Trends and Issues of Sports Blogs

R. Alex Friedman

Independent Study

Prof. L. Beery

December 13, 2010

Introduction

Newspapers, radios, and magazines were once the most popular means of getting sports

news. Today there are much easier ways of following sports stories, such as 24 hour TV shows,

as well as several mainstream internet sites that have instant score updates and articles. Due to

the rapidly expanding social networks, which closely monitor the personal lives of athletes both

on and off the field in hope of finding a shocking new story that will promote their site, this new

manner of sports communications has led to the media becoming an even bigger facet of

American society.

For example, in the summer of 2010, Brett Favre was constantly mentioned in the media.

He was criticized for his interception that cost the Minnesota Vikings a shot at the Super Bowl

and for dragging on his decision as to whether or not he was going to play another season.

However, the story that got the single most attention, were the sports blogs posts about Favre

apparently sending pictures of his genitals to a female side line reporter (not his wife). This story

was picked up by a popular sports blog, Deadspin, and the site received four times the number of

viewers than before the story. By offering different perspectives from the mainstream journalists,

sports blogs have found increased popularity while simultaneously raising some ethical issues

regarding the nature of sports coverage.

The impact of internet

The history of Sports Illustrated, shows how the internet has effected mainstream media.

Sports Illustrated is considered one of the most predominant publishers of sports journalism. At

the time the magazine was first published in 1930, there was little fan base for SI. This changed
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forty years later when Sports Illustrated began publishing sports predictions and color photos

(Collins, 2010).

When I was a kid, finding a Sports Illustrated in the mailbox always excited me. I liked

to look at the cover, taking into account whether the athlete was an applicable choice for being

the next SI cover jinx. After viewing the cover, I’d usually turn to the predictions section. SI

was, in fact, the first main stream media outlet to publish sports predictions. The magazine

would predict college basketball, football, NBA, NFL and all the other major sports. I absolutely

loved this about SI. Nonetheless, SI had some drawbacks, the first being that the magazine only

came out once a week. Also, our family had to pay for a subscription. Yet as the internet

expanded to what it is today, everything that SI was known for, namely excellent sports

journalism and predictions, was now easily available on the internet.

My family has made it a ritual of reading the newspaper every Sunday morning. The Ann

Arbor News was the popular choice because they covered all news, particularly local issues.

After 174 years of publication, the newspaper shut down in 2008 (Karoub, 2009). Although the

U.S. population is increasing, the number of readers has fallen (Steep, 2004). As a result, The

Ann Arbor News and 105 other newspapers around the country, closed down in 2008 (Dumpala,

2009). When The Ann Arbor News stopped daily publication, my parents opted for The New

York Times. Forgoing a newspaper subscription was not an option because both of them enjoy

and rely on getting information from newspapers. A study conducted by John McIntyre

determined that some of the reasons why older people continued to read the newspaper was

because they couldn’t find the same information elsewhere and reading the newspaper was a

habit. Because of the increasing demand for wired information, The Ann Arbor News, was
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replaced by Annarbor.com. AnnArbor.com still prints editions on Thursday and Sunday, but the

majority of their effort is directed towards online viewership.

As a result of the print media losing viewership, mass media has focused on the newer

ways of communication. Television, which still plays an substantial role in sports and society in

general, draws millions of viewers for sporting events. Since people less frequently look in print

media for yesterdays breaking sports news, sites like ESPN and CBS are continually pushing the

latest and most breaking sports through their websites. If I want to check on the game being

played between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets, I could either turn on the

television or go to popular websites and find the score and any other information desired. If I

missed the Patriot-Jets game, these mediums have journalists writing about the biggest plays, and

reporting some the most important statistics, rendering watching the game itself almost

unnecessary.

“The internet has revolutionized the way we access information and is ever-increasing

importance to our everyday lives” (Kloh, 2010). In my family, each member incorporates a form

of social network into our daily lives, such as Facebook, which boasts 500 million users from

180 different countries (Facebook). Facebook is a means of global communication that

assembles individuals into specific groups, such as friendship, interests, or education. My Mom

created a Facebook account after initial skepticism, yet now she goes on it every day. She

always talks about how amazing it is to communicate with people she had lost touch with, while

stressing that she would no longer go to any high school reunion because now she can talk to the

people she actually wants to talk with. She can send a friend request, look at someone’s pictures,

remarking to me how old a person looked, then write a greeting on that person’s wall.
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Although my Dad claims he would never join Facebook, he does frequently look at blogs.

According to Technorati, a blog tracking site, there are currently over 120 million blogs with

thousands being created every day. A blog is an easy way of sharing information to a global and

digitally networked environment. My dad is a huge Michigan basketball supporter and he

frequently checks out Michigan sports blogs following a basketball game. He would prefer to

read a newspaper, but since it no longer comes every morning, he checks, umhoops.com, a

popular Michigan basketball blog for game recaps. Both my parents like many older people,

sometimes struggle with change. However, with the developments of communications through

the internet, these examples show how even older generations have adapted and become active

users of social networks.

My sister, on the other hand, is a very artistic person and showcases this through a

fashion blog. Almost every day, she posts a different drawing of a different outfit. Included is a

description of where the clothes came from (which oddly enough is usually from my Mom or

Grandmother). Her blog attracts a large following because of its originality. She says that when

she links her sketches to Facebook or Twitter, she can get anywhere between 50 and 150 viewers.

Her blog has been shown on The PBS New Hour, linked by other blogs, and published in fashion

magazines. Notably, her viewers are from around the country and even the world. A blogger

from Australia commented on August 20th post about how “cute her blog was.” Sociologist,

Zenep Tufecki, says that “the current generation is never unconnected. They’re never losing

touch with their friends. So we’re going back to a more normal place, historically. If you look at

human history, the idea that you would drift through life, going from new relation to new

relation, that’s very new. It’s just the 20th century.” By creating a blog through which she can
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express her creativity, my sister generates daily connections with people she would never have

been able to reach without social networking.

Like my sister, I created a blog, which covers a variety of sports topics including; college

basketball, college football, and professional sports. It’s easy to notify my friends on Facebook

and Twitter of a new post, because all I have to do is put up a link and tell people where to look.

Once my target audience has been notified, there is a ripple effect. The friend I’ve informed

sends the link to their friends and so on. Similarly, chat rooms are another tool that enables me

to connect with a large number of people. During a recent Michigan basketball game versus

Harvard, I simultaneously was watching on the television and in a chat with other Michigan fans

from around the country through the blog, umhoops.com. These type of speedy

communications increase a blogs viewership drastically, and as is the case with mine, gives me

immediate access to many potential viewers.

Since there are so many different sports blogs and because of the fragmentation within

them, certain types of blogs can be more or less appealing to specific demographic group. After

the Michigan basketball game, I chose to get a recap of the game from umhoop.com because

they offer the best insight and analysis. I could have gotten a recap of the game from a popular

website, like ESPN or from one of the several other Michigan related blogs. However, because

umhoops.com is specifically directed to Michigan basketball, I can dialogue with other fans who

have a similar understanding of the team while simultaneously avoiding Ohio State fans who

would just like to dump on the program. Ruth Harper calls this a “democratic movement where

people can chose what they read” (2009). As a result of these increased options that sports fans
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have with sports blogs, it has led to complications for mainstream media and traditional sports

journalism.

Sports Bloggers vs. Sports Journalists

In order to become a journalist, an individual must possess an interest in writing and

undergo a long training process. This includes either an undergraduate or graduate degree in

journalism, an internship, perhaps at the school newspaper, and then a job with one of the

traditional media outlets (newspaper, magazine, radio, or TV). Traditional sports journalists have

high ethical standards because of their training and the fact that they represent the organization

they work for. As a result, sports journalists rarely cross boundaries and offer opinionated

stories. You may find the occasional story that criticizes a couple coaching decisions or player

mistakes, but for the most part, sports journalism focuses on a “reliable daily accounting of

results (scores and winners) and reasons why teams succeeded, or disappointed their devoted

fans” (Covering Sports). At the end of the day, the goal of a sports writer is for the reader to

“kicks off his shoes and be entertained more than informed and informed more than infuriated.

(Broeg, 1980).

A sports blogger on the other hand, really only needs a computer and an opinion. A blog

doesn’t require a great deal of experience. From a study done by Penn State University, sixty-two

percent of sports bloggers have graduated from college, twenty- nine percent have graduate

degrees, and about twenty percent have earned a journalism degree or worked for campus media.

Because sports bloggers are not journalists, they are faced with challenges regarding access.

They aren’t on the same level as Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribute journalists, because
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they aren’t “sitting in the press boxes, going in the locker rooms, interviewing players, coaches,

executives, trainers” (Whitchurch, 2009). Without this means of approach, the goal of a sports

blog, therefore, is to get “hits” by writing interesting commentary that can be viewed by other

fans.

On December 10, 2010, The New York Times published an article on the Michigan and

Michigan State hockey game that was played in the Big House. The major focus of the article

was that the game was going to break the all time attendance record for a hockey game. The

article featured quotes from the two opposing coaches and several of the players about how

exciting the atmosphere would be. The article, however, did not offer much detail about the two

teams, nor what a fan should look for during the game. Additionally, the print version of The

New York Times didn’t offer the potential for discussion through reader comments, except for its

editorials. As a sports fan, I expected to learn from the article the key players, each team’s

chance of winning, as well as other fan’s opinion. Yet this article fell way short of my

expectations. The only thing I learned was that each team was excited to play a game in the Big

House and to be a part of breaking the attendance record for a hockey game. On the other hand,

if I had looked at a sports blog that was covering the game, I would have seen the key players

from both teams, what the chances were for Michigan to win the game, and other interesting

opinions and relevant tidbits relating to the game.

Several sports writers today have their own sports blogs. Although most did not start

covering sports with a blog, the form has become a good way of building one’s reputation. Bill

Simmons, for instance, is one of the most well respected and liked sports journalists today.

Simmons is not a typical sports journalist. He has a different style which dates back to the blog
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he created in 1998. This blog was through AOL and Simmons actually had to forward the

column to his friends (Simmons, 2006). Soon enough, he was receiving emails from people he

didn’t even know, wanting him to be on the mailing list (Simmons, 2006). As Simmons

popularity grew, it eventually led to a sports journalism job with ESPN. He had already coined

the phrase “The Sports Guy,” so his columns on ESPN were called “The Sports Guy.” What

makes Bill Simmons original in the sports journalism world is that his perspective is truly

different from most that cover the topic. Here is what the blog “Between the Headset” said about

Bill Simmons:

“He watches games on television or in the stands, just like every other sports fan,

rather than the press box. He derives insights of athletes based on interviews and

performance that he sees from afar, rather than talking to them in the locker room.

His goal is to voice his opinion through the eyes of an average Joe sports fan,

rather than the traditional sportswriter.”

In a similar vein, one of the writers for umhoops.com, Joe Stapleton, has become a respected

Michigan basketball writer through his blog. He went to the same high school as me and we

have come to know each other through playing basketball together. I think Joe Stapleton is very

similar to Simmons. He writes from the Michigan fan’s perspective and gives his analysis and

insight as a player rather than a reporter, a standpoint, that many Michigan basketball fans want

to read. His coverage allows the site to become a discussion board within Michigan basketball.

When an article is posted, there are instantly several comments. This type of commentary shows

the popularity of the blog, allows for instantaneous feedback on the subject and provides a more

in-depth analysis.
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Sports Blogs Issues

Results from the Penn State study showed that only seventy- nine percent of sports

bloggers believe that they should practice high ethical standards when blogging. Ethics in

journalism are very important and include such standards as checking references, accuracy in

reporting, and writing as to limiting any personal harm or slander considerations. Further, the

internet has enabled a mass of information including gossip and celebrity culture stories to

spread widely and quickly. Although many sports blogs become popular by writing good

insightful stories, bloggers have the freedom to publish whatever they want. For example, the

blog Deadspin, which was created without “access, favor, or discretion,” in response to the fact

that the “media that reports on sports have gotten in bed with the sports teams they cover” has

become one of the top viewed sports websites.

Deadspin was the first blog to publish the Brett Favre story, which resulted in a huge

viewership. They published other stories, like Raul Ibanez and his steroid use, which were later

proven to be untrue. These stories, while not accurate, harmed Raul Ibanez’s image. The

example of Deadspin, has raised a lot of criticism from sports journalists like Buzz Bissinger.

Bissinger and the writer of the Brett Favre article, A.J. Dealerio, went head to head in a heated

discussion about the issue. The creator of Mgoblog, Brain Cook, developed ethical guidelines in

response to the criticism that was directed at Deadspin. The ethics go as follow, “ the factual

typos and errors will be corrected, assertions that can be damaging to a person or group will be

done carefully, rumors will be reported as such, and comments being left as they are.” Although

all sports blogs do not follow by these same ethical standards, the criticism from Bissinger for

Deadspin’s reporting is well deserving. Here is Cook’s hard remarks for the writer of Deadspin.
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“Daulerio's an embarrassment. As someone who runs a sports blog for a living his

wanton flouting of common decency makes me look like an asshole by proxy, and

I don't appreciate it. Buzz Bissinger wasn't totally wrong. If he blew up again

today, he'd be mostly right. Deadspin is sleaze, and little else. The overtanned

dwarf with the child-molester mustache running it is a perfect representation of its

true nature.”

Conclusion

Because of the internet and the development of social networks, sports writers like

Simmons and Stapleton, have benefited greatly. They have developed popular sports blogs that

allow for a new type of sports communication, including increased access to information,

discussion, and general connectedness to a team. Although not every sports blog presents the

same type of stories and information as Simmons and Stapleton, the internet allows for “layman”

sports journalists to have the freedom to post on whatever topic they choose. This can result in a

deluge of stories that sometimes may not be factually true. No one knows what the impact of

this will be. All we can do at this point is keep reading the stuff that interests us and hope that

we are getting more than we’re paying for.

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