Unit 1 Draft
In Dennis Baron’s “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology”, he describes how writing technologies have advanced since the first tool which was just a mere pencil. He goes onto explain how the pencil slowly evolved into new forms of technology that people used to share their ideas and communicate. On would come the printing press, telegraph, telephone, typewriters, and of course the computer. And as also when something new and innovative comes out, there were many critiques that came along with them. Each technology was shaped for the consumer ultimately. Today, we see how much the computer has changed from what we first knew it as twenty years ago; a machine that was basically a large-scale calculator. Now, the computer has been molded into something much more that we would not be able to live without due to the consumer’s command for increases in technology. Technology and the way we write go hand in hand and will continue to evolve as we move forward.
I believe Baron did succeed in the point he was trying to get across. This article clearly explains the evolution of writing technologies and the affect it has had on writing and the world in general. I am doing my research on how ESPN uses technology to reach as many viewers as possible and expand it’s horizons. “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology” can help me on this journey because ESPN was established in 1979, before the age of computers and smartphones.
Baron, Dennis. “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology.” english.illinios.edu, 2000, http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/pencils.htm
“Tweet Talking: How Modern Technology and Social Media Are Changing Sports Communication” by Drew Hancherick of Elon University discusses how Twitter is affecting sports communication. He dives into past forms of communication of sporting news such as newspapers, radio, television, magazines and the internet. He goes on to explain why each of these where important breakthroughs of their day and the contributions to the sports world. Hancherick uses a few examples to show the implications that the internet and Twitter may have. One of his major points is that with this new convenient platform, fans will always want more. This may be seen as a good thing from a business perspective, although, reporters will never be able to live up to their expectations. He states, “With such frequent access to their news sources, people will expect, even demand, a constant bar- rage of new information, whether it is newsworthy or not. This paves the way for stories based on gossip, speculation, and hearsay to receive as much time in the headlines” (Hancherick, 20). This may lead to misinformation due to some media outlets pulling the trigger to get the news out first before knowing for certain. Hancherick also explores the idea that Twitter is taking away from person to person skills that players and managers used to need in order to conduct interviews. He argues with the internet so easily accessible to millions, players will reach out to the public via Twitter and take away the feeling that fans are getting closer to the players.
I believe this article did succeed because he used examples and was concise on how the internet and twitter are affecting sport communication. Whether it is between the media and fans or players and fans, sport media is changing due to technology. This source fits my conversation about how ESPN is evolving due to technology and how they are reaching a bigger audience. Whether some may think of it as good or bad, Twitter is changing the ways reporters do their job.
Hancherick, Drew. “Tweet Talking: How Modern Technology and Social Media Are Changing Sports Communication.” Elon University. 2011.
In this article, the series of videos are from ESPN’s Monday Night Football. They have been using technology in new ways to allow fans to get closer to the game. The star athletes were given microphones during the game. This was an initiative they were using to drive ratings. In the videos you can hear how they interact when playing and on the sidelines.
In this article, there are a few videos that I feel are important to my topic of ESPN’s technological advances. Adding a microphone to star players allows for fans to feel closer to the game. It also allows for fans to get insight into aspects of the game they had never seen before. They can feel as if they are on the field with the players or on the sidelines talking over new game plans.
Feldman, Jacob. “ESPN Is All in on Sound for Monday Night Football.” SI.com, 17 Sept. 2018, www.si.com/tech-media/2018/09/17/espn-monday-night-football-sound-micd-up-khalil-mack.
Although no one commented on this for peer review, I asked my roommate to review this for me. I first gave him the prompt and and explained wha was expected. He told me that I needed more quotations from the articles to help, not only support what I was saying, but also give the reader more insight into the articles I was annotating. He also told me to be concise and watch my run on sentences. Honestly, this was very helpful to the final outcome of my unit one project. Because I missed class due to sickness, I did not get to receive feedback from others in the class. I felt as if I was at a disadvantage but managed to use my friend’s and professor’s words to overcome this.
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