This edition of 12 Reasons Why..... is about a former Orange blogger who has hit the big time. You can find his work on Fox Sports and the blog Bleacher Report (which can be found on my blog list). His work is outstanding and I know he will have a great future in journalism when he finishes college. Ladies and gentlemen, the best kept secret in Orange journalism, Mr. Jameson Fleming.
12 Reasons Why.....Jameson Fleming Is Proof When You Want The Best Journalists, Go Orange
1. For those who have not read your work, what is your background and what great university do you attend?
I'm currently attending Syracuse University and I am a junior broadcast journalism major in the Newhouse School of Public Communications.
2. Where can people find your top notch writing skills on display and how did you get started? Have you always known that this is what you wanted to do?
This is what I've wanted to do since middle school/early high school. I realized my dreams of being a pro athlete weren't going to happen so I got into journalism. My tenth grade gym teacher told me about Syracuse and I fell in love with the school. As for how I got started, I've had an interesting rise through the internet world. My final project for my radio reporting class was on sports blogging which was my introduction to sports blog basically. I was always a frequent commenter on Troy Nunes and then I started writing on the SU student section blog and then moved onto creating my own blog cuseadelphia.com which had a successful run of five months. I then moved onto Bleacher Report where I still am now. Through B/R, I'm a syndicated writer for CBS and Fox Sports. I was also published in ESPN the Magazine through a website I used to write for called www.StormingtheFloor.net. You can see my current profile here: http://bleacherreport.com/users/8394-Jameson-Fleming
3. So what's a day like in the life of Jameson Fleming? Do you find it a bit tough to balance student life and the writing?
Right now, I don't start class from Monday-Thursday til the afternoon, so you'll find me at the gym playing basketball every morning. I come back, run some errands, send some emails, maybe do a little writing if I have the time. I go to class, come back, get some homework done if I need to and then I watch whatever college basketball is on all night. After that I do any writing and homework I need to, then head to bed. I get up at either nine or ten depending on the day and do it all over again.
4. What are your career goals when you graduate? What would you consider your dream job?
My dream job would be hosting College Gameday for basketball or Baseball Tonight. Those two sports are my true loves. Those are lofty goals, but I've also become very found of the idea of basically being Jeff Goodman for Fox Sports or Gary Parish for CBS.
5. What advice would you give to those who would like to get into the journalism program and/or become a journalist altogether?
Write, write, write. Get at it. Meet people, remain in contact with people and don't burn bridges. You have to always want to know more. You want to find a story in everything. In college basketball, there's 344 teams which means 344 starting lineups, 344 coaching staffs, 344 fan bases. There's thousands of stories in there waiting to be told.
6. If you had one sporting event you could get paid to cover all expenses paid, what would you choose? Do you prefer watching games live in person, alone on television or out with a group of people?
I would want to cover the Final Four. Being in Detroit this April would be a dream fulfilled.
I prefer to watch in person without a doubt.
7. What are your favorite sports, teams and players? Who are your least favorite?
Favorite sports go college basketball, baseball, hockey, football. Favorite pro teams are all Philadelphia teams. Least favorite teams are Georgetown, Dallas Cowboys, Mets, Yankees, Braves, Penguins, UConn.
8. What is your favorite sports movie of all time? Favorite sports memory?
Coach Carter is probably my favorite sports movie. Basketball is also really funny and unique.
My favorite sports memory is a recent one. When the Phillies won the World Series I all but lost it. It snowed that night, so I was outside spraying champagne everywhere and just going nuts.
9. What are your must read websites and must watch television shows/channels? Anyone on a major network that when they start talking or major writer you try to avoid when it's their turn to talk?
My must reads are Bleacher Report (shameless plug), ESPN, SI, StormingtheFloor, RushtheCourt, CollegeHoopsNet, and I check Troy Nunes ( http://www.nunesmagician.com/ ) probably 50 times a day, constantly paging through the comments and all the fan posts. I watch ESPNU all day practically. I'll throw some ESPN in there, but now that college basketball is in full swing, I'm loving ESPNU. I'll also rewatch games on ESPN360 if I feel I need a better feel of how that team plays.
10. What is your opinion on the current Syracuse basketball team? What do you consider their strengths and weaknesses? How far do you see this team going in the post season?
I pegged SU as a sleeper as well as Wake Forest, Baylor, and UAB (wish I had that one back) from day one, so SU is living up to my expectations. The strengths are obviously this team's incredibly ability to get easy shots and generally its high shooting percentage and athleticism. Its weaknesses are its carelessness with the ball and sometimes lazy defense. This team has the talent to go to the Final Four, but I'm guessing Sweet 16, maybe Elite Eight with the right draw.
11. Where do you stand on the issue of #44 being retired from Syracuse football? Was it a good move or should it be restored to continue the tradition that has carried on for generations?
44 needs to comeback. I didn't follow SU when I was younger, but now that I've been on campus for almost three years I get the tradition. Great men wore that number. Great men should still wear that number. It should be a selling point to running backs for decades.
12. Your Free Space-Jameson, I hope I have given you a chance to pimp out how talented you are but if I have missed promoting any of your work or there is something else you wish to express, feel free to say it here.
I don't have much left to say other than some of plans for the near future. Hopefully I'll be spending the summer in LA interning for Fox Sports, if not I'm not sure what I'll be doing this summer. Hopefully it won't be like last summer where I can I'm the only person ever to serve as a reporter at Philadelphia Eagles Training Camp and as a curator to a museum for Pez Dispensers at the same time.
What I find sad about how much I write about college basketball is I've written Mike Krzyzewski so many times, I don't have to look up how to spell his name.
So even though me and Jameson disagree on a few teams as I am a Mets fan and Penguins fan, we come together mutually for the color of Orange. I wish Jameson the best of luck and hope he becomes very successful as a journalist because after reading his stuff, you will see he has the talent for someone still in college.
No comments:
Post a Comment