News Reporting in a Multimedia World

In the past few weeks In my reporting class at Oregon State University, we have been having guest speakers which I find very helpful and interesting. This week Matt Neznanski spoke in front of my class. He received his Master's Degree from Iowa State University in 2007. He is currently the Director of Communications at Brass Media. 

Brass Media is a socially driven media and technology driven company dedicated to helping young adults understand money. Brass Media is located in Corvallis, Oregon. 

But before that he was a reporter at Gazette times. During in speech in my class he explained the importance of journalism and continued to give tips to us amateur reporters. He explained that online journalism isn't any different from old school journalism in the sense that, you still can't plagiarize and have to be honest, and tell the truth.

He really emphasized the importance of social media. He told us that we should get connected everywhere whether this be in real life or online. He recommended that we should have accounts with twitter, blogs, and facebook. 

“That story starts with your work.” Neznanski said.

Your story is just the beginning, Online stories have a long tail, meaning they never really die, you can continue reporting and updating your original story.

Neznanski is a very reliable person to be getting pointers from. He has been a reporter for a awhile and now works with a company which greatly appreciates social media. He really stresses the importance to be connected and network. All these tips I will take to heart and will hopefully make me a better journalist.

RIP MLB Slugger Harmon Killebrew

The news of the passing of a great baseball slugger Harmon Killebrew is all around the world. Killebrew passed away from esophageal cancer at age 74. After his outstanding 22 year career he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame.

This website truly talks greatly about Killebrew's skill. He represents everything baseball should be. He is being compared to A-rod and Barry Bonds and the article says that they are nowhere close to Killebrew's skill.

 It makes sense though, back in the day when there was a good player, they were naturally gifted, not saying that players now aren't. But there are playing enhanced drugs circulating the MLB and a lot of training and players spend a lot of money to play for travel teams and be seen. All those components go into making players outstanding. As from back in the day I feel like skill, hardwork, and motivation made a MLB star.

Harmon Killebrew has been the inspiration behind the MLB logo. I just thought it was a random picture drew by an artist. But after comparing the two, they are indeed very similar, almost too similar. Killebrew was very modest and humble and for the longest time would never admit being the model, but more than one person believes that they are too similar to not be the same.

Killebrew's famous uppercut swing

Jack of All Trades

Major League Baseball transactions are changes made to the roster of a major league team during or after the season. They include waiving, releasing, and trading players, as well as assigning players to minor league teams. Trades are a big part of all professional sports, especially baseball.

As this shows there are many transactions a day However, we barely hear about any of these. We only hear about the big players getting traded from a team they’ve played on for so long, or the trades requiring big money. Some of these are players getting called up from triple A, some are getting taken down to triple A. 

Teams may trade only players currently under contract, except those players who have been drafted in the last year. From the end of the previous World Series through July, trades between two or more major league teams may freely occur at any time.

Trades are very confusing, so I found this website that explains a so called waiver. Any player under contract can be placed on waivers at any time. If a player is waived, any team can claim him. If more than one team claims the player from waivers, the team with the weakest record in the player's league gets first preference. If no team in the player's league claims him, the claiming team with the weakest record in the other league then gets preference. 

If a player placed on Major League waivers is not claimed by another team during the three business days after waivers have been requested, then the players is said to have "cleared waivers," and the team has secured waivers for the remainder of the waiver period.

And what does that mean? This generally means one of three things:

(1) They can send him to the minors

(2) They can release him, which makes the player a free agent and thus available to sign with any team.

(3) They can trade him to another team, even if the so-called "trading deadline" has passed. Any trades made after July 31 may only involve players who have cleared waivers.

Waivers just might be the most complicated single aspect of the rules. It is a very confusing process not only for fans but also for the players and teams getting traded. It is very stressful and most trades come about because of money issues not necessarily players performances.

The Los Angeles Dodgers aren't good at "dodging" financial troubles.

It is all around the news. the fact that the LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt does not have the funds to pay the teams payroll this month. According to LA Times, “McCourt received a $30-million loan from Fox last month, which provided funding for the Dodgers' two April payrolls and is expected to carry them through the first May payroll The second May payroll, due at month's end, is the one that appears problematic at this time." 

The reason for this lack of funding is due to his bitter divorce to his long time wife, Jamie McCourt. Since he cannot pay this months payroll. So what will happen?  If I was a player on this team I would be worried but the LA Dodgers aren't worried about who will be signing their paychecks since the MLB has taken over the franchise. MLB graciously decided to take over the dodgers funding for the rest of the year. It is really sad that a professional baseball team is suffering due to personal problems of the owner. 

He should have dealt with his personal life or had some sort of agreement that if worse does come to worse in his marriage that the team won’t be affected. Since the MLB would take over and help pay the payrolls, they could have the option at the end of the season to make him sell his franchise. 

This problem could be resolved if commissioner Bud Selig approved a contract for 30 million dollars from FOX but that is very unlikely at this point. It is no surprise to me that this is happening we are in recession and finances are difficult for everyone. But usually when finances are in trouble it only affects close relatives and family. But in this case it is affecting not only McCourt’s family, but also the dodgers, MLB in general and also the fans of the dodgers.