1. A fantastic piece on Nelson Mandela. What's compelling about this? The subject. A great read about a great man.
2. Ask a Fourth Grader. That's what ESPN magazine did in a Pittsburgh town. This is a cute fluff piece with a good angle. What do you think of this video? Is there a fun issue like this we could cover at MA? Are you smarter than a freshman? Smarter than a SF dweller? Smarter than Travis?
10 comments:
Mandela: I thought this was very well written and really captured the appreciation and respect people have for Mandela. I think it addresses a very legitimate issue, in that there may be political confusion once such a strong symbol of peace and unity goes away. Hopefully, his death won't cause any relapse of the apartheid.
I don't know if there is a way to connect this piece to MA. Maybe we could do a piece on the founders of MA, as they are pretty old now. We could look back at their vision for the school and see how it has changed.
I love "Ask A Fourth Grader"! The best part about it is that it really does not require too much creativity in terms of coming up with questions, because the subjects will take care of the humor. Much like the Mandela piece, in which Mandela is really what makes the article shine, it is the fourth graders that make the ESPN segment shine.
How can we bring this to MA? This is sort of a novel idea, but what if we had our Quiz Bowl Czars (John and Howard) write questions for us to ambush people with (students and teachers alike). It could be a one-question-an-issue type deal, and the ambushed party would get a picture in the paper if they got the answer right, or a pie in the face if they got it wrong (or something like that). I think that might be a clever way to get people more interested in The Voice (particularly if they're in it), but also just to add some light-hearted humor.
Nelson Mandela is a fascinating man, and I think the New York Times did a nice job of blending well known historical information with more personal content about Mandela's life. Like Olivia mentioned, the author's spin was interesting in that it wasn't just a piece on Mandela today; it mentioned the role he plays in South Africa's and his family's stability.
However, I did feel the piece was lacking kick. There wasn't a huge point coming across besides Mandela's age. The end quote was rich, but definitely not right for a conclusion. I did like the flow and general read of the piece, but it needs some more pizazz.
Sarah Strand
I was just thinking the same thing as Sarah about the conclusion of the Mandela piece. It was surprising to me that they ended it with a quote about his boyhood, which, although a good quote, did not have much to do with the larger purpose of the piece (ie: profile on an aging leader). I suppose they did this in order to incorporate a quote from Mandela himself (because the piece did not have very many direct quotes) but it came across as a bit overworked and flat.
Ask A Fourth Grader was fantastic! What made it so enjoyable (similar to what Nish said), were the students. That moment after Neil told them Willie Parker was going to come in made the piece. I found the kids take on what it was like to be a devoted fan provided both hilarity and irony. (That kid who said he would sell the Stanley Cup to "cash for gold" is awesome.)
I think the idea is cute, but I don't think there would be a relevant way to bring this to MA. The clip was on ESPN.com in the first place because it was about Pittsburgh sports. I doubt it would serve any purpose if we had something along the lines of this clip at MA as it probably wouldn't interest anyone. However, something along the lines of this clip could provide a segue into an article on a topic that few people at MA know about.
I agree with Sarah and Julia that the Nelson Mandela article was lacking in some respects. Like Sarah, I didn't find the end quote very appropriate as didn't really draw a conclusion.
However, I do think the article adressed the importance of Mandela in the South African psyche. But even though I do not know that much about the current state of south africa, I don't think that his death would cause a relapse in apartheid.
I'm sure that Americans felt similarly about George Washington near the end of his life. He was the defining figure of early American history, the man who helped liberate Americans from the British. However, his death did not hold the US back and similarly, I do not think te death of Nelson Mandela will inhibit or reverse progress in South Africa.
AMANDA
ESPN out and about:
Such a great idea!! I would absolutely love to do something like this. I have so many ideas!
1. Make up an MA sports cheer- we could film a 9th,10th,11th, and 12th grader and then do a poll for whose is the best online.
2. Ask students what there favorite MA sports moments was.
3. Favorite food in the cafeteria?
4. Favorite teacher moment?
etc. etc.
We could also film a short piece (2 min) of day in the life of _____ (a teacher or student of our choice)
Our we could just do a montage of a day at MA.
Lets talk about this more in class!
"Ask a Fourth Grader"
This video was another great example of how ingenious ESPN is. They continuously find ways to interest all aspects of their audience. We could definitely take this idea and put some sort of MA spin on it so that our audience would be able to relate.
One way we could do this is by asking one group of people, say, the freshmen, a set of questions that pertain to what freshmen learn during the course of the year. Then, we ask another group, say, the seniors (or even the teachers), and ask them the same set of questions. We could post the answers as a type of "Q&A" in the features section. I think that this piece would be a nice light-hearted additive to the paper.
Ask a Fourth Grader:
Very cool idea, and executed wonderfully. These kids are ridiculously knowledgeable. If you asked a 4th grader in the bay area about a sports team, I think that he/she will most likely respond with tilted brows, and a "Huh?". Of course, Pittsburgh is more of a sports related place, so if were to bring this to the voice, we would have to adjust the questions to fit what MA kids are aware of. Possibly questios about the environment, music etc.
I think that if we were to do this at MA, it would most likely have a very different feel. As Nish said, the 4th fraders are responsible for the humor, so in our piece MA students would be the souce of humor. The difference is that 4th graders are young cute children that say ignorant adorable things. High school students (especially at MA) usually do not give humerous ignorant answers, and as a result the article will most likely be much less cute and humerous.
Ask a Fourth Grader:
The video showcased ESPN's inventiveness with sports news and other related stories. Though I am not quite sure as to how we could integrate this type of creativity into our stories, though we could definitely do a piece contrasting the education of MA students. Similarly to Max's idea, we could ask a series of questions to upperclassmen that connect to what all MA students learn as freshmen. This would be a funny and "different" way of presenting new material.
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