For my scholarly, peer-reviewed text is a scientific breakdown of “streak shooting” in basketball. It was published by professors from Cornell and Stanford. It explores the independence of every shot and proves that there is little to no correlation between either a successful or unsuccessful first shot and a successful next shot. The researchers were prompted to end the myth of a “hot hand” in basketball by fans and announcers using these phrases to describe a player who has scored on their last couple field goal attempts.
I think that this is an interesting topic to explore and great genres for because the audience for massive, televised sports is so diverse. This should make the task of representing the given information in a more interesting manor worthwhile. The intended audience of the scholarly article is probably a peer review board, but the people that could best use this information are the people watching these basketball games. This is a case of research being published that will never reach the light of the mainstream media, even though kids reading about their favorite players and parents checking the sports news at work should, in my opinion be the original intended audience of such a piece. Making this set of newly found data and statistics more readable or understandable for a less scholarly audience could mean for the public debunking of a sports myth: that momentum plays a great deal in the outcome of a player’s shot.
As for the young audience, I’ll probably create a factual graphic with a simple colorway and clean design. I’ll provide the statistics in a way that is visually appealing so that someone without an extensive understanding of the principles of statistics can understand the point being made by the researchers. When I was a kid, my eyes were always drawn to the images in newspapers (I know, reading newspapers is crazy, but I have always been a sports journalism geek), whether they be informational graphics or the pictures alongside articles. From first hand experience, these are the most efficient and easiest to understand when trying to reach the younger demographics of an audience.
As for the older audience, I might write a fictional newspaper article including quotes from the researchers (drawn from the essay) and present the new discoveries as breaking news in the sports world. Every so often, news outlets like ESPN or Sports Illustrated will publish articles regarding some new study that changes the outlook of athletics in one way or another, and even though this essay was published in 1985, the idea of “streak shooting” is still ever present. It still gets mentioned in almost every game broadcast and it seems that every game has a “hot hand” at one point or another.
I’m interested in looking more into this topic because it seems fascinating to a. learn more about [possibly] one of the most incorrect of sports myths and b. present it in a way that is helpful and more legible for unintended audiences of the researchers’ discoveries.
Ryan, this topic is awesome. I would love to learn more about it. I wish that I would have stumbled across this article, great choice. also, great choice for your two genres. The pictures and graphics will definitely appeal to a younger audience. I know that as a kid I never liked to read and would always zone out into the pictures. Actually, i still do that. I also had the idea to create a newspaper article for the older generation. I believe this would be very appealing to them and easy to access. I was thinking of adding quotes or an interview to maybe spice it up a bit also. I am super pumped to see what you end up doing. With this topic, you should really be able to create some cool genres.
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ReplyDeleteSup Burns. Both your ideas of genre are interesting when mixed with the article you have chosen. Your selections really compliment each other. For the younger audience, pictures are the easiest way to grab their attention, and you are very aware of that. Good job. However, my concern is for your genre tailored for the older audience. Let me explain. I, more likely part of the younger audience, am a basketball fanatic that is very intrigued in reading an article about streak shooting. If I were to see a fictional newspaper article or breaking news story about this topic, I would be very inclined to read it, and I’m sure many people my age would do the same. So my question to you is, how are you going to convert the article in a way such that your audience is specifically the older generation? What conventions and features are you going to include/dismiss? Yet, I’m sure you can figure that out had you not already done so. Good luck with the assignment and have fun. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteBurns,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you went ahead and picked the most interest scholarly article of all time. Hot streaks and shooting? Woooooo!
Based on what you've written, it sounds like you've given *audience* a lot of thought. That's huge, and I bet that will come across quite nicely in the translated genres. A graphic-based genre and a fictional story (why fictional?) are both excellent ideas.
One last note: although I haven't studied this stuff in a "scientific" manner, uh, hellllllllo --- "hot hands" and steaky shooting is DEFINITELY a reality. :)
(They called me "Hot Hands" De Piero in high school. No they didn't...)
Z