Christian

Sports and the Media: An even Wider World

For our research project, Michael and I will be focusing on the evolution of sports media after the digital millennium. We will provide some background context to show how sports were covered during the rise of mass media, but the objective of the project will be to show how those trends from the 1920's on have changed during the information age.

In doing this we will consult a number of different sources. Michael and I will certainly offer our own educated take, as we both currently work in the industry we are covering. We will also solicit assistance from other notable outlets in the industry, such as Kissing Suzy Kolber, Deadspin, and Fire Joe Morgan. We will try and get perspectives from traditional media sources on what the rise of sites like those listed previously means for the landscape of sports media coverage. 610 WIP, ESPN 950 and multiple newspapers will be consulted with the hopes of getting a broad perspective on how these outlets view sports media coverage in the digital information age.

Some overriding questions that will drive our research:

What was the timeframe that coverage of sports shifted with the rise of new media? How did the big (ESPN, HBO Sports, Radio, Newspaper) media outlets handle this shift in coverage? How much of a voice should fans have in sports media coverage? How different is the bias of writers who are fans vs. writers covering a beat? How would previous eras have covered pseudo-sports stories (i.e. Tiger Woods)? What is the future of sports media coverage? What is the market share for sites like KSK/FJM/Deadspin?

In addition to these questions and sources, we will also consult with Patrick Johnson of Oakland, CA. Mr. Johnson runs the only sports media literacy program in the country, thus making him a very worthwhile source to try and include in our research.

At this time, the crux of our work (provided we can obtain it, of course) will be centered around the interaction between Buzz Bissinger, Bob Costas, and Will Leitch from HBO's CostasNOW program in 2008. Bissinger and Costas, both representing the mainstream media, debated Leitch, Deadspin's founder, at length in regards to all the issues our project plans to cover. When integrated with all our other sources, using this discourse as something of a road map for our project will give us a great way to look introspectively at the industry's past, present and future, as well as what it all means for consumers of sports media.