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FEATURES
Paul J. MacArthur: The Olympic research King of Utica University
◊ HOLLIE DAVID
FEATURES EDITOR
The Olympic Games run for 17 days every other year and garner billions of views across the globe. Paul J. MacArthur, Utica University Professor of Public Relations and Journalism, studies media coverage for each of these games to analyze different trends. MacArthur became interested in Olympics research in the spring of 2008 while attending a conference featuring speaker Andrew C.Billings, the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting and Executive Director of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama, who was presenting findings from the 2006 Winter Olympics. “I had some thoughts about the presentation because I thought they had ignored snowboarding coverage,” MacArthur said. “I knew I would be teaching the course in Fall 2008. I had always liked the Olympics and writing about sports.” After speaking with Billings at the conference, MacArthur was invited to participate in research taking place about the USA vs. China basketball game in the summer of the 2008 Olympics, where they compared various media coverage of the game to discover any trends and biases. MacArthur was then asked to help with research Billings was doing for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the team has been working together and studying game coverage ever since. The overall goal of the Olympics research is to study different patterns in coverage throughout all of the games and events as a whole. The platform they examine for media coverage is NBC’s primetime broadcast. According to MacArthur, in an Olympic broadcast, there are roughly 65-72 hours of content that need to be combed through by everyone on the research team. After the data is collected, it needs to be organized and defined, then sorted to find out how often a name was mentioned and organized again by race, gender and nationality. There are thousands upon thousands of descriptors that have to be looked for differences and it needs to be determined if they are significant. The research team focused on three main areas of coverage: air time based on gender, who gets the most coverage out of the top twenty athletes of the year and the overall descriptions of athletes, which includes race, ethnicity, nationality etc. According to MacArthur, the process of gathering data was very labor intensive. “I’ve never clocked [my research] and that is probably a good thing,” he said. “The research is extensive and detailed, and you are rewinding each broadcast and correcting the coding. It is a long process to go through.” After all the information is sorted, the team looks for any particular trends in the data. They then compare the data longitudinally with information that was gathered in past years to determine any long term trends or drastic changes in coverage. “I think when we find something unexpected or unusual it becomes really intriguing,” MacArthur said.
Paul J. MacArthur being interviewed next to the Utica University pool. /Photo: Utica University
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MACARTHUR FROM PG. 8
“When women first dominated the coverage, it was an exciting finding. Now that it is consistent, it is great from an equality standpoint and it is cool that we are seeing a trend in that. You don’t see that anywhere else.” MacArthur also cowrote the book, Olympic Television Broadcasting the Biggest Show on Earth, with Billings and James R. Angelini, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Delaware. This book examines how the Olympic Games are broadcasted across the country and MacArthur uses his book to help teach his SCM 433 class at Utica University about the Olympics. MacArthur was recently featured in a Washington Post article in regards to the NBC coverage of the Olympics and lack of criticism on China’s human rights abuses. In the article, MacArthur said that no matter how NBC broadcasts the Olympic Games, the network will face some sort of criticism. Even after around 15 years of doing Olympic research in some sort of fashion, something new seems to pop up at each Olympic Games, according to MacArthur. “It is interesting to find new ways to look at and examine the data,” MacArthur said. “Our research is going down avenues that have not been gone down before.” More information on MacArthur’s Olympic research and book can be found on Fiveringtvcom.
CSTEP is looking for more students
◊ CHARLES BUCKLEY
TANGERINE CLERK
The Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) is currently looking for more students to join. The CSTEP program of Utica University is funded by a grant from the New York State Education Department (NYSED). “CSTEP is a grantfunded program for underrepresented students in underrepresented fields, [such as] students pursuing a professional licensing career in math, science, technology or health-related fields,” Assistant Director of CSTEP, Kari Bearne said. Some of the majors eligible for the CSTEP program include accounting, biology, biochemistry, computer science, mathematics and more. The CSTEP program offers a wide variety of services to students, such as tutoring, academic advising and counseling. Participating students can also complete an internship in their chosen field and attend conferences and workshops that will aid them in preparation for their chosen profession. “We meet with the students at least twice a month to guide them academically,” Bearne said. “We also have professional tutors to help them with their majorrelated classes. We work closely with career services and faculty in the field for internship placement and we will also assist the students with internship searches.” Students also receive some financial support when it comes to the costs of preparatory exams for graduate studies, as well as fees for registration, licensing exams, conferences and workshops. Students also have the opportunity to gain practical experience through job shadowing, mentoring and the available internship opportunities that they receive offers for. “To be eligible for this program, you must be a resident of New York State and you must earn a cumulative G.P.A of 2.5 or higher,” Bearne said. “They must be also majoring in one of the required majors for the CSTEP program. The student will then have to go through an interview process with me.” According to the Utica website, CSTEP also has summer opportunities for students, including a five-week summer institute program that is meant to help students become more prepared for the engaging and challenging coursework. “CSTEP students are students that are higher on the academic scale and have the drive to become a professional,” Bearne said.
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Utica Dance Team reflects on season
Utica Dance Team 2021-2022. /Photo: Utica Dance Team
◊ MORGAN HINMAN
GENERAL ASSIGNMENTS REPORTER
The Utica Dance Team was established in 2018 and focuses on two aspects, including performing for sporting events and competing at collegiate dance competitions. They currently perform at basketball and hockey games, with hopes of adding football and lacrosse into the upcoming seasons. The former Utica College Dance Company now goes by Utica Dance Team after Utica earned university status last week. The dance team’s cocaptain, Hailey Bassett, said the basketball season provided a large turnout for them. The team had the opportunity to perform at five games, including two women’s and three men’s games, where they got to showcase two different choreographed dances. “I definitely enjoyed dancing for the men’s ice hockey team,” Bassett said. “This was something I had never done before. It was different and exciting at the same time.” With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there have been challenges that arose, but the team continued to push through, captain Michaela Mellor said. “While COVID restrictions did limit our team at times, we never felt discouraged,” Mellor said. “We kept pushing to be as active as possible.” Some restrictions have been lifted this semester, which gave more opportunities for the team to dance at home games and become involved with other campus events. Tryouts are open to anyone who has a passion for dance and competition. Dance experience is not required to try out for the team, but is recommended. The team holds separate auditions for the dance team and the competition team. Although, in order to be on the competition team, you need to first be on the dance team. The tryouts for the dance team are held in the beginning of each fall semester. The team puts in an effort to hold them around the first day of classes to ensure they have time to prepare and get ready for the upcoming season. Head choreographer Sophia Hartnett said that the dance team’s most important goal is to be recognized as a sport in the current and upcoming seasons. “This will definitely not happen overnight, but this is something I will continue to work on,” Hartnett said. “Other goals I have for the team are attending competitions, creating a team with more dancers and incorporating the dance team with more on campus events.” Hartnett takes on many roles as the head choreographer. Her job includes conducting practices, choreographing the competition dances/ events, overseeing the sports dances and organizing music and costumes. When it is time for tryouts, she and Mellor work together to build the team. The biggest thing dance provides Mellor is the support and bond everyone has with each other. “My favorite thing about the dance team is being able to continue a long growing passion of mine, but specifically alongside a group of girls who share the same passion,” Mellor said. “It is definitely a family of its own and we all support each other inside and outside of dance.” For Bassett, dance provides a learning experience. “All of us come from different dance backgrounds, which allows us to learn from each other and grow,” Bassett said. Anyone interested in the Utica Dance Team should contact an executive board member or reach out through Instagram (@ uticadanceteam), Facebook (Utica College Dance Company) and PioHub.
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EIC Eats No.3: Plant-Based Fast Food
◊ MATTHEW BREAULT
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
After attempting and completing two incredibly unhealthy McDonald’s fast food challenges, I decided to try something different. For this week’s EIC Eats, I decided to stick with fast food, but do two plantbased menu items that you may have heard of: the Impossible™ Whopper from Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Beyond Fried Chicken Nuggets. Here’s my review:
Impossible™ Whopper
The Impossible™ Whopper is my favorite item of the Burger King menu, so this was a fun sandwich to eat. Unfortunately, in order to make this truly plantbased, I had to get it without mayonnaise. In addition to no mayonnaise, I also did not have onion or tomato because those are not my favorite things. When you bite into an Impossible™ Whopper, it honestly doesn’t taste anything like a real Whopper. It has this distinct taste, however, that makes each bite just as enjoyable as the last. This sandwich does have a meaty taste, but it’s not the hamburger meat taste you want out of a Whopper. Overall, I personally enjoy this sandwich far more than the traditional Whopper. The soy-based meat is a very flavorful alternative, and this would be a good option for someone on a plantbased diet. If you are looking to lose weight, I would stay away from this because in terms of calories, fat, sodium, etc., it is not much different compared to the traditional Whopper.
Beyond Chicken Nuggets
KFC decided to do a new promotion with Beyond Meat®, which is a plant-based alternative to their original fried chicken. After consuming 18 of these Beyond Chicken Nuggets, it is safe to say I have a strong sense of what they’re like. For being a chicken alternative and not the real meat, these nuggets were tasty. They were larger than any other fast food chicken nuggets and were in the shape of perfect squares. If I did a blind taste test with these, I would not have guessed that they were made with Beyond Meat®. However, they did have a downfall. To describe them bluntly, the breading made them taste like extra dry Burger King chicken nuggets. For those who know how BK’s nuggets taste, you will know exactly what I mean. I think the meat part of the nuggets were extraordinary and flavorful, but the breading was just dry. I don’t know how long KFC’s promotion will last, due to supply shortages and other things, but I would recommend giving these a shot. They have a great taste and with enough sauce, you won’t be able to tell how dry the breading is. Our Layout Editor Thomas Caputo also participated this week and he shared similar thoughts on these products. The only difference between
The Impossible™ Whoppers and KFC’s Beyond Chicken Nuggets consumed during EIC Eats No. 3. /Photo: Matthew Breault our reflections was he thought the Impossible™ Whopper tasted more like the traditional Whopper. Overall Nutrition Intake This challenge was much healthier than the previous two, but it was still a ton to consume. Here are the combined statistics from the Impossible™ Whopper and the 18 Beyond Chicken Nuggets: Calories: 2,066 Total fat: 123 g Carbohydrates: 152 g Protein: 136 g Dietary fiber: 5.7 g Total sugars: 13.5 g Cholesterol: 16.5 g Sodium: 5,663.5 mg EIC Eats will be a biweekly part of The Tangerine, where Editor-in-Chief Matthew Breault will do some sort of food challenge either alone or with fellow staff members. Thank you all for allowing me to share my food habits with you and you will hear/read from me soon. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to let me know.
