Nieman Labs on "Sports Leagues as Media Moguls"

Here's the first a four-part series on how sports journalism is being affected by the ability of sports leagues, athletes, etc., to create their own content:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/sports-leagues-as-media-moguls-what-happens-when-the-people-we-cover-start-to-control-the-news/

"Journalists on many beats are just beginning to wade through these issues. Luckily, sports journalists have the battle scars and war stories to help the rest of us navigate through this digital warfare."

 

When a team is going badly, any fan who cares knows he won't get the real story from the team website.

Seriously, how different is this from the propaganda that teams used to put on their broadcasts when they had full control of the content and the announcers? The delivery system has changed.

 

who cares. it doesn't affect national security.

the fight to control sports content is a fight to control fluff.

 

Then why are we even here?

 

Because everyone needs a fluffer.

 

It's not just the leagues, however, it is the players. Athletes are using Twitter (many) and blogs (Donovan McNabb, off the top of my head) to post news, opinion, etc.

I also disagree, slightly, with your comment. I don't think every fan feels that way. Some probably don't care, others take what they read from several sources.

That all being said, I think NFL Network and MLB Network both do pretty credible jobs, Deion Sanders and a host of "only baseball players can comment on baseball" former MLB players.

 

Most athlete's blogs start with, "Sorry I haven't updated in the last three months." They don't have the time or the inclination.

I'm really not seeing Twitter as viable competition for actual coverage.

 

Yeah, I don't know about "competition." -- but go to Hoopshype.com, which aggregates daily links to NBA coverage. There are a growing number of links to Twitter.com.

Athletes use this more and more, and I'm seeing Twitter quoted in stories more and more. It's bizarre to me.

 

And once again I will warn that before you quote Twitter, you'd better be damned sure the person tweeting really is who you think it is.