Sports journalism
Encyclopedia
Sports journalism is a form of journalism
that reports on sports topics and events.
While the sports department within some newspaper
s has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalist
s do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports coverage has grown in importance as sport has grown in wealth
, power
and influence
.
Sports journalism is an essential element of any news media
organization. Sports journalism includes organizations devoted entirely to sports reporting — newspaper
s such as L'Equipe
in France
, La Gazzetta dello Sport
in Italy
, Marca
in Spain
, and the defunct Sporting Life
in Britain, American magazine
s such as Sports Illustrated
and the Sporting News, all-sports talk radio
stations, and television
networks such as Eurosport
, ESPN
and The Sports Network (TSN)
.
, it is common practice to allow properly accredited sports reporters into locker rooms for interviews with players and coaching staff after games, while the sports teams provide extensive information support.
Sports including American football, ice hockey, basketball and baseball understand the essential commercial relationship between media coverage and increased ticket, merchandise and advertising sales.
Elsewhere in the world, particularly in the coverage of association football, the journalist's role often seems to be barely tolerated by the clubs and players. For example, despite contractual media requirements in the English Premier League, prominent managers Sir Alex Ferguson
(of Manchester United) and Harry Redknapp
(first at Portsmouth
, now at Tottenham Hotspur), refused to conduct post-match interviews on occasions with the rights-holder BBC because of perceived unfavorable coverage.
As with reporters on other news beats, sports journalism should involve investigating the story, rather than simply relying on press releases and prepared statements from the sports team, coaching staff, or players. Sports journalists are expected to verify facts given to them by the athletes, teams, leagues, or organizations they are covering.
gave print journalists a special role in its games. They were named official scorer
s and kept statistics that were considered part of the official record of the league. Active sportswriters were removed from this role in 1980. Although their statistical judgment calls could not affect the outcome of a game in progress, the awarding of errors and wins/saves were seen as powerful influences on pitching staff selections and play lists when coach decisions seemed unusual. The removal of writers, who could benefit fiscally from sensational sports stories, was done to remove this perception of a conflict of interest
, and to increase statistics volume, consistency, and accuracy.
Sports stories occasionally transcend the games themselves and take on socio-political significance: Jackie Robinson
breaking the color barrier
in baseball is an example of this. Modern controversies regarding the hyper-compensation
of top athletes, the use of anabolic steroids and other, banned performance-enhancing drugs
, and the cost to local and national governments to build sports venues and related infrastructure, especially for Olympic Games
, also demonstrate how sports can intrude on to the news pages.
Sportswriters regularly face more deadline pressure than other reporters because sporting events tend to occur late in the day and closer to the deadlines many organizations must observe. Yet they are expected to use the same tools as news journalists, and to uphold the same professional and ethical standards. They must take care not to show bias for any team.
Many of the most talented and respected print journalists have been sportswriters. (See List of sports writers.)
, athletics and rugby
- were first organized and codified into something resembling what we would recognize today.
Cricket, possibly because of its esteemed place in society, has regularly attracted the most elegant of writers. The Manchester Guardian, in the first half of the 20th Century, employed Neville Cardus
as its cricket correspondent as well as its music critic. Cardus was later knighted for his services to journalism. One of his successors, John Arlott
, who became a worldwide favorite because of his radio commentaries on the BBC, and was also known for his poetry.
The first London Olympic Games in 1908 attracted such widespread public interest that many newspapers assigned their very best-known writers to the event. The Daily Mail even had Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
at the White City Stadium to cover the finish of the Marathon
.
Such was the drama of that race, in which Dorando Pietri
collapsed within sight of the finishing line when leading, that Conan Doyle led a public subscription campaign to see the gallant Italian, having been denied the gold medal through his disqualification, awarded a special silver cup, which was presented by Queen Alexandra. And the public imagination was so well caught by the event that annual races in Boston, Ma, and London, and at future Olympics, were henceforward staged over exactly the same, 26-mile, 385-yard distance used for the 1908 Olympic Marathon, and the official length of the event worldwide to this day.
The London race, called the Polytechnic Marathon
and originally staged over the 1908 Olympic route from outside the royal residence at Windsor Castle to White City, was first sponsored by the Sporting Life
, which in those Edwardian times was a daily newspaper which sought to cover all sporting events, rather than just a betting paper for horse racing and greyhounds that it became in the years after the Second World War.
In France, L'Auto, the predecessor of L'Equipe, had already played an equally influential part in the sporting fabric of society when it announced in 1903 that it would stage an annual bicycle race around the country. The Tour de France
was born, and sports journalism's role in its foundation is still reflected today in the leading rider wearing a yellow jersey - the color of the paper on which L'Auto was published (in Italy, the Giro d'Italia
established a similar tradition, with the leading rider wearing a jersey the same pink color as the sponsoring newspaper, La Gazzetta
).
Some newspapers, such as The Sunday Times, with 1924 Olympic 100 m champion Harold Abrahams
, or the London Evening News using former England cricket captain Sir Leonard Hutton, began to adopt the policy of hiring former sports stars to pen columns, which were often ghost written. Some such ghosted columns, however, did little to further the reputation of sports journalism, which is increasingly becoming the subject of academic scrutiny of its standards.
Many "ghosted" columns were often run by independent sports agencies, based in Fleet Street or in the provinces, who had signed up the sports star to a contract and then syndicated their material among various titles. These agencies included Pardons, or the Cricket Reporting Agency
, which routinely provided the editors of the Wisden
cricket almanac, and Hayters.
Sportswriting in Britain has attracted some of the finest journalistic talents. The Daily Mirrors Peter Wilson, Hugh McIlvanney
, first at The Observer and lately at the Sunday Times, Ian Wooldridge
of the Daily Mail and soccer writer Brian Glanville
, best known at the Sunday Times, and columnist Patrick Collins, of the Mail on Sunday, five times the winner of the Sports Writer of the Year Award.
Many became household names in the late 20th Century through their trenchant reporting of often earth-shattering events that have transcended the back pages and been reported on the front pages: the Massacre at the Munich Olympics
in 1972; Muhammad Ali
's fight career, including his 1974 title bout against George Foreman
; the Heysel
Stadium disaster; and the career highs and lows of the likes of Tiger Woods
, George Best
, David Beckham
, Lester Piggott
and other high profile stars.
McIlvanney and Wooldridge, who died in March 2007, aged 75, both enjoyed careers that saw them frequently work in television. During his career, Wooldridge became so famous that, like the sports stars he reported upon, he hired the services of IMG, the agency founded by the American businessman, Mark McCormack
, to manage his affairs. Glanville wrote several books, including novels, as well as scripting the memorable official film to the 1966 World Cup staged in England.
Tom Bower
, with his 2003 sports book of the year Broken Dreams, which analyzed British football, followed in the tradition established a decade earlier by Andrew Jennings
and Vyv Simson with their controversial investigation of corruption within the International Olympic Committee. Jennings and Simson's The Lords of the Rings in many ways predicted the scandals that were to emerge around the staging of the 2002 Winter Olympics
in Salt Lake City; Jennings would follow-up with two further books on the Olympics and one on FIFA
, the world football body.
Likewise, award-winning writers Duncan Mackay, of The Guardian, and Steven Downes
unravelled many scandals involving doping, fixed races and bribery in international athletics in their 1996 book, Running Scared, which offered an account of the threats by a senior track official that led to the suicide of their sports journalist colleague, Cliff Temple
.
But the writing of such exposes - referred to as "spitting in the soup" by Paul Kimmage
, the former Tour de France professional cyclist, now an award-winning writer for the Sunday Times - often requires the view of an outsider who is not compromised by the need of day-to-day dealings with sportsmen and officials, as required by "beat" correspondents.
The stakes can be high when upsetting sport's powers: when in 2007, the England's FA
opted to switch its multi-million pound contract for UK coverage rights of the FA Cup
and England international matches from the BBC to rival broadcasters ITV, one of the reasons cited was that the BBC had been too critical of the performances of the England football team.
Increasingly, sports journalists have turned to long-form writing, producing popular books on a range of sporting topics, including biographies, history and investigations. In London, through the 1980s and 1990s, a shop on Charing Cross Road - the area known for its book shops - was entirely devoted to sport, although the growth of online book sales through websites such as Amazon eventually led to the closure of Sports Books.
This was not before, though, the establishment, through sponsorship from William Hill
, the bookmakers, of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
award. This was first held in 1989, when Dan Topolski's book about one of the most controversial University Boat Races was declared the winner.
In Britain, the Sports Journalists' Association was founded in 1948. It stages two prestigious awards events, an annual Sports Awards ceremony which recognises outstanding performances by British sportsmen and women during the previous year, and the British Sports Journalism Awards, the industry's "Oscars", sponsored by UK Sport and presented each March.
Originally founded as the Sports Writers' Association, following a merger with the Professional Sports Photographers' Association in 2002 the organization changed its title to the more inclusive SJA.
Its President is the veteran broadcaster and columnist, Sir Michael Parkinson.
The SJA represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association
's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major events who need guidance on media requirements as well as seeking to represent its members' interests in a range of activities.
In March 2008, Martin Samuel
, then the chief football correspondent of The Times, was named British Sportswriter of the Year, the first time any journalist had managed to win the award three years in succession.
At the same awards, Jeff Stelling
, of Sky Sports, was named Sports Broadcaster of the Year for the third time, a prize determined by a ballot of SJA members. Stelling won the vote again the following year, when the Sunday Timess Paul Kimmage
won the interviewer of the year prize for a fifth time.
For horse racing the Horserace Writers and Photographers’ Association, was founded in 1927, revived in 1967, it represents the interests of racing journalists in every branch of the media.
The International Sports Press Association, AIPS, was founded in 1924 during the Olympic Games in Paris, at the headquarters of the Sporting Club de France, by Frantz Reichel, the press chief of the Paris Games, and the Belgian, Victor Boin.
The first statutes of AIPS mentioned these objectives:
AIPS operates through a system of continental sub-associations and national associations, and liaises closely with some of the world's biggest sports federations, including the International Olympic Committee
, FIFA
, football's world governing body and the IAAF, the international track and field body.
In the United States, the Indianapolis-based National Sports Journalism Center
monitors trends and strategy within the sports media industry. The center is also home to the Associated Press Sports Editors, the largest group of sports media professionals in the country.
Some authors have been adopted by their clubs - Jim Munro
, once editor of the West Ham United fanzine Fortune's Always Dreaming, was hired by the club to write for its matchday magazine and is now sports editor of The Sun
Online. Other titles, such as the irreverent monthly soccer magazine When Saturday Comes, have effectively gone mainstream.
The advent of the internet has seen much of this fan-generated energy directed into sports blogs. Ranging from team-centric blogs to those that cover the sports media itself, Bleacher Report
, Deadspin.com, ProFootballTalk.com
, AOL Fanhouse, the blogs in the Yardbarker
Network, and others have garnered massive followings.
Blogging has also been taken up by sportsmen and women such as Curt Schilling
, Paula Radcliffe
, Greg Oden
, Donovan McNabb
, and Chris Cooley.
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
that reports on sports topics and events.
While the sports department within some newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports coverage has grown in importance as sport has grown in wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
, power
Economic power
There is no agreed-upon definition of power in economics. At least five definitions of power have been used:*Purchasing power, i.e., the ability of any amount of money to buy goods and services. Those with more assets, or, more correctly, net worth, have more power of this sort...
and influence
Social influence
Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts, feelings or actions are affected by other people. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing...
.
Sports journalism is an essential element of any news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
organization. Sports journalism includes organizations devoted entirely to sports reporting — newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s such as L'Equipe
L'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, La Gazzetta dello Sport
La Gazzetta dello Sport
La Gazzetta dello Sport is an Italian newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. It was first published on April 3, 1896, allowing it to cover the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Marca
Marca
Marca may refer to:Places:* Marca, Sălaj, a commune in Sălaj County, Romania* an alternative name for Merca, Somalia* Marca District, in the province Recuay, PeruMarches:* Marca is the Latin term for border regions known as a Marks or Marches...
in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and the defunct Sporting Life
Sporting Life (newspaper)
The Sporting Life was a British newspaper published between 1859 and 1998 that was best known for its coverage of horse racing. Latterly it has continued as a multi-sports website....
in Britain, American magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s such as Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
and the Sporting News, all-sports talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
stations, and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
networks such as Eurosport
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
and The Sports Network (TSN)
The Sports Network
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
.
Sports journalists' access
In professional and some collegiate sports in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it is common practice to allow properly accredited sports reporters into locker rooms for interviews with players and coaching staff after games, while the sports teams provide extensive information support.
Sports including American football, ice hockey, basketball and baseball understand the essential commercial relationship between media coverage and increased ticket, merchandise and advertising sales.
Elsewhere in the world, particularly in the coverage of association football, the journalist's role often seems to be barely tolerated by the clubs and players. For example, despite contractual media requirements in the English Premier League, prominent managers Sir Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
(of Manchester United) and Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp
Henry James "Harry" Redknapp is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur....
(first at Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, now at Tottenham Hotspur), refused to conduct post-match interviews on occasions with the rights-holder BBC because of perceived unfavorable coverage.
As with reporters on other news beats, sports journalism should involve investigating the story, rather than simply relying on press releases and prepared statements from the sports team, coaching staff, or players. Sports journalists are expected to verify facts given to them by the athletes, teams, leagues, or organizations they are covering.
Socio-political significance
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
gave print journalists a special role in its games. They were named official scorer
Official scorer
In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices...
s and kept statistics that were considered part of the official record of the league. Active sportswriters were removed from this role in 1980. Although their statistical judgment calls could not affect the outcome of a game in progress, the awarding of errors and wins/saves were seen as powerful influences on pitching staff selections and play lists when coach decisions seemed unusual. The removal of writers, who could benefit fiscally from sensational sports stories, was done to remove this perception of a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
, and to increase statistics volume, consistency, and accuracy.
Sports stories occasionally transcend the games themselves and take on socio-political significance: Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
breaking the color barrier
Baseball color line
The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season...
in baseball is an example of this. Modern controversies regarding the hyper-compensation
Remuneration
Remuneration is the total compensation that an employee receives in exchange for the service they perform for their employer. Typically, this consists of monetary rewards, also referred to as wage or salary...
of top athletes, the use of anabolic steroids and other, banned performance-enhancing drugs
Performance-enhancing drugs
Performance-enhancing drugs are substances used by athletes to improve their performances in the sports in which they engage.- Types of performance-enhancing drugs :...
, and the cost to local and national governments to build sports venues and related infrastructure, especially for Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, also demonstrate how sports can intrude on to the news pages.
Sportswriters regularly face more deadline pressure than other reporters because sporting events tend to occur late in the day and closer to the deadlines many organizations must observe. Yet they are expected to use the same tools as news journalists, and to uphold the same professional and ethical standards. They must take care not to show bias for any team.
Many of the most talented and respected print journalists have been sportswriters. (See List of sports writers.)
Sports journalism in Europe
The tradition of sports reporting attracting some of the finest writers in journalism can be traced to the coverage of sport in Victorian England, where several modern sports - such as association football, cricketCricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, athletics and rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
- were first organized and codified into something resembling what we would recognize today.
Cricket, possibly because of its esteemed place in society, has regularly attracted the most elegant of writers. The Manchester Guardian, in the first half of the 20th Century, employed Neville Cardus
Neville Cardus
Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical...
as its cricket correspondent as well as its music critic. Cardus was later knighted for his services to journalism. One of his successors, John Arlott
John Arlott
Leslie Thomas John Arlott OBE was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. He was also a poet, wine connoisseur and former police officer in Hampshire...
, who became a worldwide favorite because of his radio commentaries on the BBC, and was also known for his poetry.
The first London Olympic Games in 1908 attracted such widespread public interest that many newspapers assigned their very best-known writers to the event. The Daily Mail even had Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
at the White City Stadium to cover the finish of the Marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
.
Such was the drama of that race, in which Dorando Pietri
Dorando Pietri
Dorando Pietri, often wrongly spelt Petri was an Italian athlete famous for his dramatic finish and eventual disqualification in the marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London.-Early years:Pietri was born in Mandrio, a frazione of Correggio, but spent his youth in Carpi...
collapsed within sight of the finishing line when leading, that Conan Doyle led a public subscription campaign to see the gallant Italian, having been denied the gold medal through his disqualification, awarded a special silver cup, which was presented by Queen Alexandra. And the public imagination was so well caught by the event that annual races in Boston, Ma, and London, and at future Olympics, were henceforward staged over exactly the same, 26-mile, 385-yard distance used for the 1908 Olympic Marathon, and the official length of the event worldwide to this day.
The London race, called the Polytechnic Marathon
Polytechnic Marathon
The Polytechnic Marathon, often called the Poly, was a marathon held annually between 1909 and 1996, over various courses in or near London. It was the first marathon to be run regularly over the distance of 26 miles, 385 yards which is now the global standard...
and originally staged over the 1908 Olympic route from outside the royal residence at Windsor Castle to White City, was first sponsored by the Sporting Life
Sporting Life (newspaper)
The Sporting Life was a British newspaper published between 1859 and 1998 that was best known for its coverage of horse racing. Latterly it has continued as a multi-sports website....
, which in those Edwardian times was a daily newspaper which sought to cover all sporting events, rather than just a betting paper for horse racing and greyhounds that it became in the years after the Second World War.
In France, L'Auto, the predecessor of L'Equipe, had already played an equally influential part in the sporting fabric of society when it announced in 1903 that it would stage an annual bicycle race around the country. The Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
was born, and sports journalism's role in its foundation is still reflected today in the leading rider wearing a yellow jersey - the color of the paper on which L'Auto was published (in Italy, the Giro d'Italia
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
established a similar tradition, with the leading rider wearing a jersey the same pink color as the sponsoring newspaper, La Gazzetta
La Gazzetta dello Sport
La Gazzetta dello Sport is an Italian newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. It was first published on April 3, 1896, allowing it to cover the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens...
).
Sports stars in the press box
After the Second World War, the sports sections of British national daily and Sunday newspapers continued to expand, to the point where many papers now have separate standalone sports sections; some Sunday tabloids even have sections, additional to the sports pages, devoted solely to the previous day's football reports. In some respects, this has replaced the earlier practice of many regional newspapers which - until overtaken by the pace of modern electronic media - would produce special results editions rushed out on Saturday evenings.Some newspapers, such as The Sunday Times, with 1924 Olympic 100 m champion Harold Abrahams
Harold Abrahams
Harold Maurice Abrahams, CBE, was a British athlete of Jewish origin. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire.-Early life:...
, or the London Evening News using former England cricket captain Sir Leonard Hutton, began to adopt the policy of hiring former sports stars to pen columns, which were often ghost written. Some such ghosted columns, however, did little to further the reputation of sports journalism, which is increasingly becoming the subject of academic scrutiny of its standards.
Many "ghosted" columns were often run by independent sports agencies, based in Fleet Street or in the provinces, who had signed up the sports star to a contract and then syndicated their material among various titles. These agencies included Pardons, or the Cricket Reporting Agency
Cricket Reporting Agency
The Cricket Reporting Agency was founded by Charles Pardon and George Kelly King in 1880. Throughout its 85 year existence, the CRA provided the Press Association with cricket and football reports and scores for use by newspapers...
, which routinely provided the editors of the Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...
cricket almanac, and Hayters.
Sportswriting in Britain has attracted some of the finest journalistic talents. The Daily Mirrors Peter Wilson, Hugh McIlvanney
Hugh McIlvanney
Hugh McIlvanney is an award-winning, Scottish sports writer. He currently holds a long-running column on the back page of The Sunday Times sports section.- Life and career :...
, first at The Observer and lately at the Sunday Times, Ian Wooldridge
Ian Wooldridge
Ian Wooldridge, OBE was a British sports journalist. He was with the Daily Mail for nearly 50 years. He died from cancer...
of the Daily Mail and soccer writer Brian Glanville
Brian Glanville
Brian Lester Glanville is a leading English football writer and novelist.-Biography:Glanville was educated at Charterhouse School, where he played football to a high standard...
, best known at the Sunday Times, and columnist Patrick Collins, of the Mail on Sunday, five times the winner of the Sports Writer of the Year Award.
Many became household names in the late 20th Century through their trenchant reporting of often earth-shattering events that have transcended the back pages and been reported on the front pages: the Massacre at the Munich Olympics
Munich massacre
The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Members of Black September...
in 1972; Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
's fight career, including his 1974 title bout against George Foreman
George Foreman
George Edward Foreman is an American two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur...
; the Heysel
Heysel Stadium disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster occurred on 29 May 1985 when escaping fans were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, as a result of rioting before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool of England and Juventus of Italy...
Stadium disaster; and the career highs and lows of the likes of Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
, George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
, David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
, Lester Piggott
Lester Piggott
Lester Keith Piggott is a retired English professional jockey, popularly known as "The Long Fellow". With 4,493 career wins, including nine Epsom Derby victories, he is one of the most well-known English flat racing jockeys of all time....
and other high profile stars.
McIlvanney and Wooldridge, who died in March 2007, aged 75, both enjoyed careers that saw them frequently work in television. During his career, Wooldridge became so famous that, like the sports stars he reported upon, he hired the services of IMG, the agency founded by the American businessman, Mark McCormack
Mark McCormack
Mark Hume McCormack was an American lawyer, sports agent for professional athletes and a prolific writer...
, to manage his affairs. Glanville wrote several books, including novels, as well as scripting the memorable official film to the 1966 World Cup staged in England.
Investigative journalism and sport
Since the 1990s, the growing importance of sport, its impact as a global business and the huge amounts of money involved in the staging of events such as the Olympic Games and football World Cups, has also attracted the attention of investigative journalists. The sensitive nature of the relationships between sports journalists and the subjects of their reporting, as well as declining budgets experienced by most Fleet Street newspapers, has meant that such long-term projects have often emanated from television documentary makers.Tom Bower
Tom Bower
Tom Bower is a British writer, noted for his revelatory investigative work such as his unauthorized biographies.A former Panorama reporter, his books include unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson...
, with his 2003 sports book of the year Broken Dreams, which analyzed British football, followed in the tradition established a decade earlier by Andrew Jennings
Andrew Jennings
-Biography:Jennings was born in Scotland and as a child moved to London, England. He is the grandson of a former Clapton Orient player. Jennings worked for the Sunday Times Insight team in the late 1960s, after which he worked for other British newspapers before becoming an investigative reporter...
and Vyv Simson with their controversial investigation of corruption within the International Olympic Committee. Jennings and Simson's The Lords of the Rings in many ways predicted the scandals that were to emerge around the staging of the 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
in Salt Lake City; Jennings would follow-up with two further books on the Olympics and one on FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
, the world football body.
Likewise, award-winning writers Duncan Mackay, of The Guardian, and Steven Downes
Steven Downes
Steven Downes is a British sports journalist, television producer and a contributing writer for the Sunday Herald.-Career :...
unravelled many scandals involving doping, fixed races and bribery in international athletics in their 1996 book, Running Scared, which offered an account of the threats by a senior track official that led to the suicide of their sports journalist colleague, Cliff Temple
Cliff Temple
Cliff Temple was a leading UK athletics journalist, author, commentator and coach. For many years he was the athletics correspondent of The Sunday Times. He was the son of science fiction author William F...
.
But the writing of such exposes - referred to as "spitting in the soup" by Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage is an award-winning sports journalist who writes for the Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom and is a former professional road bicycle racer.Kimmage was born into a cycling family...
, the former Tour de France professional cyclist, now an award-winning writer for the Sunday Times - often requires the view of an outsider who is not compromised by the need of day-to-day dealings with sportsmen and officials, as required by "beat" correspondents.
The stakes can be high when upsetting sport's powers: when in 2007, the England's FA
The Football Association
The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
opted to switch its multi-million pound contract for UK coverage rights of the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
and England international matches from the BBC to rival broadcasters ITV, one of the reasons cited was that the BBC had been too critical of the performances of the England football team.
Sports books
- See: William Hill Sports Book of the YearWilliam Hill Sports Book of the YearThe William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British literary award sponsored by bookmakers William Hill. It claims to be "the world's richest sports book prize" at £22,000...
Increasingly, sports journalists have turned to long-form writing, producing popular books on a range of sporting topics, including biographies, history and investigations. In London, through the 1980s and 1990s, a shop on Charing Cross Road - the area known for its book shops - was entirely devoted to sport, although the growth of online book sales through websites such as Amazon eventually led to the closure of Sports Books.
This was not before, though, the establishment, through sponsorship from William Hill
William Hill (bookmaker)
William Hill plc is one of the largest bookmakers in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters is in the north London suburb of Wood Green and in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
, the bookmakers, of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
William Hill Sports Book of the Year
The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British literary award sponsored by bookmakers William Hill. It claims to be "the world's richest sports book prize" at £22,000...
award. This was first held in 1989, when Dan Topolski's book about one of the most controversial University Boat Races was declared the winner.
Sports journalism organizations
Most countries have their own national association of sports journalists. Many sports also have their own clubs and associations for specialist journalists. These organizations attempt to maintain the standard of press provision at sports venues, oversee fair accreditation procedures and to celebrate high standards of sports journalism.In Britain, the Sports Journalists' Association was founded in 1948. It stages two prestigious awards events, an annual Sports Awards ceremony which recognises outstanding performances by British sportsmen and women during the previous year, and the British Sports Journalism Awards, the industry's "Oscars", sponsored by UK Sport and presented each March.
Originally founded as the Sports Writers' Association, following a merger with the Professional Sports Photographers' Association in 2002 the organization changed its title to the more inclusive SJA.
Its President is the veteran broadcaster and columnist, Sir Michael Parkinson.
The SJA represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association
British Olympic Association
The British Olympic Association is the national Olympic committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1905 in the House of Commons, and at that time consisted of seven national governing body members from the following sports: fencing, life-saving, cycling, skating, rowing,...
's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major events who need guidance on media requirements as well as seeking to represent its members' interests in a range of activities.
In March 2008, Martin Samuel
Martin Samuel
Martin Samuel is a sports columnist for the Daily Mail newspaper and columnist for the Jewish Chronicle. He had been a sports writer and columnist for The Times and the News of the World since 2002 and was named Sports Writer of the Year for 2005 and 2006 at the What The Papers Say awards and in...
, then the chief football correspondent of The Times, was named British Sportswriter of the Year, the first time any journalist had managed to win the award three years in succession.
At the same awards, Jeff Stelling
Jeff Stelling
Robert Jeffrey "Jeff" Stelling is an English sports journalist and sport television presenter, of Gillette Soccer Saturday for Sky Sports and other programming for the satellite broadcaster. In January 2009 he took over as host of the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown...
, of Sky Sports, was named Sports Broadcaster of the Year for the third time, a prize determined by a ballot of SJA members. Stelling won the vote again the following year, when the Sunday Timess Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage is an award-winning sports journalist who writes for the Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom and is a former professional road bicycle racer.Kimmage was born into a cycling family...
won the interviewer of the year prize for a fifth time.
For horse racing the Horserace Writers and Photographers’ Association, was founded in 1927, revived in 1967, it represents the interests of racing journalists in every branch of the media.
The International Sports Press Association, AIPS, was founded in 1924 during the Olympic Games in Paris, at the headquarters of the Sporting Club de France, by Frantz Reichel, the press chief of the Paris Games, and the Belgian, Victor Boin.
The first statutes of AIPS mentioned these objectives:
to enhance the cooperation between its member associations in defending sport and the professional interest of their members.
to strengthen the friendship, solidarity and common interests between sports journalists of all countries.
to assure the best possible working conditions for the members.
AIPS operates through a system of continental sub-associations and national associations, and liaises closely with some of the world's biggest sports federations, including the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
, FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
, football's world governing body and the IAAF, the international track and field body.
In the United States, the Indianapolis-based National Sports Journalism Center
National Sports Journalism Center
The National Sports Journalism Center is a journalism program run by Indiana University and a resource center for sports media professionals. The center, based at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, currently offers undergraduate-level sports journalism courses and will launch what...
monitors trends and strategy within the sports media industry. The center is also home to the Associated Press Sports Editors, the largest group of sports media professionals in the country.
Fanzines and blogs
Through the 1970s and '80s, a rise in "citizen journalism" in Europe was witnessed in the rapid growth in popularity of soccer "fanzines" - cheaply printed magazines written by fans for fans that bypassed often stilted official club match programs and traditional media. Many continue today and thrive.Some authors have been adopted by their clubs - Jim Munro
Jim Munro
Jim Munro is a British journalist and newspaper website editor. He is currently Executive Sports Editor of The Sun's online edition and writes for the paper....
, once editor of the West Ham United fanzine Fortune's Always Dreaming, was hired by the club to write for its matchday magazine and is now sports editor of The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
Online. Other titles, such as the irreverent monthly soccer magazine When Saturday Comes, have effectively gone mainstream.
The advent of the internet has seen much of this fan-generated energy directed into sports blogs. Ranging from team-centric blogs to those that cover the sports media itself, Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report is a website that provides news and fans' opinions of sporting events.The website was launched in February 2008 by California-based entrepreneurs Dave Finocchio, Zander Freund, Bryan Goldberg, and Dave Nemetz...
, Deadspin.com, ProFootballTalk.com
Profootballtalk.com
Profootballtalk.com is a news and rumor website that focuses on the National Football League. Though much of the information on PFT is aggregated from mainstream media sources, site editor Mike Florio often writes stories based on tips he attributes to a network of sources.The main focus of the...
, AOL Fanhouse, the blogs in the Yardbarker
Yardbarker
Yardbarker is a San Francisco, California based subsidiary of FOX Sports Interactive that primarily runs a network of sports websites known as the Yardbarker Network, and additionally owns and operates a website, Yardbarker.com.-History:...
Network, and others have garnered massive followings.
Blogging has also been taken up by sportsmen and women such as Curt Schilling
Curt Schilling
Curtis Montague "Curt" Schilling is a former American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in and won World Series championships in with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in and with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling retired with a...
, Paula Radcliffe
Paula Radcliffe
Paula Jane Radcliffe, MBE is an English long-distance runner. She is the current women's world record holder in the marathon with her time of 2:15:25 hours...
, Greg Oden
Greg Oden
Gregory Wayne Oden, Jr. is an American basketball player at the center position. Oden is a member of the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA....
, Donovan McNabb
Donovan McNabb
Donovan Jamal McNabb is an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent. He was the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback from 1999 to 2009 and spent the 2010 season with the Washington Redskins and a portion of the 2011 season with the Minnesota Vikings. In college, McNabb played...
, and Chris Cooley.
See also
- JournalismJournalismJournalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
- Sports commentatorSports commentatorIn sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
- Broadcasting of sports eventsBroadcasting of sports eventsThe broadcasting of sports events is the coverage of sports as a television program, on radio and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one or more sports commentators describing the events as they happen.-United States:...
- National Sports Journalism CenterNational Sports Journalism CenterThe National Sports Journalism Center is a journalism program run by Indiana University and a resource center for sports media professionals. The center, based at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, currently offers undergraduate-level sports journalism courses and will launch what...
(US) - Baseball Writers Association of AmericaBaseball Writers Association of AmericaThe Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
(US) - National Collegiate Baseball Writers AssociationNational Collegiate Baseball Writers AssociationThe National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association is an association of baseball writers, broadcasters, and publicists in the United States...
(US) - Pro Basketball Writers AssociationPro Basketball Writers AssociationThe Pro Basketball Writers Association is a professional organization for sportswriters who write about professional basketball, including the National Basketball Association .-History:...
(US) - United States Basketball Writers AssociationUnited States Basketball Writers AssociationThe United States Basketball Writers Association was founded in 1956 by Walter Byers and serves the interests of journalists who cover college basketball.-Scholarships:...
(US; college) - Football Writers Association of AmericaFootball Writers Association of AmericaThe Football Writers Association of America is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the NCAA...
(US; college) - Pro Football Writers AssociationPro Football Writers AssociationTechnically known as the Pro Football Writers of America, this organization purports to be "The official voice of pro football writers, promoting and fighting for access to NFL personnel to best serve the public." Goals of the organization include improving access to practices and locker rooms,...
(US) - Ice Hockey Journalists UKIce Hockey Journalists UKIce Hockey Journalists UK, abbreviated to IHJUK, is an organisation which was set up in 1984 to promote the interests of ice hockey and its writers, photographers and broadcasters...
- Professional Hockey Writers AssociationProfessional Hockey Writers' AssociationThe Professional Hockey Writers' Association is a North American professional association for ice hockey journalists writing for newspapers, magazines and websites...
(US) - Football Writers' AssociationFootball Writers' AssociationThe Football Writers' Association is an association of England football journalists and correspondents writing for newspapers and agencies, founded in 1947....
(England) - Scottish Football Writers' AssociationScottish Football Writers' AssociationThe Scottish Football Writers' Association is an association of Scottish football journalists and correspondents writing for newspapers and agencies, founded in 1965...
- National Sportscasters and Sportswriters AssociationNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters AssociationThe National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, or NSSA, is an organization of sports media members in the United States. It constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Press Association ....
(US)
Further reading
- Steen, R, Sports Journalism: A Multimedia Primer, Routledge, 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-39424-6
- Wilstein, Steve "AP Sports Writing Handbook," McGraw-Hill, 2001, ISBN 978-0-07-137218-3, ISBN 0-07-137218-0
External links
- Sports Journalists Association of Great Britain website: Largest national organisation of its type in the world, site carries news on sport, journalism and sports journalism
- Best Sports Writing: Aggregator site with selection of sports writing
- Sports Media Guide
- Journal of Sports Media blog hosted by University of Mississippi journalism school
- British Council article on the state of sports journalism in the UK
- How objective is our sports journalism?
- Playthegame.org
- The Football Radio Show
- An Interview with NYT Sportswriter Ira Berkow
- What's wrong with Sports Illustrated?
- Sports writers from USA Today and The Washington Times answer the question, "What is Sports Journalism?" A program hosted by ResearchChannel.
- Bribes, ethics and the end of an era at Fifa Investigative journalist Andrew Jennings on reporters' relationship with football's world body
- BlogsFC-Football blogs about your favorite teams
- Beijing Olympics sports journalism blog
- Female Reporters in Male Locker Rooms
- List of Current Athlete Bloggers
- National Sports Journalism Center: Indianapolis, Ind.-based sports journalism program and professional resource.