Does the media need to be "in the room"?

Interesting read about the need for the media to battle for the mundane quote in the locker room.
http://www.realclearsports.com/2011/06/10/media039s_presence_in_locker_room_unnecessary_90306.html

 

I believe a locker room presence is important. Do you need to put in two hours there every day? No. But you can break stories just by being there. And not every quote you get is mundane. Sure, a lot of them are, but it's all in the questions.

 

I'm not sure I got the point of the article, unless it was to point out the uselessness of the gaggle. I never learned anything in a gaggle. I got my scoops and broke news by establishing and nurturing 1-on-1 relationships with my sources. The best way to nurture those relationships is to be where they work on a daily or near daily basis.

 

This. I'm not expert but if you show up to a 1-on-1 interview and the guy has never seen you he isn't going to be very open or at least not as open as he would if he had already talked to you 30 times that season. Do you get a lot directly out of all the hustle and bustle stuff, no, but you get a lot indirectly.

 

There are few things more important to the beat writer-athlete relationship than being in the lockerroom and cultivating sources. So I guess it's easy to see that I completely disagree with this story

 

Does he realize that the NY experience of a locker room media mob is not common to most of the rest of the country?

 

The article is not a bad portrayal of the New York scene, though he could have said that if someone waits out the pack, they can probably get a fairly usable quote, especially if they're asking about something specific to the game and not on deadline for a night game as well, which often is not the case in baseball.

 

Stories like that crack me up. So dumb it's barely worth a response. How can you call yourself a journalist and argue for less access? (And I've gotten great quotes in a pack too. We all have.)

It's a foolish argument, especially in baseball, where you have to have locker access. Like, I was doing a feature on a pitcher the other week and I talked to two other pitchers, at their lockers, about him. They were cool with it, and I got my story done quickly with their help.

Now, do you need to stand around an NBA locker room for pregame access? Usually not. But I've gotten good stuff there too.

 

Ridiculous article. I've gotten much better stuff than competitors simply by showing up and building that relationship with sources, and you do that by getting access. As has been said here, if you see a guy 30 times, he's going to trust you more than a guy you've never spoken with.

 

man, would i have loved to have this twerp as a competitor back in the day. it wouldn't take long for him to become n ex-beat writer, unfortunately...

 

That's pretty much Beat Writing 101, isn't it?
Or, to be more precise, Journalism 101.
The first thing a young reporter needs to learn that it doesn't matter if you're the second coming of Ernest Hemingway. The ability to turn a pretty phrase won't do you a lick of good if nobody tells you what needs to be in it.

 

No, not at all. All good points above, but imagining myself in his section of the universe I can interpret the frustration.

Definitely identified with Moran's comment. I've strived for perspective on gamers, but my most recent shop encouraged play-by-play novels. Yes, encouraged it. Vet on the staff, that was his bread and butter. Always wondered why his college gamers took so long to write. Hell, the p-by-p is printed off for him.