Home > Social Media > Social Media changes the sports reporting game

Social Media changes the sports reporting game

MediaPost released a blog post last Monday discussing how more and more sideline reporters for the major networks are leveraging social media tools like Twitter during games and telecasts.  As an avid sports fan I think this is great, especially as we are looking for the most up to date information about the games and athletes specifically.  It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of how sports news is disemenated to the masses of fans – gone are the days of following your favorite team by checking out the boxscore in the morning newspaper.  In fact, if you’d like a good listing of sports writers that are on Twitter to make your reporting even more realtime check out this list that Box Score Beat publishes.

Through the Internet, Social Media, and real time updates from news outlets and athletes alike, the common fan is exposed to knowledge about their favorite athlete or team in ways they never dreamed possible.  In addition – it gives that same fan the opportunity to ask questions in real time of their favorite stars.  I’ve looked for a reliable source to identify a complete list of the top professional athletes and came across this document – literally a shared spreadsheet in Google Docs.  What’s great about the accounts that they’ve verified is that it not only targets the athletes, but also has an entire section dedicated to the official league and team twitter accounts.    Kudos to Roger Goodell (@nflcommish) for effectively bringing in his entire executive staff along with him as he jumps on the Twitter bandwagon.  I wonder if he and Michael Vick are going to hash out his suspension in 140 characters or less…?

Social Media , ,

  1. July 7th, 2009 at 04:37 | #1

    I think it’s going to be important, moving forward as more athletes micro-blog, that their identity is verified. The fan needs that confirmation. It’ll be interesting to see if NBA/NFL, etc. end up really embracing this and integrate their athlete micro-blogging activities right into their existing branded communication. Most importantly, on their websites and online experiences, but there’s so many other opportunities I think. The league brand managers need to get over losing control. They already have. The earlier they embrace this and take advantage, the more they will be able to shape the direction it heads.

  1. No trackbacks yet.