In Chapter 3: Print Media of the book Sports Media: Reporting, Producing, and Planning, the author Brad Schultz (2005) discusses the various forms of print media in the field of sports, as well as the various styles of sports writing. He describes the strengths and weaknesses of each form of media and writing style. He also provides insights on how such print media can cope with the changes of the times in order to survive in an age where sports fans can access sports information from other forms of media, such as TV broadcasts and Internet websites.
I am most interested about the different facets of sports writing. I thought that sports writing consisted mostly of relaying the events of a game, so I was greatly fascinated to learn that sports readers are even more fascinated to read about feature and human interest stories than about game scores. It was also enlightening for me to learn that even with so many hardcore sport fans, their readership and patronage alone will not be enough to make these sports publications survive and that there are many things that need to be handled on the business side of these publications.
Overall, I think that the chapter presented a very comprehensive discussion of the various print media that are used in the field of sports. The use of examples also provided more clarity in what the author was trying to explain and the interviews conducted with well-known sports media personalities added credibility to the author’s claims.
As a sports manager, the knowledge I gained from this chapter made me realize that it’s important for sports teams to establish good relationships with the media and to keep such relationships professional, as this can help enhance the reputation of the sports teams or of the individual athletes.
References
Schultz, B. (2005). Chapter: 3: Print. In Sports media: Reporting, producing, and planning.
Focal Press.
