With the growing popularity of the use of social media for news sourcing, many writers are finding themselves reconsidering their writing platforms. Understanding the efficiency of writing within a sports column for a magazine, newspaper, broadcasting service, or internet source is an important part of developing your career and presence within the sports journalism field. If you are considering sports journalism, there are a few things you may want to consider.
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Blogs are one of many tools that can be used for effective sports communications. While there are many opposing methods, this is the method that seems to be on the rise in recent society. Looking at blogs in general, sports are one of the most popular topics that people follow, according to How to create a sports blog: the ultimate beginner’s guide. This article also gives great tips on how to start your sports blog, including reference to claiming a domain, using a popular blogging platform, web hosting services, post planning, and sharing with your readers.
Looking at this week’s lecture can also help you (and me) prepare for our first major blog posts. A big tip is to accompany your writing with other items in your post. Adding visuals, audio, videos, and external links can be of great benefit if you want to keep readers engaged in your article. Remember, we want them to read until the end! Enhance your story by adding the essential accessories to complete the story.
With blogging comes freedom and creativity - yes – but because we do not have as many restrictions placed upon us by, perhaps, a higher up as if we were working at a newspaper or corporation, we must keep in mind our ethical principles and how to effectively tell our stories online. What we say can be interpreted in different ways, so (Source: wpbeginner)
understanding our own message from our readers’ eyes is important. When crafting our story, we want to stick to a specific voice or ideal, as we are representing ourselves - and what strangers see, they will analyze in order to make assumptions about who we are as writers and as people.
Gisondi writes about carving a niche in the text. With the upcoming project revolving around niche writing, this material is quite relevant and useful. Sports blogging can offer a unique perspective to sporting events, trends, and analysis. A blog’s story can change as the thread continues on, and readers live for the chase. We must remember that we need to set apart our writing from that others. We can do this by following a few of Gisondi’s tips:
“Be balanced, mixing positive with negative.”
“Build a relationship with readers.”
“Give yourself the freedom to develop a voice.”
“Keep your writing style much more conversational than in a traditional sports story.”
“Report….style without substance means nothing.”
“Offer alternative opinions.”
- Gisondi, Field Guide to Covering Sports
By following all of these tips, I believe both you and I can continue to grow our blogging abilities together! I hope you will continue to use these ideas in your sports writing, as I sure know I will. I would like you leave you with one final question:
What will you do to set your blog apart?
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Works Cited
Daniel. (2017, Nov. 21) How to create a sports blog: the ultimate beginner’s guide. EuroDNS. https://www.eurodns.com/blog/create-a-sports-blog-ultimate-beginners-guide
Gisondi, J. (2011). Field Guide to Covering Sports. CQ Press. (p. 54-56)
Hannah - I thank you for the separated text for your question. When I was in undergrad, we didn't have a lot of the fancy site-building tools that you youngsters do now. I am always a fan of block quotes/callouts to highlight important ideas or lines. I don't know if I would use them often, though, as they can start to look repetitive. Thoughts? Best, Kyle
Hannah, I agree that it is important to keep an open mind when building that niche for blogging. Your post gave me a better insight when writing my future blogs and reading the chapters!
Great post.
This was a good & informational read! Adding visuals, audio, videos, etc. are definitely key to keeping your readers attention. You also mentioned Gisondi's tip about using "conversational" style rather than traditional sports stories. I feel that's also a big difference between columns and blogs, a much more relaxed style. Great work!
Keeping the writing conversational is one of my favorite things to read online. As much as i enjoy sports, and reading about what happened in last nights game. I like reading something as if i am having the conversation with them. It makes it easier to read, and i feel more of a connection to the material. Great post!
Hannah,
Once again, another great post!
I really like how you mention to we need to understand our message from our reader's eyes. I think this is something we can forget about when writing, but is so crucial to making your blog interesting for your readers. I also like how you list the tips from the Gisondi reading. To answer your question, I want to make sure I add plenty of pictures and links in my blog. I try to find short video clips that my reader can view. I think by using pictures and videos, paired with writing can be a great way to keep readers interested.
-Kurt Simmons