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Baseball Podcast

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Audio Script:

Hello. This is Mike Drew here with your communication podcast. Today, we focus on the upcoming Major League Baseball season. It is this time of year in which hope springs eternal optimism throughout the states of Florida and Arizona, where all MLB teams are mired in spring training. It is truly a beautiful time on baseball’s calendar, in that even those teams who had the most humbling seasons in 2012 believe that this year could be their year. With that in mind, we ask: what does it all mean? Well, to start, the LA Angels believe this is their year, in large part due to their offseason spending splurge. The team signed All-Star Slugger Josh Hamilton away from the rival Rangers just one year after luring one Albert Pujols away from the St. Louis Cardinals. However, the Halos represent just one piece of an unfolding California baseball revolution. The cross-town rival Dodgers, led by NBA icon Magic Johnson and the rest of their new ownership group, boast the largest payroll in baseball. This newfound wealth places the Dodgers in a position of contention as a threat for the foreseeable future. And then, there are the defending champs. The San Francisco Giants somehow enter 2013 as an under-the-radar bunch, but that’s just how they like it. Their past two World Series championships (in 2010 and 2012) prove that these Giants just need to find a way into the postseason and get hot at the right time. And that’s just California. The same senses of optimism exist in places like Detroit, St. Louis, Texas, New York and even Boston. The 2013 season is finally upon us. If the past decade serves as any indication, baseball fans are in for another wild ride. This has been your communication podcast.

Success in Web 2.0

Personality Portraits

Two of my friends from Lammers Hall, freshmen Jeff Underhill and Ryan Poulin, engaged in a game of basketball.

Two more of my good friends, freshmen Sara Palis and Shawn Luce, battling eachother in Go Fish.

About Me

A side-angle view of a Nerf football that I've owned since my childhood.

An obscure view of my bobblehead of former New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi. Bruschi has long been one of my favorite figures in sports.

Life at Westfield

Stacks of books in Westfield's Ely Library in the middle of a busy day.

A row of swung open-washing machines in Lammers Hall on Tuesday.

Around the Classroom

A unique look at the floor of Prof. Kang's Intro to Comm Tech class.

                                                                                   

A different vantage point of a typical keyboard in Prof. Kang's classroom.

Newsy Events

A snow-covered campus at Westfield State University, two days after a forceful blizzard.

Camera view of Amelia Park Ice Arena before the Westfield men's hockey team took on UMass Dartmouth Tuesday night.

Hulu

In today's culture, the online streaming of movies and television series has become extremely prevalent. It is incredibly difficult to imagine a world in which we could not find a program we wanted to watch with the click of a mouse. One of the most influential components of our modern media is Hulu.com.

Hulu.com is an interactive website that provides movies, TV shows, classic clips and other types of video content for free. You can also upgrade to Hulu Plus, a monthly subscription service designed to provide even more content. The free version of this service is incredibly similar to Youtube. Its business model centers around "giving away" forms of entertainment to the public. With this knowledge, it is fair to ask exactly how Hulu generates its revenue.

Hulu is able to make money through its brilliant advertising techniques. The website promotes itself at various points during its videos in a way that most viewers find to be un-obtrusive. This severely contrasts with Youtube's advertising method, which hits viewers over the head with ads before nearly every single video that can be viewed.

Like most other successful companies today, Hulu has also developed a Facebook page to allow its website to gain greater publicity. Hulu's page also provides viewers with clips of classic moments in film/television and arranges its content by what is currently relevant in society. For example, the page listed a video called "best Super Bowl commercials" the day after this year's Super Bowl.

Hulu receives its video content from hundreds of major providers. These include major networks such as NBC, FOX, ABC, Nickelodeon, etc. In fact, CBS is the only major network that has not provided its content to Hulu, as it has its own site, TV.com.

In all, Hulu is a tremendously successful Internet business. Allowing people to view movies/programs for free has led to an accumulation of over 27.2 million users of the website. In today's media-oriented society, Hulu stands tall as one of the true pillars of entertainment viewing.

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To see Hulu for yourself, check out the website. You can also visit their Facebook page here.
Images:
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Tough Mudder

  Tough Mudder represents an intense physical challenge that requires its participants to travel a 10-12 mile course and endure 25 obstacles that have been designed by British Special Forces. These obstacles are in place to test participants' overall strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie.

  The organization wanted to further publicize its obstacle course challenges, which take place in many locations all around the world. To begin this process, the company created a Facebook page in 2010 to increase conversation about its events. Tough  Mudder also developed Facebook advertisements to further increase awareness of their organization. They successfully identified a "target market" and designed ads meant to attract, "people between the ages of 25 and 45 in Northern California" and people who were interested in "extreme sports" and "MMA".

 In the end, Tough Mudder's efforts provided the company with a multitude of tremendous rewards. For one, the company's sales increased 24 times in just 2 years. Tough Mudder's fan base also grew from 250,000 to an eye-popping 2.5 million in just a year and a half. Media Director Peter Wylie says, "Facebook continues to help us grow our business by introducing our brand to new markets and helping us maintain contact with past participants when we return to a market."

 While Tough Mudder may never become as grand a spectacle as the X Games, it has still generated a much wider and more intense following thanks to its marketing approach. Their company's story further exemplifies a growing trend in today's busness world. Using Facebook to promote/intrigue people about your organization is one of the single most intelligent moves a business can make.

To learn more about Tough Mudder, visit their website at Toughmudder.com or visit their successful Facebook page.

Images:

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http://www.marketsmithinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Tough-Mudder-Facebook.jpg