COM 117

Tonight I was lucky enough to attend an interview with one of my childhood idols and baseball legend, Shawn Green.  When he walked into the room, the crowd of anxious baseball fans grew silent.  I was lucky I was in the first few rows as the microphones died during the introductions.

The interview began with the interviewer asking how Green originally got into baseball.  Green laughed and told a story about how he and his dad built a batting cage on the side of his house and how he would take batting practice every day.  The discussion then moved to his college days.  Green faced a dilemma as he was recruited by Stanford University and legendary coach Mark Marquess as well as being drafted straight out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball.  Despite Mark Marquess’ incredible effort to keep him on the team, many Stanford players, after hearing Green’s potential signing bonus, encouraged him to play for the Blue Jays.  Despite signing with the Blue Jays, Green still attended classes at Stanford whenever he could sneak them in over the off-season.  Green described how he was afraid of “trying to make the big leagues for five or six years and then not having anything to fall back on if it didn’t work out.”

Despite his astounding fourteen year career, Shawn Green’s first stint in the MLB did not result favorably.  With a professional batting average of .097, Shawn was happier to be sent back down to the Syracuse Chiefs, Toronto’s AAA affiliate, than he was to be called up to the majors.  In Syracuse, Green played for the toughest manager he ever had and despite not enjoying it at the time, Shawn credits much of his success to developing his swing in Syracuse.  The next time he was called up to the majors he was ready as he stayed there for fourteen years.  Green had many illustrious years in the MLB playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, and the Arizona Diamondbacks.  During those years he thrived winning the Golden Glove and Silver Slugger.  He had a game where he hit 49 home-runs and even hit four home-runs in a single game.

Green’s career was not without struggle however.  He reflected on many nights staring at the ceiling of his hotel room being “Zero for Fifteen and having to face Randy Johnson the next day.”  His slumps often got so bad he once visited a guru named Mr. High who aided Green in regaining his swing.

Shawn Green also spoke about being a Jew in professional sports.  Although he never felt like the “Token Jew,” being a Jewish athlete was a part of his identity.  Despite not being religious, he always tried to play in a town with a large Jewish population (Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York).  He was often invited to Barmitzvahs and he even attended a few.  The MLB playoffs fall on the Jewish High Holy-Days, resulting in Green calling MLB commissioner, also a Jew, Bud Selig, and requesting that his team’s schedule be played around the Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.  Today, Green both plays for and manages Israel’s national baseball team.

Green’s fondest memory of playing professional baseball occurred during an away game at Seattle.  During batting practice, Green started a game of catch with a young Seattle Mariners fan when another kid came down with a glove wanting to get in on the action.  More and more people with gloves eventually joined in on the game until Green was playing catch with an entire section, then an entire half, and not before long, Shawn Green was playing catch with the entire stadium.  Green reflects, “It was so cool, I actually tried challenging myself by seeing how far I could throw the ball and hit a fan with a glove.”

It is always an amazing experience when somebody gets to meet their idol and their idol is just as nice as the person hoped he would be.  He answered every question honestly even when it was about touchy subjects like steroids and being one win away from a World Series Championship.  He had amazing stories to tell ranging from going to the occasional random barmitzvah, Greg Maddox tipping his pitches, seven different languages on the Dodgers’ bus one year, and Jose Canseco practically begging him to use steroids.  Shawn Green was genuine, open, funny, and even willing to sign a baseball for my brother.

I attended the Symposium Explores the Use of Digital Games by Human Rights Activists on October 10 and found it to be somewhat interesting.

The first person who spoke was Susana Ruiz who is the co-founder of Take Action Games. She explained that Take Action Games transverses the interactions of art, activism, ethics, and documentary. Their first large-scaled game was called Darfur is Dying. The game was endorsed by MTV U in 2006 to spread awareness.

The point of the game was to “foster empathy” amongst players, as Ruiz put it. It is to see how long you can keep the camp safe. Its look is similar to that of FarmVille on Facebook, which had a very large following shortly after Darfur Is Dying was released. Darfur Is Dying immediately had 700,000 players in its first month. The relevance in 2006 was very strong, however Darfur is barely talked about now and yet it has more than 3.5 million players. The impressive thing about Darfur Is Dying apart from its number of players is that it engaged non-gamers. Many people who don’t normally play video games were very active in the game and worked hard to keep the camps safe.

Another game was set up to display gender stereotyping and teen abuse called RePlay. After RePlay, Take Action Games worked on an app called Not Your Baby, which had a large following. Then they produced Say No-Unite, which spreads U.N. Reports through the game which can be played as an app or on the computer. Ruiz and her company found that not many people read the U.N. reports worldwide, so this was a good medium of putting useful, important, and factual information out there in the digital world.

Take Action Games works on a lot of proactive games, currently concentrating on card games, despite having a digital game background. The card games, also based on documentaries on prominent figures worldwide, are meant to provoke meaningful conversation. It is supposed to connect you to the documentary. It is only a prototype now, but the video that Ruiz showed was very interesting.

Another speaker at the lecture was Angel David Nieves who works for Digital Humanities Initiative. The main gear for DHI is their interactive game SOWETO Historical, which stands for South Western Townships. These South Western townships are located in South Africa and hold place for women to speak about their experiences of living.

There are several representative avatars of actual people in the region in South Africa. The program also had 3D maps that the user can sift through to see the actual site, which is directly related to the SOWETO.

Since gaming is not particularly related to my interest or field, the lecture was somewhat interesting, but I found more of a connection to Ruiz’s point and productivity than Nieves’.

It’s interesting to see where gaming will end up because as they said 2006 in the gaming world is eons ago. So what is the next step and what will people want to do with their game time?

I saw the lecture “Data is the New Black” by Theresa Lamontagne. Lamontagne discussed the impact and importance of data on advertising. Lamontagne is in charge of analytics and insight, and is a managing partner at MEC Global (MECGlobal.com).

Lamontagne said that her position in analytics at MEC is about discovery, evaluation, data, and technology. She wants to understand people. Lamontagne’s job is to figure out the way consumers think and live. Do consumers look at the world in a positive or negative light? What kind of statements do they agree with or disagree with? Are they generally very busy? Knowing a consumer’s life and values is imperative to coming up with the perfect advertising strategy.
Furthermore, it is important to understand how consumers interact with media through which they could be reached with ads. When, where, and why are consumers engaging with certain media? Do they watch the morning news? Do they listen to the radio on the way to work? Do they watch TV after school? Figuring out when and where to reach a target audience is just as important as figuring out the right message.

Research aims to not only find out about the consumer, but also about the competition. Where else are consumers going? What can we do to make them want this product? Essentially, what makes people choose one thing over another? The company uses this research to develop a strategy to gain business lost to other companies. It may also find what it needs to do to set itself apart from the competition.

Research analysis provides strong insights about what type of advertising would be most effective. Lamontagne gave an example about how powerful the right message can be when she discussed advertising a tube of wax that goes on lips. She said that the way Burt’s Bees chap-stick is advertised and the way Chanel lipstick is advertised are completely different because they are appealing to different audiences with different values. Even though the products are essentially the same, the connotations associated with each brand, created through advertising, are distinct and correlate to different consumer values. I had never thought about brands like that before. Similarly, in terms of makeup, BareMinerals is considered au-natural and MAC is considered heavy and trendy. However, they are both made of the same stuff and have the same function. The thing that is the most different between the two makeup brands is the way in which they are advertised.

This lecture made me realize how critical research is to advertising. Advertising is so much more than creating a clever ad. It is about knowing the consumer and the consumer’s life. Developments in research have led to powerful and precise ads because companies are able to use consumer values to create strategies and messages that resonate. This concept can be extended to branding which attaches consumer values to a company or product. I had never given much thought to the power of branding before, but this lecture made me realize how consumers look to products and brands to align with and affirm their values, image, and lifestyle. Although it is strange to think about, brands do have statuses and values associated with them. Being able to understand consumers helps advertisers determine what they want from a product or brand, and how to frame their advertisements so as to fulfill those desires.

I went to the Pan Am 103 Media Panel last night.  There were five journalists there who all covered the tragedy at different times and in different ways.  One of the things I found most interesting was the discussion about ethics in journalism.  One of the professors was at Hendricks Chapel keeping an eye on everyone and she saw a few journalists getting in the faces of people crying and shining bright camera lights at them while they were sobbing.  She also told a story of a reporter who got close up footage of a woman who had a child on the flight and just found out about the crash and just fell over in disbelief.  He believed it was powerful and great footage but his producer refused to air it because it was too powerful.  She was later asked about how she felt being recorded in such an emotional moment and she said it was like being “visually raped.”  These were instances where she believed journalists did not honor the privacy of people involved and exploited the tragedy they were experiencing.  This is an issue that I think about because it’s hard to know where you draw the line between doing your job as a journalist or reporter and respecting people.

A conclusion she arrived at to outline ethics in journalism was that if someone is not in control of him/herself and does not have the ability to say that he/she doesn’t want to be filmed or interviewed, it should be off limits.  I really like this idea and I never thought about it this way, but I think that is definitely true.  Nevertheless, I don’t think you can ever actually be taught what is right and what is wrong, it is just a decision you have to make in the moment.

Some of the advice that the whole panel gave was to not be afraid to weigh human compassion to the pressures being felt.  Today there is a huge pressure in journalism to be first on a story, give out the most information and almost be as invasive as possible, but many times this is not the best way to go.  They also said don’t assume you know how people are going to react to you or the situation.  We as journalists need to make almost instantaneous decisions about how to handle a situation and many times there is success down a different road than everyone else is following.  Overall I really enjoyed hearing the different perspectives of each of the journalists especially since these are issues that will probably pertain to me in the near future.