Sports Journalism

Sports Journalism

For my career research paper I have chosen to delve into the world of the sportswriter, and take a closer look at what that occupation may hold for myself. I have chosen to research this form of journalism because I consider myself to be a sports fanatic, and would very much enjoy spending the rest of my working days writing about the conditions in the world of sports. During the last year or so I have taken a period of time everyday to relax and read over sports articles from baseball and football at some of my favorite websites, such as espn.com or nesn.com, or to sit down and watch Sports Center on ESPN. I also seem to have an ability to remember statistics and rosters of players and teams from almost 10 years ago (which is when I started paying attention to sports) and I believe that would be a tool useful in my vocation of choice. I believe the fields of sports journalism I would be most adept at are baseball and football, since I understand the concepts of the game while also being able to make valid opinions on decisions of coaches that I can back up with knowledge of the games if a disagreement occurred.

Considerations that are most important to me in choosing a career would be what skills I had available, whether I believed I would enjoy this career until retirement (pending a career change), and if I believed I could help people in whatever way that occupation would allow. The sportswriter career seems like an easy choice for myself, as I am very interested in the career itself and the ability to enlighten people on my opinions of sports (which I do on occasion by word of mouth). Sports, in any way, shape of form have probably been my favorite hobby since I was old enough to understand them. So the interest in the career is there, and so is my willingness to be involved in it. I believe I can help people in some small way by opening their eyes to different outlooks on certain items that may come up, such as if a new hitter can push a team over the top, or if the new coach isn't doing his job correctly. I truly believe that sportswriters today have helped me better focus on sports and take a great deal more understanding with me as I watch and study them.

The sportswriter career has many responsibilities that go along with writing the stories you see in newspapers, magazines, and websites. You must attend or watch all the games you are covering every day/night, and have the article written in time to be printed. Writers are found in their office in the morning, and they have afternoons off unless there is a game or interview that they are supposed to cover. Nights are spent covering an event or interview and then writing the article for it afterwards that night (Heitzman 44). Sports journalism can be a difficult occupation at times, but it can also be very rewarding. To help cover games better writers get tickets for excellent seats at all events they are assigned to, they meet with sports stars and coaches (if they are not a writer in a small town newspaper), and sometimes you travel abroad to cover events (Heitzman 44).

A sportswriter in a small town newspaper would be one of two employees in the sports section. The other employee is the editor. The small town newspaper sportswriter collects information about local teams and games and writes about them. National stories are often taken from acclaimed papers such as The Associated Press (Heitzman 44). In a larger city's newspaper, the sports department may have 10 employees. All of these employees have a certain sport that they excel in writing about, such as football, baseball, hockey, basketball, golf, or high school sports (Heitzman 44).

Sportswriters oftentimes will work odd hours. Writers for morning newspapers will work in the afternoon and evening five days a week including Saturday. That is only if there is a Sunday edition of the newspaper. The writers than have 2 weekdays off. Some reporters are sent along with teams when they go on road trips to continue coverage of that team. Of course, this is even more time consuming as you have to send in the article from where you are staying by computer. Most writers don't even get to bed until very late at night or very early morning when they are on a road trip (Heitzman 45). Paul Smith, a writer for numerous newspapers, gives this advice to would-be writers: "The romantic bloom comes off the rose early in the profession, but if you stick with it, it has its rewards" (Heitzman 43).

Many skills are needed to be a sportswriter. If you end up being a writer who interviews sports figures, you would need to have a likeable personality and a good sense of what is going on with that figure and his sport. You are required to have skills in reading comprehension, information and organization, speaking, synthesis or reorganization, information gathering, active listening, and of course writing (Career Zone 2). You need to have an interest in the arts, as you will be working with forms, designs and patterns. You need self-expression and no clear set of rules to your style (Career Zone 1).

There is not a phenomenal amount of training to become a sportswriter. Most places of employment require a four-year bachelors degree, and several years of work related experience or vocational training. Internships also help your chances at landing a job with a newspaper or magazine (Career Zone 3). Some courses that would be helpful to take in high school and/or college would be journalism or broadcast journalism. Journalism is "an instructional program that describes the methods and techniques for gathering, processing, and delivering news...that prepares individuals to be professional print journalists." Broadcast journalism focuses more on the same instruction, just based on radio or television rather than printed news (Career Zone 3).

Aspiring journalists should attend a college that has a strong writing or journalism department. Even taking extra sports courses to understand some games better is a plus on a resume (Heitzman 46). The better the understanding you have of sports the easier it will be to land a job, because the paper or magazine might believe you have a grasp on how things work. The more experience the better in the world of sportswriters. Trying to find summer jobs at local newspapers also works; practice makes perfect when it comes to writing (Heitzman 46).

Working conditions as a sportswriter are on the upside, with the exception of the occasional lack of sleep from the odd working hours. But there are usually days off in between articles or games, so the lack of sleep is not a constant thing you would have to deal with. The location of the work would be in an office, at