I’ll be tweeting at @joegisondi from a college women’s basketball game tonight with students from my sportswriting class assigned to the game between Eastern Illinois University and Oakland College. I’ll offer tips on how to cover basketball games, include observations about the game, and share challenges faced by my students. I will tag most comments [...]
Feb
12
2013
12
2013
Jan
18
2013
18
2013
How sportswriters are using Twitter
That Twitter is a terrific journalism tool is not news. But how sports journalists use this social media may be. Sports journos report news, cover events, cultivate sources, and promote material. In fact, most breaking news is first posted on Twitter. I’ve listed 15 ways sportswriters tweet about sports, a list that can be neither exhaustive [...]
Jan
8
2013
8
2013
Learn multimedia skills or sit on sidelines
Let’s face it: print newspapers are dead – especially among younger sports fans. This is not breaking news, by any means, but I thought (hoped) that college sports fans would still break out their favorite sections in the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Chicago Sun-Times to catch up on the Cardinals, Bears, Cubs, White [...]
Nov
6
2012
6
2012
Election Day sports coverage
So what are college staffs, professional sports journalists and athletes saying about today’s election? Not a clue. But I will find out. Check out this Storify article (storticle?) that will be updated throughout the day. I’m testing how effective this newer media works. My suspicion – this is a terrific way to curate (or compile or [...]
Apr
4
2012
4
2012
Deadspin’s dead on with sports content
Say what you will, Deadspin produces some terrific sports content. Today, the site’s editors offered several topnotch stories, including:
an analysis of the crazy riots in Lexington, Ky., where fans started fires, fired guns at one another, set off fireworks and surfed atop cars.
a compelling, thorough and sometimes humorous series on umpires by Erik Malinowski that [...]
Feb
6
2012
6
2012
Fans, writers tweet like crazy from Super Bowl
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 [...]
Feb
5
2012
5
2012
The future of sports journalism
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 [...]
Jan
24
2012
24
2012
Tweet (or get beat on) sports coverage
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 [...]
Oct
13
2011
13
2011
Blogging can be a bitch
Blogging is hard.
Even now, I’m thinking, ‘What can I say that I haven’t said before about sports journalism?’ Plenty. Worse, I know it. But I have used this excuse for several months, convincing myself that I need to dive into my other writing projects. So the blog has essentially been adrift since July.
Dec
2
2010
2
2010
Don’t leave Twitter fans hanging
Don’t stop tweeting before the game is over, as several newspapers did last night. One college paper tweeted a tight basketball game until the final 3:47 and then stopped. A few others stopped as early as halftime. That’s just a tease. If you are going to tweet at games, you MUST offer the final scores [...]
Nov
25
2010
25
2010
Great model for sports blogging
Check out the Indiana Daily Student’s sports blog for a good read and for great examples on how to cover a college beat. On the Hoosier Hype blog, the IDS staff posts game stories, game previews, notes, live chats and breaking news (like Indiana securing the No. 2 men’s basketball player in the country, according [...]
Nov
22
2010
22
2010
SID offices beating college papers
The fans are nearly as active as the athletes at cross country events, racing across the course to watch the runners during key points and mile markers. That’s what happened this afternoon at the Lavern Gibson course in Terre Haute, Ind., during the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s championships.
Want to [...]
Jun
28
2010
28
2010
Controversial approach to sports journalism?
You know you’re being controversial when someone in the audience accuses you of aligning with Skynet, the robotic force that nearly destroys the world in the movie “Terminator.”
But that was the case in St. Louis this morning here at the Mid-American Press Institute sports conference.
Challenging assumptions is never easy. Erik Smelser, who essentially directs online [...]
Jun
28
2010
28
2010
Publish your game stories online – always
Sometimes, I assume everybody’s on board when it comes to the Internet. I assume that most newspapers and college journalism programs realize how to use multimedia. And we all know what happens when one assumes.
Spoke with some college students here at the Mid-America Press Institute sports conference in St. Louis who shook their heads when asked [...]
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 
Click on the link 
