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Sports journalism is now more emphatic and dramatic than it was in the
past. Its about comment, analysis, reaction and reflection.
The biggest change in sports journalism over the years has been
newspapers finding they are going head to head with with radio and
television Stweart Weir
We have had to respond by becoming more sensationalist and by often
trying to fill in the gaps or add to the stories that have already been told
by television or radio. - SW
There will always be a market for reading what someone thinks Graham
Spiers
For some broadcast journalists work in the soft side of sports journalism;
their safe questioning of sports stars and players protecting the vested
interest a channel has in promoting a sport
F! racing journalists watch from a media centre, person at home has a
better look.
The pack is feature of all sports, particularly football.
Radio coverage has become more professional as they realise that people
are interested in listening to this.
There is a growing difference between that of the sportswriter and the
sports journalist.
Jon ryan The Sunday is a particular market Our agendas is really to
reflect on the weeks events in sport and set up the agenda for the coming
week.
Bring something fresh to the reader, something they havent seen or
heard watching or listening
With certain footballers you will have to get approval from the players
agent in order to avoid situations such as the Evening Hearlds dilemma
with Robbie Keane.
The related expansion of journalism associated with sports have helped
both feed and to fuel the developing celebrity culture.
When a microphone is placed in front of someone, that person realises
theyre on and shape their responses in a manner that is wary of
consequences instead of engaging in a normal conversation argues
Leonard Koppett.
What is wanted is what I think at some papers verse what the footballer
thinks at tohers. Columns verse report
Press Conferences with security guards have made it easier for some an
dmore difficult for others as they have largely eliminated the need/luxury
to engage with and develop long term relationships with players.
Dont get too close to sources Spiers getting to close to Marti ONeill
went for dinner with him for five hours and paused at the keyboard and
did not want to be influenced in his writng by his personal fondness for
ONeill.
Puff Piece intended ot raise someones profile
There remains a clear division of labour between investigative journalism
about sports and general journalism associated with sports.
Know your audience Alistair Campbell in charge of handling press for The
Lions 2005 tour of New Zealand was criticised for trying too hard to control
the media in New Zealand. They wanted straight answers not spin
deliveries.
To combat spin, winning and results override everything, you cant control
team performance if your soundly beaten.
At the core of this book is a debate about the location of sports writing and
reporting within the wider field of journalism.
Although at times entertainment and sport can be very similar in the way
they are covered given the meshing of the two, exceeding in on field
performance still remains a vital factor in celebrity ascension.
Sports news is home to one of the most intense and historically enduring
gender divisions in journalism.
Sports journalism remains one of the last journalistic areas in which
women have failed to make real progress.
If a history of sports journalism has barely warranted a footnote in
academic studies of journalism; then the position of women in sports
journalism has barely warranted a sentence.
Womens participation in sports journalism is a not a new or recent
phenomenon; very prevalent in the 1920s.
There remains little doubt that across the journalistic spectrum, women
remain woefully under-represented in sports journalism in the UK.
Women journalists account for just fewer than 9% of the sports journalists
working in the national UK Press.
Its like the army, youre not really in until youve done this or that.
Given the relatively closed world of many of the sporting packs of
journalists, breaking into this group you have to show you can do the job
you work hard mix with the other journalists and get the quotes.
Image can often depend on the editor of the paper. If they treat sport as
important, then you enjoy a status within that paper.
There are certain skills without which its very hard to be a journalist
although its a fair bet that there are more journalists who cant write
shorthand or who dont understand libel law than there are fishmongers
who cannot gut a mackerel.
More media outlets, twitter, tv and radio appearances have given football
journalists a higher profile than in previous generations.
Sports writing is not something I would have associated with celebrity, but
that has changed.
If youre asked to comment you have to give it honestly.
Many former sportspeople are also considered by sports journalists to lack
a journalistic news antenna.
There is too much of the all all friends together club this really is sport as
entertainment and show business.
The predetermined story can often be an element in this process with the
journalist keen to get the quotes to back up the story or the line they were
already planning to take.
Access becomes an issue, the granting of one to one interviews is often
limited, while press days are divided up to allow dailies the Sundays and
the radio and television journalists to all to get their time with players or
athletes.
There are also insiders who maintain a distance from colleagues and the
culture that travels with the pack.
There is no doubt that football journalism in particular is still populated
with journalists who have come in through the fanzine movement or
through specific club magazines or publications.
You cannot write about the game if you dont have the passion for the
game- Amy Lawrence.
Sports journalists have been accused of travelling too close to the sporting
circus and the players associated with sport.
Ultimately sports broadcasting is a narrow and partial form of sports
journalism.
Sports journalism, like other areas of the trade, has become much more
competitive and in many ways more professional.
David Chappell Sports editors Im not fussed about people who can
name every FA Cup lineup since 1957, I want people who can question and
where they have to, fall back on their journalistic skills.