Electronic media and its impact on sports journalism: is print media dying?

Print sports journalism: dying a slow death?

“In the age of technology there is constant access to vast amounts of information. The basket overflows; people get overwhelmed; the eye of the storm is not so much what goes on in the world, it is the confusion of how to think, feel, digest, and react to what goes on.”

? Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

Today we have reached the stage where we want more: more money, more information, more luxury, more of everything. This holds good for news as well and even more so for sports news. We want instant score updates, immediate photographs of the match and complete minute-by-minute details of the event. Gone are the days when the fans used to wait till the next day to read about the outcome of the match in the newspaper. Now, news is so instantaneous that a minute’s delay in presenting it will make it stale.

This revolutionary change in news presentation has had a profound impact on the traditional methods of sports writing. And that is a shame, as long-form sports writing was at one point of time the most exciting methods of spreading sports news.

The need to merge different methods of communication has arisen in the arena of sports. Take all the Indian newspapers as examples. They provide match previews, updates and post-match reviews on the internet as and when the match/event happens. The next day’s paper carries the detailed information on the same with analysis and post-match interviews. The traditional sports writers have also recognized the need to branch out and provide instantaneous information to the voracious readers.

Does this mean that sports writing in the print medium is dead?

“It hasn’t. In fact, I think its popularity has grown…as a career choice and as something people like to indulge in. I think sports fans follow sports writing more closely than before; with most people hard-pressed for time, I would assume that they don’t get to watch ‘live’ telecasts too much, and rely more on coverage in the media,” says a sports journalist (print media) who has been in the field for over five years now.

“I don’t think sports writing has improved. It has only deteriorated. The general belief is readers have already watched the action live on television and there is no point in giving basic information to them through news stories. Thus there is either an attempt to bring in some ‘masala’ into routine daily reports or else a lot of quotes to pad up,” says K.P. Mohan, veteran sports writer and journalist who recently retired from The Hindu.

The X factor of sports writing in traditional media

It is an obvious fact that the electronic media beats the traditional means of sports writing (print media). It is important that this fact be accepted and recognised, and instead of looking at electronic media as a competitor, there is a need to look at it as a complementary factor. “Print media journalists should say to the audience, ‘Sure, you heard/read it first on such and such a channel/website, but we have had the time to study and analyse it, and here is how we see it’,” says the sports journalist.

One of the most acclaimed newspaper coverages was that of the World Cup in the West Indies by The Hindu. As a result of the time delay, they were able to publish match coverage only after a day’s time. One day is a long time for the match to be forgotten, but they made up for it by working on analytical write-ups on each topic/match instead of presenting statistics or post-match reviews. This value addition was praised by a lot of readers.

“Sport being a very polarising area — when it comes to perspective pieces and columns, it really matters to the discerning reader who is saying what; bylines really matter; the identity of a newspaper is defined by the people writing for it, and the writer-publication relationship is stronger with the print medium. So projecting its writers prominently as part of branding is something that could help newspapers create a distinct identity for themselves,” adds the sports journalist when asked what is the X factor that keeps newspapers going.

“Information would always be the same on TV/internet and print media. How you treat that information is what matters. How much of additional information could be given by you in your story is what matters,” adds K. P. Mohan, on the factor that makes print media unique.

The “happy element” for sports writers:

While it is important to note that TV/internet always beats newspapers when it comes to delivering timely news, it is also important to note that the former concentrate only on certain sports (cricket on most of the occasions, tennis and chess occasionally). This gives the newspapers the “happy factor”. The sports writers in print can concentrate on important events happening with regard to other sports and give the readers valuable information on the same.

Says K. P. Mohan, “Since TV news channels hardly cover any ‘sports news’ other than cricket news and occasionally some tennis and F1, newspapers do not have to strain to produce a good sports page containing a variety of sports news not covered essentially by the electronic media.”

Television news channels, in order to increase their TRP, try to sensationalize news. This is another area where the newspapers can strike a fine balance between “news” and “hype”.

The allied medium approach:

“It would be advisable to have an allied medium like a website since ‘news’ as we understand it now is no longer a ‘morning paper phenomenon’. To update the readers about events happening around the world on an hour-to-hour basis, websites are of tremendous advantage provided they are well presented, updated constantly and provide quite a lot of background data (from a sports perspective) on sports disciplines, events and personalities,” states K. P. Mohan.

What can add a lot of value to the newspaper can also turn into a useless piece of junk if it is not presented properly. There is little or almost no value to the newspaper website if it is just a replica of the newspaper. It is of utmost importance that there is a clear difference in the way the news is presented and structured in the newspapers and the allied website.