Journalism faces a tough road when it
comes to peer evaluations. People are always finding reasons to pick
apart stories. Whether the news is late or the source is unreliable,
some of society would claim they have lost faith in journalism due to
negative exposure. The only thing harder than being a current events
journalist is being a sports journalist.
In Finding Their Place in
Journalism: Newspaper Sports Journalists' Professional “Problems”,
Michael Salwen and Bruce Garrison break down the difficulties of
reporting sports. As a whole, sports journalism was considered a
general disappointment by “traditional journalistic standards.”
According to the article, there are
nine categories that are concerns in sports journalism:
professionalism, reader-related, economic/resources, diversity,
writing/reporting, issues/content, job related, and sources/access.
Professional and reader-related were obviously the top choices since
it is hard to take sports seriously (in a career manner) and it is
hard for readers to relate to athletes when they are not one.
Clearly all that journalists can do is try to provide more insight in
athletes' lives such as criminal, personal, and family-related;
however, then this makes reporting more unprofessional. This is just
a concern that cannot fully be fix, only adjusted.
Garrison and Salwen question many
editors in hoping to find the concerns with sports coverage with each
carrying his or her own opinion. After reading, I found the most
reasonable explanation to be under the togetherness of journalism.
Sports bring people together; therefore, people desire updates on
sports. There may always be questions of whether this is news, but
sports fans will always want to hear it. It’s time to stop
questioning and pushing sports journalism down, but instead embracing
it.
In Tweet Talking,
Drew Hancherick went over the changes that journalism (mainly sports)
have brought to society. Ever since the first tweet that confirm
Randy Moss back to the Vikes, social updating has been evolving how
we get news. Hancherick touches on how the professional concern was
changed when ESPN began in 1979. ESPN has grown to one of the most
watched, read, and sought after stations. Although it might not
always be credible, many people rely on ESPN for updates. Journalism
has come far especially in sports; however, it has one final step.
Besides the question of credibility
and research with sports, it also lacked a connection with minority
and women. According to the study, female's present in media has
increased; unfortunately, there still has not been much
“representation” in the field. There was a claim that females
did not fit and of course, that statement was correct. Most
professional sports dealt heavily with males and the competition
level was more advance, thus creating appeal to audiences. Plus
society usually focuses on the three major sports (basketball,
baseball, and football), and the WNBA is the only one professionally
covered. Leba Hertz, who is the San Francisco Chronicle sports
editor, believes that the “attitudes” of those in sports lacks
respect for women. While women are pressure for more to prove, there
still has been an increase in hopes of breaking this stereotype.
While Garrison and Salwen have
concerns how sports journalism will always have doubters, Hancherick
is speaking how twitter and social media (although not always
respected) is credible as well. Receiving news is changing and
whether professionals find it reliable or not, society does. Thus
there is a brilliant life ahead for sports journalism and we are just
lucky enough to want to be a part of it.
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