An afternoon with Giants

Well, it’s been a busy couple of days. Recently I’ve been working on getting an interview with Justin Christian of the San Francisco Giants. I realized that getting interviews with even minor celebrities isn’t easy when you're writing for a small publication like the Skyline View. I started by direct messaging the person that manages the Giant’s Twitter feed. He directed me to Matt, one of the Giants' Media Relations guys. I was in contact with Matt for several days. He assured me that I would get (what I figured would be) a telephone interview with Justin Christian, but did not specify when.

After about a week had gone by and still no interview, I told Matt that I would be attending the Giants game the following day (I bought tickets earlier in the week) and suggested the possibility of doing the interview in person. Matt spoke to Justin and much to my surprise, I received an email saying that Justin would like to do the interview in person! I was to receive my press credentials the following day at the Giants executive office. Needless to say, this interview was shaping up to be more exciting than I imagined.

The following day I picked up my credentials as specified, without any fuss, and before I knew it I was standing just outside the Giants' clubhouse. I did my best to look unimpressed as I saw many of my favorite ball players walk right past me. After about twenty minutes I met up with Matt (media relations guy). I followed him down a flight of stairs, seemingly further and further into the bowels of the stadium. And then all of a sudden we emerged in the Giant’s dugout. Matt instructed me to wait while he went to inform Justin of my arrival. So I sat…in the Giants dugout.

There were several other reporters, photographers, and media people there. I eaves dropped as sideline reporter Amy Gutierrez was interviewing Giants outfielder Andres Torres for a video blog and even listened in on a small press conference with Giants field manager Bruce Bochy.

Justin Christian came out before long and couldn’t have been a nicer guy or a more accommodating interviewee. I knew that the team needed to take batting practice soon so I ran through my questions without too much delay. He gave me everything I needed for my story and more.

Long story short, this was such a great experience.  It was not only a rush to be sitting next to my favorite ball players, but it was also very illuminating for me as a budding journalist. I got to observe and even speak to some professionals in the field of journalism and some really big names in Bay Area media. I don’t really believe in jinxes, so I’m going to go ahead and say that if this turns out to be the pinnacle of my career in journalism, I would have absolutely zero complaints.  

iPad may be a lesser evil

Finally, my inaugural Journalism 120 Blog post comes after much anticipation, haha.

It’s very unfortunate—true, but unfortunate—that print journalism is dying. Newspapers and magazines are great media for news and entertainment, and I try to support print publications any way I can. I currently subscribe to the SF Chronicle, Sports Illustrated, and Electronic Gaming Monthly. I wish I had the monetary means and the time to subscribe to more publications. Papers and magazines are such a great part of American history and have done so much to shape our culture and our country. It’s saddening to think that in a couple decades they may not exist anymore (leastwise not in an unadulterated form).

As great as the Internet has been making human life easier and in some ways richer, it has inevitably led to a great amount of apathy in several forms. Internet retailers were cute when they stared up at the turn of the century, but are now out of control and killing many retailers that are important to the local economy. The very same is happening with print journalism. The convenience of online news and entertainment is becoming too much for print publications to successfully combat. But the biggest issue is that people do not want to pay for things they can get elsewhere for free. This puts magazines, newspapers, and the journalists who write for them, in a tough spot.

There are few things I enjoy more than having an evening to sit down with a magazine and reading an interesting personal profile on a star baseball player or an interview with a big game developer. This is the sort of journalism I love, and there are less and less opportunities for journalists to do this type of reporting for magazines and other print publications.

In my journalism 110 class there was brief mention of a new idea to increase revenue for magazines and papers that I actually liked. As much as I detest the iPad, e-readers, and other tablet devices, I would detest them less if they were the saving grace of newspapers and magazines. The new idea involves creating digital publications that are exclusively for tablet devices. While this is not quite as good as buying print issues, anything that makes people spend MONEY (emphasis on “money) on journalistic content is a good thing and should be encouraged.