Monday, March 27, 2017

Article on Why Sports Journalism Matters


Yes, Journalism matters overall and so does sports journalism

The piece I found to read and talk about this week was not a straight news article on sports journalism and social media. This was a column about why sports journalism matters.

While this doesn't really talk about social media and sports journalism changing, it is important to show that sports journalism matters. If the basis of sports journalism does not matter, the changing of sports journalism doesn't matter and therefore the SM4SC campaign is not a thing. I think my SM4SC Campaign is important and would not happen without showing the importance of sports journalism.

So people don't consider sports journalists to be journalists because they don't think they are doing the "hard-hitting" journalism. This is not true, in my opinion. Sports journalists are just as much journalists as those who cover news and politics.

While some journalists just talk (TV or radio) or write about games and random sports topics, they also have to deal with issues related to athletes and teams. And even covering games, you still have to deal with other media members and players and coaches who don't often like to talk to the media. It is not all fun.

In terms of dealing with real-life issues related to the athletes or teams, you may have to deal with issues of a player or coach getting into trouble away from the sport, or an athlete dealing with sickness or other personal life issues.

In addition sports journalists normally shine when they do an in-depth feature on a player, coach or team. They allow you to see a backstory that you might not know if you just watch the games.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Article on the impact of social media on sports journalism the world of sports



I found and read an article on how social media is used in sports journalism. The main focus of the article was on Twitter. It talks about how social media sometimes divides sports journalists because some journalists love social media and use it often and others do not like/use it often or at all.

Yes, keeping a strong presence takes work, but it is vitally important, especially in this day and age. If you don't, you will fall behind the competition who are using social media. SM, especially Twitter, allow for promotion and allow for sports journalists to get information to people and allow them to get their stories out fast.

The article also mentions fan social media use and says that 80% of fans use social media while watching sports on TV and 60% use it while at games. They Tweet their own thoughts and also get information and thoughts from reporters.

Social media has also hurt sports journalism because athletes/coaches/teams can break the news themselves by posting something on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, rather than telling a reporter/journalist.

This is related to my SM4SC Campaign because it talks about how important of a tool Twitter is and my SM4SC is about how social media has changed sports journalism. On a related note, I use the TweetDeck site for Twitter which allows me to manage multiple accounts easily. It also allows for easy viewing of notifications, mentions, direct messages, lists, and many other columns. It makes it easy to find and use information on Twitter.