Bonus Prediction for 2014: Olympic Coverage

We left out one topic in our list of general news stories in 2014. It's the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which run from Feb. 6th through Feb. 23rd.

There will, of course, be a lot of coverage building up to the Olympics, including stories about somewhat obscure sports like curling (see "Curling: How Hard Can It Be?" in the Wall St. Journal). There will also be a lot of ads featuring Olympic athletes (including from employers showing how great they are to work for -- especially if you're an Olympic athlete) or Olympic-themed story lines. After all, the Olympics aren't just about world-class athletics and peaceful competition among countries. The games are also a world-class marketing opportunity.

We can also expect a lot of coverage of Russia, including its anti-gay laws, the security protecting the Olympic village, and the state of Russia today, its economy, its freedoms, and more about Vladimir Putin.

We probably have no excuse for omitting the Olympics -- except that we expect coverage to end on Feb. 24th.

Let us know if you think we missed anything else.

Prediction #11: The Intersection of Social Media and Traditional Journalism Will Be Increasingly Busy

For example, while the Super Bowl continues to be the biggest non-holiday event for which Americans gather together, and while people comment on the ads as much as the games, advertisers themselves are looking beyond the ads, often offering websites with extended versions of some ads, driving viewers to their sites. Another example: Olympic sponsors are changing their approach this year -- rather than having social media simply an add-on to advertising and their PR activities- they are embracing it/integrating it.

Do The Olympics Help Republicans?

That's a question that Forbes' publisher Rich Karlgaard asks in his blog. He thinks the Olympics instill pride in Americans, and that patriotism always helps the Republicans. I don't think that's necessarily true, and wrote the following comment to his blog:

The Olympics are a distraction, but they won't have a long-term impact. Americans across the political spectrum can be proud of our athletes without that pride swaying their vote. (We can also be proud of all the athletes who were born or educated here but represent other countries.)

Once the Olympics have ended, those of us who have watched the Games will go back to noticing the problems afflicting the country: high gas prices, high food prices, ongoing problems with the financial markets and credit that will lead to continued turmoil, foreclosures and layoffs, etc. And that's even before we remember the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, problems with Russia and Georgia.

We're all proud of Michael Phelps, but when Bob Costas and the others return home, we're going to want a new storyline. We'll want change.

That does not bode well for McCain.

The Olympics: A Sporting Event Aimed at Women, According to the New York Times

Check out Stuart Elliott's article in today's New York Times, "Olympics Draw High Percentage of Women Viewers, and Ads Intended for Them: Appealing to mothers who want to watch with the entire family" to get an interesting look at the Olympics.

We all know the judging is imperfect -- often incompetent.

We all know the commentary can be offensive -- listening to some (esp. during diving and gymnastics) you'd think there could be no greater catastrophe than U.S. divers who "can't find horizontal" (while the Chinese can) or U.S. gymnasts who can't stick a landing.

Listening to the tone of those announcers, I wonder whether we should put the athletes on a suicide watch. How can they live with themselves, what with all the splash they made with that dive? Oh the horrors, the horrors.

But this post is not about Olympic announcing -- there are other blogs for that (check out: "Am I the only one who thinks Olympic diving announcer Cynthia Potter is the worst ever?!!?")

It's not even about We Get It Already: 14 Olympic Stories We're Tired Of Hearing from Campus Squeeze.

But the real point of this post is that the Olympics, according to the New York Times, is not a sporting event aimed at men -- at least from an advertising perspective. The Wall St. Journal says the same thing in its article about Olympic advertising, "For Olympic Marketers, Emotions Pay: Most-Liked TV Ads Feature Soft Touch; Not the Super Bowl."

It's an event that women watch with their families.

I knew this already because my wife has caught Olympic fever, and has let our children watch all kinds of events, no matter how obscure -- like handball that's an amalgam of football, basketball and rugby. She's right again, because advertisers see this as a woman-driven event; even the Times' subtitle acknowledges that my wife is right.

My perspective: it's interesting enough to watch, but better with the sound off for some of the judge-centric events like diving and gymnastics.

Favorite Perspective on Olympic Events: "An Unsung Olympic Sport, Archery Really Hits the Spot"

After watching synchronized diving and men's gymnastics last night, I opened today's Boston Globe, and found a really good article. I was annoyed last night for two reasons:

• The person providing commentary about synchronized diving was clearly knowledgeable, but very annoying. These are some of the best synchronized divers in the world (I've never heard of the sport before, so they may also be the only synchronized divers in the world -- but that's not germane to this post), and pretty much everything they did -- according to the announcer -- was wrong or bad.
  
• The commentary for gymnastics was better, but judging is always flawed.

That's why, when I opened up Bob Ryan's column in today's Boston Globe, I smiled: "An unsung Olympic sport, archery really hits the spot."

• For the Globe, it was a very witty headline. (The Wall St. Journal's headlines are typically very well written.)
• He makes an important point about Olympic sports:

Archery is my kind of sport: no judges. Pick up the bow. Pull back the arrow. Fire. You either hit the target or you don't. You add up the points, and the archer, or team, with the most points wins. No muss, no fuss.

I think people like swimming because there are no judges: either you finish first or you don't.

But there's another reason to like archery, according to Ryan:

It's one of those Olympic sports that doesn't exactly threaten to muscle football, baseball, basketball, or hockey off the American front pages. But it's one of those sports that produces an interesting mix of competitors. Take, for example, the three-man American men's team, which consists of 52-year-old five-time Olympian Richard "Butch" Johnson, 32-year-old three-time Olympian Victor Wunderle, and 19-year-old Olympic debutant (as the Brits would say) Brady Ellison.

In the synchronized diving competition, some of the competitors were not just teenagers -- as they are in women's gymnastics -- but early teens. Shouldn't they be playing GameBoy or something?