. In fact I probably could have created about 10 different stories based on my team because I have been here for four years and I see everything that happens. But reporters do not have this advantage often and they must sift through the boring video to find what people would be interested in. Then the article gets into all the technical terms for capturing video. I slowly fade away as I read about cross shots, knee shots etc. And I realize a lot of this is just formalities. In capturing video its mostly about having an eye for it. If you follow your instincts you will most likely record what others want to see. Or maybe that isn’t the case, guess I’ll find out after this video assignment. In fact, watch my video and let me know if that was what you wanted to see or if you’d prefer me to catch another angle.

Review of “The Video Explosion”

As I often mention, people are constantly searching for new ways to express themselves. Some means of expression are more effective than others, but thus far nothing has surpassed the power of video. This article introduces the idea of videos being broken down scene by scene. It seems that society is becoming more and more ADD. Now we can’t be responsible for watching an entire video anymore. As if that takes so much effort, to sit back and watch the video from beginning to end. Now we want it broken down, so we can see only the essential parts. Now only “once in a while a reporter will turn in a video that can stand on its own”. Journalism has reached the point where a video is no longer worthy by itself. It must be accompanied by photos, sound clips, interviews, text… blah blah blah. What else is next? The background music stylings of Usher or Rihanna? Have we become so spoiled that we cannot even bother to sit through an entire movie? Or am I just being cynical and maybe this is a step forward for society. Perhaps we have reached a new level of expression, we’re closer to achieving our goal of communication with one another. I can’t help but think we’ve just crowed the airwaves with junk and I’m finding myself drowning in it all.

Final Video Assignment

Video Assignment

My Story

Canadian Athletes in American Universities

The cost of tuition and living at UB for a Canadian student is about $86, 000 over four years. To go to a Canadian school this would be cheaper, but would still cost approximately $58, 000 over four years. Still, this cost is huge compared to receiving a full scholarship for athletics. The problem is that Canadian schools do not offer scholarship money for athletics as they do at most American schools. This is causing a depletion of talented athletes in Canadian universities.

Lindsay Dicosimo was a promising rower at St. Paul high school in Niagara Falls, Canada. She spent all four years of high school practicing every morning. She recalls “waking up at 4:30am to drive 30 minutes to the rowing course for 5:00am practice”. Lindsay complained that she “missed out on a lot of social events during high school, and even had to leave early from prom” because she raced every weekend of the fall, spring and summer months.

When Lindsay decided to accept a full scholarship to an American university it came as no surprise to her family and coaches. “I had spent so much time perfecting my sport and my body. I was in top shape and lucky enough to have the opportunity to get free school from it. If I stayed in Canada I would have rowed for my university too, but it’s nice to have some sort of payment for all my hard work”. Many athletes spend their entire high school career dedicated to going to an American university so that they will not have to pay for school. It seems logical that they should be given something back for all the hours spent training and competing to represent their school.

Since Lindsay chose to attend UB she’ll have her degree for free, instead of graduating in Canada with a bachelors degree in business and $50, 000 in debt.

However, once she is at UB she may realize that it is not free at all because she will never work harder in her life to make a salary of just $22, 000.

Accepting a full scholarship to an American university with a D-1 athletic program means Lindsay can expect to wake up at 5:00am, rush to practice, rush from class to class, rush to a conditioning workout, rush to study hall and be asleep by 9:00pm so she can wake up at 5:00am well rested to do it all over again. This will occur 6 days a week. With the one day she has off she will probably need to spend in the library doing the homework that piled up during the week. Not even mentioning the 4-12 hour bus rides she can expect to travel to races on weekends. She will have no free time.

What can a Canadian athlete expect to miss out on when they choose to accept a scholarship to an American school?

>The nights spent at the bar (at age 19), drinking and dancing with great friends.

>All the regrets that go along with playing 6 rounds of beer pong.

>Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights spent running from dorm to dorm.

Sure Lindsay will not have any loans to pay back. She notes, “my parents are thrilled they do not have to pay anything for me to get my bachelors degree”. But what is the real cost of this “free” school? Her mental health? Her physical health? Many of the experiences people cherish from university?

Or will she consider herself one of the lucky few, who get to experience being a Division 1 athlete? Will Lindsay’s life be enriched because she gave up all the typical college dreams in pursuit of being the part of the elite few?

The UB Rowing coach and fellow Canadian, Rudy Weiler, thinks what a student gives up when they become a D1 athlete is worth it. In an interview he claimed that, “students who attend American universities, are lucky to benefit from more job opportunities in The States”. He went on to explain that there are very subtle cultural differences between Americans and Canadians and that going to a US school meant an easier adjustment to the culture if they choose to pursue careers there.

Also it must be noted that there are many services available to athletes at American universities that are not offered in Canadian schools. Because there is such an emphasis on the success of athletics in America, the school allocates a lot more money to ensuring their athletes perform at an optimum level. Here at UB athletes can benefit from trainers who are educated to help them recover and prevent injuries.

 As well the equipment is all paid for and up to date. For the rowing team that Lindsay is on this means the newest boats and oars which will help her race better and ergs, weights and other training equipment that will help her become as fit as possible.

Along with sports services there are people at UB helping her to maintain high grades, spaces to study and she says, “my professors are great about letting me miss classes due to races” because there is more support for the athletes in America. There are many people at UB hired to ensure that she maintain above a 2.0 so she will be eligible to race. But beyond that, they are not that concerned with her academic well-being.

At a Canadian school Lindsay could focus more on her academics and allow rowing to remain a hobby, rather than a job. Although this is the more expensive route, to many it is the most attractive and they choose not to accept scholarship money.

However, the UB rowing team still manages to have 12 Canadian athletes on a roster of 58 girls. Coach Weiler points out that “UB attracts many Canadian athletes who like the option of going home on weekends because of the close proximity”. However, he forgets to mention that there will be no time to travel the hour across the border to visit their family.

There are many benefits and downfalls of accepting a scholarship to an American university, but many of the athletes do not look into the realities of being on a D1 team. If high school advisors knew more about the benefits of staying in Canada, then maybe more athletes would choose to do so and the athletics at Canadian universities would be taken more seriously.