Keeping Score

New women's media Website

The Women's Media Center is a new organization based in New York City - according to their Website their mission is "to assure that women are included as  sources for and subjects of the media--and that women media professionals  are afforded equal opportunities for employment and advancement." I spoke with Melissa Silverstein, one of the writers/editors, the other day about coverage of women's sports - an area she is hoping the Women's Media Center will tackle. The Website launched only recently and they have big plans to expand it.

Getting in the box ...

Eric Mcerlain who writes the OffWingOpinion hockey blog got permission to sit in the Washington Capitals owner's box as a blogger to do an interview during a game. Here's his account.  I think it's great he got access for so many reasons. One, he was able to get by that barrier of not being an "official" sports journalist. Not that everyone is a fan, but ESPN's Bill Simmons (Sports Guy) has created this mini-movement of sports bloggers (who have other jobs to pay the bills) who have found or are finding their voices online writing about a sport they love - many write in a more personal, everyday person kind of style not found in the mainstream press. They also follow and link to numerous sports news Websites and act as an excellent resource for finding stories on their sport/team.

Sometimes I think that the future of women's sports media coverage is in online coverage of the sports - whether it's blogs, or a news site built around a specific sport. Even ESPN's WNBA/college ball section on their Website beats any major newspaper's coverage of the sport. Fans who are fed up with lack of in-depth coverage can start a blog or a Website and take it from there. Womenshoops blog is an excellent example of two people who love women's basketball, follow and link to any mainstream press available while also commenting, ranting, praising, etc. It's a great resource for fans and pulls together all the scattered and inconsistent coverage of women's basketball. I'm looking for other blogs/sites that cover other women's sports  - basketball seems to have quite a few -  if they're out there, let me know.

New study on women on the sports desk

Marie Hardin, the associate director for the Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State who has been doing some great work on women, sports and the media, sent me this link to a press release on their most recent study that looks at the gender and racial make-up of sports news desks at the nation's largest newspaper. Some interesting numbers here -- according to the report "only about 11 percent of full-time employees in sports at the nation's largest newspapers are women" and "minorities comprise only about 12 percent of sports department employees."

Sports talk

The New York Times has an interesting piece on how ESPN's on-air sports jargon is making it's way into print sports journalism. The piece is based on a study by Scott Reinhardy,  a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, who surveyed a group of sports journalists.

Talking sports

The New York Times has an interesting piece on how ESPN's on-air sports jargon is making it's way into print sports journalism. The piece is based on a study by Scott Reinhardy,  a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, who surveyed a group of sports journalists. "ESPN Sports-Speak Is Increasingly Also Becoming Sports-Write"

Simmons - love him or hate him

Today Slate.com has a pro-Bill Simmons piece "Bill Simmons: Bard of the Red Sox."  - Bill Simmons writes for ESPN.com and formerly worked here in Boston for the Boston Herald (one of my former employers, he also went to BU's grad j-program, as did I, but I don't know him). But after finding traditional print sports world frustrating he set off on his own to start the Website - Boston Sports Guy - the popularity of the site drew ESPN's atttention. I sometimes have problems with what he writes - particulary that awful WNBA piece, which I wrote about in another post. But, on the other hand, I can find his off-the-cuff, rambling sports writing refreshing even if I don't agree with it - like blogging, except it's a column for a big media outlet. Speaking of blogging, there was some online debate on Simmons' opinion of bloggers after an interview he did with Chuck Klosterman. Some sports bloggers have weighed in on this like Eric at OffWingOpinion. As for what some professional sports journalists think about Simmons - you can read the chatter on SportsJournalists.com

In an interview with David Scott (another Bostonian) who runs Scott's Shot Blog, Simmons said in defense of his writing style/approach:

"Why can't there be different ways to write/talk about sports? Isn't the ultimate goal to be entertaining and make the games more fun to follow? Who cares how you do it?”

My hope that is that "different ways" also includes more solid and smart coverage of the women athletes out there.

Blogs and sports journalism

The Lowell Sun - a local paper here in Massachusetts - has an article today on blogs and traditional media - specifically blogs that are treading on the turf of sports journalists. The piece mentions a few local sports blogs here in the Boston area. The great thing about these sports blogs is they fill some of the holes in sports reporting by the mainstream media. They also can be great for the truly obssesive fan who wants every detail. Thanks to Steve at Shesgotgame (one of the blogs filling the hole on coverage of women's basketball) for letting me know about this article.

Speaking of blogs, I'm going to my first academic conference in San Antonio later this week to present a paper I wrote about newspapers and blogs. I'm curious to see how my piece is accepted - I hope a few people are interested in my piece and stop by as I stand there in a conference room idling by my poster (don't ask - I'm not good with crafts and this has been a struggle). I'm expecting to be challenged because there is a lot of resistance and/or misundertanding about what blogs are about and what their role is in journalism, if any. But I'm looking forward to hearing what other journalism academics think.