1. Pelosi's Power of Persuasion: A great read from Time Magazine and Alec. An interesting look on Pelosi's life as Speaker of the House. What do you think of the style of the piece? There's a mixture of personal and professional information. Why would the writer choose to do this? Might this be a format for a profile of an MA person? If so, what person might be great for this style of profile?
2. Pushing Back at Stereotypes: An awesome piece from the NYTimes sports section. There's been a lot of press about the aggressive nature of women's college athletics, but is it something that has always been around or something that's on the rise? Can this be seen in MA's sports programs? Is there an MA hook in here? Is MA doing anything to educate players about managing anger during the game? Is there a time when it's ok to get angry and a time when it's not?
13 comments:
Pelosi: The fact that this piece held my interest all the way through shows just how effective the style of writing is. Instead of just being a straight political or profile piece like so many others, this article does a great job of not just switching back and forth between the two stories, but also using aspects of each one in the other. For example, the characterization of Pelosi's negotiations as matters of "sticks and carrots" plays on just how much her private life influences her politics. I think this hybrid-style article was a great way to compress two fairly mundane topics into one cohesive, interesting piece. As far as the MA angle, Travis seems to be the obvious choice to play this article in reverse (how her job as head of school has helped her with the boys), but Lynne Hansen (or any other MA parent/teacher) may even be a better subject. It might be fun to play on how they interact with their kids at school versus at home and whether that has effected how they interact with other students.
Stereotypes: I think one of the points from this article pretty much nailed why reports of violence in women's athletics: coverage of women's sports on ESPN and the like is so limited that major stories like these will be the only things that receive any attention. As far as the article, I don't feel like it really drew a conclusion as to why there has been an apparent upswing in bad behavior, but it did inspire an MA angle. The Positive Coaching alliance seems to be a point of contention at many assemblies and open forums. The voice should run an article on the importance of the alliance to the faculty and the problems with it as perceived by the students. Although the NCS and BCL (I believe) have ejection policies for athletes, the trouble seems to be generated more by fans than the players themselves. What is behind this? Are we so into our sports teams that we get unruly? How much support is enough/too much? How can the students and faculty find a balance?
Pelosi:
I think that the mix of personal and professional information served this piece extremely well as it gave the reader a more accurate understanding of the whole person. Obviously Pelosi has substantial political power but it was interesting to see exactly how her life experiences (such as raising five children) have impacted her political nature and actions.
I agree with Alec that this would be a good outline for a MA profile. I personally think Lynne Hansen would be a great subject as, not only is she a public figure on campus, but she would provide a good interview and some very funny quotes.
Pushing Back at Stereotypes:
I think that some aspects of this article about violence in elite womens' sports could be adapted to have a MA angle. I know we've written some about the positive coaching alliance with the angle being something like "whether we like it or not" or "whether it makes sense for MA" but we could write about how the Positive Coaching Alliance actually manifests itself in games (in terms of cheers, fan behavior and interaction between the two teams). We could look at differences between different sorts of sports or between boys' and girls' sports. This would be a good sort of article to focus on as we continue to try to develop our MA sports section and avoid "previews" of sports teams.
Pelosi:
My impressions on this piece were very similar to Andrew's; capturing the reader's attention, and having variety. The article didn't only give insight on the political facet of Pelosi's life but also touched on her life at home and how it affects her important role in the government. The author used quotes effectively and was concise and direct with arguments, which allowed me to focus attentively throughout the entire piece. I believe that this article should be correlated to an article in the voice by using analogous structure rather than people. Instead of having the head of our school, similar to Pelosi's occupation, we could apply the article to anyone such as the new head of tech ( I forget his name). The piece can focus on a profile of him, and how his life outside of work influences his work.
Stereotypes:
This article is extremely similar to a segment that Good Morning America did around a month ago. Both highlighted recent fights or misconducts in womens sports such as the New Mexico soccer player. I once again agree with Andrew that because of the lack of womens sports broadcasting on the main channels, only top highlights, or low-lights, such as these will be advertised. Its extremely stereotypical to believe that competition doesn't heat up as much in womens sports, and an article that the Voice could write could be premised by, "Are girls sports as competitive as boys, and how much competition is too much?"
Marshall was post above^
Stereotypes:
This article makes a very good point about how we perceive violence in women's sports: that its more prevalent in men's but we are more shocked when we see it in women's. I think that this is very obviously because of our views of how women should assert themselves--and according to the public, it isn't through fighting. I personally did not have too large of a problem with Serena Williams threatening that lines-woman last year at the US Open because I know that men often say worse things to line judges and done get called out on it. The point is, one must always keep in perspective how one would react if a male acted in a profane way.
However, I do think that a punch such as Griner's would be considered terrible in either men's or women's sports, simply because of the savage nature of it. For people to cry "sexism" over the backlash of the punch is ignorant. When I saw the punch I was reminded of Ron Artest's punch to the head of a fan several years ago, and how he was practically made a pariah in the league. If we want to get rid of the double standard, it must work both ways.
Stereotypes:
This article makes a very good point about how we perceive violence in women's sports: that its more prevalent in men's but we are more shocked when we see it in women's. I think that this is very obviously because of our views of how women should assert themselves--and according to the public, it isn't through fighting. I personally did not have too large of a problem with Serena Williams threatening that lines-woman last year at the US Open because I know that men often say worse things to line judges and done get called out on it. The point is, one must always keep in perspective how one would react if a male acted in a profane way.
However, I do think that a punch such as Griner's would be considered terrible in either men's or women's sports, simply because of the savage nature of it. For people to cry "sexism" over the backlash of the punch is ignorant. When I saw the punch I was reminded of Ron Artest's punch to the head of a fan several years ago, and how he was practically made a pariah in the league. If we want to get rid of the double standard, it must work both ways.
Pelosi:
This article interested me for many reasons, a main one being the insight provided into the life of someone who, atleast to me, most often seems more like a figment of my imagination than a real person. Writing an article such as this with the intention of creating a more personable angle on a public figure (Pelosi) gives the reader the ability, as Julia said, to develop a more educated perspective on “the whole person”. As far as this article’s relation to the MA community and the Voice, I think that doing a profile of really any of the teachers at school who have kids could be interesting to show people how their children affect their teaching style and even how their teaching styles affect the ways in which they raise their children. Teachers with children include Charis, Kevin, Liz and also coaches such as Josh Kalkstein.
Stereotypes:
This article in my opinion, directly correlates to MA in multiple ways starting with the fact that some of the sports offered at MA are played far more prominently by males. This article discusses the rise of violence in women’s athletics and the public’s reaction to it when it does occur, but it seems that showing aggression is the only way to prove that women are just as capable as men at demonstrating hostility and competitiveness. Like Max said, the only reason we are so much more shocked when aggression is presents in women’s athletics than when it is present in men’s athletics, is because society has formed this idea that women should not assert themselves through violence. At MA, lacrosse is a perfect example of this dilemma. Although supposedly it is open to both genders, everyone knows that if a girl were to try out for the lacrosse team it would most definitely be viewed as “weird”. She would have to show much more aggression than any boy would, just to prove that she has enough strength to keep up.Once a gain as Max said, if we want to get rid of the double standard, it must work both ways.
Pelosi:
I think that this article was extremely well-written. The way the author correlates being a mother with being the Speaker of the House is extremely effective and engaging. I also thought that it was interesting reading about Pelosi's persuasion skills AFTER the vote has already taken place. I know that she played a very important role in its passing and it is clear after reading the article where she learned her negotiating skills.
This article was also effective because it provides a window into what life is like during the attempted passage of a major bill in the House. I am glad to see that our Speaker is a very effective leader. I think that there could be an interesting MA angle on this piece. We could do a profile on the pitfalls and triumphs of leading Senate (although unfortunately this would have to wait until next year since Nish is on staff). Overall, this article was highly engaging, well-written, and interesting.
Pelosi: As many people have already said, the style of writing in combining both personal and professional information about Pelosi was very effective. It allowed me to see Pelosi as more than a politician. It made her relatable and it made the news about the health care reform feel like it was more accessible because it was talking about politicians in a way that many Americans can realte to. I think that we take a lot away from this approach when we are writing our own articles. A lot of what we try to do is make issues relevant to MA. This is a simple way to make a news piece that is important on a national scale feel much more relevant to the MA student body.
Stereotypes: As someone who never follows sports in the news, I was surpirised at how interesting and accessible I found this article. Although it spoke about an issue that is clearly very relevant to the athletic community, I found that it was also able to explore the issue from an angle that is relevant to everyone. It took the idea of agressiveness in women's sports and applied it to stereotypes in gender roles in all aspects of life. Not only did I learn about an important sports issue through this article, but I also was able to apply it to my own life.
This is something that I think we could strive to do in our own sports section. If we made the articles accessible for more of the community, more people would read them.
I thought the article about girl's college sports was very interesting. However is it kind of sad to see that the most press that these girls get is for their bad behavior in the game rather than their athletic prowess. This article also helped open my eyes to how unfair the sports culture in America is towards women. It makes me angry that girls who commit so much to their respective sport are criticized for not being feminine. These girls should be respected instead for their athleticism.
The article about Nancy Pelosi was funny. I liked the description of how she treats senators like her children. It definitely takes a certain personality type to succeed in politics and I think Nancy Pelosi has it. She is very aware of power plays and the overall dynamic of the senate. Although a lot of people don't like her, I have a lot of respect for her because I think she has a very hard job and that she does very well.
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