Satire+Reflection (1)

7/30/2019 Satire+Reflection (1)

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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


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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


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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.


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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.


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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 StoryAthletic

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.


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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.

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