Art

    I define art as an expression of something thought or felt mostly in visual form. What art means to me is a way to express yourself and how things make you feel in a visual and expressive way. I look at art as a way to express yourself.

            For this blog I have selected a piece of art that is an illustration of the Texas A&M football team in a huddle. This piece of art captures someone’s interpretation and/or expression of Texas A&M. In the background of the piece of art that was painted is the A&M student body standing (of course) along with the Nationally Famous Fightin Texas Aggie Band and members of the corps standing on the side lines. This is an expression of the Texas A&M tradition of the twelfth man. Purposely enough I feel like, the side of Kyle field that was painted is the side that has “Home of the 12^th Man” painted between the decks of student seating. This piece of art is during the context of a Texas A&M football game and participates in the representation of our fine school. This could be used in the media as a representation of Texas A&M and some of what it stands for by exhibiting unity as is shown at football games through the twelfth man. 
   

Photo present on this site: http://blog.ticketcity.com/2007/07/29/texas-am-tickets/ 

Social Networking

I began to touch on social networking last week when talking about YouTube. I had never thought about YouTube as a social networking source until last week when I saw it in a different light. (see blog for details). However YouTube was only a smaller sector of the large world of social networking. Upon entering my Sociology of sports class this semester I was told that I would need to keep up with what was happening in sports. Rather than setting aside time each day to watch a television program about sports or even to spend time on the internet exploring the sports world I turned to the social media on my phone. I began to follow several sports related twitter names such as @ESPN. I feel as though in the way that I turned to social networking as my first thought of where I could best be informed says something about how social networking has become a part of our daily lives. There is even social media for sports that is specific to your university, for example “Texags” which there is also a Twitter that goes along with their social networking website to follow.

This week being home for thanksgiving I am exposed during such a sporting day of the different modes that people use to stay informed. While watching the game the person next to me is on their smart phone learning about other games and what is going on in the life of athletes. Social networking like Twitter not only allows you to bring several different sources to one location but also several different opinions. Even just being on Facebook if you want to or not you will be informed about what is going on in sports and you will know what happens to the athletes in their personal lives.

YouTube

When you Google YouTube beneath it is written, “Share your videos with friends, families, and the world.” and that is exactly what YouTube does. It has the capability to share videos with people not only that are in your life and close to you but on a larger scale too you are able to share videos with the world. Many sports clips are shared in this venue.

Television channels such as ESPN and shows post things on YouTube. Replays of sports clips, embarrassing or bad things that athletes do on and off the field/court are on YouTube. Not only will these things be present on YouTube but there may also be a remix of it. The clips may have things done to them including putting it to music, cutting the clip and replacing it, color changing effects etc. YouTube clips are often present embedded on websites or blogs. Some people create a sort of video blog by talking to the camera commenting on things and gaining a following discussing things including sports or just telling stories and posting their videos on YouTube.

YouTube is a powerful platform for the media because of the capabilities to post a video and within seconds it is available to be seen by people worldwide. This could be dangerous when it comes to the reputations of athletes having this quick of outlet to spread information.

Internet

The internet is a huge resource in every area of life. The media especially utilizes the internet as an outlet to display their news.  All media is presented on not only television shows but can also be accessed on the internet. In fact when it comes to sport I feel that is the preferred outlet to receive news from. While games are all watched on the television and ESPN is often kept on cycling the internet is a place that is often pursued in order to discover what is going on in sports.

Now in the world of sports there are more than just scores and game times presented in their news. It is not uncommon for a large portion of the news to be information on the players. Their personal life is sometimes explored but you can bet the moment that there is a crime or any scandal that that information will be presented ASAP on the internet.

Not only are there endless sports sites. For example simply look at the blog roll on this blog for places online that you can receive information about athletes in the media on an internet site. There is also social media and forums and many many more and different things online where sports news and information about players is broadcasted. Social media is one very interesting way that news about players is presented because it comes with each persons personal bias. You can bet if something has gone on with an athlete that there will be multiple statuses and post discussing the occurrence sometimes joking about it or sometimes taking the athletes action to heart. It is in part because of the internet that athletes reputations are so easily broadcasted allowing for the molding of their character as “bad boy” or not. If their story is on the internet then it was note worthy and got their name out. Perhaps that is why athletes do bad things, in order to gain more publicity? Either way the internet is a place where this information dwells readily waiting and actively accessed by many learning of athletes reputations.