Analysis 5 College Football

Assignment 1-4-6

College Football Analysis 5

            College football is a widely viewed media event both in person on television or even over the radio for society today.  Society enjoys the thought of competition and they can live this through the lives of the players on these college football programs as they compete week in and week out.  For all avid college football fans we know that opening weekend is the first week in September and everyone is geared up for it.  This happens for many different reasons. 

            Society has a fascination with heroes and celebrities.  People in society look up to those people that are heroes and want to model their life after one such as the heroes.  On the other hand people think they want to be celebrities but then realize that money and fame does not bring you the happiness that being a does. 

            Based off of my analysis I view college football almost the same as I did before.  Prior to moving to college I wanted that spot light like celebrities get but now I have realized that fame is not what I want.  I just want to be recognized as an everyday hero, which with my job as a firefighter/paramedic I am able to satisfy that feeling everyday that I work.  These analysis’s have made me realize that there is a lot more that goes into making college athletes who they are, not just their amazing athletic talent allows them to be who they are.  Example, Terrell Pryor, his talent lead him to the top but with out the other things he failed and let his teammates and coaches down along with hundreds of thousand Buckeye faithful fans across the nation.  

Analysis 4

Assignment 1-4-5 Written Analysis, Analysis 4

          In college football there could be many different formulas to be taken into account.  College football could be viewed as an action adventure formula much like that of action movies that we see today.  College football brings so many viewers that the analysis’s presented from it are so vast and have a very wide variety. 

          For my formula analysis I feel that the formula of action adventure can be used effectively here.  The “hero” for the college football team is the head coach.  All of the players back and respect their coach for the most part.  Without a coach the team would not be effective and successful.  The villain aspect could be viewed as the players that break team rules and place the program under sanctions and strict rule from the NCAA.  As for the adventure part, the players are living the adventure of going to school and being student athletes in the big light.  As the adventure progresses these athletes move forward and try to move to the next level of the pros.  The “hero” is then viewed by the players as a person that has taught them so much more than football, how to be successful in life, grow as a person and a friend they can always rely on not just their college football coach. 

          For the formula of analysis here I used the action adventure formula applied to college football to show who the hero is and the adventure of the college athletes.  Being a college football athlete is much more than just going to college and playing football for their school.  In college they have to learn how to overcome adversity, be responsible and grow to be successful in the world.  All of these are achieved with the help of the “hero” the head coach of the program to which they attend.  

Journal Analysis

Assignment 1-3-2

Journal Article Analysis

            As a society we all use different ways to provide guidance within out lives without even realizing what we are doing.  One way that people look for guidance in life is from loved ones and friends.  Other forms of guidance that people use are technology, psychological guidance and television shows.  Television allows shows to be played that model people’s lives and the people do not even realize that it models their own life as they watch it.  Television plays a larger role in peoples lives than what they really realize it does.  It is a type of entertainment and a news-broadcasting tool.  An example of a show that does this is “Friends.”  Friends was a television series that represented a group of people in there twenties and how they lived their daily lives. 

            This article talks about the season finale to the television series “Friends” that was eared on NBC for ten years.  The author talks about how the nation was very sad to see that the show was coming to an end and how the cast reacted to all of its fans reactions to the finale to the show.  The author talks about how so many people flooded blogs and newsfeeds with responses to the finale.  The author also goes on to talk about how much television plays a role in so many peoples lives.  The author mentions how in the season finale even the cast is relating to their fans as they watch the final episode.  The main point that is brought about in the article by the author is how “Friends” changed the way everyone lived and everyone wanted their “home” to look like that of the apartment that the cast of Friends lived in on the show. 

            As for my personal stance on this article I agree totally with what the author brings up as main points in the article.  When the series was televised I was young (12) but still remember watching it weekly with my parents and wishing that it would not come to an end.  We even named a litter of puppies, Ross, Chandler, Joey, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe after the cast of Friends.  This is one personal way that the show had such an impact on our lives.  It sounds dumb but much of the things that we do are greatly motivated by what we see and watch on television. 

            This is a great article to read when referring to popular culture.  The author does a great job at pointing out ways that the show “Friends” shaped people to who they were and what they did following to show to try to continue on the show they loved.  They did this by trying to decorate their own home like that of the home of Chandler and Monica in New York City. 

            Overall this article was very interesting to read and analyze.  The author does a great job talking about how a simple television series has changed and shaped so many people that watched it at that time.  Friends was the hit and everyone wanted to be like the show much like society today, everyone wants to be “in” or fit in with what is considered in.  Society thrives on this and this is just another example to prove that this is how society works and is motivated by many different factors in the world we live in. 

Reference:

TODD A. Saying Goodbye to Friends: Fan Culture as Lived Experience. Journal Of Popular Culture [serial online]. August 2011;44(4):854-871. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed January 29, 2012.

Assignment 1-4-4

Assignment 1-4-4

College Football “Hero’s/Celebrities”

            Anyone that is scene on a national scale could be tagged as a hero or a celebrity.  In college football many of these athletes are in the national spot light week in and week out.  Each week the celebrity status of these athletes grows as they perform in the game.  Many young children look up to these college athletes as hero’s and role models as they watch them perform. 

            College football athletes are celebrities not hero’s.  After this weeks FranklinLive session we talked about what defined a hero and what defined a celebrity and for most college football athletes, they are grouped as celebrities not hero’s.  To be viewed as a hero, a person has to do something heroic not play football each week as college football players do.  The reason that they are celebrities is because what they are doing for themselves is what allows them to be recognized on a national scale.  Young children do not understand this and this is why they view the athletes as hero’s. 

            Depending on your definition of a hero depends on who you classify a her.  With the exception in my opinion of Tim Tebow, there is not a college athlete that is or was a “hero” for anyone other than his own team.  In reading his book you see how he changed fellow teammates lives for the better just by being the person he was.  This alone I feel gives him the title of “hero”.  An athlete can be a hero for their team but until they do something heroic for someone they are viewed as celebrities by everyone around them.     

Assignment 1-4-3 "College Football"

Assignment 1-4-3 College Football

            In my topic of college football for this assignment there are many different ways that the information can be presented and comprehended by individuals.   With the sanctions that have been brought about in the last year to Ohio State, Miami, Penn State and USC these programs have become stereotypes in a way. 

            Knowing more about Ohio State than any of these programs, people who are not Ohio State fans group the team as a whole to be rule breakers and think that they all are guilty.  This is where the stereotype name comes into play sense they are grouping the entire team of being guilty even though it was only 8 players and one coach out of almost 100 players and twenty coaches.  The stereotypes that are presented are not fair to the players that are innocent and have done nothing wrong.  With that being said I think with the way that they are viewed has directly impacted them due to popular culture and they will do a better job to not break any rules in the future.    

            As for the standpoint of rituals that come from college football and the teams that have had sanctions against them, the NCAA is using these teams as examples for future teams to come if similar problems would arise.  This is not the best example of a ritual but the only one that I feel fits the topic well enough to mention. 

            In the last year many teams have had problems with rule violations in the NCAA and the stereotypes that have grouped them together have made other teams realize that they have to have a closer watch over what is going on within their program.  This is due largely to popular culture and peoples opinions towards the program.  

Icon Analysis

I chose three different icons that stuck out to me.  They are FDNY, ESPN and the military.  All three of these icons are things that I have a special interest in.  This is why I picked them as icons for me to talk about here.

The symbol of FDNY I feel is an icon because before 9-11 FDNY was popular to all firefighters but not so much everyone else.  Since 9-11 FDNY had been put on a national spot light and now everyone has a greater respect for them as well as all other firefighters.  I could be a little biased on this one being a firefighter but fire jobs have been in high demand since that day.  Second I chose ESPN because it represents a broad range of topics from sports stories to athletes (make a wish foundation) spending time with children who are ill with diseases.  ESPN also brings in stories about what things athletes have done when breaking the law or other problems.  Sports swarms our nation and most people have at least one team that they follow and watch on ESPN.  Lastly i chose a picture of our military forces.  I did this because everyday that we go about do what we do is because we have them protecting our freedoms.  I feel this is the most important icon that I picked because without them who knows how our lives would be on a daily basis.

All of these icons are close to me and are a big part of my life and make me who I am.  ESPN is the one that I could go without but sports are a huge love in my life.  FDNY is part of my brotherhood of being a firefighter and the military allows us to have the lives that we live and love to live on a daily basis.

Popular Culture Blog Assignment 1-2

1.  To me there are many different things that mean popular culture.  Popular culture to me means any of the things that surround you on a daily basis.  For me they are work, sports, and traveling.  Those are just a few but the main ones.

2.  Understanding popular culture will allow you to be able to what is going on in the world and how it affects your job or career today and into the future.  

3.  The popular culture picture that I have posted here is dealing with traveling.  I love to travel and I feel that traveling allows you to view different areas that have different views and types of "popular culture" ideas than where you are from.  Everyones view is different but this is how i personally view popular culture.