Being in a sport media class has been extremely interesting. I think my biggest takeaway from the class is how sport media has changed and evolved over the years. This feels like a very obvious takeaway because of course it has changed, we have social media now. It is just one of those things that I did not pay much attention to because I grew with it. The way social media presents athletes is different than traditional media does. With social media, athletes are vilified. One wrong step and they could be cancelled forever. Before social media was running rampant, athletes could get away with a lot more than they do now.

I think overall this class has been beneficial to my future career in sports. I feel as if I could step in to a minor communications role to help out at a job, if needed. I feel as if my professional writing has increased as well, which truly is the more important aspect, to myself. I always feel as if my writing could be improved and I definitely think this class helped with that. I also think these sport blogs helped me foster my own voice while writing.

Throughout the semester I have fostered a relationship with Rachel Balkovec. She has worked her way through professional sports and is currently the manager of the New York Yankees low A team, the Tampa Tarpons. She has been my role model for years. The second I learned of her I thought to myself how incredible it was that she is doing what she’s doing and that I want to do it too.

Throughout my conversations with Rachel, she has made it clear that if you are not happy somewhere then just quit. She has repeatedly told me to quit my own job. Because of this I want to make a social media campaign with her at the forefront explaining to people why it is okay to leave your jobs and enter the unknown. She has done this multiple times and created an incredible life for herself.

Rachel has a large social media following on her own, and I think if she could partner with a brand who has a similar view of “putting yourself out there” that might be a good idea too. This campaign should target people staying in jobs they do not enjoy or working positions that they do not like. The message should be about taking risks and how new opportunities will follow. There is no reason to fear the unknown and we should all embrace it.

Aly Raisman is one of the Fierce Five who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The Fierce Five included Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber. They were the second American team to win gold in the Olympics and the first on international ground. In 2016, the USA Gymnastics scandal came to light, with Aly Raisman at the forefront of it. Raisman and hundreds of others came forward about the abuse they received at the hands of the USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. This had nationwide effects. It came out that there was a systematic problem of sexual abuse in USA Gymnastics and that this was only the start of it.

When any sexual assault story comes to light there is always doubt. When the USA Gymnastics scandal came to light there was no doubt. I think a large part of this is because of the sheer number of athletes who came forward about Larry Nassar. The media was covering this story like I have never seen before. To have so many athletes come forward, especially athletes we have seen grow up in front of our very eyes, I think set a very specific tone of just how awful the entire situation was. Another big part of the media coverage for this scandal was based around the “Me Too” movement. So many women heard these stories and could, unfortunately, relate to them which also helped diffuse any doubt.

The media narrative and coverage enhanced the act of Raisman and others who stood up against USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar. All of the gymnasts emotions came through in everything they did from the first time they spoke out to the victim statements they read at Nassar’s hearings. You could not help but listen to them and believe the horrible things that Nassar did to countless gymnasts.

Personally, I know that Raisman is a role model to myself. It is hard not to look up to someone like that who has been through so much but still wants to do good in the world. She is truly an incredible individual.

When I think of who I am on social media, my first thought is sports. It always has been and it always will be. I have always posted about sports teams I follow, especially when they are winning (ahem, the Braves winning the World Series last year), but when it came to starting my own persona, I knew it had to be work and sport related. The whole idea behind my social media persona was showing a behind the scenes look at equipment operations, because no one really knows what working in equipment is like. Granted, I definitely was showing off the more “glamorous” side of it.

It was quite fascinating to do because so many people seemed interested in it, including the coaches and staff that I work for. This definitely made it obvious to me that even the people I work with and for have absolutely no idea what I do at work. My tweets not only connected with my fellow staff members, but also fans of ODU Football as well. The first tweet I made was about our new Hudson football helmets and the making of the “hype” video behind it. The video on that tweet had over a thousand views. I had 0 followers when I first posted it, and that tweet jumped me up 37 followers. Just something that little was something the fans wanted to see. The next tweet was pretty generic “The calm before the storm,” but people liked it because we were about to get hit with a hurricane (that mercifully did not hit us hard). It was just a gloomy look of the field we would soon be taking Liberty on.

Perhaps my favorite tweets were my before and after of locker room set up, which I will be honest I stole the idea from a co-worker. One of my favorite parts about my job is setting up the locker room before gameday. Making sure that everyone has everything they need, that it all looks nice, and that no matter who you are, starter or not, you’re going to get the same treatment. That’s just one of my favorite things, it always has been, so I’m glad that I could share that part of my job with anyone who cared to look.

Overall, I just wanted my twitter to be me. The best social media personas are those who act like themselves, and I can’t be more myself when it comes to my job. I’m thrilled I could show even a small group of people what I do, and in this form too.

                My sport media consumption revolves entirely around the quickest way of getting information. I will not watch SportsCenter or any show similar to it on my own. If it is on at work, or elsewhere, I will not turn it off, but I will never go out of my way to put it on. Because of that, I get all my sports related news from Twitter or Instagram. I want to be able to quickly scroll, get the basic gist of the news and then continue on. I also use ESPN notifications to get news as well. But my interactions with ESPN notifications is similar to SportsCenter. I am rarely going to click on an ESPN notification to read the full article, but if it is intriguing enough I will go to the article and read the whole article.

                Five years ago, I was not really consuming any sport media. I was barely keeping up with any baseball news, my main sport to follow. Part of this is because I was in a spot where being a woman in sports or a female who cared about sports was a negative and anyone who learned that I liked sports would just make comments about how I only cared about sports because of how attractive a player was or something like that. I think that is a big reason why I made any effort to learn about sports, so I could prove to anyone that I actually knew what I was talking about and that it was not just about looks to me.

                I think in the next five years that sport news will come from the source itself rather than media outlets and news reporters. Similar to JJ Watt tweeting out that he had his heart restarted, so no one could out it before he did, I think that is going to become the norm from athletes.

                Something that I would change about the sport communication landscape is not letting reporters break news stories, like the JJ Watt story. There are certain stories that I think need more boundaries on, and I wish that some news outlets and reporters would have more of a conscience about it.