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I am learning quite a lot as we move forward in my emergent media class, I honestly feel as though this class is asking me so aware of everything around me from media literacy, analyzing different medias, being able to evaluate different medias, and learning things such as the three types of blending convergence’s. The first one is technological which how innovation in storing and transmitting information have brought about changes to mass media industries, challenging the notion that channels are distinct from one another. Second is marketing convergence which changes the way media programmers regard audiences and develop messages while also focusing on the message instead of the channel. The third and final one is psychological convergence which changes in people’s perception about barriers that previously existed that are now breaking down or eliminated due to changes in media. Also deals with sociological and geographical  barriers. All of these thing that I’m learning really amaze me because I mean who thought you can learn and become aware of all these things from an online emergent media class. These things are only a small percentage of what I learned this week.

This Online emergent media class is definitely one of my more interesting classes, simply because of the things I’m being taught and I feel as though I am learning and not just doing the work just to get through it and be done with it. Every week is really a learning experience. I also feel like I’m getting ahead of the curve for my career because it will most likely deal with the things that I am learning and by learning them now I’m gaining head start on these things so that when I get into the work force none of this is new to me. Im really looking forward to blogging next week about what new things I learned

This week in class I learned quite a few things that I was not aware of until this unit. One of those thing was Niche Audience. Which is basically grouped into a persons Geographic’s, demographic’s, social class, geodemographics, and psychographics. I also learned two different ways to appeal to the audience which is, appealing to existing audience needs an interest based on the success that has already been had by previous messages and the second is cross media.

For example media programmers have shifted their focus to the message and away from the vehicle. I really have been learning a lot as the weeks go on in my Emergent media class, and as I learn i’m beginning to notice these things in my everyday life. For example the niche audience that gatorade is trying to reach out to is people like myself being as though I am an athlete and the message is for a sports drink, their goal is to reach out to me and continue to get me to buy there drinks,

Im really enjoying this class because it touches on touches on everything that I will be dealing with as far as my career. It also is teaching me new things every week and not just going over the same thing in multiple ways. Im really looking forward to learning more and more about different audiences and things of that nature in the upcoming unit.

Any Progress Being Made?

     Many people bring into question title 9 when speaking on paying student athletes, which simply means if your going to pay one team then pay all of the other teams and because title 9 is a law there is really no way around it. Which brings a problem to getting athletes paid because not all sports may generate the income that they necessary income to be paid. Sports such as water polo, volley ball, and field hockey, are sports that do not bring in millions of dollars and television deals as basketball and football do.

 

Even though title 9 may throw complications in the mix of NCAA athletes getting paid, there are provisions being consider by the Big East Conference and the NCAA. NCAA is considering allowing paid endorsement deals for student athletes who may have higher status than other athletes.

As these ideas work there way through the legislative system some students, parents, and others involved in the NCAA may petition or consider this to be unfair and negatively affecting other athletes which is why other things are being put into place for those athletes who would not be in this position.

In September according to CNBC News the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor for the Ninth Circuit upheld the status of “Amateurism.” This would not help the moving forward to getting NCAA athletes paid, but the BIG EAST like many other conferences under the NCAA are putting in plans to get all student athletes an allowance.

“Our presidents and our athletics directors wanted to do everything they could to support that sport and that meant doing what some of the other conferences are doing,” Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman told CNBC, calling it “a pretty easy decision” to give players an allowance.

“There are certain things student-athletes can’t cover out of the tuition, fees, room and board formula,” Ackerman said. “This gives them a little extra spending money throughout the year” for various activities, she told CNBC.

For sure a stipend is nothing at all like a regular salary. But for players at Big East schools and other conferences who are participating in this it will give there athletes a financial boost that can be used to defray living costs like a cellphone bills, a trip to and from campus, extra meals and books, things that will come in handy.

 

Here is a Look at previous articles that you may have missed:

Interview with Administrator: Kathleen Heitzman, Bloomsburg University’s assistant athletics director, offered her thoughts about the prospects of paying college athletes for their work on the field and court. Her thoughts offer us a look at an insider perspective, but also highlight some of the common misconceptions about why athletes shouldn’t be paid.

Coaches Salaries and Generations of Revenue: Skip Bayless of show ESPN First Take gives his views as to why College athletes should be paid and why. The highest paid coach in NCAA Basketball being Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski annual is $7,299,666 a year, second comes University of Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari  making $6,580,000 a year. Also in article 3 taking a dive and deep look at the factors of the NCAA and its revenue made off of the athletes and what is being generated in coaches income.

What is Being Generated By Athletes: Pay from the NCAA? Well of course there will be plenty to go around after this weekends Final Four of NCAA college basketball tournament which brings in millions of dollars, from jersey sells, ticket sales, television, and sponsorship deals that puts the income made on this tournament in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In some cases like last year’s NCAA basketball March Madness tournament according to CNN  all the way up to the national championship brought in a record setting $1.07 billion was made off of the tournament. Taking a deeper look at the events that generate the revenue and what is made off of the biggest event called March Madness which is held every year. Also the numbers the statistics and how the business continues to grow but the athletes continue to reap no fruits of there labor.

 

 

 

 

Lets get the Inside Scoop

     Kathleen Heitzman, Bloomsburg University’s assistant athletics director, offered her thoughts about the prospects of paying college athletes for their work on the field and court. Her thoughts offer us a look at an insider perspective, but also highlight some of the common misconceptions about why athletes shouldn’t be paid.  

 

     Plenty of the insight given by Kathleen are all very understandable reasons as to why athletes are not paid but I don’t think but somethings were not accurate. When asked what does she think about athletes facing career ending injuries everyday with nothing guaranteed after there scholarship.

     Kathleen proceeded to answer that “most professionals do not have guaranteed contracts either” which was not true. In fact the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball contract are all guaranteed when signed and the only contracts that are not is the National Football League.

     One thing that was true about what Kathleen stated was that athletes are able to get insurance but according to AlSports athletes require health insurance but the university decides itself what it will pay which still guarantees nothing to the college athletes if a career threatening injury occurs or not.

     When asked if there was any other reason the Associate Athletic Director other than the amount hours put in she stated “I don’t think in fact its forty hours every week? Kathleen said but in fact according to cbsnews  the average hours for a Division I basketball player spent is forty two hours a week.

     After obtaining from an inside source of why NCAA college athletes are not paid and given that most of the reasons were easily fixable or raised eye brows the question still remains.

     Why are NCAA college athletes not paid?

What are the facts?

“I find it unconstitutional that we prevent these kids, gifted kids who are playing a violent game from being able to earn money for three years out of high school other than room, board, and tuition.”

 

These are the words of the professional and well respected analyst of the sport’s show.

He then goes on to say “If these coaches to we had on show are making 5, 6, $7 million a year, then players should make five times that”. The players making five times that may have been a little overboard but one thing that wasn’t is the fact that coaches are making millions and millions of dollars while the players are getting nothing and reaping absolutely no benefits but room and board, which many believe is absurd because they generate much more revenue then just room, board, and meal plan.

According to USA Today the highest paid coach in NCAA Basketball being Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski annual is $7,299,666 a year, second comes University of Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari  making $6,580,000 a year.

From the top all the way to the bottom coaches making up to three hundred thousand a year, the next question is if nothing else why can’t players get a piece of that money ? Is it because of amateurism that seems to be thrown in every debate?

If it is according to Vonetta Logan due to recent lawsuits that is all about to change as judge Wilkins rejected NCAA’s notion that amateurism justified price fixing the value of athletic skill to just that of a scholarship.

Could this put a end to the NCAA college athletes debate? Could this be the beginning of a fixed salary for college athletes?

The only thing to figure out now is, what’s the next step in order to get athletes paid  or get them fair compensation for there risk?

There’s plenty to go around

 

Pay from the NCAA? Well of course there will be plenty to go around after this weekends Final Four of NCAA college basketball tournament which brings in millions of dollars, from jersey sells, ticket sales, television, and sponsorship deals that puts the income made on this tournament in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In some cases like last year’s NCAA basketball March Madness tournament according to CNN  all the way up to the national championship brought in a record setting $1.07 billion was made off of the tournament.

The only question that comes to mind is, after the NCAA making that much money why don’t the players who played in it receive any of those funds made? They are what people are paying to see right?

After these statistics another question that pops up is, do players deserve if not half then at least a quarter of the revenue made off of the tournament? According to Business Insider a study was done on basketball players using the top twenty schools that bring in the most revenue from there basketball programs. “Business Insider” says “the study was done Using the NBA’s most recent collective bargaining agreement in which the players receive a minimum of 49% of all revenue, each school’s men’s basketball revenue was split between the school and the athletes with the players’ share divided evenly among the thirteen scholarship players”.

With the major Division I programs such as Duke and Louisville players were estimated to be worth $1.3 million and $1.5 million dollars each, following were the average Division I programs which were calculated to be worth $296,723 dollars each.

If this does not open your eyes here is a data chart below that was put together based on the statistics and factual evidence discovered from NCAA.org of the revenue made off of NCAA sports from 2009 to 2013.        As you can see each year the revenue continues to jump by the hundreds of millions because of television deals which are only made because of the viewers that tunes into these channels because of the athletes who participate in the tournament.

This only leads to one conclusions which is NCAA players are taking all the risk and getting no reward, also that these athletes might just deserve some type of compensation for putting this type of money in the NCAA’s pockets.

 

 

Why Should NCAA Athletes Get Employee Treatment?

 

Whether it be NCAA Division I, Division II, or Division III athletics that are being discussed its safe to say that when playing a sport such as football, baseball, or basketball as a student you’re pretty much an athlete and an employee. In a CBS News breakdown of the amount of time that’s put in by NCAA athletes when in season, sports athletic hours accumulate all the way up to the average hours of a person working a nine to five job and some exceeding those hours. With Division I football leading the way with up to 43.3 hours a week, then baseball and basketball between 40 and 42.1 hours a week, next is Division II following behind with up to 39 hours a week for all sports, and Division III right after with an average of 29.2 to 34.8 hours a week. Retrieved from (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-college-athletes-have-time-to-be-students/). Most people believe that after a season these hours come down and everything is over which is not the case, there is no off season. In a 2010 survey conducted by the NCAA more than three quarters of Division I baseball players reported that “Much more if not the same amount of time is spent on their sport after the season is over. The same was reported by more than seventy percent of basketball players and seventy percent of football players. The same survey was conducted for Division II sports and about eighty percent of all sports gave the same report as the Division I sports gave.

The only question to ask after seeing the breakdown of athletic NCAA activity hours is, if athletes are putting in employee hours then why aren’t NCAA athletes being paid as such? Another question to ask is, if athletes are putting in more time into contributing to an athletic program than their books and obtaining a degree? Which is the reason for college in the first place, if anything else they should be paid a little something to compensate for the forty hour and beyond work weeks they are putting into their athletics, not considering the fact that according to “The Nation” (http://www.thenation.com/article/ncaa-makes-billions-and-student-athletes-get-none-it/) last year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament generated 1.5 billion dollars in revenue from television ads. This does not factor in the jersey sells which are bought because of the athletes, and the ticket sales which are bought to see the athletes perform. According to ESPN those numbers are higher than the revenue generated by the NFL and NBA playoffs. Something else to consider is that athletes risk long term and short term injury each time they step on the court, field, or the rink, some of these injuries can even be career ending which can impact the student athlete who could be pursuing a professional career. One very important thing that isn’t considered as well as physical well-being is the mental beating that student’s athlete take on because of the high demands of performance and coaches, according to the NCAA handbook (https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/2007_managing_mental_health_0.pdf) this can include depression, mood swings, performance can decrease from a psychological perspective and wear and tear on the brain.

NCAA student athletes go through a tremendous amount of physical beating, mental beating, and long hours of sacrificing their bodies on the regular for these programs. With the amount of hours put in, the behind the scenes work that one sees, and the money made off of them it is absurd that they reap no benefits of their labor, and is a big problem that should be taking a deeper look into.

John Trulli published a very interesting story about Bernie Sanders via http://woundedamericanwarrior.com/viral. The story was about a tweet that has not been 100% confirmed by Sanders or his party.  The tweet stated “My object is to in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” A tweet found very awkward and hard to believe considering this man is a candidate for becoming the president of United States of America. After the allegations it soon turned out to be false information caused to stir up drama for the presidential candidate. via http://www.snopes.com/sanders-dethrone-god-tweet/ #OJ241HOAX