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The problem with sports journalism by Roy MacGregor

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by JR, Nov 6, 2011.

  1. RedCanuck

    RedCanuck Active Member

    I'll give you that, though I'll say that for a lot of viewers you have to be both first and right. An example would be the NHL trade deadlines where Sportsnet or Eklund can break things first, but there's no legitimacy until they get it right, and confirmed by TSN — and yes, that's why Bob has the followers he has, while Eklund has a smaller number.

    I think Roy's spot on in other ways though. To a lot of people it's about being first, even though on a lot of these routine matters everyone has it or the team even confirms it on their own Twitter feed first. What we miss a lot of the time, and what "insiders" were originally for, is the why.

    Away from journalism, I manage a junior hockey team (I don't write much on hockey any more, by the way, and certainly not that league). Anyway, one of the girls in our office saw Moneyball (and don't derail this about the inaccuracies, I know) and she was really fascinated by the way they'd talk about trades and scout, and make decisions. She said "That gave me a whole new appreciation of what you do and who those guys are on the phone calling you every day."

    If we can use our access to bring forward that type of story and analysis, that's something that's very special to our readers. Anyone can blog a score or break a rumor — there was actually a fake Twitter insider 'Dallas Dave' that even made people in the biz think he/she was real — but there's a talent in breaking down why teams value what they do, how they operate, what makes players valuable for reasons beyond stats, etc. It can be "insiders" or good reporters who can explain that, but you'd better damned well have it.
     
  2. accguy

    accguy Member

    I think much of what was written in the piece is spot on.

    We are in a time period where more and more reporters are expected to do more and more work and on more and more platforms with little to no increase in resources. Beat writers tweet, blog and write for the paper. Many of them do video or host chats. All of that stuff takes time. Often times it takes more time than the bosses think it does. And the last I checked there is still only 24 hours in a day.

    Eventually something has to give. Too often, from my vantage point, it is storytelling, the longer stories that are interesting/insightful and tell you something you don't know. My local metro does less of that than before, especially on beats where the beat writers are heavy into other modes of information delivery.

    To me, there isn't as much stuff in newspapers that I hadn't seen previously on the internet or on Twitter.

    One of my pet peeves is the live tweeting of press conferences. I'd much rather see a reporter concentrate on asking good questions and listening to answers than pounding out the same quotes that other people are Tweeting. If you feel like you must tweet, I say you should pay attention, work on getting great stuff, listen to answers so you can ask good follow up questions and then type up some summary tweets when the thing is over.
     
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