Petrisin 1 Andrew Petrisin Dr.

Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric 19 April 2013 Johnny Footballin Think about something that frustrates you. Wouldnt you like to let the world know your thoughts and feelings about it in a non-aggressive manner? Thats what satire is for. Least to say I am not a huge fan of this Johnny Manziel character. I figured that writing an entire newspaper about Manziel would not only be a ton of fun (which it was), but I would also to be able bring to light some things that you may have not known about him while also quasi-tackling important scholastic issues. As far as research went it was lot of it was news articles along with common knowledge that I already had. The citable items in my newspaper are pictures and a few statistics along with some info on his night in jail. Most of the information on him was not researchable in books because most, if not all, of the events happened in the past year. I also have a lot of good friends that go to Texas A&M and I always like to get a little jab in when I can. The newspaper tackles the idea of the student-athlete. Johnny Mazniel is a great example because not only is he very well known but he also makes his life choices very public. Let me make this clear- I am not judging the choices he is making but simply saying that now as a Heisman trophy winner he has to understand that there is a huge spotlight on him. What I argue is that some of his actions are very unusual for a Heisman trophy winner; most winners are more reserved and humble as opposed to the media storm that is Manziel. On top of that I am deeply criticizing that universitys policy to allow Manziel to take only online classes. The way I see it is that he is not a student-athlete. To be a student athlete you must be just like any other student and on top of

Petrisin 2 that play football. A university is not a factory for professional sports- it is a place to become enlightened. On the first page I introduce the reader to the man that is Johnny Manziel: this was something that many people asked for during class peer review. I decided it would be a great addition just in case the reader was not necessarily up to date on the latest Johnny fanfare. This also gave kind of a more serious tone to the first article, which is a good set up for the ridiculousness of the rest of it. Something that most people said I did well when looking over my draft is giving it an authentic college newspaper feel. There are lots of side-stores, pictures and quotes that only help build the image of Johnny Manziel that I am presenting. I drew inspiration from The Onion articles and incorporated many of the themes that they use into my paper. I chose to use The Onion because it does a great job of brining together both hilarity and societal critique. I wrote my newspaper in a way that starts off with very lighthearted humor and develops into more of a critique of how we treat our student athletes. However, then at the end it fades a little bit again into more of the lighthearted humor realm. I decided that this gave me the best mix of critique and humor and I love the way it turned out. In accordance with the Onion, I was also given the power to create my own quotes. While this was a blast some of them are actually not made up (such as the tweets). I think this adds another great mix in the form of a blended reality; I want to reader to be able to believe that everything in the newspaper could have actually been said or done. Using the newspaper medium I thought that I could create something that seems very authentic- something that you might actually see at a university. This does not necessarily mean that my audience is just college kids- I think different parts of my paper will appeal to different types of people. The sections where I am simply making fun of Manziel will probably be more

Petrisin 3 well received by those who are not fans of Texas A&M. However, articles that are more critical of the student-athlete I feel will appeal to anyone who cares about the well-being of our universities. All students (even if they are aggies) who dont play a sport will be able to identify with different treatment of student-athletes. It makes you contemplate what role sports should play at a university and how student-athletes should be treated compared to the rest of the university population. I think that through the written medium the writer has total control of the satire because the viewer has to interpret the words of a stranger. Essentially the viewer has no bias because he cannot see the person writing and therefore is more open to thinking about your work before writing it off. On top of that, writing allows for you to be more sarcastic without surrendering any of your legitimacy. While satire in the written medium is considered scholarly I feel that at times satire in other mediums can come across as arrogant. Written medium also follows the Onion model that I used- which seems to have been pretty successful for them. An unforeseen difficulty was writing a newspaper someone I dont necessarily like. I had to make it a newspaper that brings up an important issue in college sports rather than something written simply to bash him. Honestly, it took about writing half of the newspaper in order to recognize this. In order to fix this problem I had to take a serious look at the purpose of this multimedia source. I began to go back through the paper to update some of the information and even do a little bit of research about graduation rates in order to give it credibility. This definitely rounded out the paper in order to make it more than simply a joke. Something that I did not expect to a problem was uploading the file to my wordpress site. I did my best to make it look exactly as it did before while also maintaining the college newspaper look and feel. I think in the end I created a paper that gives a great critique of the student athlete while also making a few funnies here and there.

Petrisin 4 Of all the people who wont like this newspaper, the number one person will probably be Johnny Manziel himself- he probably thinks that I am hating on him. I also may or may not alienate all 50,000 students who attend Texas A&M as well as 350,000 alumni. So other than the 400,000 people who I am offending I think Im in the clear. However, while I see these people not appreciating the simple humor in the newspaper I feel that they will appreciate the criticism of the university. Most of these 400,000 people were not student-athletes at Texas A&M but normal students- they will understand my critique because they can relate to it. But it is not only this institution, it is universities all across the country; Im sure some level of it happens here at Notre Dame as well. To (maybe) help resolve those tensions a few of the jokes that are in the newspaper are specifically tailored only to people who know a fair amount about Texas A&M. For instance, I have previously experienced and heard from friends that the dining halls are pretty bad- so I put in a little joke. I feel that these types of things will lessen the criticism I will receive from aggies because they will identify with me. I am not a random sarcastic jerk in their eyes anymore, but a sarcastic jerk that understands them; and this will bring a level of credibility and legitimacy to me as a writer in their eyes. The concept of the student-athlete will be challenged. However, I am not simply trying to tear down Texas A&M but am simply bringing to light some of the ridiculousness of the entire situation. Johnny; maybe tone it down a little bit and people wont be hating. Manziel is a great football player but may need to watch his antics: as the great Oklahoma football coach Mike Stoops once said, if they can keep [him] out of jail or keep him eligible, hes gonna be pretty good.

Petrisin 5 Works Cited "Johnny Manziel Is Partying for Mardi Gras." Throw The Flag Blog. N.p., 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. "Logo Icons." Logo Icons. N.p., 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Boroff, David. "Johnny Manziel Lights up Dallas Nightclub with Buxom Blonde following Cotton Bowl Victory." NY Daily News.7 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Cultra, Shane. "Michael Pandelides and Domain Bank Are About to Bank on JohnnyFootball with JohnnyFootball.com." Domain Shane. 11 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. DeGroote, John. "Texas A&M Aggies." Bleacher Report. 16 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. McGraw, Glenn. "Johnny Spring Break Manziel Rocks Beer Pong Shorts, Officially a Legend [Photo]." Gamedayr RSS. 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Ozanian, Mike. "Heisman Trophy Winner Manziel Punished By NCAA And NFL."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 09 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Potter, Michael. "Alabama." Al.com. N.p., 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Russo, Ralph D. "College Football." College Football. 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Sherman, Rodger. "Remembering Johnny Manziel's Twitter: 20 or so of His Best contributions." SBNation.com. N.p., 27 Mar. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Steinbach, Paul. "Record NCAA Graduation Rates Dont Tell the Whole Story Athletic Business, Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Weiss, Dick. "Texas A&M Quarterback Johnny Manziel Should Run off with 78th Heisman Trophy." NY Daily News. 7 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

Petrisin 6 Xavier, Robert. "Johnny Manziel Breaks Twitter Silence After Night At Bar [PHOTOS, TWEETS]." BustedCoverage Sports Gossip Drunk Athletes Hot Cheerleaders Football News RSS. N.p., 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Zaldivar, Gabe. "Johnny Manziel Leaves Twitter, Nation Mourns Loss of Social-Media Giant." Bleacher Report. 26 March 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.