Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Garden Interviews March 10th

Kids interviewed for their view on todays athletes.
Today our group visited the Boston Garden.  We took street interviews of sports fans in the station.  Interviews lead to general conclusions about sports fans in Boston.  We asked essential questions about how athletes in service and their effect on the community.  
1.  Has your opinion about a professional athlete changed after they made a poor decision?
2.  How do you feel about the team after a single player makes a bad decision?
3. Do/Should players get special treatment?
4. Are Athletes role models?

Most people who answered the first question changed their opinion of an athlete once they made a bad decision.  However, their opinion of the player's franchise did not change.  They also did not hold the franchise responsible for one athlete's choices.  Most people thought that athletes should not get special treatment, even though they are considered to receive more leeway from the law and community.  Almost every person we spoke with believed that athletes are role models.  Many people told us that the children of Boston and the greater New England area treat professional athletes as heroes.  About half of those we talked with admitted that although athletes are role models, they don't always setting a good example for the children that idolize them.  through our interviews we learned how the Boston sports fans regard famous athletes, and how athletes appear to everyday people.  

Leanne

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having learnt all about the athletics and their community service performed every year, my outlook on pro athletes has been brought to another level. After speaking with Jessica Freeman, community outreach leader for the Patriots, and learning about the different programs that athletes are responsible for has taught me a lot. While at the Garden, our group was told to interview normal people walking around. while we were doing so, i came across someone who was a bruins fan and thought so much about them until we actually brought up the subject of them performing community service. This person was not informed about the athletes performing community service on their own. This may not have changed their opinion about the players, but it certainly brought attention to the fact that pro athletes don't only play their sport. I as well thought that athletes only did the community services they were told to do, after speaking with Jessica she mentioned that the athletes do independent community services. After this meet, I began to look at professional athletes from a whole other perspective. The interviews we did at the Garden were very informative to not only us, but as well as the people we were asking the questions to. Their opinion may not have changed, but it certainly made them think twice.

Anonymous said...

To get a good perspective about how the average person felt about athletes in sports i gained perspectives from both average people and people from a public relations department. This really showed about how someone who is trying to protect their organization varies from someone who just watches the sport. When I asked a person on the street whether they felt if professional players should be punished for a bad action everyone said they should because they are people like everyone else. Then when asking a PR representative whether professional player sould get in trouble they all said absolutely not. They said that the players are held to a higher standard which puts more pressure on them which should give them more leeway. By intervieving the two different types of people it really shows how far a repersentative of an organization will go for a player when the common man may think the opposite from them.

Tyler Raphael

Anonymous said...

We conducted a field test and surveyed the general public regarding athletes being role models and their major influence. Every person my partner and I approached said that in some capacity they admired professional athletes and looked to them as role models. This underscores the importance of athletes exhibiting good behavior especially those who are constantly in the lime light.

NICK

supp010 said...

Doing street interviews was a very interesting experience. My first few interviews did not go so well. However I found people to be very friendly and actually helpful. As my partner and I navigated our way around the North Station, I found that my interviews got more and more efficient and interesting. People in Boston were very friendly and it was a very good experience.