1. Quick Facts2. ESPN3. Location Location Location4. Three Main Areas of Coverage5. Reporting Tools6. News Value

Sports NewsChapter 22

• The sports section is the third most heavily read section in newspapers (local, entertainment)(pg. 425).

• Sports are VERY IMPORTANT to Americans. People follow sports! – The Super Bowl draws more than 150 million viewers

• The Associated Press has 100 writers to cover sports (gather). • ESPN is the No. 1 sports news on television, by far!

– Cable companies, like Comcast and Directv regard ESPN as the top service when it comes to helping them “gain and retain customers” (mass comm book).

Quick Sports Facts

Entertainment Sports Programming Network

• ESPN is a Cable TV Broadcast, so it’s not in our (Mencher’s) book. But if you follow sports, you probably watch ESPN / Sportscenter /ESPNews / Highlight Express or all the above.

• ESPN’s Sportscenter reports with no bias. They give viewers nothing but facts, straight to the point. They have a sense of humor and usually make it entertaining.

*Plus, they have “famous” anchors that do their job very well (Keith Olbermann, Chris Berman)

• ESPN was started in 1979 by an out-of-work reporter in Bristol, Connecticut. • Today ESPN reaches more than ninety-six million U.S. homes. • ESPN has many channels.

– ESPN2 (sporting events, news, and original programs)– ESPN Classic (historic sporting events)– ESPN Deportes (Spanish-language sports network)– ESPN Radio– ESPN The Magazine– ESPNEWS (twenty-four-hour sports news channel)– ESPN Outdoors – ESPNU (college games) – ESPN also creates original programming for TV and radio and operates

ESPN.com, which is among the most popular sites on the Internet. Like CNN and MTV, ESPN makes its various channels available in more than 195 countries.

Mass Media

• Each year, ESPN’s channels air more than 5,000 live and original hours of sports programming, covering more than sixty-five different sports (24hrs x 365 = 8760 hrs/year).

• For eight years, starting in 2006, ESPN agreed to pay the NFL $1.1 billion a year for the broadcasting rights to Monday Night Football, the most highly rated sports series in prime-time TV history.

• ESPN has more than 3,400 employees world-wide. • Utah only has one Professional sports team. Think about cities like

Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York. ESPN.com has separate websites for sports in these areas because they have so many professional teams. New York has nine pro teams.

• ESPN is the world-wide leader in sports.

• Every sports writer writes with a different “mood,” based on their location. I think of it as an acceptable “bias."

• Bias=a particular tendency or inc-lination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question;  prejudice.

• A Salt Lake Tribune reporter writes in favor of the Jazz. A Los Angeles Times reporter writes in favor of the Lakers. Caution: don’t root, report.

Location Location Location

• For example: the Jazz vs. Lakers game in Salt Lake last Wednesday on 11/7. Both stories include

facts. Who won, key players, score, stats, etc.

Take a look at the different Photo, Heading and Lead in the stories.

Utah Jazz beat Lakers, 95-86, thanks

to Jefferson, FoyeKobe Bryant seethes as Lakers slide to loss in Utah

vs.

Three Main Areas of Coverage• Game Stories, Profiles, Illegal and improper activities. • Popular improper activities:

– Ron Artest punches fan – John Daly being John Daly– Patriots caught spy-gating– Saints punished for “bounty” program– Tiger’s fender bender heard ‘round the world

• Straight Talk Is Best: Good writing means retaining the colorful language of sports, not falling into the homogeneous prose that infects too much of newspaper and television writing (pg. 434).

• Reporting is key. “Fans cheer, Reporters observe.” – Bob Thayer (pg.441)• Don’t out think your common sense: Young sportswriters sometimes try too hard.

They push the language, reach too hard for words and phrases. When this happens, the result is sawdust and shavings. – Sports has the built-in essentials of drama, conflict, leading characters and

dramatic resolution. There are enough incidents and examples to illustrate the situation” (pg. 439, Menchers).

• Learn, learn and keep learning. Many fans are experts in the sports they follow, so sports reporters have to know as much as and probably more than their viewers or readers. Preparation is key, and this includes mastering the elements of the sport being covered and its details. It means knowing the sports’ history as well as the strengths and weaknesses of current athletes.

• Great Lines: Sportswriters have written memorable lines. – “He could do anything with a football but autograph it,” said a sportswriter

who wrote about a UCLA quarterback that was arrested for killing his drug dealer. Turns out, the player couldn’t read (pg. 434)

Reporting Tools

• Remember that readers immediately want to know who won the “big game” yesterday.

• The SL Tribune seems to always have the Jazz, the U of U, BYU, or Real Salt Lake on page one.

• What’s on the front page of the Deseret News, The SL Tribune, the Los Angeles Times?

News Value