Are Athletes Role Models?

My personal view of the situation is this: athletes can be role models, but at times can also be bad examples to follow. In a society where big stars like Pacman Jones, Michael Vick, and Michael Phelps are portrayed the way they are, based on their corruptive actions, one must not also forget those true behind the scene role models that dedicate time out of their lives to bless and impact those in need. We are easily given images of Pacman Jones getting arrested, Michael Vick getting convicted for his dog fighting ring, or even, Michael Phelps most recently getting suspended for being caught smoking weed. However, what about those athletes who visit hospitals to inspire those kids who have fatal diseases to keep believing and fighting strong? What about those athletes who help the poor gather food and clothing in order for them to live somewhat of a better life? Are we to ignore these courageous actions by those men and women due to corruption of a selected few? Although our very morals and values in which helped establish this great nation are going down the drain, we must still realize what sports is to the American people. “In a world where people move around and families often fall apart, sports may be the closest thing to community some people find”, according to sports sociologist Dr. Jim Frey at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. So are athletes really corrupting our society?

Young America needs to realize they hold the most important key to life: freedom of choice. With that we are able to make decisions with the use of reasoning to make the appropriate, or what seems to be, choice in which we can make an impact on either one’s own life or the lives of others. Athletes are human like all of us, and thus, some will be making the wrong choices due to not knowing better or not knowing the consequences there of. When we see an athlete take a fall from personal actions they have taken, don’t try to reenact their decision making. On the contrary, learn from their mistakes and become a better person because of them. Also, when we see an athlete, like most, who are there to have a decent life and make the lives of those around them better, take in their success and what it took for them to get there because that is the perfect example of what it is going to take to get there. This is in order to understand that the better things in life do not come easy, but rather through hard work and dedication. This would help people get back to the morals and values that have helped us move forward as a nation. Then hopefully, one day, we will see a far more mature society who has learned from the mistakes of those before them, and therefore make decisions that will further help this world move in a better direction as a whole.

B.I.G. Idea Proposal Questions

1. Why is this important? Why would we need it?

2. Why should we invest some much money into this project?

3. What type of impact would it have on our university?

4. Is this project something that all people would look forward to getting involved with?

5. Does this project meet the necessary criteria to be worth considering?

Journal Entry #10

Rhetoric and Composition – What influences students on whether they do or don't enjoy reading and writing?

English Education – Using movies to teach us lessons from now, the past, and for the future.

Cultural Studies – What effect has rock music had on the lives of those who lived in that hard core ere?

Discourse Analysis – How accurate is Google?

5 Topics I Could Research and Write On
1. What has a better impact on athletes, Extrinsic or Intrinsic Rewards?
2. Does early childhood education have an influence on which subjects one may excel in?
3. Does childhood experiences have an impact on how one acts?
4. How does music influence how people act and respond to certain situations?
5. The impact of sports on people's lives and behaviors?

COMP Online Library Assignment

STUDENT AND COURSE INFO :

Student name : Joseph Hernandez

Email Address : josephhe@nova.edu

Instructor : Professor Mason

Topic : Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Rewards

: RESOURCE ONE :
Database used : ProQuest
Title of periodical or book : Journal of Leisure Research
Title of article: The Effects of Ethnicity and Gender on Facilitating Intrinsic Motivation during Leisure with a Close Friend
Author : Gordon J Walker
Full text available : yes
Bibliography : no
Citation from bibliography :

: RESOURCE TWO :
Database used : ProQuest
Title of periodical or book : Journal of Leisure Research
Title of article: Investigating the Relationships among Motivation, Negotiation, and Alpine Skiing Participation
Author : Konstantinos Alexandris, Charilaos Kouthouris, George Girgolas
Full text available : yes
Bibliography : yes
Citation from bibliography: Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds.). Action control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). Heidelberg: Springer.

: RESOURCE THREE :
Database used : ProQuest
Title of periodical or book : Communication Research
Title of article: How Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations Interact in Selectivity: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Situational Information Processing Goals in Issue Publics' Web Behavior
Author : Young Mie Kim
Full text available : no
Bibliography : no
Citation from bibliography :

: END OF FORM :

: Submit :

SUBMIT FINAL FORM NOW

Journal Entry 9

1. The writer is trying to find out more about what ways do writers represent their selves as they situate themselves within an activity system.

2. The author collects the data that she needs to answer this question by studying the writing of students in colleges. She would observe classes, interview students and teachers, and analyze the multiple genres of the system. She came to a realization that students encounter many “dialectical contradictions” as various factors pulled them in “different directions”. She calls the way she collected her information as a case study.

3. Peers use many sorts of genres as forms of “self-representation”. Some of them include: writing poems and music, painting art, using cultural backgrounds. This influences what they eat, how they live, how they act, and what their morals and values may be like.

Journal Entry 5- Specialization

In the discussions of English Studies , one controversial issue has been the problem of specialization. On the one hand, Evan Dewey argues “the effort to arrange a compromise in various courses of study by throwing the entire burden of election upon the student so that he shall make out his own course of study – this problem is only a reflex of the lack of unity in the social activities themselves, and of the necessity of reaching more harmony, more system in our scheme of life”. On the other hand, David Easton contends “to understand the world it has seemed necessary to analyze it by breaking it into many pieces—the disciplines and their own divisions”, he also adds, “but to act in the world, to try to address the issues for which the understanding of highly specialized knowledge was presumably sought, we need somehow to reassemble all the pieces”. Others even maintain “there was no place for a Renaissance man or woman in the newly de(com)partmentalized university. Soon after the turn of the century, however, specialization became more and more accepted as a way to advance knowledge beyond a kind of general application” (John Higham). My own view is that one should be specialized in one field of study. However, well balanced people are better prepared to advance in their field or career because they are more educated or experienced in various subjects than what they are specialized in. Thus, they are better prepared to encounter situations that may require knowledge or skill that you obtain from other fields of study in order to go about the situation. This is an issue scholars care about because it is what we are dealing with on a daily basis in our everyday lives. What’s at stake when debating this is our education and opportunity to become a person who is well knowledgeable in many areas of life that may in fact be critical in getting through our struggles.

Journal Entry 8

1. How Rock Bands fight to show their audience that they are for real. They fight to do this while, as the author said, they also “have to fight the industry, the cynicism of the press, and the indifference of the public in order to reach their ideal audience; a group loosely configured as those who will understand them--those who have nothing, not even a band to give them a voice”.

2. The Author uses texts and sources from: "A Star is Born and the Construction of Authenticity." Stardom: Industry of Desire by Richard Dyer, U2 at the End of the World by Bill Flanagan, Performing Rites: On Value In Popular Music and "Music and Identity." Questions of Cultural Identity by Simon Frith, "Blood on the Tracks" by Steve Lamacq, "Bittersweet Epiphany" by Steve Sutherland, and Time Travel by Jon Savage.

3. One particular way that I have grown up seeing how people attempt to establish their “authenticity” is by trying to give a ghetto image to those around them. One way they try to show this to people is by trying to prove to others that they are “tough”. Also, another way they try to establish themselves as “for real” is by explaining themselves to people that they are the way they are based on where they are from. They use this image to excuse themselves from acting proper, at times, and by not trying as hard to succeed in life because they view life as “rough” based on what goes on around them.