The media's (and the public's) misconception of FIRST

[Michael Corsetto]

I originally brought this view up in this thread about a specific news feature about 1114 (jump to 6:22 for the actual report). Karthik recommended I start a separate thread about the issue, so here is my post from that thread...

Great feature, I think it gave a fairly good synopsis of what the competition is like and what 1114 is like in particular. There is one point, however, that I would like to make. At the beginning of the segment, the anchor says "A group of students from blah blah have designed a robot blah blah". My point here is this, I think its great that FIRST is getting the word out about its program, it is an amazing program indeed. But in almost every piece of media coverage I've seen, the mentors are never mentioned. It has always been what the students have done, and not what the mentors and students did together. Inspiration is never mentioned, it always seems to be about winning. Now is this FIRST's strategy? Maybe, but I can't blame people who are new to the program for thinking that this is solely a high school competition, because that's how its advertised. So what do people think, should FIRST be more proactive in getting the real message out, or should they continue to draw people in with a false image and then tell them what its really all about?

Mike C.

[pufame]

Unfortunately, FIRST nor any FIRST team has the final say in what is and is not in a news story/report. While I see where you are coming from trying to promote the "gracious professionalism, coopratition, winnings-not-the-most-important-thing" aspects of FIRST (which we all know make FIRST what it is) through media, trying to convey all this in a news piece may not be the best decision for FIRST or for the news outlet doing the story (Remember, it's their jobs to make a story that will be most interesting to the largest number of people). It's much easier for the public to understand what were doing if it's presented as a competition. I think most people just find the competition aspects of FIRST more easy to relate to (Probably anyone who's been on a FIRST team has been asked the question- "So, is this like that BattleBots on TV".)

What I can say from experience - after all the news coverage our team has been given in the past few years (reports from regionals, coverage of kickoff and ship day, coverage of various community events, even a live local reporter from Atlanta last year), we have managed to get the attention of almost everyone in the community. And now that our community is interested and know the basic principle's of FIRST (the competition), it makes it far easier for our team to convey all the non-competition aspects of FIRST at all our community events, presentations, etc.

[Swan217]

Not to be bitter, but the media is completely braindead when it comes to reporting stories. After 10 years of being misquoted by news reporters about FIRST, you learn exactly how much you have to spoonfeed the story to the reporters. You practically have to write the story for them, otherwise they develop their own storyline about FIRST that has little to do with the message you're trying to convey.

So you have to spoonfeed to them about collaborating between students and mentors.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about Gracious Professionalism.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about inspiration of Science and Technology
So you have to spoonfeed to them about how FIRST is NOT @#%%@! BATTLEBOTS!
You have to spoonfeed to them stories of scholarships and leadership and problem solving.

YOU have to tell them how to do their jobs, sorry to say. Thus is the age of Fox Noise Infotainment.

[dgitz]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

So you have to spoonfeed to them about how FIRST is NOT @#%%@! BATTLEBOTS!.

How true, not just the media either.

[usbcd36]

Originally Posted by dgitz

How true, not just the media either.

People always walk up to me in the halls and excitedly tell me that I should add an either an oil slick, bomb, flamethrower, or other dangerous and illegal device to our robot. It was funny at first, but it got old pretty quickly.

Often, people will form opinions from what another person says, then convey those instead of the original message.

The problem with the media is that they have their own way of doing things and ours conflicts with it. When there was a bomb threat on my school (on a Saturday during the build season, no less…), they interviewed a few students who showed up there that day for activities (which were cancelled). One of them is in my TV production class, and when everyone arrived the next day, the teacher showed the video and pointed out a section that looked like it had been edited to convey a different message. Sure enough, it had, and it was a great example of how one thing can be twisted into meaning another.

I'm working on a production to go on the school's TV channel about our robotics team, and because all of us have experienced the same sort of things, we shot an entire section about misconceptions. I don't expect it to fix everything, but I hope that it will at least be helpful in recruiting members, or explaining things to new members.

[fatjoe3833]

Mike, I completely agree with what you said. My local paper, Newsday, usually runs a story each year about the Long Island Regional. The reporters have referred to the competition as "robot wars" and fail to describe the spirit of FIRST. I have also noted some other errors when it comes to the details of the competition. For instance, the article this year made it seem as if only the teams that go to the championship qualify for scholarships.

However, we should appreciate any media attention that FIRST receives. The program would not have been able to grow as it has without it.

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedi...,3428726.story

[JaneYoung]

It's that changing the culture thing, one step at a time.
It's hard to do but doable. That's why the marketing and promotion aspect is so important to the teams.

[BigJ]

People always walk up to me in the halls and excitedly tell me that I should add an either an oil slick, bomb, flamethrower, or other dangerous and illegal device to our robot. It was funny at first, but it got old pretty quickly.

Yeah, everyone knows an EMP would be so much cooler!

Anyway, I make sure when talking to people about FIRST that I stress it is more about the innovation and inspiration than it is about the actual robots. And that they aren't Battle bots, that too.

[Alex Golec]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

So you have to spoonfeed to them about collaborating between students and mentors.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about Gracious Professionalism.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about inspiration of Science and Technology
So you have to spoonfeed to them about how FIRST is NOT @#%%@! BATTLEBOTS!
You have to spoonfeed to them stories of scholarships and leadership and problem solving.

Bingo. When you go to an interview, you have to fit in what should be said into the questions you're forced to answer. Three years ago I did my first interview, and in the back of my head I kept thinking "mention the $9 million in scholarships," "mention the sponsors," "mentors," "invite the viewers to watch and support the program," and so on. The media focuses on what they think is interesting, so you have to chip in what you find interesting to counter it.

But do keep in mind - any media attention is better than no media attention (restrictions and limitations apply...)

-Alex

Originally Posted by Alex469

Bingo.

But do keep in mind - any media attention is better than no media attention (restrictions and limitations apply...)

-Alex

I would certainly agree with that, any coverage is good because then other media and sometimes other shows within the same station or network will pick it up for a bit of a feature which is what happened with that story on 1114 that is posted in the link here, it was a basic news story earlier in the week on CHCH and then someone there obviously really liked it and they did a 6 minute piece on it.

You just have to keep things interesting, exciting, visual....to attract the media and then try as much as possible to spend time with the reporter who is writing the story....after the formal interview and make sure he or she can get answers to any questions and that will help in getting the story to be more accurate. Not easy to do sometimes but it can help.....sometimes.

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

Not to be bitter, but the media is completely braindead when it comes to reporting stories. After 10 years of being misquoted by news reporters about FIRST, you learn exactly how much you have to spoonfeed the story to the reporters. You practically have to write the story for them, otherwise they develop their own storyline about FIRST that has little to do with the message you're trying to convey.

So you have to spoonfeed to them about collaborating between students and mentors.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about Gracious Professionalism.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about inspiration of Science and Technology
So you have to spoonfeed to them about how FIRST is NOT @#%%@! BATTLEBOTS!
You have to spoonfeed to them stories of scholarships and leadership and problem solving.

YOU have to tell them how to do their jobs, sorry to say. Thus is the age of Fox Noise Infotainment.

I could not have said it any better myself, I work in the media, I am just a camera guy but I am the camera guy that shot the video of the GTR reigonals that aired in that story on 1114 and a week prior on the station I work for as a contract camera guy, we did a few stories on FIRST GTR this year and they turned out ok, I was pleasantly surprised actually and the phrase "robot battle" only got in once in the key so it was not bad this year.

I'm glad you used the term brain dead because that's exactly the case here, and it is very frustrating for the few of us left in this business that can actually think and use basic common sense, I would have thought reporters would have learn "something" in journalism school but it is obvious that is not the case.

You really have to like you say spoon feed them everything, keep it simple and don't give them too much and even then it is tough, I mean we are dealing with some people here who make close to $80-$100G's and can't use google and can't navigate the FIRST website.

There is also this trend with "agenda stories", which I hate with a passion, I can't make up the news, answers to questions to fit a pre-written agenda story...not if it's not happening.

Doing the gracious professionalism angle is a good one but that I'm afraid is way over thier heads to be honest, now you're into the complicated stuff.

What get's me so frustrated is when I tell a reporter something in very simple language and I try to keep it at a grade 6-7 level (seriously) and they keep asking me the same question over and over again trying to get me to say what they want to hear and then when the story goes to air the totally don't include the correct information that I gave then and I am left sitting there thinking "were they even listening?" and that is why now many times when a reporter asks me for some details I just say "read the press release" or "go to the website".....one reporter came up to me with notebook in hand and asked me to "just give me the basics" and I told the reporter that it would be much easier to go to the FIRST webiste and the reply was "there are like 400 links there and I can't go reading them, I don't understand anything on that website".

Makes me wonder how qualified today's media people are when they can't read a simple press release or navigate a basic website. I'm just a camera guy and I figured it out and I don't have the journalism degree.

Another big problem in today's media is how reporters are assigned and micro-managed to the point that even if they had a functioning brain it still wouldn't be of any use as they aren't allow much wiggle room on story content.

Reporters are also assigned "full stories" at 4pm for a 6pm newscast, the camera guy (me) shot everything and they get it handed to them at 4pm and have one hour to put it together and it might be something they have never heard of before and that compromises quality as well.

I must say though the coverage in Toronto media this year of the GTR regionals was reasonably good.

But no matter how many times you tell today's reporters that it's NOT battle bots....battlebots is going to get in there. Actually when the reporter asked me that question I told the reporter I don't know what battlebots is, I said that wasn't the event I was at....you should have seen the look I got

[EricH]

Originally Posted by STORMCENTRE

But no matter how many times you tell today's reporters that it's NOT battle bots....battlebots is going to get in there. Actually when the reporter asked me that question I told the reporter I don't know what battlebots is, I said that wasn't the event I was at....you should have seen the look I got

Let me guess... the look was some combination of, right?

Joking aside, a better reference would be the shows "Junkyard Wars" and "Monster Garage".

Originally Posted by EricH

Let me guess... the look was some combination of, right?

Joking aside, a better reference would be the shows "Junkyard Wars" and "Monster Garage".

and there were other things said in that newsroom that I most certainly can't repeat here and things I wanted to say to that reporter that I most certainly can't say here

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

Not to be bitter, but the media is completely braindead when it comes to reporting stories. After 10 years of being misquoted by news reporters about FIRST, you learn exactly how much you have to spoonfeed the story to the reporters. You practically have to write the story for them, otherwise they develop their own storyline about FIRST that has little to do with the message you're trying to convey.

So you have to spoonfeed to them about collaborating between students and mentors.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about Gracious Professionalism.
So you have to spoonfeed to them about inspiration of Science and Technology
So you have to spoonfeed to them about how FIRST is NOT @#%%@! BATTLEBOTS!
You have to spoonfeed to them stories of scholarships and leadership and problem solving.

YOU have to tell them how to do their jobs, sorry to say. Thus is the age of Fox Noise Infotainment.

and one other thing to remember about reporters is they are not techies, I have never met one that is, quite a few of us camera guys are but reporters, assignment desk people and producers are not in anyway technically inclined so you want to tell them in a press release and show them exciting visuals and stuff and then try and sneak in something technical later....you want to hit them with the basics, the intersting story angles, the exciting visuals to hook them and then try as hard as you can to guide them through the story... but like you say sometime they just make up their own thing even when all the correct info is placed right under thier noses and I am not sure what the answer is other than to keep promoting the events at getting as much coverage as you can and some media will get the story right, some won't but the better reporters will do a half decent job at it.

[Scott Carpman]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

YOU have to tell them how to do their jobs, sorry to say. Thus is the age of Fox Noise Infotainment.

I'll have to disagree with your generalization. Fox 5 has proven to the one of the most well-informed media outlets regarding what FIRST is all about. Watch this and you'll be glad to know that Brett Larson has:
-been to previous regionals
-understands GP
-portrays FIRST in nothing but positive light
-can hold his own in a conversation about the IR technology

(That clip ran on the Friday evening news, with footage of Friday practice day)