Jacob Gurvis JO 304

I just finished reading this article  by the Boston Globe 's Nick Cafardo: "Dave Dombrowski all but closed the door on a return of Craig Kimbrel." As a loyal reader of the Globe  sports section, especially its Red Sox coverage, I found it to be quite well done. I've always felt that Cafardo was an excellent writer, and this piece didn't disappoint. Hundreds (if not thousands) of reporters are currently in Las Vegas for Major League Baseball's annual Winter Meetings, where many big signings and trades often occur. It can be tough to find unique stories or scoops and avoid sensationalism, but Cafardo delivered. It has strong quotes, good context, and intelligent analysis. Additionally, from a multimedia standpoint, this article is solid. It includes a banner photo at the top, links to two related articles placed (unobtrusively) throughout, as well as two embedded videos that add depth and context to the piece. Cafardo references certain instances in the 2018 P...

The Boston Globe  sports department's social media is fairly strong. They embed tweets in articles pretty often, especially when a photo, video, or quote is particularly relevant or helpful to the piece, and their own social media accounts are good ways to keep up with content. On Twitter, the Boston Globe Sports account ( @BGlobeSports ) consistently shares articles and news, through a combination of sharing articles and retweeting the section's writers. No matter which sport one is looking to follow, the Globe sports Twitter is a good one-stop place to find news about it all. In terms of improvement, the Globe  could look to engage more with athletes and teams themselves. While I'm hesitant to utilize social media posts from athletes as stories or breaking news, fans and readers do love interacting with players and learning more about their personal and family lives. Increasing the amount of social media engagement with athletes or even team executives could be a great...

The Boston Globe  sports section has a pretty good photography operation. Especially with two-time Pulitzer-winning photojournalist (and BU alumnus!) Stan Grossfeld, the Globe  produces solid photography content. Big events like parades and playoff games often have photo albums accompanying written content, and stories always have at least a photo with them, regardless of the topic. When it comes to photo, the story that comes to mind immediately is a fun piece Grossfeld did in October. After the Red Sox won the World Series, Grossfeld was on the team flight back to Boston, and he took several photographs on the flight: players napping, holding the trophy, playing cards, taking selfies, everything. While there was little news value to the piece, it was a really engaging and rare insight into a part of a team's daily routine that is often private: travel. Especially given the context – coming off a World Championship – this was a great opportunity for the Globe  to give...

When it comes to video, the Boston Globe  sports section does a decent job. While they do not produce a lot of video themselves (which is definitely an area for improvement), they do often embed videos from social media in articles when relevant. For example, in this recent article  about the Boston Bruins scoring four goals in a five-minute span, there were three videos embedded throughout. Especially in an article that is specifically about certain plays in a game, adding a visual element to show readers the plays themselves should be a given. In this article, the Globe  delivered. That being said, there is certainly room for more video content. Especially because the Boston teams' social media and photography/videography teams are so good, the Globe  should be taking better advantage of their content, and also producing their own. If there's a big game being covered, why not send a photographer to shoot a video? Grab some highlights, an interview or two, and sce...

While the Boston Globe  sports department does not usually engage in large research projects or other data-driven endeavors, they do a pretty good job incorporating the most important data in sports, statistics. From infographics to their daily league standings and statistics, fans and readers always have a plethora of data at their disposal. Online, the Globe  also has standings and statistics for each Boston team, in addition to schedule, roster, injury, and transaction information. While this information is not the most complex or difficult to find, it is good that the Globe  provides at least the baseline of information that sports fans would need on a daily basis. In terms of improvement, I think the Globe  would be wise to expand their data collection even more. Especially online, readers should be able to use the Globe  as a one-stop shop for any sports information they might want: league statistics, minor league rosters and stats, etc. The print conten...

According to Everytown For Gun Safety , 96 Americans are killed by guns each day. That amounts to an annual average of more than 35,000 deaths. With 2018 coming to a close, it seems little progress has been made to mitigate America’s gun violence epidemic. The Gun Violence Archive reports that as of December 9, there have been 326 mass shootings in the United States – incidents in which four or more were injured and/or killed, not including the shooter. The locations of the mass shootings in the United States in 2018 in which at least five people were killed. These 14 shootings span eight months and nine states. (Data courtesy of the Gun Violence Archive.) Throughout his political career, President Donald Trump has been an outspoken gun rights advocate. He is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment as well as the National Rifle Association , and has consistently opposed gun reform. Thus, it came as a surprise to many in Washington when the Trump administration announced o...