Tag Archives: sports media

Apr 17 2012
Aside

A level playing field. For a fan like me, that is all I have ever wanted when it comes to sports opinions.

Prior to social media, sports opinions, for years, were dictated by media. Sports news came via radio, newspaper, or broadcast television. As internet and cable/satellite grew, the availability of information corresponded in kind.

And then along came social media.

In a February article published on mediabistro.com,

Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have given fans the opportunity to stay
connected  with organizations, teams, sporting personalities, news outlets – and each other -
which has been hugely successful for everyone involved.

Indeed it has.

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In the context of sports, I agree with the above tweet.

Then again, I’m not the traditional sports fan. I used to be. Watch the games. Cheer for my teams. Check news online. Even on Facebook, I would follow “my” teams.

But it wasn’t enough. Something was missing for me.

I wanted more. I wanted to know the intricacies of media opinion. Why does a sportswriter say one thing while sports radio guy says something completely different about the same thing? Opinions vary obviously but, what about when the topic is “tweeted” by media from across the sports landscape? Twitter provides instant insight on sports topics with media from all parts of the country (world), with diverse family, educational, employment, cultural and racial backgrounds. Discard them if you will but those backgrounds influence the opinions of sports media.

That’s why Twitter is so valuable to the sports conversation. Wide ranging opinions on a subject from various sports news outlets allow fans to form “their own” opinion. No longer does opinion need to be dictated to fans. Unless, of course, fans stick to old standbys like ESPN. Nothing wrong with ESPN for sports news but sole reliance on it means fans are dictated “to”. Whatever broadcasting contracts ESPN has with sports leagues/conferences, their news tends to lean toward those topics. One-sided, biased opinion right?

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Not good enough for me. I want to be a knowledgeable sports fan. Give me varying degrees of opinion from people I agree and disagree with. I don’t care if so & so “hates” my team or they are “jerks” to people, they still might have information I might find useful on Twitter. It doesn’t mean I have to “follow” them. I put them on a Twitter list. Still accessing their tweets without giving them the “pleasure” of a follower number.

Consider this my “call” to sports fans everywhere to get informed. Use the resources available through Twitter to become a knowledgeable sports fan and not resort to name-calling tactics like this:

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CadChica Sports

Sports Fans: Be Informed, Not Dictated To

May 17 2011

Spanning the Twitterverse

Spanning the Twitterverse to bring you the constant variety of tweets….the thrill of the retweet….and the agony of the unfollow.…the human drama of the twitter timeline….This is CadChica’s Wide World of Tworts

BASEBALL OUCH!!!

You make the call? Hit by pitch or pitch hit by elbow?

A SPECIAL HOF AWARD

The story linked to this tweet is so great that I had to share. Not a story to be missed.

WHISTLE BLOWER TWEET?

Leave it to Ohio State to stir the pot while tucking their tails between their legs. I’m not an NCAA expert (are there such things) but go to the link on the tweet and judge for yourself.

TWEETS I COULDN’T FIT IN YESTERDAY’S POST

In case you missed these, below are a few interesting tweets for your reading pleasure. Funny, informative and sad. *Sigh*

Funny

Informative

Sad

TWEET OF THE DAY

Usually on tweet of the day, I try to find one that just tickled my funny bone but not this time. This is Wide World of Tworts and Twitter’s popularity increase brings about the tweet below. I am whole heartedly agree with this post, albeit ALL sports media not just ESPN.

CadChica Sports

May 16 2011

Spanning the Twitterverse: Social Media in Sports

Spanning the Twitterverse to bring you the constant variety of tweets….the thrill of the retweet….and the agony of the unfollow.…the human drama of the twitter timeline….This is CadChica’s Wide World of Tworts

TWORTS

I posted earlier today a couple of tweets from ESPN’s social media columnist, Maria Burns-Ortiz, regarding the fun of fake Twitter handles. You know, the ones who use names of famous people and “pretending”, or not, to be those famous people. My post here.

Ms. Burns-Ortiz has some great tweets out there about what I call “Tworts”. In case you haven’t read my blog before, it’s a combo of Twitter & sports (yes, I thought it up all by myself). I am a firm believer that Twitter is having and will continue to have an affect on sports, athletes, sports media, and all others involved. I mean if we can have a guy taking beer orders at Mariners games via Twitter, safe to say Twitter will, if it hasn’t already, change the whole entire sports experience.

The flip side of that is of course, interpretation of tweets. With the recent controversy surrounding Rashard Mendenhall’s ill advised tweets regarding Osama Bin Laden and 9/11, which I blogged about earlier ,in my opinion it will only get worse unless teams address it head on. The need to hold pre-season/in-season/post-season social media seminars with experts in the field. The NFL, in an effort to keep controversy at bay, need to do this with all rookies coming in. Knowldege is power. And knowledge of social media and how to use it can produce great dividends.

Some athletes get it but many don’t (some would argue Mendenhall doesn’t). Ms. Burns-Ortiz RT’d (re-tweeted) this below from the LA Times newspaper. Great article and insight.

MY TAKE: I think Twitter is phenomenal (stating the obvious I know). But, Twitter can be used in ‘phenomenal’ ways for athletes’ benefit. Case in point? Heath Evans@realfreemancbs, tweeted this back on May 2nd. Had I not seen this tweet, I never would have known about the work that Evans and his wife are doing.

This is the kind of stuff that athletes should use Twitter for. Sure followers are nice but if you’re going to have a large following, why not use your platform for something good instead of just spouting off nasty or controversial stuff all the time? Random tweets are fine (i.e. tweeting about a good workout, what movie you saw, etc..). As an athlete, even the ones who aren’t as big of a household name, using Twitter to affect the world around you in a positive way is how Twitter can work for you, not against you.

However, far be it from me to say “you should only do it this way”, because that’s not true. If an athlete is willing to stick his neck out and tweet something controversial, go for it…provided they are willing to deal with the consequences. If they aren’t, then teams had better get their acts together and start having those social media seminars I mentioned earlier. It’s not just the athletes. The same goes for every member of the team organizations as well as extended families of both athletes and organizational personnel. The title of the seminar: SOCIAL MEDIA: HIT ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

As I’m sitting here thinking about it, I think the sports media should follow suit too. There’s some really stupid stuff being tweeted by the sports media lately. Not posting any examples but just something to watch out for. 140 characters is enough to get anyone in trouble if you’re not careful. Including me.

CadChica Sports

May 8 2011

Special Sunday Edition: The Miller Saga

Spanning the Twitterverse to bring you the constant variety of tweets….the thrill of the retweet….and the agony of the unfollow.…the human drama of the twitter timeline….This is CadChica’s Wide World of Tworts

Normally I don’t blog on Sundays but I had to post my thoughts on the Sean Miller to Maryland story on Twitter.

ARIZONA

Drama with a capital D. That would best describe the last few days of the Arizona and Maryland “dance” over Coach Sean Miller. Being a self-proclaimed Twitterholic, I was one of the “many” that got caught up in the rumor-mill. It was easy to do. There are so many athletes and sports media journalists/outlets on Twitter now that accessing information from around the country, let alone the world, is easier to do than ever before. Trying to sift through what was rumor and what wasn’t over the last few days was just, nerve-wracking!!!!

One would think that a station with the ESPN moniker would have its facts right. Based on what they were told, Miller would be the next coach. Andy Katz from ESPN national (the mothership), may give some credence to the reporting done by ESPN 980 (Washington D.C.)

But, from the Arizona perspective, The Wildcat Sports Report tweeted this regarding the last 36 hours:

Reading the article linked in WSRArizona’s tweet, it doesn’t so much discount what Terrapin media or fans were tweeting about Miller being their next coach. Rather, it provides information from Arizona “sources”. In either case, take them for what they are worth. Both are unconfirmed sources until the key parties confirm or deny. Who can say who was right or who was wrong? But, it was a Twitter hurricane of Category 3 proportions.

Yet, the beauty of Twitter is the sharing of information instantly. The drawback of Twitter is trying to identify what is information is legit and what isn’t. As Arizona Republic sports columnist Paola Boivin put it:

It’s not the fault of Twitter (I’m speaking like it’s a person — sheesh). It’s up to each tweeter to figure out for themselves what to believe or rather what to re-tweet. The problem, therefore, at least for me is when the subject becomes personal. As stated in my “About” section of the blog, I am an Arizona Wildcats basketball fan. No, I’m not an alumnus, nor did I even try to attend the school. I grew up watching them in the Phoenix/Mesa area. I was hooked. Even after I moved up here to the Pacific Northwest, I have continued to follow them as much as I could; which has gotten better as technology has improved. So this story, challenged me immensely.

My sheer panic over the last few days only proves my passion. Or maybe it’s my overzealousness when it comes to Wildcat basketball. I, quite literally, was looking for any small nugget I could find, including below:

How pathetic! I immediately thought the wrong thing when I discovered that nugget. Little did I know that about an hour or so later, this would crop up:

Arizona Athletic Director not allowing any media outlet to scoop him on this news story, tweeted Sean Miller’s status himself. Major props to him for not only tweeting the news it but working to keep Miller at UofA.

In the aftermath however, I am admonishing myself for getting caught up in the Twitter-hype. Nobody knows what really happened other than the man himself, Sean Miller, and his family. Maybe Greg Byrne knew but he’s not Sean Miller. He doesn’t know everything that Coach Miller is thinking 24 hours a day. The sad part of all of this is related to my tweet above regarding Coach Miller’s wife, Amy. It’s from an Arizona “fanatic”:

And yes, she has deleted her account. A sad end to a whirlwind of a weekend for both Arizona and Maryland fans. And although they got a new contract, I’m not sure I blame The Millers if they are shaking their heads and wondering if it’s all worth it sometimes. It’s part of the business, but does it have to be?

CadChica Sports