The Communications and Media Studies program sponsored a panel of sportswriters and analysts to discuss the state of sports journalism yesterday afternoon in Eaton Hall in front of about 30 students.
Panelists included Tony Massarotti (LA '89) of The Boston Globe, Jimmy Young (LA '79), founder of Young Sportscasters of America, Brad Klein, a senior writer for Golf Week Magazine, and professor Sol Gittleman, author of "Reynolds, Raschi and Lopat: New York's Big Three and the Great Yankee Dynasty of 1949-1953" (2007).
The discussion began on the topic of how the Internet has changed media.
"It has changed the focus of what is news gathering and what is news interpretation," Massarotti said. "It used to be that if you had a scoop, it lasted for 24 hours, and you were basically a day ahead on that story. In the Internet now, you'd be lucky if it lasts 24 minutes. People catch up immediately, if not sooner, and therefore columnists are starting to play a bigger role. It's about spin, interpretation and analysis. That's why talk radio has become such a phenomenon as well."
Klein then cited the technical advancements that have had the biggest effect on his job.
"A lot of people rue the Internet and blogging, but I think they're great," he said. "All of a sudden you can write without it going to editors and copy. One of the problems with print is that it's limited by space."
"During a round of golf I can find out what club, what shot, and what yardage every player has hit during a round," he continued. "That's a great resource to find. The detail allows sports fans, not just writers, a level of access that makes them tuned on a level that requires interpretation. Really, you can do all your work at home now."
The subject of increased coverage and analysis to the point of overkill was a common theme. Gittleman regretted that the media persists to hound Barry Bonds and that a book by a manager exposing his players, as is the case with Joe Torre's recent "The Yankee Years" (2009), would never have existed in his time. Gittleman cited "Ball Four" (1970), a "kiss-and-tell" by pitcher Jim Bouton, as a media game-changer.
Massarotti admitted the upside of there being unlimited opportunities to write on the Internet but also pointed out the negative that if everyone has a voice, it's difficult to tell who is qualified.
"You don't have to earn that right anymore," Massarotti said.
Furthermore, the Internet has in some instances become a source of anonymity, rumor-mongering and gossip.
"The Internet has created a monster that lets people think they're experts," Massarotti said. "Columnists are about who is loudest. There are too many opinions … Someone can post a comment anonymously with no accountability, which has caused people to be reckless."
"Because of the proliferation of websites, athletes have become celebrities," Klein added. "They control their image. The [entertainment] part of ESPN has overcome the sports part."
Klein noted that athletes are able to control their own images by hiring marketing agencies. Players' own Web sites were viewed in a positive light by the panel, which even wondered whether the traditional post-game interview is still relevant, as Klein called it "a ritualistic concession to editors." Massarotti called the modern interview "utterly worthless" and a "dog-and-pony show."
The changing media from print to electronic resulted in a consensus opinion among the panelists that newspapers are dying out and that the business model has changed in sports media. Young noted that advertisers used to have to project readership and viewership, but now, "you get what you pay for. If you want 100,000 views, you can pay for 100,000 views."
"All of them are going to go," Gittleman said. "In your lifetime, it may be the end of print media. I'll be put in my grave with old copies of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post."
Young went on to address the future of sports media, drawing a laugh from the crowd when he quoted Mark McGwire.
"I'm not here to talk about the past; I'm here to talk about the future," Young said. "The world has changed so much in the last two years. YouTube is the first real new broadcast network since the advent of TV. Everyone can have their own TV channel for free online. There are opportunities out there. Everybody is looking for programming content."
The event lasted over an hour and concluded with a short question-and-answer session. Afterward, Communications and Media Studies director and panel moderator Julie Dobrow deemed the event a success.
"I was pleased with the audience," Dobrow said. "They asked some great questions and there was a lot of interest in sports and sports media, and I'm hoping this will be the first of several events."
