Nice to have the "Minnesota Scores" website as a handy tool for knowing how the game turned out. Outside of that? Well doggone it, there's essentially nothing. Somehow I got into the West Central Tribune site last night - I don't pay to use it - and found no reporting on the MACA game. That did not surprise me. Even back when we were in the official WCT coverage territory, the Tigers at times got only sporadic attention.
Coaches have to call in late to get info in the WCT. Seems like they're not always up to it. Can't really blame them. The WCT tries to monetize the coverage on its website. That has to be dodgy now. Paywalls seem fairly rare. The papers ought to just rely on advertising. The problem is that some papers aren't satisfied with that. But they risk alienating people with the paywall IMHO.
It's not as if the paywall is standard practice. So how would Morris people feel if they "signed up" to read WCT sports, then their favorite team gets missed a lot? I can only wonder - as a matter of principle I will not pay to read anything online. When it comes to national news and commentary, there are endless resources that are free access.
Sometimes the "incognito" system can get you past a paywall. This used to work with the Willmar paper but not now.
I will repeat that our kmrs radio station does fine with its website-based sports reporting. Brief yes but worth the visits there. Nothing on Melrose game as I sit here. So I cannot think of anywhere else to look to digest some highlights, and there must have been considerable MACA highlights. I'd love writing about the game here. I'd prefer doing that over what I'm doing now, which is in effect to "vamp": I air some feelings about online local news/sports coverage. I can always do that.
But I'd rather be typing names and stats for MACA football after such a pleasing win. Notice that I haven't even mentioned the Morris newspaper website. Wonder why.
The waves of change in the media may someday just plain leave me behind. So what I am contemplating right now is whether the MAHS "YouTube geniuses" will take another step forward, maybe with video podcasts. In other words, a sort of "anchorman" could be sitting at a table and reciting highlights from Tiger sports of the last few days. In lieu of the kind of text-based coverage we have always taken for granted.
I was judged on my "writing" all through the years. Maybe the wave of the future will include two elements, both web-based: the fantastic YouTube "broadcasts" of Tiger games, and the video podcast news that I just suggested. You can activate your Internet device and consume everything you need.
What's down the road?
I'm just trying to be a futurist. I guess futurism isn't really a science. We literally cannot know what directions the future will take. When people are pressed to be futuristic, the picture they paint is usually just a jazzed-up version of the present. We saw this with the "Back to the Future" movies. Flying skateboard, yes, but no Facebook.
The World's Fairs of the early and mid 20th Century imagined cars that were just "streamlined," as if that would be such a breakthrough. My family attended the 1964 New York World's Fair where the Ford Mustang was introduced. That wasn't futurism though because the car was being made in reality and in real time.
The New York Fair presented computers as big and bulky and in back rooms! No one then could have envisioned the computer-driven society of today with such compact "miracle" equipment. And to think the young people take it for granted! Well, my generation took TV for granted. We took "Gilligan's Island" for granted!
Let me emphasize here that the concept of video podcasts is quite well along. Not sure I should get on board: I have a face for radio and a voice for TV! So are podcasts being developed for high school sports coverage? Maybe not on a widespread basis, but there is an intrepid soul not far from here. Hey, it's my old acquaintance Randy Olson of Bonanza Valley! Leave it to Randy! He presents his BBE sports blog as the oldest such blog in Minnesota.
Remember how, many moons ago, "bloggers" were victims of an unflattering stereotype? The big commercial media pushed the stereotype because they felt threatened by the new platforms and their empowerment. Those were the days of "websites" and "email" and not of things to come like "Facebook, Instagram and Twitter."
We spoke in terms of the first online building blocks and we were fascinated enough with those. And hey, we never assumed it would progress any further.
The legacy media people tried presenting bloggers as shiftless types with nothing better to do. They'd always scream "you can't believe what you read on the Internet," remember? Of course the Internet developed into a pretty reliable meritocracy. The wheat gets separated from the chaff pretty well.
When YouTube began, no one could have foreseen that there would be billions of everything on it. My jaw drops sometimes.
The worst insult that could be directed at "bloggers" was that "they live in their mother's basement!" So one day on the Drudge Report, the big headline at the top was "Philadelphia's most popular blogger lives in his mother's basement."
Of course, Drudge itself was a major iteration away from old media. Matt Drudge is the most exemplary journalist ever - that's why even though he got a "conservative" reputation, he totally broke away from the Breitbart types. Broke away to what? Broke way to total honesty, that's what. That's why Rush Limbaugh eventually got pissed at Drudge - Drudge disembarked off Trump's path. Not to be anti-Trump per se, but just to be objective and recognize all the sheep dip, which Limbaugh couldn't or wouldn't do.
Take a look here!
You want to see what Randy Olson does with his new video podcast on BBE Jaguar athletics? I'm happy to share here. Here's a link to a blog post where Randy has his podcast featured. Just scroll down to where you see the image headlined "Jaguar sports extended coverage." Click on arrow on screen. You'll see Randy himself.
Would you like to see this kind of service here for Motown? Might the "YouTube geniuses" give us this along with their other gifts?
I am considering sending a check to the Morris Area School Foundation before the end of the year. Maybe I could specify that some of the $ go to the YouTube geniuses if they in fact could use an infusion.
One thing at a time
Of more immediate concern to me is making a financial gesture to help MAHS band. We're working on a project to acquire jazz band stands or banners. I'll whisper to you here that I'd really like the stands, but looks as though banners will be the thing. The banners would be hung on the regular music stands, would have graphics on them.
Wanda is so darn busy, now it's with the "pit band." We'll see how all this works out.
All I saw on the stage last spring for the jazz concert were the plain-jane music stands, and I thought "this just has to go."
Maybe I can solve the issue by just thinking about it, the way Donald Trump says he declassified top-secret documents.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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