Thursday, April 23, 2009
MYSPACE/FACEBOOK OR SPORTSWRITING AND NEW MEDIA?
I am really tied up about what I want to do for this research project. I have narrowed it down to two choices though. One topic option is researching the media frenzy that myspace and facebook has caused recently. Outlets like these are continuing to make a huge impact on journalism. The mediums of how people seek their news and how they communicate with others our changing. I want to know how this effects journalists and networks. I want to know it all. Is it a correlation between the poor job market and new media? new media and the decline of newspapers? New media and viewer ratings, subscriptions, profits? This also applies to sports which leads me to my second topic option. How is new media affecting sports writing? Are new technologies diminishing the role of reporters? Peter Schaplin visited my Journalism 470 class 2 weeks ago,in which he offered his unique visions about the future of sports reporting. He spoke of the importance of branding. For this topic I would like to speak to beat writers and others in the industry. I can look for journals on lexis nexis and other sites that speak to this topic. I think I am leaning more toward the sports topic.
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In regards to your second idea about sports journalism on the Web, I think you must take into account how the Internet allows readers to only access niche news topics in different ways than print and broadcast. One of my original ideas was as follows:
ReplyDelete"Does the niche nature of the internet segregate readers to a fault? Are some online news consumers surpassing general news coverage ("current events"-type coverage) because they have the option to consume only the specialty news they desire (such as sports or entertainment coverage)?"
These are questions you might want to consider.
I speak from interest and experience in another popular niche news topic, music journalism. It's always interesting for me to see which publications are at the top of the list in Search Engine Optimization when I Google some piece of music news. It's almost always the specialty sites, like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork Media, or Billboard. I'm sure the same might be true for sports coverage as well, with ESPN.com and Sports Illustrated's site leading the pack.
It seems people don't have to wade through the general news coverage in section A just to find what they're actually looking for -- and that gives niche news topics a lot of power.
Also, from my own experience working as a journalist in a niche field, the folks I've worked with out there in the "real world" are typically much more cemented in a topic than a medium. On a recent trip I took on assignment to cover SXSW festival in Austin, TX, proved this idea for me. One minute we'd be blogging, the next taking pictures, the next doing video interviews and editing those in Final Cut. And we also did research and writing for print pubs simultaneously. For niche journalists online, they have to be flexible with the medium, since the topic is so specific.