Wes Wilson

Evolution of sports journalism

// December 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Journalism, Social Media, Sports

As newspapers continue to downsize and die a slow death, all those reporters are finding themselves out of work on life rafts as their former bosses steer the Titanic.  For news reporters, it’s arguably a little easier to find work on the Web, especially if they’re tech savvy.  Sports reporters… the waters are a little more murky.

Newspapers used to be great PR advertising machines for sports teams.  It wasn’t unusual for a big city paper to have a sports reporter per team, whose sole job was to find and write stories about that team.  Think of all the free publicity that creates.  But now newspapers are cutting costs, laying off staff and sharing stories across newspapers.  The Raleigh News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer used to write up separate stories about games — now they share stories based on geography.

Sports teams, sports leagues, and Web sites that recognized this shift early are capitalizing on it, and it’s paying dividends.  I just want to take a minute to look at a few of those early adopters who have helped turn sports journalism on its head and are leading the evolution of sports journalism as we enter a new decade:

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“Balloon Boy” story shows power of social media

// October 15th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Journalism, Social Media

Six-year-old boy flies thousands of miles over Colorado in runaway balloon.

The headline is pretty gripping (even though it turned out the boy wasn’t inside.)  There are some breaking news situations that spread like wildfire through social media sites… Miracle on the Hudson, Michael Jackson’s death and what’s became known as “Balloon Boy.”

How did you hear the news?  Facebook?  Twitter?  A news alert emailed to your inbox?  We are now able to find out breaking news mere moments after it happens.  When something goes viral across all media — including social media — you know about it very quickly.

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Athletes joining Twitter in record numbers

// October 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Social Media, Sports

I saw Al Horford joined Twitter recently.  He’s @Al_Horford, started tweeting Oct. 4 and three days later already has 880 followers.  I love how more and more athletes are using Twitter and Facebook to connect directly with fans.  It takes the middlemen — PR directors and the media — out of the equation and often gives you an unfiltered look at the men and women behind the jerseys you pull so hard for.

Most people know Al Horford as one of the leaders of the Florida Gators’ back-to-back national championship run.  Horford was then selected with the third overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks.  He had a great rookie campaign but Kevin Durant narrowly beat him out for Rookie of the Year honors.

In some of his first tweets, Horford roots for his hometown Detroit Tigers as they take on the Minnesota Twins with a spot in the playoffs on the line.  Horford went to high school in Grand Ledge, Michigan, before heading south to Gainesville for college.

I follow a handful of athletes on Twitter, including the ever-popular Shaquille O’Neal, who will occasionally tell his tweeps where he’s at so they can say hello if they’re nearby.  While I wouldn’t advise this for someone like… supermodel Brooklyn Decker… I don’t suppose anyone will tug on that Superman’s cape.  But the fact is — social media applications are giving fans unbridled access to some of the world’s biggest stars.

Chad Johnson frequently tweets back and forth with fans and Ustreams live shows.  After one of OchoCinco’s preseason games, he logged onto Ustream and held a live show from the team’s plane.  It was pretty neat to see Chad interact with Bengals fans while munching on a cheeseburger, and it was funny when the plane ran out of cheeseburgers… worrying Chad that he might have to settle for a chicken sandwich instead.  Luckily a teammate came to the rescue and gave Chad his burger.  Crisis averted.  I never disliked Chad Johnson, but thanks to Twitter and Ustream, you can now count me among his 215,000-plus fans.

But anyway, all this brings me back to Horford.  I love messing around on Photoshop and felt like creating the Hawks star a background since he just has the generic Twitter background right now.  What do you guys think?

CNN integrates social media into iPhone app

// September 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Journalism, Social Media

CNN is a little late to the iPhone party but what an entrance it made!

PCWorld writes, “CNN’s new iPhone app puts rivals to shame.“  Wired adds that the new app is “informative and empowering.”

But then again, NPR has a terrific news app of its own, so what makes the new CNN iphone app so special?  Social media.  The World News Leader now offers it’s legion of iReporters a way to quickly and simply share pictures and videos remotely.

Let’s pretend another incident like the Miracle on the Hudson happens.  People who saw the crash right when it happened posted pictures on Twitter and one Twitpic image went viral.  Now those same people can send CNN images directly and CNN can turn that around quickly, adding it to CNN.com almost instantaneously and airing it on TV a short time later.

It gives CNN an army of reporters and makes it the go-to source for breaking news.

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