About The Site
Over time, media coverage has increased, especially as Robert Morris has gone on to win conference titles in basketball and earn recognition as an up-and-coming college hockey program.
Colonials Corner has grown as well. What started as a small, independent site on a free platform with a handful of viewers per week has now grown into a nationally linked independent news source for thousands of fans, media members, athletes, and coaches.
Colonials Corner is not a “fan blog”. It is an independent news source that does its best to fairly gather, report, and analyze any pertinent news regarding the Robert Morris University Colonials. The basis of the website is rooted in the basic tenants of journalism. Indeed, the founder and creator of the website – Andrew Chiappazzi – contributes to the Beaver County Times‘ coverage of Robert Morris sports, and is the publisher PaPreps, the Pennsylvania high school section of Yahoo! owned Rivals.com.
As of June 2009, Chiappazzi is the only contributor to Colonials Corner, although he remains in close contact with Dave Weldon, who runs RMU Centre Ice. That site focuses primarily on Robert Morris hockey.
A quick note about the news-gathering methodology of this site:
Every news story comes from a variety of sources. Whether it’s a newspaper journalist working a beat, a magazine writer penning a lengthy feature, or a documentary filmmaker following a subject for months on end, no true journalist relies on one perspective. Sometimes, one perspective becomes dominant in the overall arc of the piece: The perspective of the dying all-star battling cancer, the perspective of the widow who lost a husband too young, et al.
There are several types of stories that appear on Colonials Corner. The most common are game stories or game notes, perspectives gleaned from either watching the game live and talking to players/coaches afterward, or from listening to the game or watching the game via a broadcast network and combining post-game interviews, comments from the broadcasters, and our own two eyes. These are simple. Person A says something, we quote them, maybe provide some background to the quote such as statistics or the detailing of a situation. A second perspective isn’t always necessary, although it does often provide depth and color.
Game previews, special features like “Bracketology” or our weekly CBS Basketball BlogPoll, are all relatively self explanatory as well.
But when it comes to the complex issues, such as the Mezie Nwigwe situation in March 2009, we tread carefully. From the most basic rumor on recruiting to a potential inflammatory issue, Colonials Corner does not engage in rumor mongering. Over the years, we’ve cultivated a small group of extremely trustworthy sources. These can be websites, individuals, or organizations. If we receive a tip from one of those sources, we will run with it. It’s not quite the “three sources or no story” method used by some newspapers, but considering how few sources have received that status, it rarely becomes an issue.
More often, we’ll get a link to a story in another publication. Maybe a recruit has committed when there’s not a scholarship available. We’ll run the link – we want the information out there – but we’ll do our due diligence to get the full story. You’ll then see an updated original post or a new post altogether clarifying the situation.
Treat this as a news site. That’s how it’s presented, that’s how we promote it, and that’s how we write it. If you have a comment, question, or concern about these methods, please feel free to email me at achiappazzi@gmail.com
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For more information about Chiappazzi, visit the Bio section of this web site.
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