“The Sports Beat: A Digital
Reporting Mix – With Exhaustion Built In” by Dave Kindred talks about Wally
Matthews, a veteran New York newspaper sports reporter who covers the Yankees
for ESPNNewYork.com. Matthews is one of the many “dinosaurs,” aka, the old sports
journalists, who in the midst of a new technological era has had to adapt and
overcome to the new challenges faced in the current media revolution of the 21st
century. Kindred’s point is that the new expectation for veterans and newcomers
alike to the new world of sports journalism is that news is to be captured and
produced before, during, and after the sports event non-stop; the speed at
which people expect the news to be put out into the ether is actually
counterproductive to good reporting. Every minute before and after the game is
a frenzy of transcribing interviews, and Twittering everything heard in the clubhouse;
beat reporters are being run into the ground.
“It’s a Brand-New Ballgame: For Sports Reporters” by Malcolm Moran
expresses a similar opinion to that of Kindred’s in that whole stories are not
even give the chance to be completely told; that the need for the most recent
information is more important that hearing the rest of how the previous story
unfolded or the core issues. As a result, Moran raises the question of how will
we go about training the next generation of news reporters. The concern is that
the over exposure to media is causing a dependency that is a cause for two
deficiencies: “a lack of discernment and a reluctance to engage. And each deficiency
can prevent sport reporters from finding out information.”
It is clear through reading the
past few articles that this high speed method of journalism is destroying both
the reputations of not only sports journalism, but journalism as a whole. The “dinosaurs”
of the inked Earth are right to miss the days of the 20th century
where information wasn’t expected by the masses non-stop. It is obvious that
this leads to inaccuracy and, to restate the above, is counterproductive to
good news reporting. In addition, Moran makes the point that in relying so much
on digital media, that the new generation is becoming less engaged with the
subject in which they are attempting to report. This combination of inaccuracy
and distance will only become a larger problem if not addressed.
-Shawn Napier
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