Sports journalism is like anything else these days, there’s some good news and some bad…Surprisingly , jobs are more plentiful now and finding them is even easier(getting them is another story for another day)…But let’s be clear, while there’s something for everyone, to be a “pro” at it takes time and creativity…
So, when Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald and Marc Normandin from SB Nation joined us for the inaugural sports journalism seminar this semester, I hoped we could establish some basic ground rules about where sports journalism was in 2015…On the heels of Media Day at the Super Bowl it seemed like there were no rules…The National Football League issued more than 5,500 credentials and it looked and felt like they were all there packed into the U.S. Airways Center…
But was that journalism?….USA Today devoted an entire column to the “Goofiest Reporters”…Bleacher Report packaged a feature on Ines Sainz, not even Bill Simmons could resist… How did we get to this point?…Lauber explains it this way: “Sports are entertainment…I think that there’s a danger, especially nowadays of taking it too seriously…It’s sports, it’s a game, it’s fun but it’s very easy to take all of the fun out of the game.”…Certainly “Deflate-gate” did just that as did the NFL’s ongoing domestic abuse issues all season long…But covering those issues can’t just be sloughed off as “taking it too seriously”…The key is, it’s a story and your job is to tell it…
Therein lies the key, it says on this page…As a journalist you have to decide what gets told, how it gets told and even “if” it gets told…Not everything you hear will be true, not everything you’re told will be accurate, not everything someone whispers in your ear really happened…Thankfully, with the playing of Super Bowl 49, “Deflate-gate” goes away (until that one day when Roger Goodell issues a press release fining the New England Patriots and we have that day’s story)…As a journalist you’re trying to establish yourself as someone readers/viewers can trust…You are their link to the events they hold so precious…Perhaps Normandin put it best when he told the students, “We’ve kind of learned what we should be covering, how far we should extend ourselves and when there are times when we have to say ‘no, let’s keep on working on something bigger, that we’re prouder of, that we think is going to do very well. so, you have to learn the point ‘that’s enough.”…Very well said Marc…this is crucial for journalists just starting out…weaving their way through what seems like a morass of information and trying to decide how to deliver it…
It’s all a process, it starts slowly and hopefully builds…And the only way to figure it out is to practice at it, “do it” on whatever platform you can…for the school newspaper, your own blog, your class assignments, if that’s what it takes…Lauber gave this advice, “Go to a game, write a good story about a player, something particular that happened. Learn to write and there’s a career for you.”
Maybe that’s the key to where we are in 2015…it doesn’t have to always be hard hitting, entertaining journalism has its place…But the people who are doing it have succeeded because their writing and their storytelling are exceptional…And better still, you’ll make a career of it…
15 Comments
Nicholas Picht posted on February 2, 2015 at 9:49 pm
In light of the Super Bowl – both media day and the actual game – I thought it was a great time to sit down and discuss what sports journalism is and how it’s changed since the time Marc and Scott graduated. I thought our guests were both extremely insightful, but also young and savvy enough to know how to give their advice and answers in a clear and understandable way.
It always blows my mind when I’m reminded of not only how much the profession has changed, but also how much our world has changed in only about 5-10 years. Scott touched on how in ’98 when he graduated, he didn’t even have a cell phone. Yet last week before class, he was typing and sending out his Daniel Nava story on his smartphone. That moment just proves that, even though we as college students already have technological skills, we still must adapt to and prepare for the new technological changes that are bound to arrive within the next few years. If we can take advantage of those new forms of technology, whether it’s a new form of social media, or an even smarter cell phone, I think it will allow us to set ourselves apart from the competition.
Speaking of gaining an advantage, I think the most important words to come out of Scott and Marc’s mouths the other night were about writing, specifically with Scott’s quote “Learn to write and there’s a career for you.” Such simple advice for those of us who, most of the time, are looking for the big secret on how to get hired. And at the end of the day, this is what journalism is all about – being able to write and tell stories. So, for me, Scott’s words certainly instilled a sense of confidence that getting a job in this field is not impossible.
The final point I want to touch on was another important lesson from Scott. “Athletes are people too,” he said. And again, what simple, yet useful advice for us. Many of us only know athletes as larger-than-life figures, the modern day gladiators, who are so untouchable and unreachable that some of us can’t even imagine having a normal conversation with them.
I have even fallen into this trap myself at times. I’d be lying if I said that at some point or another I wasn’t star struck to cross paths with Dwight Howard, or Rick Nash, or even to a certain extent Jack Eichel.
Yet, all athletes ARE people – they have families, and problems, and emotions just like all of us. And besides writing, I think being able to relate to and connect with these figures as people is a huge skill of a sports journalist that is necessary to get the information he/she needs for a good story.
All in all, Scott and Marc provided some great tips, and reminded me of the simple things that I can do as a journalist and as a professional that will make a difference in my career. Definitely worthwhile having them in class.
Pat O'Rourke posted on February 3, 2015 at 11:38 am
The most profound theme that came from the lecture was that there’s nothing wrong with starting at the bottom and working your way up. There’s nothing wrong with beginning somewhere small, paying your dues, and carving your own niche.
In today’s world, there’s more outlets to report information, offer commentary, and opine on various topics. There’s good and bad to that.
The positives is it gives a voice to anybody with a keyboard and Facebook, Twitter, or WordPress account. Diverse thoughts, ideas, and viewpoints advances the discussion. Because of those resources, there’s now more jobs than ever. And advanced ways of communicating creates opportunity for fledgling journalists.
Unfortunately, there’s now more people than ever, as well. The mass resources clutter the airways, gives voice to people who shouldn’t have one (yes, there are some out there), and gives a distorted view of how to go big in the industry.
There couldn’t be a better example of that ‘distorted’ view than the story of Marc Normandin’s SB Nation colleague, Chris Cotillo. Cotillo, who is a freshman journalism student at UNC and a reporter for SB Nation’s MLB Daily Dish, cut his teeth aggregating baseball news and reporting it online as a high schooler in central Massachusetts. He got his big break at the 2013 Winter Meetings when he broke the Doug Fister trade from the Detroit Tigers to the Washington Nationals. That elevated him to one of the biggest baseball reporters in the country.
In the year since, you see more ‘reporters’ with ‘sources’ on Twitter. People who think they have a foot in the door of the Red Sox organization because they have a buddy who sells Fenway Franks. Jake Wesley was a 14-year-old reporter who broke the Red Sox signings of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, but then got burnt badly by reporting that Yoenis Cespedes was traded to the Cincinnati Reds.
What people don’t know is that sources are relationships made over years of trust, from both sides of the relationship. It’s not knowing one person who works in a particular organization, therefore knowing every last detail. Reporting involves fact-checking, confirming before confirming again.
If it was being widely reported a player was going to sign with the Red Sox, and someone said the Indians were actually the frontrunners for his services, a reporter with less experience and seasoning would be quick to report that for the sake of making a splash. Scott Lauber had such an encounter when the Red Sox were reportedly on the verge of signing Shane Victorino.
The report turned out to be a smokescreen put out as part of the negotiation. Thankfully for Lauber, he didn’t report it. Reporting false information is damning to a reporter’s credibility.
Lauber didn’t gain these inside sources by sitting around on Twitter all day. He worked his way through the ranks, reported stories, and developed relationships through stops in Concord, N.H., Binghamton N.Y., Philadelphia, and Boston, where he covers the Red Sox for the Boston Herald.
Normandin took a different route than Lauber, climbing through the ranks via blogs and writing for various online publications before settling in with a full-time job at SB Nation. Like Lauber, he went through a due-paying process that consisted of climbing up the ladder.
With the internet, it’s easier than ever to get your voice out there. In some ways, it’s caused a false notion that you can become Skip Bayless, Adam Schefter, or Bill Simmons overnight. That’s not the reality. While there’s no boundaries to what one can become in this industry, getting to the top still involves a process.
Katie Peverada posted on February 3, 2015 at 1:53 pm
Just a few days before Lauber and Normandin came in for the discussion, I had the “pleasure” of watching some of the circus of the Super Bowl XLIX media day. My first thought, when SalPal said there were 22 different countries represented at the event (and as the blog post points out, over 5,500 credentials issed), was “Hey, that’s pretty cool.” But then I quickly realized that for every inquisitive and genuine interest in the game, the players and their respective stories, there is a guy in a barrel and a four-year-old girl asking questions (something I’ll never think is cute) that are calling themselves journalists. It suddenly seemed demeaning to me. If I ever go to Super Bowl media day, people will just think I’m there for fun…they won’t know that I’m trying to find a story.
Like the comments before me said, this was a great first lecture because of the timing and overall relevance to the rest of the discussion (and something I’m guessing Professor Shorr did on purpose). Both guests allowed as how reporting is now, and to an extent always was, about finding that story that hasn’t been written. As Lauber pointed out, each publication you write for, even if the topic is always on the same (ex. Sports Illustrated or ESPN Magazine), is going to have a different audience. One might like the entertainment side of things more, as Normandin has found at SB Nation. So how can we do that? How can we, as young writers just getting into it, find that one thing to pitch that is unique?
I think it goes back to another thing that Lauber said in that being a good reporter is about several things, including being accountable, present and building relationships. From the stories and lessons that came out of the discussion, that seemed to be the only constant in the evolution of the journalists’ careers. One of them jokingly said that pretty soon people are going to be saying “Do you remember when we used to put stuff on Twitter?” That might seem dramatic, yes, but it is true. At some point – wayyyy down the road – Twitter won’t be the tool/curse that it is today. HOWEVER, we will still be able to go back to that constant that has been there since the beginning of building relationships with people, not just athletes (or actors, politicians, or whoever you are interviewing).
It’s not just about being the best at prose, but it is also about being able to use your skills to get the “stuff” you need for your prose. It’s important to hear what the bottom line is!
Keiko Talley posted on February 3, 2015 at 4:33 pm
Sports journalism has certainly come a long way, as of any industry, in this fast growing and media hungry era. Our guest speakers had told us things have changed greatly since they had graduated college. Scott told us about how he was able to quickly send out an article from his phone on his walk into our class, something that was not even a thought when he was in our position. Although at some times we want to fight new technology, not getting a Facebook or not posting on twitter, our guest speakers told us how important social media is in this day and age, again something that was not a thought when they were our age-which wasn’t that long ago.
Readers and viewers need to be able to trust you, they need to know that you are up to date on all things and on top of what is out there especially on the web. That being said there is so many things on the web that is not true. Think about how many times people on twitter tried to say that Justin Bieber died. This is why it is so important to fact checking everything and be accurate and relevant. Which is why as much as we may not want to we should have a Facebook and send out tweets as often as we can. Social media is also a great way to network your self. In 2015 it is possible to be able to follow Pete Abraham and hopefully catch his eye with a knowledgeable tweet. I realized a few hours after class that this in fact is true (I followed Marc on twitter after class where he responded to my follow with “I’m glad showing up got at least one person to follow!”).
I feel like journalists have a stiff persona-a hoity toity stereotype, that we eat sleep breath journalism and we have no fun at all. But our guest speakers were a great anti stereotype. Although both write about baseball and both are clearly passionate about it, Scott is covering more hard-hitting type stories while Marc is covering stories about players shooting a basketball on their butt when news is slow. Its interesting to see both sides of reporting and comforting knowing that you can make a hobby into a career.
As a journalist, yes it is important to have fun with what we’re doing or, like anything else, we’ll go crazy. But it is important to make sure that if we are making a joke, people understand and know that it is in fact a joke; a lesson I learned from guest speaker Marc Normandin when he told us about a tweet that he sent out as a joke. Although his next tweet read, “someone is going to take that last tweet seriously” it was already too late and his joke of a tweet started trending, something those journalists now a day have to take into consideration, news travels faster than ever and often times it isn’t true.
Another thing that is so important and yet seems so difficult when being a sports journalist is creating a relationship with the player. As intimidating as it may seem to walk up to Zack Wheeler from the NY Mets that’s all it takes. As professor and our guest speakers reminded us these athletes know that we want something from them. Some may not want to talk, and some may just say hi. The great thing about covering baseball is that you have a higher chance to be able to speak to the players. Even a simple “Hey Zack, I’m Keiko Talley from BU News Service great game today” that simple hello could turn into a great relationship where he would rather answer my questions that the next guys.
Speaking of Wheeler, whom was just on the AAA team in 2013 and in the minors in 2013, Scott made it clear that it is okay to start at the bottom, something that I found extremely comforting, as I was a freelance high school sports writer before coming to grad school. Although most people would much rather jump into a job covering David Ortiz or the Red Sox, doing that as your first job will get you lost. There is a huge pool of people covering baseball and it is often hard to find something unique to write about so that you can stick out and be noticed, which is why Scott said that it is less stressful and better to be covering minors and college level.
All in all I believe that the definition of sports journalism is constantly being redefined. Just like other forms of journalism we are here to tell a story, and it is up to us to go out and find that story. But like an onion, sports journalism has so many layers to it.
Josh Schrock posted on February 3, 2015 at 8:31 pm
Scott Lauber of The Boston Herald and Marc Normandin of SB Nation had a lot of valuable insight on the world of sports journalism, both where it was and where it is now. I think the first thing that stuck out to me was how different Scott and Marcs’ job are from one another, which is one of the reasons I believe professor Shorr had this seminar. It showed us not only how much the profession has changed in how the job is conducted, as Scott Lauber illustrated by telling us when he started he didn’t even have a cellphone and now he can file stories with it. The contrast between Scott Lauber, whose profession is a more traditional one in terms of writing and reporting, and Normandins’ shows that there are many different niches that one can carve out in this profession and be successful in doing so. While, Lauber spends the baseball season in the press box and in the clubhouse interviewing players and finding stories. Normandin on the other hand writes analytical pieces from his home and has other writers for SB Nation work at the games because he would rather just enjoy the game if he were there in person. To me this really illustrated how many different opportunities are out there if you know what you are good at and can have the ability to improve as you get experience.
Both Lauber and Normandin emphasized not only the importance of starting at the place that isn’t your dream job to gain experience but also the importance of embracing the struggle. Normandin mentioned a couple of times how hard the profession is and that there were multiple times that he questioned if he would make a living as a writer. Normandin said that young writers “need to know what they are good at” and that they might need to “take jobs to the left and right of their desired path to gain experience.” This is an important message for those of us that will be heading out into the job market in the near future. While, we may have our eyes set on covering a certain sport or working for a certain type of publication, we should be comfortable taking a job that may be off our desire path in order to gain experience that can help get you onto your desired path in the future. As others above me have stated, Lauber mentioned that the best place for a young reporter to start is on a beat where they are the only ones asking questions, so that they can learn how to succeed and how to fail.
Another thing that I found interesting was that Normandin, who is the editor of SB Nations baseball site, often hires writers based on their tweets alone. In the article, Twitter: Killing Sports Journalism 140 Characters At A Time, the author who is a career sports editor believes that social media is causing his species to become irrelevant. But if Normandins’ way of hiring shows anything, it’s not that social media has caused old school sports journalism to go the way of the dogs, but rather has created a whole different world of opportunities for writers that didn’t exist a decade ago. The biggest thing I got out of the seminar was the amount of chances that are out there, and the likelihood that in 5-10 years something else will come along like Twitter did and carve out a different niche for a different group of writers, so take any opportunity you can to get experience and hone what you are good at and you have a chance.
Alex Hirsch posted on February 3, 2015 at 9:44 pm
One of things that I found so intriguing about Thursday nights seminar was the discussion about how to approach an athlete. How does one build a relationship? If I were to walk into the Red Sox dugout right now, why would anyone come speak with me? They wouldn’t. The players do not know who I am. The players are only going to talk to the reporters that have built a relationship with them. They will completely bypass us. But, Scott Lauber’s advice was to go talk to them. How can we talk to them if they don’t want to talk to us? That is where I got hung up. Where do we really start?
Lauber explained that there is going to be that period where athletes may not talk to us, and it is our job to make sure that that period lasts as little as possible. We need to go up to an athlete and introduce ourselves and then have a question prepared. “Hi my name is Alex Hirsch and work with Boston University News Service, I wanted to ask you what role Brandon Browner had on the play that allowed Malcolm Butler to make the game saving interception?” Discuss this with them in detail. Then next time I see the athlete I can say, “Hey remember me? We talked in detail about how Brandon Browner essentially set a pick for Malcolm Butler to jump that route.” Athletes see lots of faces, and reminding them of what we talked about will help them remember you.
Building a relationship with these athletes goes beyond the stories though. Saying hello to them when you walk by them, maybe even asking how there families are doing. Get to know them. Professor Shorr explained that it is important to not only acknowledge athletes when you need something. They are people too. When you don’t have a story on Daniel Nava, it does not mean ignore Daniel Nava when you walk by him.
Another really important lesson I learned was just because someone has beat you to a story or finished the same story you were working one first, that does not mean to give up on your story. Just write my version of it. Do it my way. That in itself will make it different.
It was really interesting listening to our speakers talk about how different journalism is now and how far it has come. That all these social media cites are tools to help us gather more information and get the information out there faster. This makes it even more important to make sure you have multiple sources, because you never know if someone is making something up these days. People just post thoughts to the web and it is taken as fact. If you are not sure, make sure.
This was definitely a valuable lesson to have to start out the semester. How can you have other guests if you have not really discussed what journalism is these days? Well, Marc and Scott gave us the answer.
Nick Garrido posted on February 4, 2015 at 11:37 am
What is Sports Journalism now? Starting out the first seminar with interpreting the difference between sports journalism and sports entertainment, if there is one at all got me thinking about the field in a way I haven’t thought about it before.
There’s no doubt that the viewers for local television sportscasts have gone down over the years. The length of the sports casts on local television has also gone down since with it. However, I couldn’t help but notice the last time i went to my internship at WHDH on Super Bowl Sunday that sports entertainment is also finding its way into sports newscasts. I walked into the sports studio and there I see Alex Corddry typing up her script for a report she is going to do on best Patriots pictures that have been tweeted out. She was going to show pictures of dogs wearing Patriots jerseys. Is that Journalism? I have to say its more of an entertainment value there but its okay because based on everything I’ve heard in this seminar, sports journalism and entertainment are being linked more closely.
I thought to myself at that point after having the seminar this past Thursday that indeed the culture of sports journalism has definitely shifted to a more entertainment perspective than it’s ever been. As Marc Normandin put it there is a way to be successful doing stories on what people find amusing or entertaining. He kept referencing the Pablo Sandoval story about how he supposedly hit this big shot while on the floor. There may be people that say that isn’t journalism, but ultimately sports are entertainment and as Marc said it is just sports.
Another major aspect of what we looked at in the seminar of how to cover certain situations such as going into a locker room before a game and introducing yourself to certain player. As Scott Lauber put it “the players are more likely to talk to someone they’ve known for years rather than a new comer but it is possible to work your way up there with a player if you introduce yourself the right way and build yourself up. You ultimately want the players to trust you and think you’re a fair writer or in other words critic. As a new reporter, those first interactions with the players you will be writing and covering are absolutely crucial and this seminar reinforced that.
ESPN received a lot of criticism for not covering the Ben Roethlisberger scandal the appropriate way to most people. They decided not to report the fact that he was facing civil allegations of sexual misconduct. Their response was that they are cautious to report things in a civil lawsuit because those can be some of the most damaging claims a person can face. However, in the same article, it’s talked about how Marvin Harrison faced a civil lawsuit and ESPN decided to report on that. Ultimately, people claimed that ESPN was trying to protect its top athletes. What that tells me is that sports journalism isn’t as clear cut as it once was. What may be clear cut on how to report a story a certain way may not be clear cut to others. Now, more than ever, sports journalism is becoming increasingly broad.
Final thing I took away from this seminar and i found it super important as to why this seminar was valuable was as reporters, you have to make sure you fact check and make sure what you are writing or reporting on is indeed the truth. Sometimes, people will tell you things that will help their clients or what they want the public to believe. Sports may be entertainment but there’s a lot of money involved in the industry and specifically sports agents will do anything to help promote their client. As Scott Lauber said if major market baseball teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees are believed to be in on a certain player, it drives up the price in the free agent market on the player because teams will feel the need to increase their offer to compete with teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees.
Overall, this seminar course was a great way to start the semester off as it handled a lot of pressing things in the sports journalism industry and since it was such a broad topic, it allowed us to cover several different topics.
Karly Finison posted on February 4, 2015 at 5:01 pm
At the beginning of class, Professor Shorr asked whether covering sports is journalism or entertainment. After hearing both Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald and Marc Normandin of SB Nation speak to our class last week, I would agree that it’s a combination of both.
The news values we’ve been taught throughout all of our introductory journalism classes, such as timeliness, proximity, prominence and conflict, to name a few, remain important to the sports journalism profession as well. Readers and/or viewers want content that is relevant. With that said, because of the internet, I think there is a little bit more pressure on journalists to write stories that people are going to not only read but also share. The number of views and shares a story receives is concrete. Journalists know exactly if and how their audience is engaged.
But what draws readers to those pieces? Is it because they want to be informed or merely entertained?
Normandin mentioned that when he first started blogging, he received just 50 views a day. As the internet evolved, it was a challenge for him adjusting to a heightened demand for content. Yet one of the best points Normandin made last week was to do one thing well. For him, writing one story or column that he felt good about outweighed posting numerous pieces that perhaps weren’t as clean.
When I talked to Lauber after class, I asked him how a young journalist goes about not only building relationships with players, but establishing relationships with other writers and reporters covering the same team.
When I was a sports intern at WHDH-TV (7NBC-Boston) a couple summers ago, going into the Red Sox Clubhouse was intimidating at first. Reporters were scattered throughout the locker room and while some talked to each other, many were simply waiting alone. When Dustin Pedroia came out of the shower, they gave him a couple minutes to change and then flocked towards his locker, iPhones and recorders in hand.
Lauber said that many times writers will become friends just by seeing so much of each other covering the same team. Ultimately, however, Lauber said that you’ll gain or lose respect from other journalists given the way you act in the locker room and what you write.
Even though this profession has changed drastically in the last two decades, Lauber’s visit to class helped me remember that it’s still okay to follow a more traditional career path as he did. It’s easy to hide when covering big teams like the Red Sox or Celtics. Yet by working for a small paper, you can potentially stand out.
Sports journalism will continue to evolve and people will want content faster and more often. Isn’t that the beauty of Twitter? Yet it’s up to us to remain ethical in our decision making as journalists. Though we may want to be the first to break a story, it’s more important to double check the information with sources before publishing it. At the end of the day, it’s not only our name that is at stake, but our brand— a brand we are working hard to create for ourselves now.
Conor Ryan posted on February 4, 2015 at 5:44 pm
As noted at the start of the Thursday’s class, it can be very difficult to peg what sports journalism truly is in 2015.
Is it the long-form features and thorough beat coverage from writers such as Don Van Natta, Wright Thomson and Alex Speier? Or is it an entertainment-centered outlet for media sources such as ESPN and Bleacher Report to spew out hot takes and celebrity commentary on big games?
The focus on how we should define sports journalism in 2015 served as the main talking point for our first seminar this semester, with both Scott Lauber and Marc Normandin giving their advice on what this profession has morphed into over the years and what should be expected from young journalists entering the market.
You can’t look past the fact that journalism as a whole has changed over the years, with social media and other forms of technology ruling the day. As Scott noted near the start of the seminar, when he graduated from BU in the late ‘90s, he didn’t even have a cell phone.
While Scott’s work at the Boston Herald mostly seems to fit with the established “norms” of sports journalism in terms of beat coverage and regular features, the times have been changing over the years. After all, the Herald has been trying to compete in terms of online content with competitors such as Boston.com, and has even started an online radio station. Meanwhile, Marc works at SBNation, a website that employs new-age forms of media presentation in the form of things such as GIFs, Vines and embedded content in order to attract traffic.
The seminar sent home the message that yes, sports journalism has changed. But the biggest takeaway is the fact that as journalists, we need to know that change in this profession is inevitable, but certain fundamentals will always remain the same.
Lauber summed it up best when he noted, “Learn to write, and there’s a career for you.” In the midst of all the noise and distractions that this industry provides, one of the simplest fundamentals rings true to this day.
There’s no telling what sports journalism will look like going forward, but it’s certainly reassuring to hear from someone like Lauber that some of the most basic skillsets required from journalists can still take you very far.
Lee Altman posted on February 4, 2015 at 7:49 pm
Our first seminar this past Thursday was a great kick-off to the semester. Before focusing on the different aspects of sports journalism that we will discuss throughout the semester, it was nice to first view the field with a wider scope. Guest speakers Scott Lauber from the Boston Herald and Marc Normandin from SB Nation are print journalists. Both agreed that sports are big business, news and entertainment all wrapped in one. Scott added the caveat that “Defaltegate is not Watergate” and being “too serious takes the fun out of the game.” Mark said “Its sports, at the end of the day.” Although there was similarity in both speakers’ views of sports journalism, I found an interesting contrast between Scott’s and Mark’s jobs. The juxtaposition between the way they approach their jobs reflects the overall evolution of sports journalism.
Scott represents the traditional picture of sports journalism- he writes for a newspaper. In a sense he creates news, as he transcribes facts, developing stories with details and anecdotes in his articles. He spends the majority of his days during the baseball season around the Red Sox players. He is in the clubhouse, at the practices, and at the games. During the offseason, he attends the Winter Meetings. The interaction that he has with the players, coaches, front office personnel and even fans is the key to his job. Scott discussed how he has to build relationships with players in order to do his job.
Conversely, Mark represents the contemporary side of sports journalism. He is completely digital. He analyzes information compiled by others. Mark spends the majority of his time at home during the baseball season. He is not around the players or at the games. He does not feel it is necessary to have personal interaction with the team, saying, “Getting different content out doesn’t require a presence at the game.” Mark elaborated on this point saying that his content is sourced from a network of SB Nation bloggers who cover individual teams. Because SB Nation is completely digital, they can have articles that are simply links to an Instagram video with minimal description (i.e., Pablo Sandoval video).
Scott and Mark also represent two different paths that can now be taken to become a sports journalist. Scott talked about the importance of working your way up. He said covering college or high school sports is a great way to start because it can help you build skills that serve as a foundation. He advised that young journalists should “Go to a game, write a good story about a player, something particular that happened.” Then later on, if you cover professional sports, you will have a knowledge base and experiences that you can rely on. In contrast, Mark talked about how he has hired writers simply based on their tweets. This reflects the direction sports journalism is heading. Nowadays, 140 characters can be enough to tell a story.
I believe that Scott’s type of reporting is crucial to sports journalism as a whole. This opinion is based on my experience covering the New England Patriots this season. During my internship with WBZ this past semester, I frequently attended Patriots’ media days with beat reporter Levan Reid. I believe these media days are vitally important to the production of high-quality sports journalism. A blogger could review a transcript or video of Belichick’s or Brady’s morning press conferences and write a post about them. This is entirely different, however, from being at the press conference and being able to ask questions. The latter situation allows the journalist to dictate the direction of the content rather than just react to it. For instance, during the Patriots’ final media day before they left for Arizona, I was able to ask Chandler Jones questions during his press conference that I felt were relevant. Had I not been there to ask them, there is a chance these questions would have not been asked.
In conclusion, I found this seminar to be highly informative. Both speakers were very knowledgeable about the field and both have good resumes. The fact that they represent different sides of the sports journalism field made the seminar more dynamic. Even with these differences, they both agreed on many overarching points and together, it felt like they were two sides to a coin. At one point Scott asked the class whether the sport changes the reporting. After listening to both men discuss the field for two hours, I left wondering if maybe it is actually the reporting that changes the sport.
Sara Varela posted on February 4, 2015 at 8:50 pm
The first seminar of the semester was a success. The guests, Scott Lauber (Boston Herald) and Marc Normandin (SB Nation) were the perfect representation of paper and digital reporting styles, and each gave great advice on handling the two mediums coming together in the field of journalism.
One of the details of this seminar I appreciated the most was how you didn’t have to be thinking exclusively of a career in sports journalism to enjoy and learn from it. I happen to be more interested in a sports and entertainment marketing career, and I found it interesting how much of the journalism knowledge Scott and Marc gave out could be applied to sports marketing.
Learning how to navigate social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook as well as being able to create unique content are obstacles that journalists and marketers share. Both careers require you to know your audience and be able to find them – or have them be able to find you. Providing content for the super fan is just as important as providing content for the casual fan, as our guests pointed out. It’s simply about the approach you take, and with digital resources the possibilities are almost endless.
From my still developing marketing perspective, Media Day may have come off as a joke, but it was a necessary marketing tactic for the NFL, even if poorly executed. Sports journalists are a much needed resource for every sports league, and the excessive amount of credentials issued for Media Day were all part of the plan. As Scott suggested, the more people you can reach the more exposure you give the brand. The more journalists there are at the event, the greater the chances are they will reveal a new audience. The same goes for reading comments on blogs. Marc pointed out that by reading the comments on blogs some writers are able to find new story ideas or a new angle of a story that hasn’t been fully reported on. That’s what journalists and marketers do. They find new content and figure out a creative and smart way to present it to the consumer.
I don’t think you have to be the best writer to be a good journalist. Yes, a writer needs skill, but I think the best sports writers – young and old – are engaging and have the ability to build a fan base of their own. Readers should be able to trust journalists to get accurate information, sources should be able to trust journalists with information (and vice versa), and athletes should be able to trust journalists with their words. Once a young writer establishes credibility and develops their own voice, there’s a good chance they will make it in the field. As for marketing, I completely agree with Scott about the ability to write leading to a career. I would not have a marketing internship without the writing or online skills journalism has given me.
Kelly Landrigan posted on February 4, 2015 at 10:44 pm
Figuring out the state of sports journalism in 2015 is like trying to figure out the State of the Union – nearly impossible to pin down perfectly. I think having Scott Lauber from the Boston Herald and Marc Normandin from SB Nation as our first guests of the semester was a great idea, because they represent some of the most prevalent jobs in the news industry: a reporter and an editor.
In reading through everyone’s comments, it seems like most of us has the same important takeaways from what Lauber and Normandin had to say. Start small and dream big. Work on building relationships with the players, coaches, and other members of the team or organization. FACT CHECK because it’s better to be right than to be first. Don’t lose sight of your personality and style because in an overly populated sports journalism market, those are the things that will get you to stand out.
Throughout the seminar, I tried to think of scenarios that I had personally experienced where Lauber or Normandin’s advice applied, or would have been something I would have liked to have known at the time. I think the underlying message from what both guests had to say was trusting your gut/instincts as a journalist. We all chose to enter this career path for one reason or another, but I bet many of us are here because we genuinely love sports. While difficult scenarios constantly come up in this ever-changing field, if we can remember what we as a sports fan expect from other media coverage, we can most likely figure out the solution to our dilemma.
A lot of the advice that Lauber and Normandin gave us provided hope for me, something that seems rare these days as a second-semester college senior. I often worry about starting out in this field, whether I should take any opportunity that comes my way or I should wait for something I really want. Based off of their individual experiences, it seems like I would be successful doing either thing. From Lauber’s point, take any chance you get because it will provide you with invaluable experience. From Normandin’s experience, it is OK to deviate from the “norm,” to pursue other passions you may have because you never know where they may lead. That was comforting to hear for someone who wants to work on sports enterprise reporting rather than the local nightly news.
It was comforting to hear that my time at BU has given me time to figure things out for myself. For example, as a freshman, I dreamed about becoming the rinkside reporter at Agganis for the men’s ice hockey games. I used to be star-struck by the team, and the thought of even saying hi to a player was daunting. However, I slowly began working with players for small things, mainly class assignments. I would get connections through a friend of a friend, but once I got to know some of the players myself, I realized they were just students like me. Now as a senior, I get to live out my freshman year dream of covering a nationally-ranked collegiate team. Sure, it’s not Nick Saban’s Tide, but it’s as professional of a team as I’ve ever been around. It’s taken some time for the guys to warm up to me, as many of the friends I had made on the team graduated last year. However, because I’ve shown that I’ve done my homework and have treated them as professionals, they afford me the same respect. I’ve been able to build my relationship with the team off the ice, and that has helped me when I’m in the game setting because it’s like having a conversation with an old friend.
Another important takeaway from the seminar was their advice to embrace new technology. We as journalists have the duty to figure out a way to make it work FOR us, not against us. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. are extremely powerful. I saw that firsthand last year when I spent a season as the sports information intern for the Boston Blades, a team equivalent to the Bruins in talent with the glaring difference of gender. Through social media, I was able to connect my “Bladies” to fans all over. While professional women’s ice hockey may not be popular in the US, it certainly is elsewhere. The team appreciated the work I put in on social media so much because I was able to help spread their story to people well outside of the New England area.
I think that’s what the state of sports journalism in 2015 is today: powerful storytelling, whether it’s a silly video of a locker room dance-off or a hard-hitting expose on the dangers of traumatic brain injuries in contact sports. We need to be willing to go the extra mile and show the general sports fan why these stories matter. Chances are, if you as the sports journalist think it is a story that deserves to be told, there’s a fan out there who probably agrees with you, but doesn’t know how to tell it. We’re all consumers in this field, and I look forward to seeing how we can get into it and blend our talents and ideas with those of Lauber, Normandin, and the many others out there.
Katie Peverada posted on February 5, 2015 at 6:33 am
This is sort of an addendum to my comment and also goes along with what we’ve all been saying in terms of adapting – for journalists and media outlets in general.
I was listening to a Colin Cowherd podcast yesterday and he made the brazen suggestion that in six or seven years, Sports Illustrated won’t be publishing a magazine. I thought at first this was outlandish, because I for one still can’t wait for Thursday when the issue lands in the mailbox. However, Cowherd pointed out that – like Lauber, Normandin and pretty much all of us have said in our comments – we need to be able to adapt to the changing technology (like Lauber said) and to the changing attitude towards what the perfect content is (Normandin). Cowherd felt that Sports Illustrated hasn’t adapted because they were so against getting into the digital game that they’re now lightyears behind and are already obsolete.
So Cowherd was right in that you need to change for your audience because no matter how good your writing is, it’s the approach with which you deliver it to your readers that matters most (and for SI, apparently they’re not doing so hot).
I just thought the fact that an iconic magazine could disappear because it hadn’t adapted to the changing world of journalism was interesting…?
Christina Patracuolla posted on February 5, 2015 at 3:08 pm
Both Scott Lauber and Marc Normandin were perfect for the first seminar of the semester. Not only were they both relatable, but they really understand what it’s like to be in our shoes despite having vastly different experiences. However, both Lauber and Normandin had very similar thoughts on the industry.
While Lauber took a more traditional route by working his way up to his current position at the prestigious Boston Herald, Normandin started out blogging while working in a Barnes and Noble full time until he was discovered. As college students in the field of journalism, it is essential to know how to get where you want to be and to know that their isn’t just one way of doing it.
After the interviews, I asked Normandin if it would be better to start out at a news source where I have the opportunity to write as much as I can with a smaller audience or if it’s a better path to take a job at a paper like the Boston Globe getting coffee and working your way up. He told me there are multiple ways, but how it is important to keep writing as much as possible. When he said this, it brought me back to why I originally chose journalism, which is easy to forget when you’re a senior scratching to get a good job. Both speakers relieved me of this pressure in a way when they explained how much media has expanded and blown up so there are actually more jobs than ever. This in a way gave me the okay to do what I want to do and not take the first job offered to me.
Lauber touched on this when he explained how important it is to learn to write. “Instead of trying to be the next Ken Rosenthal, just go to a game and write a good story about a player. Learn how to write and you can get whatever job you want in journalism,” said Lauber. Agreeably, Professor Shorr said above, “But the people who are doing it have succeeded because their writing and their storytelling are exceptional,” and it is a comfort to know that.
When I worked for the sports section of a new online new source, many of the articles I wrote circled around gossip and drama in the lives of the players and not about them and the sport itself, which was frustrating, but useful in getting experience on how to write in general. Normandin stressed how essential it is to be able to draw a line on the excess stuff surrounding stories that become their own articles. In this line of work I feel that is extremely important in becoming successful and making a dependable name for yourself that people want to go to read. Lauber added, “Know your audience- what do the people want to know? Ultimately, the consumer only wants a certain amount of it… There’s a balance to walk there.”
Lauber and Normandin are both huge advocates of twitter, yet warned us to be careful in believing everything we hear or tweeting the first thing we hear. Normandin even mentioned that he hires people based on how well they tweet. This opened my eyes as a very scarce user of twitter and gave many of us something to consider. Whether you are an avid twitter user or not, it is extremely helpful to be careful of what and how you articulate your tweets and to start tweeting more if you’re not.
The subject of twitter tied into the question of trusting certain sources. Lauber’s story about a fellow source that lied to him about where a player was going was a great example as to how to get an answer and vice versa.
Overall, learning through other peoples experiences is invaluable and having experienced journalists tell stories about theirs gives a greater insight than any textbook. Many of us will take similar career paths as either Normandin or Lauber despite the constantly changing industry and technology. What I took out of it the most is that no matter what you’re doing and when you do it, the most important thing is to learn how to write and create good relationships with people. If you do that, you will get to where you want to go.
Katharine Huntley-Bachers posted on February 5, 2015 at 5:09 pm
Listening to Scott Lauber and Marc Normandin talk I had two very strong, yet opposing feelings. For us, the students, many of whom will be graduating in a few short months, we were reminded that we are on the leading edge of the technology of sports journalism. As young people we have the advantage of learning about the cutting edge ways to express our views and put them out for the world to see using the internet. It made me excited for the future as my education has taught me so much. However, I was struck with a feeling of apprehension, for Marc and Scott had only been out of college less than two decades and the way they had done their jobs had been completely turned upside down. Even with Scott who writes for the Boston Herald.
It was an important lesson to remember to always keep up on what is new, and to not get stubbornly stuck in the current ways. With a career that will last probably longer than three decades in an ever-changing industry, half the battle will be to keep up with the technology.
Another worthy cause in sports journalism that I often forget about is that it is entertainment as Scott pointed out. It is so easy to focus on the serious things such as PED use, or the NFL personal conduct policy in light of Ray Rice’s elevator video. However, the things that continue to interest the most people are the lighthearted and human things that regard sports. Things such as Chris Bosh photobombing his Miami Heat teammates in their press conferences or Mark Sanchez’s “Butt Fumble” are what really keep people’s interest in a 24-hour sports cycle.
In light of this revelation, I know that in my future in sports broadcasting while the news is the news, there is no harm in doing a story on a lighthearted event. People need a break from all the stats and figures, for people follow sports for their entertainment. Sports have been a part of the average person’s respite from their everyday duties since even Roman times when people would gather outside of the Colosseum. It would serve me well to at times look for the lighthearted human interest stories. For example doing a little exposee on the University of Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team who videobomb their teammates’ interviews in hilariously creative ways would be a fascinating little piece.
The idea of always fact-checking, an idea that has been hammered into the heads of all journalism students, was again stressed by Scott and Marc. They talked about it in the vein of not just having your followers be able to trust you, but having the athletes you report on trust you as well. If you write everything you hear even from sources you trust without checking the facts, you will quickly make mistakes. Keeping up a rapport with the athletes you follow and speak to on a regular basis, and if they see you writing things that aren’t true, they will be hard pressed to give you any real information.
Along with keeping an athlete’s good rapport with truthful writing, it is essential to keep up that same rapport when seeing them in the locker room. Even if you have no questions for them, just simply saying hello, or asking them a question solely for their benefit will help to create a good relationship with them.
Overall, the insights of Scott and Marc gave me greater insights into parts of the sports journalism world that had never come to mind. It is apparent that constantly staying up to date, and writing frequently will not only boost a journalist’s own writing, but will in fact pool followers.