Need another reminder that you (and your publication) need to tweet early and often? On average, 10,000 people tweeted on the Super Bowl during the final three minutes. That’s 1.8 million tweets – and that’s just those who decided to include a hashtag for #SuperBowl. About 8,000 tweets were fired off each second for five minutes of Madonna’s halftime show. That’s another 2.4 million tweets. You can estimate the millions of comments that flew across Twitter from sports journalists, athletes, and fans – all speaking in fewer than 140 characters and in a distinctive style. ESPN just showed tweets from race-car driver Danica Patrick, PGA golfer Luke Donald and Steelers LB James Harrison. Following athletes is also essential to sports journalists today.
Continue reading Fans, writers tweet like crazy from Super Bowl →
Want to see the future of sports journalism, where everything is aggregated as it happens? Then, check out the New York Times‘ coverage of Super Bowl XLVI, where staffers are blogging, tweeting, and answering questions. While none of this is really new, few media organizations offer all at once, probably because producing this live-running story requires so many resources. Typically, the Times‘ ‘Fifth Down‘ blog offers expert commentary and analysis. Today, you can get that and more before, during, and after the game. This is another reason to blog, tweet and glog as much as possible for your college publications. Not because this is cool, but because these skills will be necessary.
The Indiana Daily Student, which does a terrific job covering sports, tweeted many interesting comments and insights about its basketball team last night. But what struck me the most was the term – media availability. That’s a chilling term, really. When did universities start curtailing access and inhibiting speech? When they started to allow athletic departments to act somewhat independently.
Continue reading Access still a struggle for college media →
The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs addresses another side of concussions in today’s publication – where teams use head injuries to escape paying large contracts to players. The NFLPA says players like former Bear linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer have been denied benefits and salaries owed to them. Hillenmeyer is battling the team for $900,000 he says he’s owed. Biggs tells a compelling story, having researched the topic well. Check it out.
Love when a reporter uses non-traditional sources and offers unfamiliar perspectives in any story, not just those in the sports section. That’s why I thoroughly enjoyed this story in the Baltimore Sun on how Ravens fans are dealing with the grief of having lost the AFC Championship on a missed short field goal. If only. There’s a term for that kind of thinking – counterfactual, writes Jean Marbella, where one imagines a different outcome if only events had turned out differently. Shoot, I thought that was just anger, outrage, exasperation – being pissed off. This writer could have interviewed players and coaches, who would have lamented the play or said it’s not Billy Cundiff’s fault for missing the kick or said the blown play will make them work harder next season – cliches we’ve read repeatedly. Instead, Marbella focused on fans, relying on unconventional sources – a psychology professor, communications professors, a fan, and the leader of a Ravens booster club – to explain how Ravens maniacs are dealing with that botched play and the subsequent loss to the Patriots. It’s always a good idea to find fresh, new sources if only to learn and present equally fresh stories and perspectives. Nice to know that some sports journalists realize when a team loses that we fanatics suffer far more than anyone – even the players, right?
Stats like these at FanGraph can reveal far more than a few HRs & RBIs
Prince Fielder is easily one of the best hitters in major league baseball, so Detroit Tigers fans need to feel pumped over his signing today at a reported $214 million for nine years. After all, Prince drilled 28 home runs, drove in 120 runs and hit .299 last season. He’s averaged 40 homers and 113 RBIs during the past five seasons. Seems pretty impressive – until you roll out the sabermetrics.
Continue reading Is Prince worth it? Roll out the sabermetrics →
If you’re not innovating, you’re not improving as a sports journalist. And if you’re not expanding your social and multimedia skills, you’re driving backward on the information superhighway. That means you’d better start tweeting immediately, a necessary tool for every sports journalist. Takes fewer than five minutes to create an account. Newspapers like Georgia’s Red & Black and Rutgers’ The Daily Targum use a single Twitter source for all news and sports feeds while college media such as the Michigan Daily offer a separate sports feed.
Continue reading Tweet (or get beat on) sports coverage →
Like most journalism teachers, I tinker with my syllabi all the time in order to find the most effective manner to present material and evaluate student work, even if perfection is impossible. The one constant – requiring students to get hands-on experience. In the past, my students have been assigned beats to cover the local high school sports teams. They also usually cover some college sports events here at Eastern Illinois University. This year, students will cover our university’s intramurals program in hopes of creating a website that will continue well beyond their graduation.
Continue reading Some approaches to teaching sportswriting →
If you want to improve as a sportswriter, you need to constantly read others, like those who covered this past weekend’s NFL playoff games (or like those who regularly cover high school preps or college volleyball or who write about pretty much anything). Here’s some lessons from this past weekend’s playoffs coverage.
Continue reading Writing lessons from NFL playoffs →
So what do you do when the main people involved with a controversial decision refuse to talk? Find other sources, keep digging, learn as much about the situation as possible. Ultimately, you can probably gather enough stories, documents and details to reveal new perspectives, if you work hard and think creatively. Reporting like this is important because these stories remind a community that something unusual (and possibly unethical or illegal) happened. Ultimately, these stories can press community leaders to reveal more facts.
Continue reading Mysteries are always worth investigating →
Conflict drives stories. Too many writers fail to recognize this, burying the tension – revealing it after a general overview or considerable background material. That’s not the case with Randall Mell, a sportswriter for the Golf Channel. The tension builds from the opening two lines: Continue reading Intro conflict, build tension in features →
Here’s some tips for improving your sports section at the start of a new semester.
Establish beats. Assign one person as the primary coverage reporter for each sports team on campus. Other reporters can jump in and help by writing sidebars, compiling notebooks and filling in to write the mainbar when the main reporter is unavailable.
File game stories immediately. If your publication does not print daily, you can still publish each day. Post stories on the website. If that does not work, create a WordPress sports blog, a task that takes about five minutes once you know what to name it – such as ‘CourierSports’ or ‘AlligatorSports.’
Continue reading Invigorate your sports section →
Late last night, Dwight Howard broke one of Wilt Chamberlain’s records (and we’re not talking about the Stilt’s alleged boudoir shenanigans), a feat that was reported by several news agencies. Howard was hacked and shoved whenever he touched the ball, a strategy employed for years against Shaquille O’Neal. Like Shaq, Howard is a mediocre free throw shooter. The reporter who probably covers Howard best offered the most interesting lead. No shocker there. Those who do their homework have the most to say. Remember that the next time you’re assigned to cover a local prep game.
Continue reading Writers don’t hack their leads →
Need another reminder that you (and your publication) need to tweet early and often? On average, 10,000 people tweeted on the Super Bowl during the final three minutes. That’s 1.8 million tweets – and that’s just those who decided to include a hashtag for #SuperBowl. About 8,000 tweets were fired off each second for five minutes of Madonna’s halftime show. That’s another 2.4 million tweets. You can estimate the millions of comments that flew across Twitter from sports journalists, athletes, and fans – all speaking in fewer than 140 characters and in a distinctive style. ESPN just showed tweets from race-car driver Danica Patrick, PGA golfer Luke Donald and Steelers LB James Harrison. Following athletes is also essential to sports journalists today.
How best to turn yourself from sports fan to professional sports journalist? Quickly moving beyond general guidance about sports writing, Joe Gisondi focuses on the nitty-gritty, with hands-on, practical advice on covering 20 specific sports. From auto racing to wrestling, you’ll find tips on the seemingly straightforward—where to stand on the sideline and how to identify a key player—along with the more specialized—figuring out shot selection in lacrosse and understanding a coxswain’s call for a harder stroke in rowing. Preparing you for just about any game, match, meet, race, regatta or tournament you’re likely to cover, Field Guide to Covering Sports is the ideal go-to resource to have on hand as you master the beat. You can 
