Genre Analysis of YouTube Video

YouTube Video from a local Ironman Hockey Tournament I ran in Phoenix.

 

The YouTube video I chose is a personal video of my own that I made for Smith Hockey Solutions, a small business I operate in my free time. SHS essentially runs hockey tournaments in Phoenix and other parts of Arizona. At these tournaments, people will come and play (either with a team of friends, or will hop onto a random team), hang out and have a good time. My job is to enhance the experience for our customers to make sure they come back. For years, people have enjoyed watching videos of themselves and their experiences, so it only made sense to get in on the fun. 

After tournaments, we’ll post the videos on YouTube and share them on our Facebook page. I’ll also share it on my own personal page. Once people know that it’s out there, they’ll watch it, relive the memories, share it on their wall, etc. It’s a good way to keep customers coming back and also gets them talking about the tournament to their friends, and other hockey players. Free advertising at its finest.

I filmed at the tournament and edited the video with iMovie. The video is set to be semi-formal; professional, yet laid back and fun at the same time, which is exactly how we market our tournaments to be too. While the camera follows play for much of the video, we also try to give a little bit of a behind the scenes look at the event, taking the cameras behind the benches and walking around through the crowd. By interviewing some of the players, it gives them a chance to feel how it is “under the spotlight” and a chance to show who they really are.

Imagine a commercial without having to pay or advertise. That’s basically what this video does. We show off our product, give the customers something they enjoy and when the final video comes out, it’s something that truly represents our customers and us. YouTube offers that to many companies and other brands out there, from artists and other celebrities to stores, and that is one reason why it will continue to be successful.

Wikipedia Entry

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Wildcats_Hockey

Arizona IceCats (1979-2011)

Edited a few words for clarity, added source [1]

 

Added:

Arizona Icecat alum Jordan Schupan skates with the puck against Arizona State.

 

Arizona Wildcats (2011- )

Edited and added to the existing paragraph:

 

During the month of April 2011, the University of Arizona announced that the hockey club had become officially recognized by the school. Along with afiliation with the Department of Campus Recreation, the move included a name change, as the Icecats became the ‘Wildcats’, managerial changes throughout the whole organization, coaching staff changes, and most importantly the financial backing of the school, all of which were new to the program. ^[2]

After 32 years of service to the game of Hockey in Tucson, AZ many players felt that Coach Golembiewski had lost touch with the modern game of hockey. The Icecats had only one National Tournament appearance (2005-06) since the streak of 21 straight national tournament appearances ended in 2004. That, combined with two straight seasons going winless against Arizona State University and players feeling that they were not on the same page as Golembiewski led to his dismissal. He was officially relieved of his duties with the organization April 22, 2011 via a press-release put out by the University. ^[3]

The new Wildcat hockey team, organized under the auspices of the Department of Campus Recreation, continues to play their home games on Friday and Saturday nights at “The Madhouse”. Games are still broadcast online, with streams available on the Wildcat Hockey website. With the changes, current Head Coach Sean Hogan has taken over Golembiewski’s former role behind the bench. Hogan, officially hired on July 18, 2011 and announced as the new Head Coach via press release on July 19 was a former assistant at Western Michigan University (NCAA DI). Hogan is also joined by Associate Coach Dave Dougall and Assistant Coach Larry Desmond, with Cody Nicholls serving as Director of Hockey Operations^[4].

 

The Wildcats, with official school support, now wear the “Block A.”

In the first season under their new name, the Wildcats went 13-18-3 over the course of 34 games. Wins against ranked opponents Oklahoma and Ohio highlighted the year, while the Wildcats struggled against in-state rival ASU. Sophomore Andrew Murmes led the team in scoring. The Wildcats finished the season ranked 25th in the final ACHA Division I rankings. ^[5]

Added sources 2, 3, and 5.

Added New Sections

Roller Hockey

With the addition of the Wildcats Hockey program to Campus Rec, Roller Hockey also came into the picture for the first time ever in August of 2011. The Wildcats field two teams, a Division I and a secondary “B” team, that compete in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association. The Roller Hockey club provides an alternative option for hockey players who would rather play roller hockey or don’t make the ACHA Ice Hockey team but still want to play hockey at a competitive level. ^[13] In 2011, the roller hockey team partnered with the Tucson Youth Hockey Association, Tucson’s only youth roller hockey association. ^[14]

The Roller Hockey program and Ice Hockey program have yet to form an official partnership. Because of scheduling conflicts, only one player from the Ice Hockey team suited up for the Roller Hockey team in 2011 as David Herman played goalie for the Wildcats in two games against ASU. ^[15]

[edit] Alumni

Many alums of the Icecat/Wildcat program have gone on to have successful careers in many respected fields. Jeremy Goltz, a former Icecat, played a short stint in the ECHL before returning to become an Assistant Coach for the Icecats in 1995. Goltz eventually moved to Phoenix and in 2006 started Mission Arizona Ice, a youth travel hockey organization in the Phoenix area. From 2008-2010, Goltz was the Head Coach of the Arizona State Universtiy Sun Devils, where he won the 2010 ACHA DI Coach of the Year Award. Goltz continues to coach and operate the Mission AZ Ice program in Phoenix.

University of Arizona Department of Economics lecturer Steve Reff is also an alum of the program. Reff, well-known on campus for his fun and engaging teaching style, was part of the 1980-81 Icecats team that went 17-1 en route to winning the Intercollgiate Pacfic Conference Championship over BYU. ^[16]

1. ^ http://www.arizonawildcathockey.org/page/show/388057-history
2. ^ http://azstarnet.com/sports/hockey/college/icecats/arizona-wildcats-athletics-reorganization-of-club-hockey-team-official/article_33c11446-6f96-11e0-b82f-001cc4c03286.html
3. ^ http://uanews.org/node/39347
5. ^ http://achahockey.org/news.php?news_id=554749&league_id=1059&lang=
13. ^ http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/index.php/article/2011/10/roller_hockey_hopes_to_blossom
14. ^ Smith, Kevin (2012). Interview.
15. ^ http://ncrha.org/profile.php?player_id=103402
16. ^ http://www.arizonawildcathockey.org/page/show/393834-arizona-hockey-all-time-statistics

 

Genre Analysis

1) Describe the social context of the genre

2) define and describe the rhetorical choices within the genre

3) connect the rhetorical choices to the social context to describe the purpose of the genre.

Social Context:

when do you use Wikipedia? How often? What do you get from it that you couldn’t find anywhere else? Why is it useful?

Wikipedia has become a staple in modern society as a quick reference for unofficial-official information. Essentially an online, multi-user contributed encyclopedia, Wikipedia has become as widespread as search engines Google and Yahoo, yet the site has its share of controversial issues. With the easy ability to edit pages and, on certain pages a lack of sourceable information, Wikipedia has its flaws. In some high schools, teachers and upper division faculty prohibit students from using it for research. Multiple times, journalists have been caught taking quotes from Wikipedia that were found to be fabricated, and even once a student from Ireland edited a page of a recently deceased household name, adding a quote to their Wikipedia page just to see how far his quote would go in the media. Proponents of the site say it has multiple uses, from an everyday reference to something usable for research. With a fair share of opponents and supporters alike, the “multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project” is here to stay.

Arizona Wildcat Hockey

The Arizona Wildcat Hockey Wikipedia page is brief at best. While containing important pieces of the history of the program, much of the information is summed up in a sentence. Successful seasons are denoted, and an overall record is shown. The information is good but leaves out the details, and the page could be formatted much better to look like many of the other sports team pages. Much of the page focuses on the transition from the Icecats to the Wildcats, which is great to have but the page leaves something left to be desired.

The paragraph on the transition from Icecats to Wildcats [or Arizona Wildcats (2011 – )] seems to be written from the angle of a player or fan in support of the change. Instead of using impartial language, the author uses phrases such as, “it became clear that Coach Golembiewski had lost touch with the modern game of hockey…”

This is not a good representation of the club and I feel that this could be cleaned up and written more professionally.

I think this page serves as a resource for those new to Arizona Wildcat Hockey, members of both the Tucson and hockey communities looking for more information and those searching for history of the team. Players and other enthusiasts would be more likely to go directly to their website or visit the ACHA (the league the Wildcats play in) website.

Survey Results

 

I got 12 responses back from my survey, 7 females and 5 males. 9 responses reported to being at least a casual fan of one team sport, while 5 said they were passionate fans. I asked what state each student was from and also asked if they could name their home state’s pro or minor league hockey team. 66% of Arizona students correctly named the Coyotes as our NHL team. Out of state students were also 66%, as one did not respond to the question. Five of the 12 students said they were a casual or passionate hockey fan, while 6 said they were indifferent/neutral and 1 said they never had a chance to be a fan.  In order to concentrate on the illnesses of pets within Arizona, I asked people where they were from. Of the people who said they did have a pet, 33.3% lived in Arizona. However, only 40% of those people have had to take their pet to the vet due to illness. It’s hard to say whether or not my questions were framed correctly, but it was interesting to see what different people from different areas knew about hockey. The data is obviously a bit skewed and couldn’t really be used in my project. 

 

 

Screen shot 2012-03-06 at 8.58.59 AM

Survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLVSB87

Whadya Find?

story: How does the game of hockey differ in different parts of the country and world?

Scholarly Article:

Jean Cote, et al. “Examination Of Birthplace And Birthdate In World Junior Ice Hockey Players.” Journal Of Sports Sciences 29.12 (2011): 1337-1344. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

Popular Article:

KLEIN, JEFF Z. “Rangers and Capitals Closer to Playing Openers in Russia.” New York Times 23 Feb. 2011: 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

Book:

“Art Ross Trophy (Leading Points Scorer), 1927-2008.” World Almanac & Book Of Facts (2009): 1217. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

Frame Topics with Inquiry

Hockey:

time: What was the game like in before the 1990’s?

place: Where are hockey’s must undiscovered areas for talent?

person: How does a rink owner manage a rink an turn a profit?

story: How does the game differ in different parts of the country and world?
Music:

time: What has changed in the music scene in the past 10 years?

place: Where can you find music still thriving in it’s older formats?

person: How does someone run a venue?

story: What is the real difference between different genres?

 

 

Rebecca Skloot, a female American author, pitched her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, in three similar yet very different television talk show forums.

Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report othing short of typical Colbert, about 75% focuses on the topic or piece of work that the guest has brought while the other 25% focuses on, who else, Colbert. The interview starts with Colbert running over to meet his guest instead of the guest traditionally coming out to meet the host, a satirical addition to a show already making fun of the tradition right wing talk show. As Skloot walks Colbert through some interesting points from her book and Lacks’ life, Colbert fires back with half sarcastic questions to get the real facts out of Skloot. pictures of Colbert’s own blood cells are shown on the screen, eventually being destroyed by Centipede (a reference to the old arcade game.) While portrayed in a comedic manner, Colbert still promotes the book in a positive light and to an audience that may otherwise never know about it.

Fox News’ take at an interview with Skloot came off as a standard professional interview. Dr. Manny, host of Health Talk, dives deep into the matter, including asking how long it took for the family to find out about the cells and what they were used for. Dr. Manny connects the dots between the lack of consent from Henrietta to the lack of compensation to her family. Skloot also mentions that she has set up a foundation, The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, to benefit the family. High resolution pictures of the Lacks family and Henrietta’s old medical records are occasionally shown on screen to give viewers a better visual of the situation. Lastly, Dr. Manny plugs the book once more and wraps up the segment.

PBS’ Tavis Smiley provides yet another variation on the standard book promotion interview. One major factor in the differences in this interview are that PBS is a public channel promoting education, and Smiley focuses on education-based questions during the interview. Higher level thinking topics and questions such as grants for the Henrietta Lacks Foundation and legal claims to cells are discussed. Smiley is also an African-American, and the only African-American host out of the three interviews shown. Some of the questions dive into that realm, which wasn’t touched on in the other interviews.

One thing I realized was that none of the hosts were women. Although the three interviews were all on talk shows, they were all presented differently: Colbert’s was satirical yet informational, Fox’s more serious and straightforward, and PBS’ educational and enlightening. All three presented the same information in different ways that would appeal to different people, and still managed to promote the book in a professional manner. Whichever style you prefer, one thing is certain: Rebecca Skloot knows her stuff, in front of the camera and on paper.

Analysis of Deborah Lacks

In Part 3 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Lacks family spends a lot of time trying to answer a variety of questions. Questions to reporters, questions from doctors, and questions they had themselves about their unique situation they found themselves in. Deborah Lacks was different from the rest of her family. As she coasted to a more mature 30 years old, she shifted away from the mentality of much of the family, which partly was to try to make money off of the HeLa cells from Johns Hopkins or anyone that would offer it. Their endeavor included handing out pamphlets and other reading material explaining their version of the story of Henrietta, their best attempt to spread the word about their beloved family member.

While others focused on the financial implications surrounding the HeLa cells, Deborah took it upon herself to learn more about her mother and the science surrounding her cells. While not always an easy task, she did what she could for herself around working two jobs for her two children, always living in fear of what disease or sickness she would be dealt. Initially, she was angry and afraid about everything that had happened and what she thought could potentially happen to her. At a visit to Johns Hopkins, Deborah met Victor A. McKusick, often known as “The Father of Genetics,” initially to have blood drawn for research, which was not the reason she thought she was at the hospital. She threw many a question towards McKusick, who gave her complex answers and even signed a copy of his genetics book and gave it to her. This seemed to be a turning point for Deborah, where her frustration over the year slowly started to dwindle and turn into a curiosity to learn and simply be informed about the cells and what her mother went through.

In “Least They Can Do,” Deborah bought a dictionary, a notebook and some science textbooks and began taking notes and making a real effort to learn more about cells. She educated herself and almost used it as a coping mechanism, while writing her thoughts down in her journal next to important lines from the textbook. Deborah’s maturity that came with age and after having two kids makes her an interesting character to focus on. I think she came to grips with everything that had happened by seeking out information herself and becoming more informed about her mother.