ESSAY QUESTION

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