Analyzing the functions and substance of a Blog

Choose a blog and analyze the functions and substance of the blog as a form of writing and information delivery. In your opinion, what are the “best practices” when creating a blog to ensure appropriate form, function, and substance? Provide a link when responding to classmates and post your opinion along with your rationale.

What is a blog? That is a question that until recently, I have always asked myself. When I first read this assignment, I was 110% positive I was going to choose a sports blog as my topic as that is all I know. I, however, have recently noticed that I tend to follow a many blogs without even noticing and thought about writing on one of those. When I started writing my blog about one of the other blog sites I read frequently for this assignment, I couldn't help but realize how drawn to ESPNBOSTON I was. I was unable to get more than a few sentences in before I realized that I have to write about the New England Patriots Blog on espnboston.com because I literally check the blog out about five times just to keep up with what is going on daily. When it comes to blogs, I have recently been able to dissect and understand what it is that makes a blog a blog. When creating a blog, you need to be able to keep in focus the audience that you are trying to write for, you need to be truthful and accurate and you need to be able to accept criticism and feedback.

Blogging opens up many avenues for people to interact with one another and to speak their mind on a particular subject. Because I have been able to understand from my perspective what it takes to create and maintain a quality blog, I have been able to start searching around the web for other blogs that I find interesting. Although many catch my eye and peak my interest, I have a hard time leaving my sports blogs. To me, the New England Patriots Blog on http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots is my bread and butter. They keep you up to date with the daily news about the team, you can interact and comment on each blog, and you are able to view the other sports teams in the area such as the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins if you choose. I would be a hypocrite if I chose to write about any other blog that I read without mentioning this blog.

A few things I have learned from blogging myself for assignments in the class and by reading blogs on a daily basis is that in order to keep your audience and to keep followers to your blog, you need to be accurate and you need to be able to put in words your opinions and facts about what you are blogging. If you are not staying true to the intent of the blog; such as blogging about food and movies when your main audience are sports fans, then you are losing the point. It seems pretty simple when trying to blog and when trying to create your own blog. Without followers, your blogs will just be empty words that are never read. You need to make sure that you capture your readers attention and that you do it in a manner that allows them to feel involved.

The New England Patriots Blog at http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots is all Patriots all the time. Although I follow this blog more than any other on ESPNBOSTON.com, is ironic as baseball is my favorite sport but football allows for weekly conversations and can intrigue me on a day to day basis. This blog stems from quarter by quarter reviews of each game, to practice updates and even personal interest stories on the players. I can choose and decipher between what information I am looking for and what topic peaks my interest that day. ESPN is a trustworthy source as they have been reporting on sports for over 30 years and are considered the worldwide leaders in sports. If you are a DIEHARD passionate fan of all things Boston when it comes to sports, then this site is the place to visit. Like I said, I follow mainly the Patriots blog, but you can choose to follow the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and even local colleges. The beat writers for this blog are incredibly knowledgeable as most have inside access to all things Patriots. They can get inside the locker room and get quotes and updates daily from the team and they can create a sort of relationship between the players and the fans. Because of my familiarity with ESPN and sports in general, I can relate to the blogs on ESPNBOSTON.com. I have over 26 years of experience either playing, coaching or watching sports and because it is my passion, I easily can remember players names, stats, records, etc without even blinking. ESPN is and always will be a trusted source for me and will be something that I continually monitor and follow because of the writers they have and the knowledge they share about the New England Patriots. All in all, the New England Patriots blog at http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots provides readers with everything they want to know about the team and is a blog site that I would reccomend to any Boston sports fan. To check out ESPNBOSTON, visit espnboston.com and roam around until you find your team of choice.

The Passing of a Legend

THE LEGEND IS GONE

College Station just isn’t the same anymore. After serving 62 years as the Penn State Nittany Lions Football Coach, Joe Paterno, 85, has passed away from lung cancer yesterday January 22, 2012. Paterno coached five undefeated teams that won major bowl games and, in 2007, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach. In all, he led the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins (six of them later vacated) while turning down offers to coach National Football League (NFL) teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots (Wikipedia).

Paterno, or should we say JoePA-was known for his gameday image--thick glasses, rolled-up dress slacks (by his admission, to save on cleaning bills), white socks and Brooklyn-tinged speech” (Schlabach, 2012), left the game as the all time leader in wins for any Division 1 coach. His tenure at one school was something matched by very few. A bronze statue was constructed of JoePa in College Station due to his high standing amongst school board members and students at Penn State University.

JoePa spent his last year fighting and denying any involvement in a child sex abuse scandal that led to his dismissal from Penn State. On July 23, 2012, the NCAA vacated all of Penn State's wins from 1998 through 2011 as part of its punishment for the child sex abuse scandal, eliminating 111 of the games Paterno had coached and won, dropping him from first to 12th on the list of winningest NCAA football coaches (Wikipedia).

His family released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death: "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled” (Schlabach, 2012).

JoePa is survived by wife Suzanne, 5 children, and 17 grandchildren. Everyone who has ever crossed paths with Joe will surely miss him as he was a polarizing figure in the NCAA.

 

References:

Schlabach, M., (2012).  Joe Paterno, 85, dies in state college.  Retrieved from  www.espn.go.com: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7489238/joe-paterno-ex-penn-state-nittany-lions-coach-dies-85-2-month-cancer-fight

Wikipedia. Joe Paterno. Retreived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Paterno

 

 

Facebook Status Update:

WOW!! According to espn.com, Joe Paterno has passed away from cancer at age 85 today. JoePa was a mainstay at Penn State and will always be remembered as one of the greatest coaches of all time. R.I.P Joe Paterno. Thank you for all you have done for college football.

My Top Three Social Media Tools.

Choose three of the Social Media Tools presented on this website to try. Post links to your attempts. Share your thoughts about which new social media tools will reach audiences most effectively. Explain your rationale.

There are many ways people can reach an audience through social media and I have chosen the three that I use that most. These tools are great sources of information that can reach a large audience quickly and engage people who might not always be engaged to start with. The three social media tools I have chosen are:

Blogs: This class is my first experience with blogging and I have quickly realized that blogging is a great way to share information and to get your ideas and opinions out to a large audience at one time. Blogs differ iin styles and are endless in topics. Blogs can be personal, interactive, informative and even professional as there are no limits and no guidelines to the basis of a blog. Some blogs may have many followers while others may have a limited or select few followers, but either way they still can provide information rapidly to different audiences. One blog I have recently been following is the ESPN Blog page located at http://espn.go.com/espn/blogs. I love reading the weekly blog updates on the current sports season such as the NFL and MLB playoffs. The home page allows for easy access and gives the reader (ME) the choice of what blog to read. Most of the blogs on this page are short, such as the recent one from ESPN.com reporter Mike Reiss, which states that Center Bryan Stork of the New England Patriots has been ruled out of the game for Sunday. You can read this blog at http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/72629/center-bryan-stork-ruled-out-by-patriots. These sports blogs provide instant updates for fans and media members and allow for the reader to be involved on all transactions and rumors that are going on instantly.

Another effective social media tool that, I feel, reaches audiences in the most effective way is any social networking platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. I personally only use Facebook and have seen the impact that it has on people’s everyday life. At Facebook.com, you can create an account, if you don't have one already and then you can search for anyone or any group and quickly be connected and start viewing their information, pictures and in a sense, their blogs. Facebook, as well as, the other social networking sites, are structured much like blogs, however, you have more variety of where to post things and you don't always have to prove what you write about. Facebook allows for opinions and ideas of your own anytime you post something. With Facebook, you can instantly connect with friends, you can follow and read about someone's daily life, you can view photos and videos instantly, and you can spread any amount of information you would like and designate who can see your information. Facebook is a great networking tool as you can chat privately or publically and you can get updates on many of your friends, your networks and your family at anytime. I have yet to get involved in the other social networking sites, but when/if I do, I most likely will start a Twitter account so that I can keep up with what is going on with people and sports instantly like at espn.go.com/mlb.

The third and final social media platform that I feel reaches an audience quickly and effectively is that of video sharing. VIdeo sharing  can provide an audience with a view of what is happening. You can show news clips, or comedy sketches, you can show informative, step by step, videos or personal opinion blogs and you can teach someone how to do something by having them watch a video. To me, video sharing has been huge and something that I use frequently, just recently, I needed to attend a wedding and didn't have a clue on how to tie a tie so I went to YouTube and typed in just that. I was presented with 100’s of videos about how to tie a tie in minutes and was successfully able to accomplish the feat. Through YouTube, I not only learned how to tie a tie, but I have been able to view and try to learn other guilty pleasure items such as beatboxing as I have always been interested in beatboxing and would love to really learn someday. Because of my interest in beatboxing, I searched for it on YouTube and came across this site https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZBSZD16cY which really blew my mind as this guy was simply incredible and he made everything seem so effortless. Video sharing provides opportunities that you may never have in your everyday life and it allows people like me, who have that interest and guilty pleasure in something, to view and try to learn the art of beatboxing. Yes, you can post videos on Facebook and you can post videos in blogs, but they do not have the same effect that video sharing has. WIth sites such as YouTube, when you search for a particular topic, you are presented with multiple pages of videos for your choosing and not just one video that someone suggested on Facebook. As you can see, I am a big fan of video sharing and have thought about possibly creating a video blog where I can give my opinions and ideas on daily topics in sports and where I can reach out and find groups that are interested in video games such as Madden Football. There are many guilty pleasures that I view on a daily basis and without video sharing, I would probably not have that escape to fall back on to experience something that I have an interest in.

It would be really hard to say that a particular social media tool is more effective than another because they all provide what the audience is looking for. If you are looking for updates on restaurants and areas of travel, or updates in sports and recreation, than blogs may provide exactly what you are looking for. If you are just curious in day to day activities and keeping updated on friends and family statuses as well as personal opinions, than social media networks may be your thing. Finally if you are anything like me and want to be able to learn something that you would never sign up for or would never pay to learn, than sites like Youtube, where video sharing is most prominent, will help you learn a new craft and will satisfy that guilty pleasure that you have. All in all, social media tools are used daily and are the lifeline of our existence today. We can find anything we want via social media and it is just a matter of what you are looking for.  

ESPN, Espn Blogs. Retrieved from http//www.espn.go.com/espn/blogs

Reiss, Mike, October 11, 2014. Center Bryan Stork rules out by Patriots. Retreived from http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/72629/center-bryan-stork-ruled-out-by-patriots

Thum, Tom, July, 2013, Beatbox brilliance: Tom Thum at TEDxSydney. Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZBSZD16cY