Media at Nationals

[Joe Matt]

*NOTE*This post is a continuation of Dave's post. Read his first for more info*NOTE*


I too see the problem we are having, and not just the problem where the media is affecting the game, but where it almost seems that instead of FIRST trying to run an event for the kids, they are running a huge press release for the media. Now, while media coverage is good for FIRST, I think FIRST needs to limit the media, here's what I suggest...

FIRST Championship Media Proposal

This proposal will fix three things wrong with the current media 'problem' at regional and championship events.

Problem: Current media at FIRST events has a total run of a place. They can literally pull over any team to interview them anywhere they want. Television crews can go anywhere they want. FIRST needs to limit their access to make it feel more like an event for the teams and kids than a huge press event.

Solutions:

Large Mike & Camera Booms- Mike and camera booms have caused problems with robots and matches, while they offer good above views, they get too close sometimes and very often the operators want to get right next to the robots for action shots, forgetting that this is a competition and anything can happen. You don't see camera men and booms floating a few feet away in football games. No, those are far away. The solution for this problem is above, as in a place where nobody goes and nothing is happening, and is far away from the teams. The second floor balcony is far enough away, yet close enough for good shots. Crews could even set up mini booms up there that'll go out a few feet and could pan and move. This could be used with other stationary cameras near the field to give the illusion of you being in the action without having to risk outside interference. This situation also has an added benefit of being out of the view of the audience so they can see the action.

Interviews- One instance of this is the most memorable, it's with MOE after one of their matches. Once they won, they were immediately pulled over for a long interview infront of the field, even when matches where going on, preventing some from seeing whats going on. It's not MOE's fault, but CNN and the access problems. But on the other hand, TechTV's interviews were behind the curtain and out of the way, which is a great thing. The solution for this would for this would be to have a 'robot victory lane' (we are all winners, remember!) that the press would set up next to. When they wanted an interview, they would pull over a team if they needed to and interview them. This will give everyone the same chance and also push the media to the side so they won't be infront the of the field. If you want to get really organized, have a media outlet focused on one field each, have CNN on Curie, ABC on Newton, TechTV on Galileo, and so forth and so on.

Press on the ground (or also known as 'The cameras are breeding like rabbits on viagra!)- As noted in other places, the biggest problem is the large amount of press walking around the field, both from teams and from media outlets. At times they block the few, and even worse they inhibit scoring of the game. What is a helpless team going to do?!?! Well, lets go back to kindergarten, when at some schools (at least mine) we used colored carpet to separate groups and locations. There would be three sets of credentials on the play field:

Media pass-for team media and the media. This pass would give access to an area next to the curtain, behind the curtain, and some places behind the player stations with red carpet.

General drive crew access- This allows for access to anywhere except the field.

'Robo movers' pass- They would get access to the same as the drive crew pass, but they will have access to the field for removal and placement of the robot before and after matches after scoring is done. There will only be two per team who have this access.

All these recommendations are based on what I've seen at the Championship this past April. If FIRST already has programs like this in place, then they weren't immediately obvious to me while in the stands. Yet this isn't the only problem. I miss the days when Dean when through all of the pits and talked to teams, I didn't see any of that this year. I didn't see the governor of Georgia there, and he is in the same city! Yet at Epcot, Gov Bush was there, and he had a long drive/fly to get there!

[Jessica Boucher]

Okay. Who's bright idea was it to post a thread I really want to answer thouroughly in the middle of my finals?

Anyway, my first question is, what happened? Back in the day (positive reps to whomever remembers when Sandra ran media for FIRST ) a lot of these solutions that we're suggesting were in place. There were specific areas for media crews, we walked the news crews around that would be most likely to make the most disturbance, we had the media platform to keep the crews off the field (as much as everyone hated that thing, it did alleviate the issue somewhat).

It could just be that the bar has been raised on what is considered "good" press since then...and because of that the "power of the supplier of media" (aka, the media itself) has strengthened...thus giving FIRST less leverage in getting them to come to the event. Because of this, FIRST may need to offer more access than has been offered in the past, just to get the crews to come. We're also not thinking about any extraneous contracts that FIRST may have made without us knowing. Maybe CNN had a contract with FIRST for certain access in exchange for air time on their stations, and TechTV had a different contract with different terms.

So what does FIRST need to do?
-Make the venue work. All of these suggestions (the use of the 2nd balcony, the winners area, etc) are great, and should be put back into place. Is this just a matter of growing pains dealing with Arena-style FIRST? If it is, then it should be one of the summer's objectives to make this work by Nationals 2005.
-Stand up for itself. Bring everyone's aforementioned suggestions to be, but in return, setup a press conference with Dean, or something equally attractive. All it takes is a bit of negotiation.

Of course, to bring these things to be, we all know what this means...more volunteers. And although the media job is rather interesting, if we are in a general volunteer shortage, then we're going to have trouble finding people to fill the void, no matter what. My solution to that? Approach a local Atlanta college communications or media relations academic department and open the positions to them as an experience-based volunteering job or an extra credit assignment. You would have people fighting over the positions!

-Jessica "I feel old because I was in the media tent in 2000" Boucher

[Scooter]

Perhaps the nationals should look to the regionals for guidance. I know at the lone star regional, there is a specific media aera off to the side of one field. All of the shots from that aera are decent, it is close up, and does not interfere with the robot or game traffic. It seems like a simple, workable solution: Let the media roam free(un the middle), but when they are near a playing field, they have to be in their box.

Oh...and the camera booms were for TechTV

-Bill

[Tom Schindler]

Originally Posted by Scooter

Oh...and the camera booms were for TechTV

I know at least one of the booms was for TBS, they are doing a special on team...

Tom

[Amanda Morrison]

Originally Posted by Tom Schindler

I know at least one of the booms was for TBS, they are doing a special on team...

There was also a cameraman that Dave and I talked to from MTV, I believe they were profiling some students.

I completely agree with Dave Lavery... restrict those cameras, but don't necessarily just leave them on the wayside. In St. Louis, there had to be announcements made because the media flocked the field and ended up just getting in the way (students being blocked from putting up their controls because there are pictures being taken, robot carts running over camerabags lying everywhere, etc.). While this can't get out of hand, it's still an important part of FIRST. We may need publicity, but we don't need field fiascos every few minutes.

[DCA Fan]

I would strongly support changes in media policy....for one, I'd prefer 2 passes for team media people, one for video and one for camera. This wouldn't clutter the field because FIRSTers know when to get out of the way (or at least I assume they do)

Second, create an interview area somewhere...In the pits, on the side of the field...some place other than right during competition. It really irritated me when I was trying to watch or get a camera shot from the stands and media people were swarming around the field.

Third, introduce the use of lighting truss mounted cameras so the booms don't get in the way. Limit these to about 2 per field.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by DCA Fan

This wouldn't clutter the field because FIRSTers know when to get out of the way (or at least I assume they do)

This I can vouch for: they don't, because not everyone thinks the same way. Teams want different things out of their footage...some are just happy with match footage, some want 10 minutes before and after. Then there's the teams who want "setup time" so that the shot is to the team's liking. There's nothing wrong with any of this...I can sympathize that the media persons are trying to get the absolute best footage for their team, because this footage is extremely important year-round. But along with having the access to the field, there has to be some regulation so that everyone has a fair chance of getting the best footage possible.

The most fair thing to do in this situation is let teams into the area right after the score was released for the match before them, and ask them to leave right after the score is shown for their match.

Once again, this regulation used to be in place, at nationals with the media platform. What happened to this regulation?

[dez250]

Originally Posted by DCA Fan

I would strongly support changes in media policy....for one, I'd prefer 2 passes for team media people, one for video and one for camera. This wouldn't clutter the field because FIRSTers know when to get out of the way (or at least I assume they do)

If you talked to the pit admin table at nats this year or just knew where o go, your team could obtain a media pass which allowed the holder to go to the field and do video or photos. Though if you were in the way you would be asked to move and your media pass could be repossessed. This was one way to keep the amount of people to a minimum where there were strict "rules enforced". Also at all fields there are media crates you can hook into with your own equitpment and record what is displayed on that fields big screen. Next year read the section (this year #10) at the events and you will see info mentioned on media and what is and isnt allowed.

[SilenceNoMore]

I was disturbed to see that the event was being covered in great detail by America's top Communist propaganda machine, the Communist News Network (CNN). They appeared to be getting in everybody's way and from their reporting (at least what I saw on NEXT) didn't seem to grasp what people are doing in FIRST (besides being brainwashed by Dean Kamen).

It was ALMOST as intrusive as Jesse Jackson was at Houston in 2003.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by SilenceNoMore

...the event was being covered in great detail by...(CNN).

Well, CNN does live right next door to the GeorgiaDome, after all.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by SilenceNoMore

I was disturbed to see that the event was being covered in great detail by America's top Communist propaganda machine, the Communist News Network (CNN). They appeared to be getting in everybody's way and from their reporting (at least what I saw on NEXT) didn't seem to grasp what people are doing in FIRST (besides being brainwashed by Dean Kamen).

It was ALMOST as intrusive as Jesse Jackson was at Houston in 2003.

Are you off your medication or something?
There is just a constant dark cloud hanging over your head and you just seem desperate to spread it to everyone here.
If FIRST is such a cauldron of misery for you why don't you just do everyone a favor and just leave.
Seriously.
We are actually trying to accomplish something here instead of just being negative about this that and the otehr thing. Is there anything about FIRST that you can honestly say something good about because I'm sure we'd like to here it.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by SilenceNoMore

I was disturbed to see that the event was being covered in great detail by America's top Communist propaganda machine, the Communist News Network (CNN). They appeared to be getting in everybody's way and from their reporting (at least what I saw on NEXT) didn't seem to grasp what people are doing in FIRST (besides being brainwashed by Dean Kamen).

It was ALMOST as intrusive as Jesse Jackson was at Houston in 2003.

Well, errr, I'm gussing FOX is the only god saving grace in all of the US media, right? Frankly, keep all slander and negative personal opinions to yourself. While you may believe that CNN is far left, some people see them as too far right, and then see them in the middle (like me). Personally, do some reasearch on the amount of negative to postitive stores in the 2000 election, and you'd be surprised to see a higher ratio of good to bad stories for Bush than Gore, and most of the bad one for Gore were of stupid (my opinion) things, compared to Bush's negative stories.

To each their own.

[SilenceNoMore]

Originally Posted by JosephM

Well, errr, I'm gussing FOX is the only god saving grace in all of the US media, right? Frankly, keep all slander and negative personal opinions to yourself. While you may believe that CNN is far left, some people see them as too far right, and then see them in the middle (like me). Personally, do some reasearch on the amount of negative to postitive stores in the 2000 election, and you'd be surprised to see a higher ratio of good to bad stories for Bush than Gore, and most of the bad one for Gore were of stupid (my opinion) things, compared to Bush's negative stories.

To each their own.

FOX would ask where the strippers are and if there is any sexual activity going on. Or you could have that populist Bill O'Reilly come and ask if Dean Kamen is looking out for you. MSNBC would just sit there and pretend to be FOX.

BBC is the way to go.

[Jessica Boucher]

Hey guys?

Back on topic, please. This thread was originally about the general problems with the media at FIRST events, and if you want to talk about specific stations/persons, take it to the Chit Chat forum.

[Pierson]

When we talk about team's "getting pulled out to be interviewed," I don't know if this is a media problem or a team problem. As part of human nature, people naturally have ego's and as such want to be on TV, in the Newspaper, or on the Radio.

Is there anything wrong with this? No.

But, what would I suggest? I was recently selected as the Top Youth Volunteer from the State of Washington for the 2004 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. As part of the program the top High School and Middle Student from each state traveled to Washington DC last week, we had a 30-45 min discussion on "How to Work With/Handle the Media." It was wonderful!

Maybe FIRST should either create a document given to the teams on how to handle the media with lines such as "Yes, I would love to give an interview, but let's move out of the way first" or there should be 2 "Media Reps" on each field. These people would serve as "Media Traffic Cops" and make sure that during the matches interference is kept to a minimum and then after the match is done direct interested media and the team/people being interviewed to a specific part of the field that has a good background but is also out of the way! This would cost FIRST nothing because it would just be another assigned volunteer position.