Insulting To First?

[Tyler Olds]

Ok, if you have been keeping up with the posts, I recently put up a post about FIRST being on tech TV today. When I watched it I was frustrated and ticked off at Tech TV!

In the beginning they show it (in a negative way) as a rave for nerds, then for some reason they show a human player missing the ball into a goal! Why did they do that?????? Then came the thing that really ticked me off,

Quote from the reporter (and he reported this in a serious matter, not jokingly) After woodie was talking about the goals of FIRST..... "The hope is to get kids to look up to nerds, I mean engineers.........."

Though I consider my self a nerd, a lot of people take that term "nerd" as a negative term.

Overall I believe that this report on FIRST robotics was very inappropriate, and that FIRST was depicted wrong.

So I want to know you thoughts on this,
Tyler

[Jay5780]

Don't take it the wrong way. TechTV is THE STATION FOR NERDS.
Think about it... Do you think anyone, but "nerds" or "techies" watch shows about things like overclocking your prosessor or DEFCON??? I don't think so.

I do agree with you a bit though. They could have shown FIRST in a little more positive way. You need to remember although the story was ultimatly about FIRST the segment all week was about Dean and his accoplishments and such. Any press is good press.

[RBrandy]

Can anyone post it on the web so I can watch it???

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by RBrandy
Can anyone post it on the web so I can watch it???

Check the other announcement thread, someone has it on an FTP somewhere..

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by Jay5780
Don't take it the wrong way. TechTV is THE STATION FOR NERDS.
Think about it... Do you think anyone, but "nerds" or "techies" watch shows about things like overclocking your prosessor or DEFCON??? I don't think so.

I do agree with you a bit though. They could have shown FIRST in a little more positive way. You need to remember although the story was ultimatly about FIRST the segment all week was about Dean and his accoplishments and such. Any press is good press.

Yeah I know what you mean but still, like ii said I do consider my self a nerd, but I guess it was the what that the reporter said it, is what ticked me off.

[Don Knight]

You need to understand that this program is like "News for Nerds" Again Nerds is not a bad word.

They only give a few minutes to each story - To define FIRST and what it does in that short of a spot is almost impossible. Try it yourself... explain what FIRST is and all its aspects in 2 minutes.

But getting out information about FIRST to those who are already "Tech" inclined is great. I'm sure that not everyone who watches Tech TV is involved in FIRST. But I bet students and adults who saw the program and search out more info about FIRST could soon become involved.

Television Exposure for FIRST is a good thing.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by Don Knight
You need to understand that this program is like "News for Nerds" Again Nerds is not a bad word.

They only give a few minutes to each story - To define FIRST and what it does in that short of a spot is almost impossible. Try it yourself... explain what FIRST is and all its aspects in 2 minutes.

But getting out information about FIRST to those who are already "Tech" inclined is great. I'm sure that not everyone who watches Tech TV is involved in FIRST. But I bet students and adults who saw the program and search out more info about FIRST could soon become involved.

Television Exposure for FIRST is a good thing.

I fully agree with you that FIRST on tv is a good thing, however, I feel that most people take the term "nerd" in a negative way. Also, I said i was more mad about the content that he said it in, had it been in a joking matter, I personialy wouldnt have cared.

[IsabelRinging]

TechTV can do no wrong.

And is anyone really offended by by being called a nerd? Because face it... we are.

[Gadget470]

"Even bad publicity is publicity" I think this may apply. Although the comment may have seemed slanderous, it is also intriguing.

Considering the people who watch it..
hearing "Look up to nerds" then thinking either:
1) I am a nerd.. people looking up to me? hmm.
a) www.usfirst.org Searching for information on what are people doing in FIRST
2) Why would they want to do that.
a) www.usfirst.org Searching for why are people being inspired in this program.

For people in the program (such as thread starter) I see how at can be taken as mean words or a joke about something serious, but refer to the above

[Kyle Fenton]

Tech TV often tries to get more "normal people" to watch their show, often by dumbing down their product reviews so the average person could understand it, and attempt to add some humor to it. Because Tech TV isn't looking to make their channel appear a documentary (like the History Channel) or an news channel (like CNN), but something in the middle, like TLC. They often try to make their show interesting, by making fun of people or technology. In general terms, the media often twist something to fit a story they think people will like. It is one point of view of FIRST, that really should just be disregarded.

I didn't see the show, but the comment on nerds is not unexpected. You can't expect every media piece on FIRST to be positive. This is the real world, where everything is made fun of, from politics to entertainment. I have seen some bad news articles in the past about FIRST, that completely misinterprets us with Battlebots.

Don't be offended, when an organization grows, like FIRST, so does the amount of crap from people who doesn't understand how good FIRST is. People sometimes make fun of something, just because people haven't made fun of it.

Even though that may have not been the best report of FIRST, it is still coverage of FIRST, and gets it out to the public.

[Joe Matt]

Granted, the quote seems very innocent, but how she said it by correcting herself and then empasizeing (sp?) engineers, that was the icing on the cake. Was TechTV's coverage of FIRST good. No, but name a time when it was. Last year they called it robots playing basketball.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by JosephM
Granted, the quote seems very innocent, but how she said it by correcting herself and then empasizeing (sp?) engineers, that was the icing on the cake. Was TechTV's coverage of FIRST good. No, ............

This is what I am basically trying to say.

And though this may seem stupid and Tech Tv may not have done this for any reason, why did they show the human player miss a shot????? I mean why could they not have shown one that they made? I know they have footage of HP's making shots, so why show one that they missed? J/W though I do not think it is a big deal (though I was HP last year hehe).

[UCGL_Guy]

Hey you felt insulted so tell them what you think
http://cgi.techtv.com/memberservices?view=feedback
voice your opionion to those that matter, who knows maybe you'll get a free t shirt with flashy lights on it.