This class has taught me so much. I will carry several of the lessons with me for the rest of my life. Some of the lessons that really stuck out to me are on reporting graphic content and sports reporting. I really want to be involved in the sports industry and these two things will be very common things that I will face in my future career.
In the world of sports, injuries happen all the time. Some are much worse than others. In the case of Kevin Ware from Louisville, injuries are extremely graphic. On March 31, Ware was playing in the NCAA playoffs for the University of Louisville. He jumped up to block a shot and came down very hard on his leg causing his tibia and fibula to break. His bone was sticking about six inches out of his leg. It was a very graphic image. CBS was broadcasting the game and chose to only show a replay of the injury twice. Some people thought that twice wasn’t enough and others thought that twice was too many. CBS was faced with an ethical decision that they had to make quickly.
I have always dreamed of becoming a sports reporter. A lot of people asked me why I wanted to go into sports because they don’t get as much airtime and it’s so different from news. From this class, I have learned that news and sports are not much different especially when it comes to making decisions. There are always big stories in sports, and reporters have to decide if that story is worth telling or what parts of the story to tell. Reporting sports is not as easy as it seems.
This course has taught me so much. I will take these lessons and hear them ring through my head constantly throughout my career. Some of the things we discussed I had never put much thought into. Even though I plan on going into sports, these lessons are relevant to my life. Some of the things we discussed were hard to hear and see. As a journalist, I need to be prepared for things like this. I’m glad I got to learn about them now rather than later in my life.
I really enjoyed this course and the lessons that I learned. The only thing that I didn’t like was the case study project. It was nice to be able to do my own research on a specific case, but it was really difficult to try and get in touch two girls I had never met before. It was especially difficult for our group because we had to present two days after Spring Break. We tried to get as much as before break as we could, but our schedules just never seemed to match. I liked the project itself, but the timing of our project was awful.
Overall, I’m really appreciative of the class. I learned a lot and will remember most of what I learned for the rest of my life. It’s nice to be able to see these situations in college first rather than while I’m out in the real world.