Both from this week's Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal.
1. Making Ugly Betty Prettier: While I like the piece, what really drew my attention was the "then & now" graphic. It was expressed side-by-side in the printed paper, but is still effective up and down on the web. What areas of MA might we be able to do a then & now piece on?? Keep in mind that last year we covered the changing campus, the changing teachers and more. Try to think beyond the usual
2. The New Wild and Crazy Yankees: Yes, I am biased. I love the Yankees, but I liked this article because it's about sports but moves beyond a game wrap-up or personal profile. It looks at a team from another angle. What do you think? Does this angle work? Make you want to read on? Offer a new insight into the team?
14 comments:
UGLY BETTY (then and now): I am an ugly betty fan, and I also noticed during last friday's premiere of the show that Betty, as well as some of the other characters, were wearing more makeup and that Betty had a more sophisticated look. I love the then and now, and I think that this would be a perfect opportunity for a big graphic of how places on campus used to be used versus who uses them and for what purposes now. We could highlight the circle since that has been a source of discussion lately. Or maybe we could look at teacher appearances then and now. We could also look at students, either our fashion or types of cars we drove in the 80s-90s compared to now.
Ugly Betty: This was an interesting article, and I liked the way it focused on just one show, but it expanded to include all sorts of information about television and networks and how everything works in the television industry. I thought that the way the writer let his sources tell their opinions was very good and he did a good job of telling the story objectively. I thought it was very interesting about how audiences react, and I think the fact that anything edgy gets a negative response is true in all aspects of life. I believe that when anything is played safe, then yeah, the audiences will give positive feedback, but it won't be strong. To get strong feedback (good or bad) you need something edgy. I also found it interesting how the networks are doing so much market research online. It shows how the online world is directly affecting all aspects of everyone's life.
The New Wild and Crazy Yankees:
I enjoyed this article focusing on the overall stress (or lack thereof) that this year's Yankees team is exhibiting. Rather than being a typical "here's how good this team is and why you should care", the article focused on one element in greater depth and allowed the reader to get a more complete understanding of the team that could otherwise be gained by fans only through careful observation.
I think it would definitely be a good idea to incorporate this style of sports profile writing for the voice. We could focus on one tradition or aspect of a sports team as a jumping off point for a more engaging and easy to follow sports profile.
The New Yanks: As a baseball player, I found this article particularly insightful, yet bizarre. Teams can win in completely different ways, and the Yankees have seamlessly transitioned between the two. Previously a button-up, traditional franchise, the Yankees are on their way to becoming a motley group of dudes. Usually when teams change styles and appearances there is some sort of underlying change in the organization, likely a managerial shift or the aquisition of a few key players. The Yankees haven't had anything of the sort. The most notable difference between this year and last years Yankees is the new Yankee Stadium. Along with this move has come a shift in the fan base: the stadium is now littered with box seats for corporate groups and middle/older aged Manhattanites with their younger girlfriends that pay zero attention to the game while they work away on their blackberries. But how has this impacted the players? To me it seems that the loss of the history behind the old Yankee Stadium and the new, disinterested fan base has almost caused Yankee players to rebel against what baseball has become in the Bronx. The Bronx Bombers needed some life in their game. The beginning of this season was truly woeful. Silent crowds, 50$ bleacher seats, steroid allegations and losses marred this spring for the Yanks. It was up to the players to jump start the team and get the ball rolling. For these players it's high time to kick back to what baseball in New York is all about: playing good ball and winning a ton of games.
Alec
The Yankees brought in a new bunch of players such as CC Sabathia, Mark Texieria, A.J Burtnett and Nick Swisher for this year. Before these players, the Yankees seemed to be dying down with no entry into the World Series or even the American League Championship since 2004. I felt that the team seemed old and tired with no fresh faces or very young players. I heard the Yankees got Swisher so they could bring excitment to the clubhouse and from looking at all the Champagne when the Yankees won the ALCS, Swisher suceeded. Overall, I believe that team spirit is needed to win because when people are excited, they would get an adrenalin rush and work harder. If the Yankees had spirt captains like we do at MA, Swisher should definitely get the spot.
Claire Fox:
Like Olivia, I am also a fan of Ugly Betty and I have waited for her transformation from the first season. I think the graphic of the article is really great for someone who has never seen the show because anyone can see what has changed about her. The way the show the before and after is visually pleasing and is creative. If i had never seen the show before and saw the graphic, I would want to read the piece.
Claire Fox:
Yankees:
I thought this article was really interesting because I agree with the idea presented about how being loose can help you in sports. Applying it to my own athletics, it makes sense. Whenever I am tense and uptight during a tennis match, I tend to hit the ball in the net. When I am loose and relaxed, I not only hit the ball better, but the percent of shots I make goes way up. I think looking at sports from a different angle like this can help people who don't enjoy sports, find them somewhat relatable. Everyone can apply tenseness vs looseness to themselves in academics, arts, etc. I think it would be a great idea to use some sort of different angle in the sports pieces in the voice.
Jamie M.
The New Wild and Crazy Yankees:
I really enjoyed this piece because I was able to relate to it personally. Countless times my nerves have gotten to me during either a soccer game or tennis match. Conversely, when I'm completely relaxed I forget about the stresses of the game and just play to my true abilities. I also enjoyed how this article compared the "new" Yankees with the "old" Yankees; the article shows how lots of things have changed for the Yankees (stadium and team mindset), and so far for the better.
Ugly Betty:
Personally, it was hard for me to follow the graphics on this article just because there were so many side links to other graphic and clips of the show. I eventually found the now and then pics, however most of my frustration in search for them was caused by the fact that they were not next to each other. I'm sure that if they were right next to each other, as they were in the newspaper, it would be much more effective. This is something that newspapers who post their articles to the wed need to work on in general: being able to successfully convert graphics to the web without distorting them or the story.
As for how we could incorporate now and then graphics into the voice, most of the ideas have been covered such as teacher appearances and campus. However, for our last center spread about epicurious, I think we should have done a graphic of acre gourmets food and then compared to picture of epicurian's food.
Marshall
Ugly Betty: I found the article to be really interesting about how the producers of the show are conducting polls to see how their viewers take to a new character. The article showed how the internet and technology are being utilized to make what their selling more desirable to the viewers or customers. I have personally seen many shows where the internet or text messages have been used to further promote the show, but those have all been in reality TV rather than a scripted show. I agree with Berk that the graphics were a bit confusing from the format in which they were put in. What I though was the before and after looked no different to me, despite the lack of metal in her mouth.
Marshall
Yankees:
This article proved a very good point about living up to expectations and performing under pressure. Everyone is always saying that the Yankees should never lose a game based on their player's salaries. Since they have the highest pay roll in baseball, they are constantly held to the highest standard to be able to perform, and have failed to win the World Series in eight years. Having all the best players though or the best team isn't always that easy, with the burden of always being expected to win. Its nerve wrecking and makes people perform worse, constantly thinking that failure is not an option. After 8 years of the Yankees not performing, they seemed to have eased up, and tension is not as high. As the Yankees have become more relaxed, and learned to lose, they are now flourishing and are serious contenders to win it all.
Ugly Betty: I was interested to read in this article that online polling can sometimes be more effective than focus groups. This made me wonder how much of the Marin Academy Voice is influenced by students outside of the class. Much like NBC, we are a "service" that caters to different viewers (or, in our case, readers) and we may need just as much feedback as they do if we want to be as successful as possible.
The then-and-now article was a great graphic, and I think we could definitely pull inspiration from it for future articles (currently, the ones that come to mind have already been mentioned.)
I like this article because you don't need to be a baseball fanatic to understand it. This article goes beyond the physical aspect of sports and goes into the mental and spiritual part. It seems to be that staying calm and keeping things exciting and different are a way to win. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to have the best skills but just have the best attitude. This could be transferred into the writing world. Attitude and how you approach your article and the ideas will totally change the result and how the article turns out.
Ugly Betty:
I think what the article truly boiled down to was America's societal expectations. Betty's makeovers were not only necessary for the show to succeed and continue, but for Americans to have faith in physical change. As ridiculous as this sounds, I am sure many viewers connected to Betty's "plight," and so the fact that she could be turned into a more glamorous person gave viewers hope.
As for the article itself, I really like the then-and-now graphic, which is something we could present in the Voice. I really like Olivia's idea of how places on campus used to be used versus how they are used now, particularly because the MA campus is going under an architecture "inspection" soon.
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