Peter English

Twitter’s diffusion in sports journalism: Role models, laggards and followers of the social media innovation

The roles of sports journalists have been affected considerably by the influence of Twitter, but what is not known is how the social media application has been adopted across a range of sports newsrooms in different countries. Employing Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory, this study examines how Twitter has been accepted or rejected on the sports desks of six broadsheet/quality news organisations in Australia, India and the United Kingdom. A mixed methods approach is employed, combining 36 in-depth interviews with a content analysis of 4103 print and online articles. This allows a comprehensive analysis of issues such as when and why sports journalists adopt this innovation, and how much Twitter-related content appears in the sports pages. Twitter adoption contains many benefits for individuals and their organisations, and the results from this study have implications for sports journalism in other nations at various stages of diffusion.

Online Versus Print: A Comparative Analysis of Web-first Sports Coverage in Australia and the United Kingdom

Sports departments are among the best suited sections of a news organisation for the publishing of web-first articles, due to the urgency of reporting regular matches and news events. The decision about which platform to use first has become a major issue for media outlets. This article reports the results of a comparative analysis of 2606 articles published on the sports websites and newspapers of three Australian (The Australian, The Age and the Courier-Mail) and three UK titles (the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and The Sun). The study found that the UK publications published more than double the number of web-first stories than the Australian ones. In-depth interviews with staff from each of the sports departments confirmed the view that Australian news organisations would prefer to protect exclusive content by holding it back for the newspaper, while two of the three UK companies pursued web-first aims.

Mapping the sports journalism field: Bourdieu and broadsheet newsrooms:

Sports journalism is an important part of contemporary media, but it is a sector that has not received the detailed analysis of other areas of the industry. Utilising Bourdieu’s field theory, this study locates sports journalism in the journalistic field before mapping the sports journalism field in the context of broadsheet/quality news organisations. It achieves this by examining the sports departments of six media outlets in Australia, India and the United Kingdom. In-depth interviews with 36 sports journalists and a content analysis of 4541 web and print articles are employed to focus on issues such as content, publishing applications and approaches, workloads, and commercial factors. This allows an investigation of sports journalism at national, organisational and individual levels. The results show economic capital is a dominant factor in sports journalism.

It's not just cricket: content in the sports pages of The Hindu and The Times of India

Cricket is Indias de facto national sport but the extent of its dominance in the countrys broadsheet newspaper organizations has not been clearly stated. The game is more than a major pastime, having been described as a ‘religion’. In this environment, it was important to investigate how much of the newspaper and online sports coverage of two major newspaper organizations was focused on cricket, and how these results compared with other sports. It was also valuable to determine whether there were significant differences in articles published across print and online mediums. The amounts of local and international material in these publications were also considered to discover where the majority of reports came from. The sports pages of The Times of India and The Hindu were examined through a 12-day content analysis of 1814 articles. While cricket was the major sport, it did not dominate at the level expected in all cases.

Social media boundaries in sports journalism: individual and organisational gatekeeping in India and Australia

ABSTRACT Journalists with social media accounts can face conflict between the personal nature of their posts while operating as representatives of their news organisations. The addition of another publishing platform has also continued to change the role of the journalist as gatekeeper, with more decisions to be made over dissemination choices in traditional, online and social media. This comparative study of sports journalists in India and Australia examines gatekeeping influences at individual and organisational levels. It combines in-depth interviews with 22 sports journalists with a content analysis of 2085 Twitter posts from sports journalists covering the Australia–India Test cricket series of 2014–2015. The results highlight how multi-media gatekeeping has become a factor for contemporary sports journalists in both nations.

Twenty20 and the changing face of Australian cricket

In the decade after 1995, Australian cricket was seen, by itself and its opponents, as the world leader in innovation, strategy and tactics. The expertise on and off the field was chiefly responsible for the Test and one-day international teams being ranked as the best in the game, and created debates over whether some of the sides were the greatest of all time. By the mid-2000s, another revolution was taking place, with the new Twenty20 concept stealing large amounts of focus away from the traditional formats. The high-tempo game, which is completed in 40 overs and about three hours, quickly attracted unprecedented crowds for domestic games across the cricket-playing world and soon had a rush of rich investors helping to create lucrative leagues.

Food for Thought in Restaurant Reviews: Lifestyle journalism or an extension of marketing in UK and Australian newspapers

Coverage of food journalism has increased in contemporary media and restaurant reviews are a regular feature in newspapers. The reaction to a rating of zero for a restaurant in The Weekend Australian newspaper in 2016 highlighted the role and expectations of critics. It also raised the issue of whether this form of lifestyle journalism included traditional journalistic objectives, or was influenced more by commercial factors. In this environment, it is therefore valuable to explore whether restaurant reviews are more aligned with detached journalism or an extension of marketing. Utilising a content analysis, this pilot study examines the ratings of food critics in four broadsheet/quality newspapers in Australia and the United Kingdom. During the three years of the data collection, 550 restaurant reviews were coded. The pattern of review marks suggested more supportive judgements than critical ones, and was consistent with the softer side of journalism.

Cheerleaders or Critics?: Australian and Indian sports journalists in the contemporary age

Sports journalists have often been criticised for their casual approach to work and cheerleading content in stories. This style of journalism contrasts with the traditional norms of objectivity employed in other areas of newsrooms. It is also opposed to the critical watchdog role considered essential to objective reporting. To examine how sports journalists operate in relation to being cheerleaders or critical watchdogs, this study utilises the Australia–India Test cricket series of 2014–15 as a platform to investigate sports journalists’ views, and the content they produce. It employs in-depth interviews with 18 sports journalists from Australian and Indian newspaper organisations in conjunction with a content analysis of 1265 articles from eight Australian and Indian publications. This allows a comparison of the perceptions of the sports journalists with what they are producing in their stories. Selecting a major international event with historical importance, such as the Australia–India Test series, is important in providing an example for analysis of whether contemporary sports journalists have confused the roles of reporter and supporter. An important finding in this study, given the long-standing criticism of sports journalists, was a considerably higher proportion of critical reports about the series in both nations than of cheerleading. Overall, this was consistent with the perceptions of the sports journalists in the in-depth interviews.

The Death of Phillip Hughes Commemorative Journalism and the Cricket Community

Cricketer Phillip Hughes died after being struck by a ball in a match, triggering a rare example of commemorative journalism of an Australian athlete in his prime. This case study explores the perceptions of print and online cricket journalists who covered the story, providing an analysis of how their emotions influenced their reporting of an event they were professionally and personally involved in. Employing this approach differs from the dominant focus of examining content in commemorative journalism scholarship. The circumstances of the Hughes story created an unfamiliar environment for cricket journalists, who had to deal with their own emotions while being messengers to audiences in Australia, and across the world. The impact of social media also altered the direction of aspects of the coverage through the Twitter hashtag #putoutyourbats. To examine elements of this commemorative journalism example, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 Australian cricket journalists. The results reflect the respondents’ difficulties in covering the story, their usage of emotion in their work, and their perceptions of social media’s influence.

For the lifestyle and a love of creativity: Australian students’ motivations for studying journalism

A number of studies have examined why students choose to study journalism at university, but overall, this area is still relatively underexplored. Yet, understanding why students choose journalism, and what career expectations they hold, is important not only for educators but also for wider society and public debates about the future of journalism and the value of tertiary journalism education. This article examines the motivations of 1884 Australian journalism students enrolled across 10 universities. It finds that hopes for a varied lifestyle and opportunities to express their creativity are the most dominant motivations among students. Public service ideals are somewhat less important, while financial concerns and fame are least important. These motivations also find expression in students’ preferred areas of specialisation (referred to in Australia as rounds): lifestyle rounds are far more popular than politics and business rounds or science and development rounds.