Down the stretch

The other weekend, I travelled home to see the fam and went out to Woodbine Racetrack, something we used to do on a regular basis when I was younger. We would go every family day at Woodbine, have a pancake breakfast outside, take our pictures with the jockeys (whom I towered over by age nine) and got up close and personal with the thoroughbreds. And, of course, I put two dollars down on a couple of races even though I was more than slightly underage. (The women at the counter had no problem taking my money, but my Pop would have to collect my winnings. Those were the days.)

So it was interesting to go back to the track late last month and see how it had changed and the increased amount of media around the facility.

Walking into the renovated building, there were banks of televisions stretching the length of some walls, each screen showing a feed from different tracks around the world. It was, frankly, overwhelming.

If there has been an industry that is finding new life through information communication technologies, horse racing is it. The Internet and communication technologies now allow enthusiasts (and gamblers — I can’t forget the gamblers here) to be a part of numerous races at one time without having to leave their home track, or even their home for that matter. Simulcasting, online streaming, podcasts and online gambling have become a large part of the horse racing world. Why bet on one race, when you can bet on four at the same time? The vast amount of gambling and entertainment options available to those at the track is a far departure from the early days of horse racing when all you could bet on were the races in front of you and the bookies were right by the track.

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Ray Paulick, described in an online posting as a “leading voice in the US Thoroughbred industry” and founder of The Paulick Report, an online horse racing publication, had this to say about the influence of media, and more specifically social media, on the horse racing industry in an interview with the Thoroughbred Daily News:

I think many people who have been in the Thoroughbred industry a while are a little slow to the dance on some of these tools. I’m glad to see so many racetracks and organizations getting on board this online bandwagon. As marketing budgets are cut, it’s a very cost-effective means to keep in touch with customers and other interested parties. In particular, I like what the New York Racing Association is doing on YouTube – adding original content to the site that is both entertaining for fans and useful for horseplayers. I hope other tracks learn from them, because if we don’t start reaching out to where most younger people are spending their time these days – online – we’re only going to see our fan base continue to shrink and our demographics take on an even older profile than we currently have.”

The horse racing industry almost sounds like it is in the same state as the newspaper industry. There are copious amounts of technology out there that could lead to greater revenue streams and connect people in a way that was previously impossible. A dwindling fan base coupled with emerging technologies is the life support horse racing was looking for, but are they simply adding technology because it’s trendy, or do they know what they’re doing? I have looked around online for some insight and analysis and didn’t come up with much. The Horse Racing Channel did have something that showed how the industry appears to be forward-looking and entrepreneurial in reaching new audiences through advances in cell phone technology. (Yes, there are a bunch of iPhone apps that can help you watch, learn and gamble on horse racing.)

Not everyone is comfortable with computers and horse racing in another time zone can be difficult to follow if you are far from a Television set. That is why Internet access on a cell phone opens new possibilities for horse racing enthusiasts. Color screens keep getting wider, sharper and cheaper at the same time! We are not far from the day when punters will be able to follow events anywhere from the privacy and convenience of their cell phones. This is just the kind of fillip horse racing deserves!

Odds betting in horse racing require careful analysis if punters are to have consistent records of wins. Track and weather conditions, equine medication and equine behavior during loading at the gate, are some of the factors that have subtle but deep effects on the outcomes of events. It takes some experience and keen powers of observation to absorb these points before placing sporting bets. Therefore, real time results are only part of the horse racing value offer as far as simulcast wagering in any medium is concerned. Interest for the new technology will only be sustained if transmission is as clear and wide as watching from a grandstand or from an enclosure for members.

So what comes next for horse racing? Will there come a day when going to the track means never leaving your home? I hope not. There’s something about being next to the horses as they walk through the warm-up circle, springing to life when the bell rings and the gates open, standing by the rail and listening to the rolling thunder as they come down the stretch towards the wire, watching close up as their muscles propel them forward with forceful intensity and then seeing them softly gallop and leisurely walk after it is all over. That’s the reason I go to the track and — no offense to the mass media — that’s something that watching at home can’t give you.

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Termed.

For those wondering, I handed in my final assignments earlier this week and now I wait to see how they are marked. The whole process was similar to what I was used to as a reporter, but it was so different when it came time to write. I’m just happy to have them done, happy I filed them and am now “free” to fill out ethics review forms for three universities so I can get to work on my thesis. Got me a supervisor, and one committee member — I just need one more.

And having handed in my assignments means no more academic writing for me — I can get back to writing here. Stay tuned…

I think now I’m really done writing

Probably not, but what the heck.

I redid my two term papers today, moving items around, changing wording in sentences, adding more information in some areas and using the delete button in other sections. I’m still not entirely happy with what I have, but I don’t know how many more edits I can do before I go nuts and scrap everything and start from scratch. One paper is due Monday, the other Tuesday morning. I can’t wait to hand them in. When I was reporter, I edited my stories as much as time allowed me to. For a news story, that usually meant one, maybe two edits. For features, I had a little more time and got three edits in. Eventually, though, I have to let it go or it will take over my life, which it already has in a sense.

So, without further adieu here are the latest versions of my two term papers: My introduction to educational research proposal and my curriculum design and implementation final paper, which I have titled Googling a curriculum: Using a student-generated curriculum development model as a basis for creating a successful media literacy education program. Yes, the title is a mouthful, but I’m a headline guy, not a title-writing guy.

I have found writing these essays to be more difficult that writing an article. There are some basic skills from journalism writing that I can transfer over to academic writing, but I get tripped up when it comes time to insert a voice into the piece. I’m trying not to sound too informal, but also not go over the top and sound too stodgy. The use of the first person in the academic writing is also something I have to work on to figure out where, when and how it should be used. But really, these are just details. I shouldn’t stress out about them, but I do.

Okay, now to take a few minutes and relax before throwing myself into another piece of work that needs to be done, whatever that may be.

Adverdazed and confused

So I’m watching the Grey Cup Sunday night with my father when a couple of commercials come on to promote various alcoholic drinks. (Surprisingly, I noticed more liquor company commercials than beer commercials. What does that say about the Canadian Football League’s viewing demographic?) So we watch this commercial for Drambuie that shows a guy getting out of the water, running away from arrows and then avoiding trees exploding to life around him. The commercial ends with a note about how the recipe for the scotch whisky hasn’t changed in centuries and still has a hint of mystery to it.

Well, that’s great because I found the commercial a complete mystery. I decided to turn to my father for help in understanding the meaning of the commercial. Here is a rough transcript of the ensuing conversation that made me feel like a four-year-old all over again. (Not too sure if the same conversation caused my father to feel younger, or simply older.)

Me: What the heck was that?

Pop: Pardon?

Me: That commercial made no sense.

Pop: Explain.

Me: I have no idea what meaning I’m supposed to derive from that advertisement.

Pop: Well, they’re trying to say that the forest, which takes a long time to grow, has changed over time while the recipe for Drambuie has not. It’s a testament to how long it has lasted and that the only thing that has changed in the more than 200 years that it has existed is the bottle.

Me: Okay, so why was he coming out of the water?

Pop: Maybe he was going for a swim.

Me: And what was the purpose of the arrows being shot at him?

Pop: Maybe they were trying to go through the history of armaments.

Me: Why did he have to run away from the trees exploding out of the ground?

Pop: Got me.

Me: Ah, the commercial still doesn’t make sense.

So that was how the conversation went. I then made a comment about Wiser’s new commercials and the “Wiserhood” brand that the company is trying to build. That commercial, I said, was easier to understand. It is a play on the brand name and trying to relate drinking it with being a sophisticated, well-rounded man. Maybe it’s simplicity is what captured my attention. Have a look at the latest commercial:

But then I got to thinking about the Drambuie commercial. I was so confused by it and wanting to understand it that I went to the Drambuie website and read through what information was available so I could connect the leftover dots from the commercial. In doing so, I began to realize that the point of the ad was likely to neglect giving me all the information in order to prompt me into further investigation, and idea known as “Transmedia storytelling” where the audience has to go to multiple media to form an entire storyline:

Transmedia has its antecedents in the serialized fiction of Charles Dickens and the interlocking characters and locations of William Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County. Superheroes like Superman, created in the 1930s, came closer, appearing in comic books, radio and live-action serials but without coordination from a central creative force.

[…]

Audiences are especially active in what Jenkins dubs “transmedia” storytelling, in which a story spans multiple media in a coordinated way. In the traditional Hollywood model, the novelization, video game or website simply restates the characters or the plot of a film or a TV show. In transmedia stories, the creators of the entertainment will use those extensions to, say, fill in the gaps in a narrative or look at events from a minor character’s point of view — all of which combine into one big story that audiences have to piece together. “It appeals to the hunting-and-gathering impulses of fans,” Jenkins says. For instance, “District 9″ has online documentaries, websites for fake alien-rights organizations and, yes, benches, all of which help drive home the human-alien divide in the film’s fictional Johannesburg. “Those benches are designed to shape our experience of the film,” Jenkins says. “They’re not just designed to get us into the theater.”

Smooth. Very smooth. Two different commercials, but both with the same result. Very clever.