Information overload is changing sports reporting

By Matthew Sherman

The Lake Oswego Review, Aug 13, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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But reporters covering the Yankees 50 years earlier cozied up to its star, Babe Ruth, far too much, ignoring his blatant womanizing and other indulgences as a means of protecting the legend.

Now? It is becoming increasingly difficult to find honest, hard-hitting stories on athletes because it is easier than ever for the athletes and their cadres of PR employees to project whatever image they want.

Talented sports reporters still exist, obviously, but it is becoming harder and harder for them to do their job in yet another sign of the decline of journalism in America.

With tweets and blogs, the individual athletes are giving the public information and in a much easier to digest format than a 2,500-word exposé published over three days in a newspaper.

It’s not that I think these new forms of media are an entirely bad thing. Far from it.

For athletes to be able to interact so closely and immediately with a fan base can only have a predominantly positive affect on sports as a whole.

Personally, I’ve already benefitted from the new technology. On two separate occasions this summer I have struggled mightily to contact someone I wanted to write a story on.

I ran into unlisted phone numbers, e-mails that were sent back to me and unhelpful media relations personnel. Both times I quickly and easily found the person I was looking for on Facebook and sent them a simple message.

And, both times, I received a phone call from the person I was looking for in less than 20 minutes.

But what I am worried about is that with the amount of information that exists and the ease that it can be accessed, sports fans and readers in general will get lazy.

The truly great stories and in-depth coverage is being lost in the shuffle.

Instead, bloggers and writers, many of whom have no affiliation with a particular team nor do they have any professional training, are often turned to first for coverage.

As a result, good writing and investigative coverage have become devalued.

There is certainly a place for commentary and a wide array of viewpoints but it shouldn’t be a substitute for talented reporting.

The one thing I know for sure is that this new technology is here to stay.

Information will continue to become easier and easier to find and more and more ways will be created for the individual to let his or her own voice be heard.

I just hope that the desire to seek out good writing doesn’t become a thing of the past.

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