If you enjoy good stories, you’re in luck. Television, sometimes referred to as the great wasteland is offering up some great storytelling in the weeks ahead.
You can catch much of it this week during NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver, British Columbia. One well-known guiding principle in sports departments across America is the broad appeal of the Olympics.
Demographically speaking, men are a much greater target audience than women in virtually all areas of sports coverage … except for the Olympics. Many women who normally have zero interest in sports love watching figure skating in the Winter Games and women’s gymnastics in the Summer Games.
For decades, networks have played to this occasional-yet-devoted audience by offering much more than mere coverage of a sporting event. Indeed, the “up close and personal” features are now among the better pieces of the exhaustive coverage available today. With the Internet, you can now pick and choose stories of your liking.
For those of us interested in family history-related storytelling, we are blessed with two entertaining options – Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “Faces of America” series on public television and “Who Do You Think You Are?” on NBC-TV.
The Gates show debuted last week and will air weekly on PBS through March 3. If you missed the first show, it’s available online. The NBC show, produced by Lisa Kudrow’s company in partnership with ancestry.com, will debut on March 5. Both shows take looks into the genealogy of well-known people and almost always come up with some nifty surprises.
While each of these programs is straight-up entertaining, their storytelling styles also stand as examples of what you can do in your own family history project. Keep that in mind as you watch them.
Writing prompt for the day: Look for the story arcs that are presented in the Olympics coverage and determine how you might apply a similar style in your own family stories.
You can catch much of it this week during NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver, British Columbia. One well-known guiding principle in sports departments across America is the broad appeal of the Olympics.
Demographically speaking, men are a much greater target audience than women in virtually all areas of sports coverage … except for the Olympics. Many women who normally have zero interest in sports love watching figure skating in the Winter Games and women’s gymnastics in the Summer Games.
For decades, networks have played to this occasional-yet-devoted audience by offering much more than mere coverage of a sporting event. Indeed, the “up close and personal” features are now among the better pieces of the exhaustive coverage available today. With the Internet, you can now pick and choose stories of your liking.
For those of us interested in family history-related storytelling, we are blessed with two entertaining options – Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “Faces of America” series on public television and “Who Do You Think You Are?” on NBC-TV.
The Gates show debuted last week and will air weekly on PBS through March 3. If you missed the first show, it’s available online. The NBC show, produced by Lisa Kudrow’s company in partnership with ancestry.com, will debut on March 5. Both shows take looks into the genealogy of well-known people and almost always come up with some nifty surprises.
While each of these programs is straight-up entertaining, their storytelling styles also stand as examples of what you can do in your own family history project. Keep that in mind as you watch them.
Writing prompt for the day: Look for the story arcs that are presented in the Olympics coverage and determine how you might apply a similar style in your own family stories.
Larry Lehmer is a professional personal historian and legacy planner who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site, send him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.
Flickr photo courtesy of cloudzilla.
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