Ethics in sports writing

With any sort of journalism or promotional work, ethics can come into play. Whether it is the decision to leave out a nasty comment from a coach’s interview or refraining from cheering for your favorite team on a coverage night, ethics can affect your performance and success in sports communications.

Source: (The New York Times)

When listening to the Week 3 Lecture for COMM 415, one can find valuable and interesting information pertaining to ethics in sports communications. Ethical dilemmas can range far and wide within the field, for each scenario is unique. Some of these dilemmas can make or break your career as a sports writer, so understanding that you must be morally balanced for this position is vital.

Do you think you should become a sports writer? If so, what are your motives?

Source: (Star Tribune) Source: (Quartz Media)

The textbook discusses the difference between sports fans and sports writers, so this could be a good place to start if you are having questions or concerns in your decision-making. Being interested in sports or knowing a lot about sports does not necessarily mean you would make an effective sports writer. The text also dives into ethical challenges that sports writers often face: Covering your own team, working multiple public relations jobs, using others’ work, and accepting gifts from teams are just a few to list (Gisondi).

Being in sports information rather than strictly sports writing, I do not have to worry as much about many of the conflicts listed in the text, but I can definitely see how these issues could come into play for larger corporations. On the larger scale, there one idea that must come first in the sports writing field:

"Although perceived as fun and games, sports at almost every level in the United States have become big business with consequences beyond the playing fields. Sports journalists have an ethical obligation to provide citizens and consumers with fair and balanced reporting on issues that affect their communities, their pocketbooks and the health and educations of their children." (Hadrin)

This quote explains the difficulty to train sports communicators without a journalism background into the field. I found it interesting in the lecture when it was mentioned that bringing athletes into sports journalism can make it difficult to break stories or do well.

I would agree that there is a difference between sports journalists and these “wannabes” (Hadrin). For me, having been a previous college athlete and going on to sports journalism, I feel it was different. I say this because I have a background in writing and journalism, so I understand how to develop writing and public relations aside from my personal thoughts and interests. There are often times when I get to choose who to interview for different projects, and of course, I want to interview my friends on the teams – BUT I understand the purpose of the project and that I may need to be uncomfortable with someone I don’t know as well in order to create good content.

Our job as sports communicators is to seek the truth, report the truth, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable (Stofer). Deciding to go into sports communications is not a decision that should be made on the surface. I highly suggest looking deeper into the qualifications and responsibilities before advancing to sports journalism.

What characteristics do you have that would make you an effective sports communicator?

Works Cited

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Gisondi, J. (2011). Field Guide to Covering Sports. CQ Press. (p. 274-278)

Hadrin, M. (2007). “Newsroom Ethics and Sports Journalists” Media Ethics Magazine. 19, 1. https://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/137-fall-2007/3227706-newsroom-ethics-and-sports-journalists

Stofer, K. T., Schaffer, J. R., & Rosenthal, B. A. (2010). Sports Journalism: An introduction to reporting and writing. (p 261-264) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.