The Evolution of Sports Media: Ethnography
Have you ever wondered who the people behind the voices of sports really are? If you’re like me, then you fail to realize that they are in fact other human beings as well. Who knew? For years, I only knew Al Michaels as the “Do you believe in miracles? YES YES” guy. However, they are people, just like you and me. My research focuses on the evolution of technology and its effect on the sports media world. How that ties into journalists being people too, is rather interesting. Before social media and even the evolution of television, sports casters and reporters were only heard via the radio. It allowed people to feel like they knew these “famous” reporters in the sense that they could hear every word they said. Now, in the world where none of these reporters can breathe without someone seeing it, we have access to these reporters twenty-four-seven and they allow it. The argument I am making is simple; social media and the evolution of technology has drastically changed the sports world as reporters are not only expected to do a lot more, but they have to do way more to stay relevant. It is has changed the way, we as fans view, research and experience the games. The question remains, how has technology influenced the way the reporters, sportscasters and other members of the media cover sports. Another question is what is the effect on how fans experience sports since the evolution of technology and rise of social media.
We start our journey at the golden age of radio and the boom of sports;1920–1950. In this era, tv was not really relevant nor invented yet so radio was the top form of media. If you did not attend the game, you listened to the game via radio. I interviewed Ronnie Sless, who was born in 1947. Sless fondly remembers his young childhood, in which him and his father would sit around their living room listening to Baltimore Colts and various baseball games. Sless said, “It was a tradition unlike any other. My mother would make food, invite friends over and we would all huddle around this massive radio, listening to every word spilled out”. When I asked about his opinion of the sports casters, although he could not remember the name of the play-by-play announcer, he did say he felt “connected”. He explains the relationship similar to how we view celebrities in todays age. Sless said, “We know them, but we did not know them either. It was funny because most people did not know their physical features, so if they were to walk through the city of Baltimore, we would not know them from the next ordinary person.” I asked him to compare it to today’s day and age of sports media. His response was the exact oppose of what I was expecting. Sless said, “Honestly, it may have been better. The work load that those men carried to call the game at such a high level, game in and game out was amazing. They had to be very specific and vivid on every play or pitch otherwise we (the listeners) had no idea what was happening. When you compare it to today, the announcers even radio announcer today, are not that talented nor vivid because they rely too much on the high definition or replays to tell the story. Which is great and all, but there is definitely something to be said for someone perfectly calling the game and their detailed imagery”. Sless went on to say, “The players could not pick their noses, without us hearing it. It was incredible, the announcers would capture their exact walk and form, you really felt like you were there even though we were hundreds of miles away.”
After thorough research, Sless’ “testimony” is the crux of my argument. The technology has changed and in some cases ruined the way we experience sports. It allows fans to be closer to these “famous” reporters but it also causes the reporters and sportscasters to rely too much on technology to tell the story. Fans, including myself, love when the announcer paints the picture vividly and tells the story. It makes the game experience that much more enjoyable when the announcer gets excited and lets you know. I do not speak Spanish nor do most of my friends, but when I lived in North Carolina we listened to the Spanish channel to watch the Carolina Panthers game. Here is a link to the announcers we listened to during the Panthers game. We could not understand a word they said other than “touchdown” but we picked up on their energy. We could feel the emotions, yes we watched the games so we still knew what was going on, but it was much more excited than the current announcers who are as Sless calls them, “Lazy”. Listen to those announcers, they go absolutely crazy during the games but we listened to the closed captions, to understand them and they were very vivid. They painted the picture just as good as the older generations of radio/TV announcers.
Now, this brings us to the TV era which eventually turns into the modern era. Really, there are two totally different eras; the pre-TV and TV era. The TV era which has exploded into the social media era has changed the entire game day experience. Now, sportscasters, reporters, announcers and everybody else has an Instagram account, Twitter account and a Facebook. How does this change the sports world? I will share my experience with this. I am a writer for the Baltimore Beatdown, in which we cover the Baltimore Ravens. The Free agency period in the NFL is perhaps the most intense, fast-paced, crazy time in all of sports. However, the new age of technology has actually made this time not only crazier but a better experience for the fans. ESPN, NFL Network, Fox Sports, CBS are the big four companies that will cover this period. However, most of the action actually occurs online as opposed to the TV. Reporters such as Adam Schefter or Ian Rapoport will have multiple phones as they are non-stop tweeting all of the moves that are occurring. The period opens on one given day in March (changes every year) but it always starts at 4:00 pm ET. Once the clock hits 4:01 pm ET, several players are already signed with new teams or being re-signed by their current teams. So, the tweets are coming out rapid fire. As a member of the media, I would pre-write articles for Ravens moves that were “leaked” to happen. I sat on my couch for seven hours, non-stop writing articles about storyline after storyline. It was easily the most exciting experience I have ever had thus far in my career. I was hammering out article after article, getting phone calls left and right, reading tweet after tweet trying to get an inside report on what was happening.
That was from my perspective (a member of the sports media world), and for a different perspective, I bring back in Ronnie Sless. Sless said, “It was much different before social media. Back then, you would just read the newspaper the next day with all of the new signings to see who goes where. It was a fun morning, but not nearly as interesting as it is now.” He went on to say, “This year, I invited my grandson over and we watched ESPN while he checked twitter to see all of the updates. It was fast-paced and it was just as intense as a game. I did not want to miss a single part of the action because I was glued not only to my TV but my computer screen as well. My eyes hurt after because my eyes were glued to several different screens”.
You can see that in some areas, the technology has actually made one area of the sports media world better. Technology has not corrupted the sports world totally, nor made it worse. It has definitely made it better in some areas but the point that I alluded to in my introduction was that it has hurt the human side of sports but evolved the visual aspect of sports. I interviewed my Baltimore Beatdown editor, Kyle P. Barber, about this. That interview is attached below.
Barber talks about his experience and his rise to be an editor of a successful blog. The other effect of the rise of social media and blogs has allowed others share their voice. It allows more people to join the media side of covering sports as opposed to just being fans. Barber, like myself, has dreams of going on to cover a team for a bigger company/magazine. However, before the rise of blogs and social media, this career field was extremely cliquey and it was hard to get into. Now, social media has made this career field more accessible and allows more people to join. It has really created jobs, if you will.
Michael G. Powell discusses what anthropologists experience and feel. I relate sports journalists to professional anthropologists in the sense that Powell discusses them. He says, “Professional anthropologists cross and complicate existing boundaries: collaborating with, debating, struggling with, writing about, negotiating, navigating and translating between different dynamic audiences. Embracing our hybridity is a powerful recognition that our difference is relevant and valuable” (Powell, 1). The connection I can make to his quote, to my argument is that exactly what he said above, is what sports journalists and reporters do. They debate, argue and search for more information in order to provide it to their fans, viewers and the rest of the world. There’s a reason why morning talk shows are the biggest thing in the sports world. Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless are more than house hold names at this point in their careers, because of their sometimes-outrageous reactions and takes on current sports topics.
Danah Boyd discusses the fast-paced lifestyle of technology. Boyd wrote, “Trying to locate myself and my questions in a fast-moving (if not exploding) phenomenon full of people moving digital and physical spaces, shifting geography and time roved challenging. Understanding culture in a networked environment requires dodging bullets Matrix-style, weaving through groups, around technologies and into in-between-spaces and times” (Boyd, 3). What Boyd writes about, can actually be directly connected to sports media. The world is not fast-paced now, but it is still evolving. Four years ago, blogs were not nearly as big as they are now. In today’s world, Blogs are just as reputable as the major networks. Many blogs, such as SB Nation, are frequently cited by bigger companies like ESPN for their information. In this world, it is all about information and getting the information out.
The Business Side of Sports wrote an article about how social media has changed the way social media has changed the world of sports. They wrote, “Social media provides so much for sports. It provides up to date stats, communication with players and fans, opinion of other players, and most importantly it allows you to become more educated on sports. If you want to see a score or see the best highlight of the day all you have to do is look on twitter and you will find it. The ESPN app on your phone also provides updates on the regular basis. Social media is a great way to interact with fans and start conversations” (Business Side of Sports). I could not have written that quote better. It is exactly what the previous 1,788 words have said above.
AJ Agrawal, CEO of INC.com, wrote about this topic as well. He said, “Fantasy sports are another new digital implementation to the sporting world. This is a fun way that fans are able to have yet another outlet to their favorite teams and players” (Agrawal). Agrawal brought another interesting creation of the sports media world. Now, not only do fans root on their own various teams but they have their own teams of these professional players. Fantasy sports is at an all-time high now, with almost everyone participating in either fantasy football, baseball, basketball, soccer or even Nascar. Fantasy sports gives fans an opportunity to be a GM of a team and have more of a rooting interest in other games that may not have usually peaked their interest. For example, when two last-place teams play each other, it does not usually draw the attention of many people outside of those two cities. However, fantasy allows everyone to have a rooting interest in that game because of the fantasy implications. It not only expands the game in terms of popularity, but increases the popularity of the players as well.
In conclusion, sports media has changed in so many different ways since the evolution of technology. It is has expanded in so many different ways yet shrunk in other areas. It may have hurt the work ethic or final product for the play-by-play announcers, but is has helped the popularity of the sports, players and even reporters. Fans love to interact with reporters and writers via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It has helped the popularity and added more excitement to sports, outside of the games. It has made some areas that were boring such as free agency actually interesting. It increased has increased the popularity of players with fantasy sports, but truthfully, it has just made it more of a lifestyle to follow sports as there is always an article, tweet or blog post to read and respond to.
Bibliography
Agrawal, AJ. (2015, December 21). 3 Ways Technology Has Changed the Sports Industry. Retrieved July 07, 2017, from https://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/3-ways-technology-has-changed-the-sports-industry.html
Boyd, Danah 2007. “Choose your own Ethnography: In Search of (Un)Mediated Life.” Paper presented at 4S, Montreal, Canada, October 13.
Powell, G. Michael. “The Para-Ethnographic Trajectories Of Professional Ethnography”. (2017, June 16). Retrieved July 07, 2017, from https://www.epicpeople.org/the-para-ethnographic-trajectories-of-professional-ethnography/
White, P. D. (2016, March 01). Social Media has Changed the Sport’s World. Retrieved July 07, 2017, from https://businesssideofsports.com/2016/03/10/social-media-has-changed-the-sports-world/
