I'm a sports writer for the DI and an aspiring journalist myself, so obviously this topic intrigues me quite a bit. Despite being a journalist myself, there are still plenty of members of the sporting media that I can't stand, and certain aspects and trends in sports journalism that really bother me.
When we were discussing athletes who we had a particular dislike for, I mentioned Tim Tebow, although I don't really "hate" Tebow so much as I heavily dislike the media's coverage of Tebow (particularly ESPN). If you remember last year after Florida won the national title, ESPN practically turned into the All-Tim Tebow network for 24 hours following the game — despite there being plenty of other players on the Florida roster who contributed heavily to the season's success.
One thing that people have to remember is that just like athletes are doing their job when they play a sport, the media is doing its job (or attempting to) when writing a story or doing a TV segment or whatever. Unfortunately I think this leads to exaggeration and sensationalism (just like with any other form of journalism) because those aspects usually draw more attention despite the obvious ethical conflicts in utilizing those techniques. As such a prominent player, Tebow was the easy choice to focus on. While I'm sure there were plenty of players with interesting stories on the team, most people played it safe and just gave Tebow more coverage — even though he already had plenty.
The role of the sports journalist is always changing, although now I feel like the athlete has more control over their image than they ever have before, whereas before I think the journalists influenced the public opinion a bit more. Now that athletes can use things like twitter, ustream, and other similar things, I feel like they can really influence how the public views them. Of course, journalists still play a large role, just like with any other celebrity or high-profile person. And just like any other form of media, we should always be critical of the sports media. You can't just believe everything you hear or read just because it was on ESPN.
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Its interesting to me that you say you dislike Tim Tebow because of the media coverage he recieves and i tend to feel the same way about the players i dislike, for the most part. I can't stand Tony Romo because when he is playing the Sports broadcasters never stop talking about how great he is even when he plays bad. It seems like media coverage really affects the way fans feel about certain individuals but really i dont think it matters because im pretty sure Tony Romo with his millions of dollars and choice of celebrity women really cares if i like him or not.
ReplyDeleteJordan and Philip you both bring up good points. I would say I have a similar opinion in terms of athletes I dislike, its not really them its more of how the media portrays them. Jordan you also brought up an interesting point, in terms of new media such as twitter and ustream, which does allow athletes a little more control of their image. I think where we will really see problems are the subtle ways in which race, gender, sexuality and so forth are constructed within dominant sport narratives and these are some of the things we want to begin to look for when watching sport.
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