Postscript on sports dept. demographics

It occurred to me as I was looking through the columns that appeared after the APSE study was published in June -- all I've seen focus on the lack of minority journalists in newspaper sports departments. What is curious about that is that the low numbers of minority sports journalists mirror the rest of the newsroom. In other words -- the lack of minorities in sports departments is part of a newsroom-wide problem.
What surprises me is the lack of attention the news about women in sports departments has generally received. Women in sports departments are outnumbered 3-to-1 by women in other parts of the newsroom. In other words, the big problem in sports -- uniquely -- is the lack of women.
I can't help but think that the uproar over the lack of minorities and the silence about the lack of women plays into invisible (but ubiquitous) stereotypes: minorities "naturally" belong in sports, and women don't.

Getting athletes ready for the spotlight

With football season around the corner, hundreds of college athletes will soon be under the glare of media scrutiny -- and they may not be ready for it. As Lauren Reynolds points out in "Media training aims at producing scandal-free athletes," an increasing number of athletic directors are hiring sports media trainers (such as Sports Media Challenge) to prepare athletes to project the best possible image. This trend is one that will likely become routine for colleges around the U.S. Penn State's Center for Sports Journalism is tracking reporting of off-the-field incidents in the Big Ten to learn more about how such incidents are covered by both the collegiate and mainstream press.

Team Web sites, network innovate content

Two recent articles in Sports Business Journal caught my interest: one reports that the YES Network (with DirectTV) is launching an interactive TV service. YES, affiliated with the Yankees, will the first for a U.S.-based regional sports network. The U.S. continues to lag behind other countries in offering interactive television. As YES (and last year, the NFL Network) introduce fans to this technology, they'll continue to rise in legitimacy as sources of information and news for fans -- possibly displacing more traditional media.
The other article reports that two NHL teams,the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks, are considering hiring their own "beat writers" in the face of news that the LA Times is cutting back on hockey coverage. As more teams and leagues hire their own "journalists" to supplement or compete with newspapers and more traditional outlets, the line will continue to blur between sports PR and traditional journalism.

The X Games: Save the ink

Sports editors around the country have experimented with coverage of action sports to draw young readers. It may not be worth the effort. In focus groups with teenage sports fans from around the U.S. here at Penn State this week for its Sports Journalism Institute, participants say any interest they have in action sports will be satiated by watching the X Games (which begin next week) -- they don't want to see it in the paper. They see it more as entertainment than as a competitive sport that should get traditional sports coverage.

The other global cup competition

Although soccer's World Cup competition has received massive global media attention, another elite sporting competition has received almost none in the U.S. and little anywhere else. The Gold Cup World Championships for wheelchair basketball are coming to a close in Amsterdam. The U.S. women's team has made the finals, and the men's team will play for a spot in the championship this weekend. Coverage in the U.S. has been confined to the sparse local-angle feature,. Adapted sports suffer from lack of media exposure in the U.S. -- a lack often driven by ignorance and stereotypes about disability.

Squeezed off the sidelines

During the past several seasons, we've seen an uptick in the number of women covering college and professional football -- from the sidelines. Sideline reporters don't get the same exposure as those in the anchor booth or calling the game; they're on screen for literally seconds. But the sideline job was proving a break-in ground for some female talent. But the sideline reporter may be on the way out. Both CBS and NBC have announced plans to cut back on sideline reporters. When sideline reporters are cut from men's pro and college sportscasts, so are the on-camera opportunities for women, who must often settle for that role.
Meanwhile, however, a sideline pioneer -- Lesley Visser-- will be the first woman to receive pro football' Hall of Fame media award.

Drudging up jock news

A new Web site, modeled on the Drudge Report format, is another bookmark option for sport junkies. The site, Jock Report, doesn't offer anything particularly original -- but it does offer a comprehensive list of links to other sports news sites. Another new sports media offering (in the works): SI Edge, a fitness magazine with tips "from the pros" aimed at male sports fans. SI is a little behind in the emerging market for men's aesthetically oriented body mags -- Men's Health and others are already established. But there is room for more, most likely, as attitudes about men's fitness are evolving into a much more consumer-oriented model.

Video gaming goes for the gold

It may sound far-fetched at first thought, but in a decade when dominoes and poker are staples on ESPN and "Dodgeball" passes as a sports movie, it's not such a stretch: video gamers are lobbying that their "sport" be an exhibition at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. As video gaming becomes more popular, the idea of "cyberathlete" may become more accepted. It's likely that it won't happen -- in 2008, that is -- but there is no doubt that technology is having an impact on our changing definitions of sport.

New study, same results

A new study published by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida and presented at the APSE convention in Las Vegas finds similar results to one conducted by our Center last year: that women and minorities continue to be marginalized in newspaper sports departments. Although coverage of the study seems to emphasize the dearth of minorities, there is a far greater disparity in the percentages of women compared to the rest of the newsroom.

Getting the big picture

Nielsen Media Research has announced that is is modernizing the way it measures how many eyeballs are on TV sets and streaming video. By the end of next year, Nielsen will have methods in place to gauge the number of viewers in bars and other public gathering places, and before then, it will start counting the viewers of online streaming video and of IPod content. These new (more accurate) ways to see what Americans watch will likely benefit the bottom line for ESPN and other sports networks, which will be able to sell more viewers to advertisers.

Dreams and drama in girls' sports

A new documentary film, "Heart of the Game," looks at girls' high school sports much the way "Murderball" did for wheelchair rugby and "Hoop Dreams" did for boys' high school basketball back in 1994. "Heart of the Game" illuminates the scenario presented to female players who get pregnant -- dreams flit out of their grasp as they are often without the support they need to keep playing. Melissa Silverstein writes a thought-provoking piece about the documentary, pregnancy and women's sports on AlterNet.
For more on "Heart of the Game," listen to this NPR story.

OLN moves pool into prime time

OLN, soon to change its name to "Versus" to more clearly position itself as a sports network, is giving the prime-time treatment to the International King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout this summer. The event is old news -- it took place in January. But in the spirit that gave poker a strong run on ESPN and The Travel Channel, the delay in airing provides the production time to build the drama into the segment to draw viewers into a 6-week run. It's cheap for OLN -- King of the Hill involves no rights fees. ESPN and Fox Sports Net have both also run billiards competition.
Speaking of ESPN -- an aside: if you haven't already, read George Solomon's most recent column for his discussion of suggestions from ESPN staffers on ways the network needs to improve.

All the fingers on one hand

Announcements that Rachel Wilner will become sports editor at the Mercury News and that Holly Lawton was recently made sports editor at the Kansas City Star bring the total of female sports editors at metro dailies to five. (The others are in Fort Worth, Seattle and Raleigh, N.C.). According to a note on Poynter.org, there are 14 female sports editors at 435 of the nation's dailies.

The evolution of local sports broadcasting

Jane McManus of The Journal News writes about the struggle of local sports broadcasters to adapt to a changing market in the face of RSNs, the Internet and ESPN. McManus mentions a recent CSJ survey in which more than half of the respondents -- anchors, sports directors and reporters in the top 50 markets -- say the role of sports coverage on the local TV broadcast is diminishing.

Reporters move toward justice on sex discrimination case

It seems fitting that as the annual AWSM convention closes in Baltimore, news accounts announce that the EEOC has ruled in favor of two female sportswriters at the St. Paul Pioneer Press who filed a complaint outlining details of discrimination by the sports editor at the paper and a failure to stop the discrimination by higher management. Both reporters were suspended when they complained. The reporters, both of whom have left the paper, were likely scrutinized differently from male colleagues in the sports department there, according to the ruling.

Turning the vise on access

This is old news (last week), but the decision by the Trail Blazers to change its media policy is the latest in attempts by sports organizations to control coverage and, ultimately, drive fans to their own Web sites and media products. Also, an article on the APSE Web site covers a discussion between NFL Commissioner Paul Taglibue and sports editors, who characterize access as "the worst situation they've seen."

Progress for women's sports journalists

Later this week the national convention for AWSM will take place in Baltimore. The conference brings journalists and sports information officers together from all over the country for networking and education. Meanwhile, women are proving their staying power in sports journalism -- despite reporting discrimination and harassment, they say they like their jobs.

God's take on the sports pages?

A reference from the Poynter Web site pointed me to a recent article about sports writing on the Christianity Today Web site. Managing editor Mark Galli writes about sports coverage as "the stuff of soap operas," without serious attention to the game. "Instead, we have to endure pieces (I won't even deign to call them "stories") about quarrels, tantrums, gossip, salary disputes, and so on and so forth," he writes.
His complaint -- about lack of substantive game coverage -- reflects the ongoing struggle by sports journalism to stay relevant in the face of on-demand sports video, scores and commentary. The game story as we know it could be on the chopping block -- much to the chagrin of fans such as Galli.

Freebies have a embarrassing pricetag

Although the Deadspin post I wrote about yesterday scorned the idea of mainstream journalistic ethics as applied to sports journalism, it turns out that sports reporters often deal with unethical pressure from outside their own departments. Today's E & P details how credentials for access to the Final Four -- obtained by a sports reporter for the managing editor of the Ventura Star -- led to disciplinary action against the managing editor, M.E. Luna. "He also directed midlevel editors to pressure a sports reporter into seeking media credentials for him to other events," the paper said. Star reporters told E&P that the sports reporter complained when Luna's request for press credentials threatened the reporter's access to games. There is a price in sports journalism for ethical lapses of judgment both inside and outside the sports department.

The more things change...

A post on Deadspin today refers to Fox Sports' "Next Great Sportswriter" contest -- a kind-of knockoff of ESPN's "Dream Job" program. The contest supports the thesis offered by a recent issue of SI -- that fan-driven blogging has moved into terrain once reserved for formally trained sports journalists.
The idea of sportswriting by the fan instead of "objective journalist" isn't really anything new. It's an old idea -- a throwback to the "gee whiz" days of sports journalism. That model includes different ethical values, too -- for example, freebies as par for the course. That's a far cry from the ethical standards embraced by APSE a national organization of sports editors -- but it may be closer to the "real world" values in sports journalism today.