Blog #2

In Drew Hancherick’s article, he discusses the evolution of journalism as it relates to sports and implications of technology on both present and future sports journalism. Hancherick explains that sport’s popularity grew with the increasing number of radio broadcasts. The radio broadcasts of sporting events gave people “the opportunity to experience a live event without actually being there.” With the popularity of sports and radio, the coverage of other sporting events began to grow as well. Television soon became a major component to sports journalism, as games were broadcast live for the country to watch and enjoy. Along side television broadcasts, the development of magazines gave sports journalism another outlet, especially in 1954 when Sports Illustrated was first published. Following later was the emergence of specific sports programs and networks on television, including ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and ESPN’s SportsCenter. These developments gave people the ability to engage in sporting events around the country without actually having to be at the actual events. It also provided them with a source of entertainment outside their professional and daily lives. The most important development, the Internet, has played a major role in journalism as a whole, especially sports journalism. The Internet gave people the ability to access specific information quickly instead of waiting to receive a specific story in a 30-minute or hour-long segment. People could now access exactly which stories they were interested in, right away. Hancherick states the idea of “information on demand,” in which people constantly seek new information in a quick and easy way. The emergence of Twitter and the ability to access the Internet on mobile devices has created a whole new way of delivering news. Discussing the implications of these outlets, Hancherick states, “With the demand for up-to-the-minute news and information increasing daily, reporters are under pressure to break news quickly or risk having their story published first by another media outlet.” This then leads to stories being published with little confirmation or lacking enough sources.” With this type of access, whether stories are note worthy or not, people will continue to demand content.

In Salwen and Garrison’s article, they conduct a study to examine the perceived problems of both sports journalism. After conducting their study and interviewing professionals in the journalism and sports journalism fields, general conclusions were made relating to the problems in sports journalism. Professionalism was the top rated problem for sports journalism. One sports editor, Jim Ruppert, stated, “too many hacks…mostly the electronic variety invading locker rooms.” Another top-ranked problem in sports journalism was found to be economics. As it has been discussed previously, journalism as a whole faces issues of journalism as outlets compete for reader attention. Print journalism has been affected by the economy the most, as traditional newspaper readers are getting older, while young readers are looking to specific niches, which technology provides the most. The study found that concerns were raised regarding sports journalists’ “knowledge and their focused interest in sports.” It was stated that there is a “need of sports journalists to expand their knowledge beyond ‘the game’ to include law, medicine, business, politics, and other sociological matters that have become increasingly relevant to sports journalism.” Lastly, sources/access ranked as problem within sports journalism. Some felt that stories being published lack credible sources due to coaches/managers and athletes enjoying social status in society more and more.