FIRST Parody Fatigue and other Media Things [long]

[TheMilkman01]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Media is about creativity. We can not expect FIRST a robotics competition to do more video contests, awards, ect. There are already enough.

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Overall, I am not too sure what your getting at.

Is your goal to get FIRST to accept STEAM and add more media awards?

We can't expect FIRST to add more video competitions, as you said, but mostly because that alone won't help foster new media people. I have been involved in numerous recaps and weekly shows, which overall has been a great learning experience. In the post above, I was offering my reflections on the media experience within FIRST and the Parody Contest. Here's what I'm trying to get at, though, if it's any one thing.

FIRST, from the beginning, has been about STEM. That's nothing to be ashamed of and is quite impressive. However, sooner or later it is my opinion that they will need to add the Arts to STEM so they can continue to grow and flourish as an organization. STEM is critical and prudent––there's no denying that––but if it is to be recognized and appealing to the broader, general public, adding Arts is how you do that. I'm not trying to belittle STEM in anyway, that's one of the core things FIRST teaches, but through the Arts, particularly media production, teams will be able to make themselves more accessible, relatable, and appealing to FIRST outsiders who have never given serious thought to STEM or FIRST before. Essentially, it would help boost Public Relations in FIRST and open the doors for people who wouldn't have joined FIRST otherwise, all while putting them in a setting surrounded by engineers. There's already the potential to have media in FIRST and we need our business teams for finances, but adding the Arts just seems like a way to make that information more readily apparent to the public, especially in the digital age where the things most eyecatching gain the most attention. It also seems like there would be very few drawbacks. If it would increase members, add diversity, and attract more of the public, why wouldn't you want to go that route? Seems like "Making It Loud" to me and being "More than Robots" to me.

Anyway, that's just how I feel. Of course, you're free to develop your own opinion on the subject and, at the end of the day, FIRST remains a great organization all the same.

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I run a weekly show called F4 and if you would like to be on and talk about media PM me and ill give you details.

Actually, could you link to that? I'd gladly give it consideration.