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Entourage cameos: Sports stars

One of the most popular television shows of the last eight years has been HBO’s Entourage, becoming a fixture in pop culture by blending together the public’s interest in movies, television, music, sports and stars.

One of the trademark aspects of the show, especially in recent years, has been the prevalence of the cameo. Everyone from Matt Damon to LeBron James to Kanye West have appeared on the show, making Entourage as somewhat of a right of passage in popular culture.

In honor of the series’ final episode on Sunday, I’ve decided to put together a list of all the sports cameos from the last eight seasons.

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September 7, 2011 | Sports, Television

Beyonce and the VMA’s: What can we learn?

The news that Beyonce’s pregnancy announcement sparked the largest spike ever in Twitter activity—far more than major news or sporting event—prompted this reaction from many people: “What is wrong with society?”

I heard that response about five times today. I saw it on Twitter about 100 times.

The reality that Beyonce’s “baby bump” could lead to 8,868 tweets per second (TPS) seemed shocking, especially when the final minutes of the women’s World Cup Final generated 7,196 TPS and breaking news of terror leader Osama bin Laden’s death lead to 5,106 TPS. Continue Reading »

August 30, 2011 | Branding, New Media Thoughts, News, Social Media, Television, twitter

ESPN’s new social media policy: Don’t break news on Twitter

ESPN gets flak for just about everything they do. Fair or not, the “Worldwide Leader” has their every move questioned, critiqued and analyzed, but that’s the price that comes with sitting at the top of the sports food chain.

The company’s updated social media policy is no different.

Soon after ESPN released its amended social networking policy for talent and reporters, the Twittersphere took the company to task–specifically for one guideline. Continue Reading »

August 25, 2011 | Commentary, ESPN, Journalism thoughts, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, Sports Marketing, twitter

Banning Twitter is the easy way out for college coaches

Social media is part of college. The most prominent social media platform was invented at a college. By a college student. For college students.
It’s engrained in the college culture, and is a central means of communication for people in their late teens and early 20s.

The problem, however, is when those college kids using social media are high profile athletes who generate millions of dollars for their college institutions. Then things get a little more complicated.

To deal with the challenges of (student) athletes using social media–specifically Twitter–an increasingly popular strategy for college coaches has been to simply ban athletes from tweeting. It’s the easiest and most painless approach to control what information players put out there for public eyes to see. Continue Reading »

August 24, 2011 | Commentary, NCAA, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing

NFL’s slippery slope: Pryor decision protects league’s free farm system

One of the longstanding–but mostly unspoken–relationships in professional sports is between the NFL and NCAA. They’re separate entities, but the NFL reaps the benefits of college football providing a free farm system capped off with made-for-TV draft.

The NFL knows its has a cozy deal–one that the other professional leagues wish they could match–and the league showed on Thursday that it will do everything possible to protect that partnership. Continue Reading »

August 19, 2011 | Commentary, Football, NCAA, Sports

Social media’s ‘most influential’ sports journalists

On Twitter, we use each person’s number followers as a way to keep score.

It seems simple: More followers = larger audience = better reputation = more influence.

But it doesn’t necessarily work that way. What does a follower count really reveal? It’s good for stroking a Twitter user’s ego, but beyond that, the translation of followers to social influence is difficult to quantify. Continue Reading »

August 11, 2011 | Branding, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, Sports, twitter

Twitter’s most followed sports journalists

In today’s age of sports journalism, some of the characters covering the games have become just as big of stars—if not bigger—as those competing on the field.

Television gives journalists national exposure from plenty of eyeballs, and social media allows for them to interact and build relationships with global fanbases. Twitter, specifically, provides some tangible evidence to show who are some of the biggest names is the sports journalism business. Continue Reading »

August 8, 2011 | Branding, Journalism thoughts, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, twitter

Journalism branding: Buzzword doesn’t change the goal

Branding.

It’s become the popular buzzword in the media business, as journalists young and old work to stay relevant in a challenging and evolving climate. In the past few years, the push from news managers, editors, and professors has been for journalists to view their work as the development of a brand, rather than an endless stream of content. Continue Reading »

August 4, 2011 | Branding, Commentary, Journalism thoughts, New Media Thoughts

Mark Cuban and allowing online media access

This is a response to a blog from Mark Cuban about the role of the online media in NBA locker rooms. I would suggest reading that before reading my response. Also, several people have already weighed in on this issue (here, here, here),  and I read a number of posts before publishing my own.

In 2011, the debate of web-only reporters vs. traditional media is dead. I thought.

Online news organizations have risen to the top of media world, and some of the most prominent, respected journalists are employed by companies that never print a newspaper or broadcast a daily news program. Continue Reading »

April 25, 2011 | Commentary, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, Sports Marketing

Learning about media at the Schuneman Symposim

In the span of 10 months, it is amazing how much can change, and also stay the same.

I saw that first hand last week, when I returned to my alma mater Ohio University to be part of a panel for the annual Scripps Schuneman Symposium on Photojournalism and New Media.

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April 11, 2011 | New Media Thoughts, News, WEWS
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