Week 3: Salwen/Garrison and Hancherick

The first article for this week was titled “Finding Their Place in Journalism:  Newspaper Sports Journalists’ Professional ‘Problems,’” written by Michael B. Salwen and Bruce Garrison. This paper discusses the findings based on a study where newspaper sports journalists were asked a series of questions pertaining to what they felt were the biggest issues facing sports journalism, and journalism as a whole today (today being the late 1990’s, when this article was published). Certain journalists were then telephoned to expand on the answers that they gave, so that one could further understand why these were issues facing sports journalism and journalism in general.

For the purposes of the study, the journalists’ responses were broken up into nine categories:  Professionalism, Reader related, Economic/resources, Diversity, Writing/reporting, Competition, Issues/content, Job related, and Sources/access. Each response was placed into one of those categories, and tallied up to see which of these problems the journalists felt were the most pressing issues in sports journalism and journalism as a whole. The results were surprising in some areas, and understandable in others.

Based on the study, of the 205 journalists who responded, 21% felt that Professionalism was the biggest problem, while 16% thought that Issues/content was the biggest issue facing sports journalism. I was not shocked by Professionalism being number one, as I hear stories about journalists acting unprofessional or doing an unprofessional act almost on a daily basis anymore. While Professionalism also rated high as far as journalism in general goes, a whopping 31% of respondents felt that Reader related issues were the biggest problem facing journalism. While this was a big number, it makes sense, because with technological advancements occurring at a rapid pace, newspaper readership has surely gone down, as more people are going to television or the web for their news.

Drew Hancherick’s article “Tweet Talking:  How Modern Technology and Social Media Are Changing Sports Communication” discusses the history of sports media, and how we, as readers, now demand rapid fire, breaking news stories due to advancements in technology, specifically Twitter and other forms of social media. He goes through the history of sports media, beginning with the first radio broadcast of a sporting event, a boxing match, in 1921. He noted how radio helped to make baseball America’s national pastime.  He went on to talk about how magazines and television revolutionized the coverage of sports in media, with the creation of “The” sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, in 1954, and the introduction 25 years later of the first 24-hour cable channel dedicated exclusively to sports, ESPN.

He goes on to discuss how the internet and its involvements with sports media have not only changed how we receive our news, but it has changed how the reporters and writers deliver it. The author tells stories of a sports anchor from Greensboro, NC reporting that according to his sources, Duke University football coach David Cutcliffe was in Tennessee to become their next head coach, while Tennessee sources claimed that was not true. Eventually, major networks were picking up this story, saying that Cutcliffe took the position, when in actuality, he had not. While the reporter did not say anything false, he was painted as a liar, and it hurt his credibility. He says that the need for up to the minute news has stressed the importance of verifying that your stories are absolutely 100% fact.