Death of Lewis Marnell

This article covers the death of Lewis Marnell, a prominent skateboarder.  He passed away due to hypoglemic reaction caused by type 1 diabetes.  Officials say that Marnell was found dead in his home in Australia on January 18th, 2013.  This story heavily impacted the skateboarding community because Marnell was only 30.  I choose this article because it distinctly gives the reader a history of Marnell’s life rather than solely commenting on his death.  The article briefly describes his childhood, his struggle with diabetes, and his rise to fame in skateboarding through various sponsors.  This article also contains a tribute video capturing the intensity Marnell possessed while skating. 

                This story contains 3 media components which are print, video, and interaction.  The print aspect vividly explains the cause of his death and the reaction of family and friends.  This information is essential because it is able to give readers an inside look into the type of person that Marnell was.  Therefore people are able to connect to the story on an emotional level.  The video is able to show how passionate Marnell was about skateboarding.  The video is crucial because the readers are able to see Marnell’s laid back persona and lovable character.  Without the video the story would simply be mundane and lifeless.  The interactive part of the article is very important.  Through the use of social media and the internet people were able to hear about Marnell’s death before it was officially posted.  The news was first released via Twttier and quickly spread until Redbull, Espn, The Berrics, and transworld were able to post it officially.  The Redbull website contained different icons to share, “like”, comment or message the story to different people or sites such as Facebook or Twitter.  Once the news of Marnell’s death leaked his twitter was flooded with comments and questions.

                When I read this story I was highly distraught because I was a huge fan of Marnell’s skateboarding ability.  I thought the article was written well and gave people a great idea of who Lewis Marnell was.  From explaining his childhood to his death this story was well put together.  it also gave a list of different companies Marnell was sponsored by such as: Nike SB, Almost Skateboards, Volcom, and RedBull. The video showed many highlights of his career that I’ve already seen but beautifully displayed his talent in one compilation.   Being able to share the story and comment is very important.  I was able to see everyone’s reaction and really see how many people appreciated such an iconic figure in skateboarding. The only aspect of the story I would change is interviewing other skaters with diabetes.  Therefore the people are able to see the severity of this 

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