Did you catch the game last night: the rise of citizen sports journalism (Blog Group 1)

Consumer social media usage is minimizing the content creation and gate-keeping roles usually reserved for professional sports journalists.

There can be no doubt that the expansive use of digital technology has impacted the roles of professional communicators; presenting changes to the tools used to quickly disseminate content and establish targeted audience connections. These impacts have been significant within the field of news journalism, but the opportunities presented by digital tech which enable end users to exert more gate keeping and self created content control has also emerged as an influencing factor within the unique world of sports journalism.

Citizen sport journalism has infiltrated the traditional role of sport journalists as gatekeepers, pushing sport reporters to become social-media content creators and curators while directly competing against spectator sport-news content originators (Lowes & Robillard, 2018).

The Digitized Fan

Sports fandom is an integral part of society with ritualized events such as Super Bowl parties, pre-game tail gating, and corporate wear your team shirt to work days an indoctrinated part of our cultural norms.

There is an allegiance in watching sports activities which supports the feelings of being part of a unified community, a community where sport journalists have traditionally had the near-exclusive role of describing live events to spectators who were unable to attend in person (Lowes & Robillard, 2018).

“ Sports journalists need to understand that utilizing digital technology to cultivate audience media interaction opens up the chance for them to determine how the event is relevant to them" (Kolodzy, 2013).

As end users seek higher and increasingly sophisticated levels of gate keeping and content control, the audience drive towards the digital communication of sports events is a natural progression. This transition can be viewed in a negative light, but instead should reflect additional incentives towards the development of the technical skill sets of sports journalists.

People read sports articles or listen to athletic events to get the feeling of participation, of being right there as the action unfolds. With increased citizen competition, the creation of social-media posts that facilitate the development of interactive exchanges is a skill that future sport communicators will need to cultivate (Boehmer & Lacy, 2014) in order to maintain any degree of professional marketplace leverage.

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References

Boehmer, J., & Lacy, S. (2014). Sport news on facebook: The relationship between interactivity and readers browsing behavior doi:10.1123/IJSC.2013-0112

Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Lowes, M., & Robillard, C. (2018). Social Media and Digital Breakage on the Sports Beat. International Journal of Sport Communication, 11(3), 308-318.