1) http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/14/thomas.football.brain/index.html?hpt=C1
2) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/09/13/penn.death.ap/index.html?xid=si_ncaaf&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
3) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/09/14/college-football-player-who-committed-suicide-had-signs-of-brain-injury/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+DiscoverMindBrain+(Discover+Mind+&+Brain)
The articles I chose were about a football player from the University of Penn that hung himself. Owen Thomas was the starting lineman for the team that was name second team All Ivy in his sophomore year. In April he was found dead in his off campus apartment. An autopsy was performed on the young man only to find that he suffered from CTE. This syndrome is usually found in boxers. Why you might ask? Boxers end up with this syndrome from the repeated blows to the head. Repeated knocks to the skull tend to result in concussions. After finding out that Mr. Thomas had this disease, it led to some explanation for the hanging. Its effects are neurobehavioral, including erratic behavior, use of drugs and alcohol, depression and suicide. The kicker in the story was that Mr. Thomas had never been diagnosed with a concussion. Which brings up many scary factors/issues when thinking about our athletes.
One of the main differences between the articles is the sense of empathy. Source number 2 had a lot of quotes from his mother. It definitely was a lot harder to read when you felt the compassion of the mother to the son. Source number 3 was mainly focused on prevention of CTE in the future, and how it’s been a problem throughout the NFL.
The story in each article for the most part remained the same. The differences were the focus points of each article. They all focused on different aspects when talking about CTE. It was pretty evident on how each article differed. The bulk of the paper was about what the author wanted to get across to the reader. None of the articles really distorted the facts of the story, but deliberately focused on what the author was pushing for in the article.
Common links that were found throughout the stories were Mr. Thomas had never had a concussion before. He was a good student and well liked. The NFL in the past has had trouble with CTE. His parents were in great shock when it happened. CTE is a serious disease.
I hadn't even heard about that, but that's sad! I think you described the articles well and pointed out their similarities and differences. I also found it interesting to learn about CTE. I had no idea that it even existed before this article. I also agree with you that the second source showed more compassion.
ReplyDeleteWhen doing my articles for a story I also found that some of the sources were reporting about the same story but had different motives for reporting it. Maybe sources that were closer to the boy’s home, like a hometown news station or newspaper would dwell more on the sympathetic side of viewers/readers and the others wanting to focus more on how this may happen to seemingly normal people.
ReplyDeleteGood point Marissa. I had not heard about this story Brad. It's interesting that you can develop this condition without ever having a concussion..scary.
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty wild story. Although I'm only kicker and rarely ever get hit, it is pretty intimidating to mess around with your head. You never know what the outcome of one bad hit can give you.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I heard about this disease in a movie or something. I know I definitely discussed this recently with some soccer teammates. It's crazy that head injuries can cause people to commit suicide. I, too, noticed that different sources have different motives and therein play into different modes of persuasion.
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