The Internet has destroyed the qualities and values of sports writing...
The Internet has completely revolutionised today’s
digitalised world with its World Wide Web and substantially changed the way we
experience sports writing.
Many people may argue that the growth and establishment of
the Internet has contaminated the way people interact with each other leading
to the destroyed qualities and values (such as the brevity and efficiency) of
sports writing as a whole. I however disagree, as the only entity the Internet
has destroyed is the restricted access to sports writing we had before. We no
longer experience the old school, one sided and occasional printed sports
writing that was restricted to a mainstream sport that many of our older
generations grew to love.
Initially, the Internet made the world much smaller than
in the past. In fact, nowadays anyone can keep contact with friends who may live
on the other side of the world with direct access to sporting updates, stats and
games at any given time on a global scale.
The Internet plays a vital role in our sporting communications
world as it contains innumerable, wide-ranging, constantly updated information on
a timely basis.
In the past, many had limited access to the fundamental
platforms that delivered sports writing, this includes- books, televisions,
newspapers or money to attend the game.
Evidently the internet has not destroyed the values and
qualities of sports writing, it simply has expanded these values and qualities and
has opened more opportunities for sports writers (creating new mediums to
communicate sporting content) and generated more outlets for supporters to view
scores, team profiles, stats and games without the hassle or need to attend every
game and/or purchase the daily newspaper.
Prior to the Internet, all fans relied on print media to
get their daily or weekly dose of often limited sport information. However now,
in response to the vast acceleration of the advanced digitalised internet- the
print media, like a dinosaur, is being wiped off the planet from the dramatic
impact of the meteor that we know as the ‘Internet’.
The power of this medium has become a vital place for
sports writing and viewing, with the magnitude of sports writing much like a
tsunami spreading and covering the globe with an overwhelming wealth of
information. Further to this explosion is that the interaction in times past
was purely passive but now has merely become active and interactive.
Writers were print journalists expressing views that were
limited to the column the paper would allow, distinct from the now, where there
are writers from every walk of life contributing articles to all print media
and essentially online content. This comprises of match reviews, social media
boards, game assessments, exposes, arguments/ counter arguments, editorials, breaking
news and game/ event live feeds. In addition, there are countless blogs and
twitter feeds with participants getting involved and interacting with supporters
and the general public.
Some might argue that the Internet has harmed the healthy
relationship between the game and the audience. As there is no longer a need to
attend every game since the rapid pace of the Internet, which has supposedly promoted
a ‘lose of direct contact’ between the spectators and the game that has
substantially ruined the essence of sports. I disagree. The Public has become
more involved in sport than in the past. Attendance to games and events have
exceeded beyond popularity and people are more in tune with their sport teams
than ever before. The Internet has provided the world with boundless opportunities
and allowed people to experience sports to a degree that they would have never
known or had access to.
“Just as television changed the way families in the 1950s interacted
with sport, the Internet has given fans yet another way to experience sport.
The Internet gives sport fans virtual access to sport live, on demand and allows
them to create personal and specific methods of interaction”. (Woods R. B.,
2011)
The production of television was built to schedule programs and events
at certain times and expect a mass audience to view them. However, the innovations
of technology advancement within the internet in the last 10 years has allowed
people to record any program and replay it at their convenience using almost
any type of medium.
The plethora of paid cable channels, specialised sport networks, and
sport packages has also contributed to a diffusion of the television audience.
For those who desire to watch sports all day, there are specific channels with packages
and programs that are available continually.
Many of us use the Internet to supplement televised sport and newspaper
accounts, but for the majority of younger people, the Internet has become the
primary source for news generally and sports specifically. “Social media such
as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs have opened up other possibilities for
sport news and discussion”. (Woods R. B., 2011)
Beyond simply reporting the news, social networking sites have the
ability to link sport fans with each other and with their desired professional
athletes to share ideas, discussions, opinions, and photos around the world at
the speed of light.
The Internet also provides a wide variety of programming with live video
streaming allowing the public access to watch their family and friends or even
their own team play any type of game in any time zone.
If YouTube were searched for ‘sports’ or ‘athletes’, the results would
be more than 900,000 photos and 200,000 videos, including sport blooper videos,
various commercials and athlete interviews, videos of women in sport, and profiles
of athletes at every level of competition.
The
Internet has formally become a go-to platform for numerous sporting channels
and outlets allowing access to all sport related information at any point in
time. People in this century are growing up with a desire
to read about what already interests them, which is why the Internet has
officially trampled print media and become the means for all sporting
information. The increased interest in reading and hearing about sports down to
the smallest detail, is in contrast to the newspapers which were
distributed once a day at best and more commonly once per week, with restricted
media attention to the highlights of few single-minded sports writing reviews
of the few specific mainstream events.
“The Internet gives the world direct access to websites of favorite
teams, check for scores, listen to games in progress, order tickets, browse for
stories, read and follow sport blogs, or enter chat rooms to discuss the latest
event results.” (Woods R. B., 2011)
Due to the Internet, we can now track the progress of sport events
anywhere in the world. Articles by sports writers are broadcasted and
circulated on the Internet for public access to perspectives from sport
newsrooms globally. Even sport events that are only ‘pretend’ have cornered a
significant share of the marketplace on the Internet.
According to a survey from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), “an
industry organisation that represents more than 110 companies, an estimated 27
million American adults play fantasy sports, translating into revenue of nearly
a billion dollars per year.” (Woods R. B., 2011)
As a result to the increasing consumer interest in getting news from the
Internet, the rise of the Internet is likely one of the causes for the
declining circulation of major newspapers. Newspaper circulation has slowly deteriorated
since the 1980’s, and lately descended to a fast tracking point of bare minimum.
Nowadays, nobody will give up the time or energy to stream
through a newspaper when the aspired information is only clicks away. This was
highlighted when the feature story, “takeout” as it is known in newspaper
parlance, was taken out of newspapers due to limited space and the timely cost
to research and write. People no longer have the attention span and drive to
actually read paragraphs anymore.
“Pitchers can suddenly only go six innings, and readers
can only go six paragraphs.” (Woods R. B., 2011)
Woods also stated from his second edition of Social Issues In Sport that ‘as technology improves and access to
the Internet increases, websites will fight to win consumers. Media
corporations will enter the fray and try to entice consumers by offering exclusive
data and entertainment on their sites. Eventually, Internet access may allow us
to design our own sport entertainment by giving us access to novel event
presentations with unique camera angles, favorite announcers, instant replay on
demand, and player or coach interviews. The interactive nature of such
experiences will draw us closer to the action and make us more involved than
the average spectator’.
“The end of journalism as we know it is only the
beginning of better things for sports journalism.” (Deford F., 2010)
Neil Postman, a brilliant social observer, once suggested that “Education
as we know it began with the printing press and ended with television.” (Neiman
Foundation, 2014)
On the other hand, we could say- ‘Journalism as we knew it began
with the printing press and evolved with the Internet’.
While some may bemoan the loss of newspapers and magazines, the
other vast majorities have come to terms that the Internet clearly offers more.
Amplified is the weight of the written word- cheers to the
evolution of the Internet, which has expanded and revolutionised the qualities
and values of sports writing.
Nearly a century later Twitter is the
telegraph in the press box. Reporters watch the New York Giants play the
Philadelphia Athletics in the 1913 World Series.
(Image source: The George Grantham Bain
Collection at the Library of Congress)
REFERENCES
- · R. B. Woods, Social Issues in Sport, Second Edition, 2011
- · F. Deford, Speech: Sports Writing in the Internet Age, 2010
- · Neiman Foundation, 2014- CITED 24 SEPTEMBER 2014 http://nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=102524
