Discussing this week's topic of "newsworthiness," one can review the different points that have been made in this week's material. The lecture and the readings have all provided great insight into the idea of newsworthiness and how to be an effective writer or sports journalist. The web reading from Sports Journalism: An Introduction to Reporting and Writing says, "To a true sports storyteller, it’s not enough to say who won, who lost and what the score was. (Stofer 134) The following post will provide you with ample information to create your own sense of newsworthiness.
(Source: Society for Technical Communication)
There are seven criteria of newsworthiness that can be followed by writers:
Conflict
Timeliness
Prominence
Proximity
Consequence/impact
Human interest
Unusualness
Diving into each criterion, let us review a few of them in detail.
Conflict
This is a considerably easy topic to write about in sports writing, as we can find examples of sports writing that display conflict all the time. Examples of this can include competition of many sorts - top players, opposing teams, etc.. Something writers will often discuss is the topic of how a game turns out: who wins or loses a game, how the stats of different players line up, and even problems can arise in the game such as injuries, suspensions, etc..
Ex. @VCSUVikings Tweeting about VCSU Baseball's victory over Mayville State
Timeliness
One must be sure that their works are produced in a timely manner. This means that if someone else has already produced the story, one must make sure to prevent producing the story without new information or a new perspective.
The Tweet to the right shows timeliness, as it discusses new changes to the VCSU sports schedule, as soon as it has been confirmed.
Prominence
Prominence is also very important in writing. This means that one must write about topics that are known to the public. This can vary from known athletes or celebrities to popular events.
The example to here also displays prominence, as it discusses news relating to VCSU Viking Athletics, as followers have interest in those teams. This is not strictly a writing piece, but it is an example of sports media.
Consequence
Consequences show what happens as a results of certain circumstances. In this current day and age, COVID-19 is a topic that often comes up in this circumstance. When it comes to VCSU, something that is often experienced is game delay due to weather. The example here shows a Tweet crafted by VCSU Athletics that discusses the idea that VCSU Baseball had to move their games due to weather at the hosting site.
Human interest
Another topic that is quite common is media writing is human interest. When it comes to appealing to your audience, one must think about the interest of the public.
The example to the right is a Tweet crafted by @VCSUVikings to share the exciting news about VCSU athlete, Kevin Schramm being named Honorable Mention All-American.
My question for you today is:
How can you create stories that are newsworthy, interesting, and different using these tips?
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References
Stofer, K. T., Schaffer, J. R., & Rosenthal, B. A. (2010). Sports Journalism: An introduction to reporting and writing. (p. 141-162) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Vareberg, Kyle. [Kyle Vareberg]. (2021, Mar.) Week 10 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6vj5XcuoDI
I like how you break down each subject on what makes a story newsworthy and it made me understand how they vary. Unusualness is one aspect of how to make a newsworthy story that has stuck with me.
I really enjoy how you tie in VCSU posts to your subject. So far we've covered how to find an angle pretty well in this course, and the tips you mentioned allow for a lot of interpretation such as whether your story is about the game, a player, the circumstances of the night itself or what this game means in the long run for the teams or the sport as a whole. I think a lot of writers fall into a routine of writing the same piece day after day and their writing becomes stale and old-hat. The willingness to change the way you cover a sport or an athlete matters a lot.
Hannah,
I like how you dived into each of the seven criteria for newsworthy stories. By giving us real life examples of all of these through VCSU's athletics, it really demonstrates how each of them have their place in the sports journalism world. My question to you is do you feel there is one area that is more newsworthy than other areas? Since you have real life experience with these I would love to hear your insight. Great post Hannah!
-Kurt Simmons
Hannah -
I appreciate how you broke down each topic of what makes a story newsworthy as it helped me to understand how they are all different. One thing that stuck with me on how to create a story that is newsworthy is unusualness. When you mention Kevin as an All-American, that is an honor that does not happen for many VCSU athletes thus making it unusual and a good topic to do a feature story on.
-Clarissa Hilary