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Putting myself in the shoes of a sports broadcaster, I decided to make a video detailing my picks for the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. While I know quite a bit about hockey, I challenged myself to look extensively into each team in order to make my final selections. By comparing season records against each other, key injuries, and history, I was able to come up with who I think will walk away with the Stanley Cup. Below, I'm going to compare my video to the top playoff bracket video made by a man and by a woman, bringing some perspective to the difference gender makes for sports broadcasters. I found myself combining both of the broadcaster's approaches to their videos, using strict knowledge and research like Glynn, but limiting myself to two minutes, like Nolan. By combining the two, I feel like I found a compromise between the expectations for the two genders in their broadcasting styles.
Steve DangleSteve "Dangle" Glynn is a Sportsnet employee who creates digital content for the broadcasting company, specifically about hockey. His videos collect thousands of views, with his personal channel amassing over 60,000 dedicated subscribers. For his bracket challenge video, Glynn spends over seven minutes detailing his thoughts on ever round, which is over five minutes longer than I spent. However, his video has reached over 122,000 views after being up for less than two weeks. This suggests that people are looking to Glynn for his opinions on their own brackets, with the video having the most views of any NHL bracket challenge video on YouTube. Viewers are putting their trust in his reasoning and interacting below in the comments in rather civil ways, with the top comment reading: "Steve gave an unbiased awnser. Im glad." As a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, Glynn was expected to choose the team to win, but by not doing so, it gave him more credibility to viewers. This credibility is vital to Glynn being successful because without it, his videos would not gain nearly as many views as they currently do, with viewers putting their trust in him to guide them through the Stanley Cup Playoffs because he's proven to have the knowledge and background about the sport through this video, and many of his others.
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Katie NolanConversely, Katie Nolan's bracket challenge video hasn't hit 25,000 views after being uploaded over a year ago. Nolan, who works at FOX Sports covering all sports, does not have the same credibility as Glynn. This may be because she isn't dedicated to one sport or because her content isn't pushed as solely digital, with Nolan hosting her own show on the network entitled: "Garbage Time with Katie Nolan". While the network does provide Nolan with a platform, something rare for female sports broadcasters, her bracket challenge video is clearly different than Glynn's. An obvious difference is the year: Nolan's video, while ranking as the fourth most-viewed bracket challenge video on YouTube, is from the 2016 season. This suggests that Nolan or the network felt no need to produce another one this season because the video didn't garner enough views, with Nolan's channel having almost 57,000 subscribers, so less than half viewed the video. Additionally, the performance by Nolan is vastly different than Glynn's. Glynn remains calm and explains himself at length for his selection, while Nolan is given two minutes, starting the video by giving extensive reasoning, yet soon falling into jokes to just get the bracket done before the two minutes ended. By acting this way in the video, it makes viewers less likely to trust her selections, something that becomes evident upon reading the comments, with the top comment reading: "These picks are awful". Nolan's forced to endure far more scrutiny than Glynn's because of her gender, so by using comedy, her opinions are automatically belittled further because viewers assume that she doesn't take her own picks seriously.
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