Sports and the emergance of the internet

The debate is newsrooms across the country used to center around whether to use a photo or not and which story they wanted to lead with. Now, the debate involves how long traditional newsroom will last in the Web 2.0 era.

While both sides of journalism can moved toward the center, taking ideas from each other along the way, online and print still are two distinct fields. This is especially true in the coverage of sports, where it hasn’t been either or but rather a joint effort.

Sports, like others beats, used to be localized in that what happened with your favorite teams pretty much stayed in that area. New York Yankees’ outfielder Mickey Mantle’s passion for drinking and partying stayed in New York for the most part, as did the extracurricular activities of New York Jets’ quarterback Joe Namath.

There was a trust between journalist and subject that information would be past along in exchange for the journalist to be a filter before it hit the presses. It was more about how many points somebody scored and not how many bars they hit. However, once the Internet exploded, veteran journalists in the print business were at a crossroads.

Start dishing the dirt with new internet writers and message board junkies or start shoveling dirt on their careers. The decision was pretty easy and today, the dirt is flying at a record pace.

Now, it isn’t up to beat writers what information gets out, but what message boards and talk show listeners want and can get a hold of. That is why a story about a drunk Joe Namath stayed in the news for so long and ultimately called for a more in-depth look at Namath’s life on 60 minutes.

The same can be said in the case of Mantle, whose exploits were brought to a full national spotlight after a cover story in Sports Illustrated.

Stories that also took off in the Web 2.0 era were the unceremonious firing of football coach Mike Price and the drinking and eventual firing of basketball coach Larry Eustachy. In the past, these stories would have been big news in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Ames, Iowa, but now, they became national headline sports stories.

This follows the theory of David Weinberger when he says that the new media is controlled by us and we have taken the power from the authority or, “dictatorship of experts.” The general masses for the most part decide what can get covered and in this model, the consumer would control what gets coverage and what gets pushed inside and especially with the Internet, the readers have been heard.

Will there ever be a day when either the Internet or print is no more? Of course not because the Internet brings in too many readers with its interactivity, while print brings some credibility to the news. It is an unceremonious marriage that will take journalism into the next phase of development together.

Insiders are just a click away

In a time when experts in their respective fields were well-respected journalist with impressive credentials, nobody could have seen this one coming.

Meet Ecklund, the anonymous hockey insider who started gaining notoriety during the NHL Lockout after the 2003-2004 season, according to his website. It states that Ecklund’s identity isn’t reveled to protect his sources and make them more willingly to share inside information. He is now considered one of the most respected insiders in the hockey world.

This is one of many examples of non-traditional experts who are moving into the world of sports journalism. The other fade appears to be that of gathering information from around the country. HoopsHype is one such site that gives the readers a lot of information for them to read through.

Doing this allows the common fan with an internet connection to become an expert. This plays into the theory set by David Weinberger in his book, “Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Order.” In there, he says that the new media is controlled by us.

With all of these new outlets for up-to-date news, major news outlets have tried to control the problem by adding more experts. It has hoped that more experts would mean some more breaking stories, but it has been almost the opposite. New websites ran by fans with little or no journalism experience has been posting their stories within minutes of their release.

Web 2.0 has changed the way sports is being covered by making it more open for non-insiders to infiltrate the old guard. Now, you don’t have to grade out high with a journalism degree or put in the necessary years as a local beat writer. Everybody can be an “insider,” if they want to put in the time.

Nation's Pastime Meets New Technology

New technology has not only changed the way the media is delivered, but the way we digest it every day. In efforts to keep readers interested longer, news agencies have started using their web sites to add new forms of media and display options in addition to the written word.

Baseball coverage is one field where this new idea has been adopted with highlights and live analysis. This has led to more in-depth coverage than you could find in your local paper, but it has also led to problems of confusing the reader.

A positive example can be found on ESPN and their coverage of the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays game on Thursday night. On one page, you can find the score, game recap, video highlights, related articles and the upcoming schedule for both teams. In a traditional newspaper, that could force you through two or three pages and still, you might not get this much information.

Contrarily, the traditional print media has struggled to put a complete game package together online since it is usually spread throughout the section. For example, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has tried to do similar things with their coverage of the Atlanta Braves. It hasn’t worked as well because they don’t have video options and some of their tagged articles don’t always pertain to the actual game.

Newspapers have been covering baseball for years, but it is getting harder to match the product good online productions have. With the available technology making it easier to navigate the web, top notch web sites have the inside track on bringing in the loyal fan every morning. And in journalism, that’s the bottom line.