Month: November 2010

The battle goes on…and on: Bloggers and MSM

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Great story about bloggers came out recently. Tyler Dellow of mc79hockey.com did some excellent research into some old emails between NHL Senior VP and Director of Hockey Operations, Colin Campbell and NHL Director of Officiating Stephen Walkom. These emails became public because of a wrongful dismissal case involving former NHL referee Dean Warren and the league. Within the emails, Dellow was able to uncover some of Campbell’s attitudes towards specific players, as well as his concern with calls made against his son, who plays in the league.

Dellow’s article can be found here.

Here’s TSN’s take on Dellow’s findings.

Dellow’s interview on The Score: http://video.thescore.com/watch/glenn-schiiler-one-on-one-with-tyler-dellow

Needless to say, Dellow got a tonne of attention for the great work he did. Whether or not you care about the findings of his research, the fact is he took the time without any monetary motivation and on his own time, to decipher through documents. He raised some really interesting questions about the league and how it handles its referees. All of this is public information. He just took the time to work with it.

Aside from questioning whether or not Campbell should keep his job, a lot is being discussed about the relationship between bloggers and MSM. Talk of how one is better than the other or how bloggers will take over the jobs of MSM, to me, is a big stretch. Questions have been raised about why it took a blogger to dig out this stuff and what role sports journalists have.

How social media destroyed the NHL All Star Game.

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The NHL is in the midst of reviewing the state of the game. Managers have lots to discuss but the two topics that are interesting are the All Star Game festivities and the leagues development of a social media policy. TSN’s Darren Dreger is covering it here.

Over the course of a weekend, the All Star Game, including the skills competition, is a great way to promote the game and showcase the best talent in the league. But the whole event has gone stale. The game itself is pretty meaningless as the players don’t really compete during the game to avoid injury. The games format (East vs West, North America vs The World) has changed in the past but really there is no significance to it. Fans do get to vote on the starting lineup, but besides that, there isn’t a way for fans (or potential fans) to get involved

Social media and evolving technologies has really changed the attitude towards the NHL’s showcase event. Hockey fans have found other ways to interact with the game and learn more about it.

In the past, seeing a player that plays for a different team was rare. So when they did show up, it was a big deal. But now, every game is available anytime, anywhere. Both TV and mobile technology ensures fans don’t miss a second of marquee games. It’s not as big of a deal now when these superstars come into town.

Game highlights and stats are readily available on the web soon after, which can be shared, analyzed and commented on. Fans can then head to message boards and blogs to interact with others. All this promotes the game and keeps people engaged.

Fantasy league hockey lets fans create their own list of all stars to compete with friends and other poolies. Prizes and bragging right at the end make it even more interesting. This generates a lot more interest in less important games.

Video game such as the EA Sports NHL series gives fans the opportunity to experience players and see the matchups they envision. Gaming is a great way to get involved and learn more about hockey. Why watch a meaningless game when you can experience the game with the all stars.

Fans don’t just consume the information and entertainment. Instead they take it and do something else with it. This is something the all star game does not allow. Fans in the mean time, have found other ways to learn about the game and get more from it.

Lets hope the NHL gets a social media policy in place so some of the more interesting characters of the league can get more exposure and give fans what they really want.

Cleveland’s response to Lebron James

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After announcing his decision to leave Cleveland for the Miami Heat, Lebron James faced a considerable amount of backlash. By announcing his decision in a one hour TV special, sitting down for a one-on-one interview, James irked not only Cleveland fans, but sports fans around the world.

Traditionally, when a player decides on where he/she wants to play, it’s a press conference setting, hosted by the team acquiring the player. The player and managers face the cameras and speak directly to the audience via television, radio or webstream. James went a whole other route and admitted afterwards he would have done things a lot differently if he had to do it again.

Here’s the latest ad by Nike featuring James.

So now James speaks directly to the camera, eye to eye, and asks ‘What should I do?”. He goes on to talk about his decision and what ramifications it could have. He spins the backlash from his decision into a motivator to persevere as a professional athlete. Typical sports ads deliver their message through actions. For example, an athlete would dunk a basketball or a hit a home run. A dialogue with the audience such as this ad is rarely used.
Grant McCraken’s comments about the ad and the individualism expressed by James and Nike are worth a read.

Cleveland filmmaker Dan Wantz recently released this response to the Nike ad featuring James, attached below. The video takes the Nike ad and splices in fan responses to what James should do.

Telling NewsChannel5, Wantz commented:

“I felt like Cleveland didn’t really have a voice in the matter. I saw a need for Cleveland to have a voice. I feel like this video was a good representation of how Cleveland feels.”

This comment is interesting because fans do have a voice. Message boards, blogs, Twitter and Facebook are all methods to give fans a voice and were used to support/jeer James’ decision. But it’s this video which matched the professional, polished look of the original Nike ad that really drew viewers on Youtube. It used footage from the original ad, clips from the decision and other highlights to really express a communities feelings. By wrapping all the feelings of Cleveland fans in a short clip, a summary is provided to fire right back at Nike and James. I found this to be much more powerful method to express feelings than social media tools.

***UPDATE***

Had to add this one. Just came out. MJ claims to have nothing to do with it though.