Steroid Abuse In College Athletics: Is it Happening More than We Think?

When it comes to athletics, the use of steroids has always been a controversial topic. However, it seems now more than ever college athletes have been using this powerful drug and other performance enhancing stimulants. One reason more students are using these is because they have become very accessible and can be taken in many ways. Steroids, for example, can be taken orally, injected, or even rubbed onto one's skin in a cream/gel form. These can be very dangerous drugs when abused and there are also bad repercussions with it's use.

1st source: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=1733808
This website is all about the "politics" of steroids. It has news on how Barry Bond's trainer was recently indicted. It says that this is just an example of how steroid use is no longer an "in-house manner." Since this indictment the attorney's are looking into other trainers that might be showing similar behavior to Greg Anderson. This isn't really about college athletes as it as it about the seriousness of steroids use. This site helps to show how the government is getting involved to stop steroid abuse. So, by stopping pro athletes from using and it can then influence college students to also stop or never start using to begin with.

2nd source: http://media.www.elcaminouniononline.com/media/storage/paper354/news/2005/03/03/Sports/Steroid.Use.By.Professional.Athletes.Has.Impact.On.Students.In.College.Sports-886645.shtml
This website has a similar tone to the first source. It directly talks about how the influence of professional athletes use of steroids can affect college students opinion on the drug. This story talks about not only the influence, but also the long term affects that can come from steroids. It's important to get those facts out there in order to stop college athletes use of the drug before it starts.

3rd source: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/steroids/steroids_ff.html
This site is a government site and it explains exactly what steroids are. It goes over percentages of steroid users and how they are starting in high school. It talks about the health risks and traffiking and production of the drug.

4th source: http://www.drugfree.org/playhealthy/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=mlb

This site is extremely helpful and contains all sorts of media outlets with information on steriods. It has a short PSA type video showing the effects of steroids on the body. It also lists reasons why performance enhancing drugs are dangerous overall. It lists links to more videos, blogs, and stories all related to steroid and performance enhancing drug use.

5th source: http://chronicle.com/news/article/667/steroid-use-by-college-athletes-declines-ncaa-reports
This site states that steroid use in colleges may be on the decline actually however, the use of stimulants is not. It talks about the research that the NCAA has done on steroids and stimulants. Students were found using such subtances as cocaine and ephedrine.

6th source: http://www.campushealthandsafety.org/audiences/athletes/
This site discusses ways to spot steroid use in athletes. It talks about how coaches and trainers can influence the athletes positively. Also, try to teach the students ways to avoid the use and give them a "game plan" to help them keep from using it. It seems more like a PSA type site, but it does have good facts to see warning signs and so on.

Twitter

After reading each of the articles, my idea of twitter hasn't really changed. I believe Twitter.com is just a website for socializing and keeping up with others. It is not a site for journalism. The reason it is not is because it's not reliable because anyone can post on the site. Just like the person who put there was an attack at the Marriot, which was false, anyone could put anything on that website. I think it is just another social site just like myspace, facebook, or blogs. Someone could of course put real events that occur on Twitter.com, but I wouldn't trust everything you read on that website. It could lead to breaking news and could be useful for reporters to see if they events posted are true. However, most of the posts are just personal one's to family and friends of the person posting and therefore are not newsworthy.

Online Journalism

I think that many newspapers that are in the paper format will probably be switching to or at least adding an online paper. I feel many popular papers have already made the switch to Online Media. I think the fact that they can run a newspaper the same way as a paper one, but only cheaper is great. I think the great thing about Online Journalism is all the features you can add to the site which enhance the story such as: Video clips, surveys, polls, and photo gallerys. I think Online Journalism could just use the same stories from the TV news programs and even post the video portion shown on TV. Investigative journalism is very important and should continue. It's important for people to know and be informed in all that goes on around them. I think that there is a lot in store for the media and online journalism and that it will continue to grow and change.

Thoughts on the Washington Post Article...

While searching through thewashingtonpost.com at first, it seemed like a pretty nice website. However, after reading the article and seeing what their "pillars" were, my mind changed. The fact that their 2nd most imporant pillar is "engangement" and that is one of the places the website is lacking the most. The issues of new coffee shops and entertainment are not issues they should be working on. They need to be talking about fixing what's wrong in the community and bringing out the hard news. Also, they need to be a place where people can access and tell the site what needs to be fixed. There is a place for entertainment and so on, but they needed to have more ways for people to put feedback on the important issues. I find it interesting that they seem to think that you can build "community through anonymity." That doesn't usually seem to be the case. I think the article was a good one and I think that Katharine Weymouth needs to be looking into ways to better the website.

Assignment for Wednesday

For this assignment I chose the following websites: http://www.slate.com/ ,http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/, http://www.moveon.org/ and http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/.

The first site slate.com is owned by The Washington Post Company and has been around since 1996. It seems to be a pretty credible site with a staff full of experienced writers. The stories and topics are about politics, news and culture. The information from the site should be accurate considering it is produced by the Washington Post. The topics on the site seem to be very relevant and updated often. You can search through the site to find out stories on different dates and so obviously there are stories everyday. The site is pretty user friendly and organized.

The 2nd site is andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com which is produced by The Atlantic magazine. This site however is an extension off their main website and it seems to be more like a personal blog. It has newsworthy topics however, they seem to be more opinionated and less unbiased. It seems to accurate on the fact that it's based on the news now, but with more opinion then fact. It looks like a blog, but still pretty basic and user friendly.

The next site was moveon.org is produced by Moveon.org Civil Action nonprofit organization. It is political news and national issues. It has also is a place for people to learn how they can do things in their community even if they feel they don't have the money or the power to do so. The stories on the site are relevant and seem to be updated often. It's a very user friendly website and organized.

The last site is blogs.theherald.com/dave barrys blog. It is produced by the Miami Herald ,but the writer for the page is Dave Barry. It seems to be a blog on political, news, and random event stories. It seems to be updated and relevant. Some of the stories however, seem just to be ridiculous or fun reads and not so much newsworthy. The site is user friendly and has the typical "blog" look to it.

Monday's Assignment

I went to UCF, USF, FSU, UF, and UNF's department of communications websites. For the most part all of their websites seemed to be a little more up to date then FSC's. I think that we could use more video clips or at least montages of pictures on our site. I also think that having more photos of the students with the professors should be on the website. Also, I think that all the pictures should be more recent and display the Comm. depart/ builiding as it is now.