JRN185 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Nick Hornby, Rupert Murdoch, Sports Journalism
29 Apr 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
PCC
JRN - 185
Newspaper Publishing
● Sport:
○ No area of newspaper reporting has expanded more in terms of scope than sport
○ Applies particularly to the serious press
○ Example: The Premier League and Nick Hornby will presumably take the blame
for both Sky TV and Wapping, along with Rupert Murdoch, which put an end to
pagination restrictions
● Football:
○ Trendy
○ Classless and a national phenomenon, and in its wake sport in general
○ From around the globe, Sky Sports televises around the clock
○ Intellectual reputation was provided by Nick Hornby
○ BBC Radio 5 Live is devoting most of its evenings, nights and phone-ins to this
○ No official could afford not to have a football team that he or she 'sponsored' and
sport became the default topic in all parts of society
○ Despite the inability of sports pages to gain much attention to cover the travel
costs of sending sports reporters across the globe, the newspapers could hardly
opt out
■ Did opt in
● Used to be match reports and statistics, soccer pools, and 'rattling the woodwork'
○ Now analyzing, images, profiles, data and opinion
○ Interviewing stars who have nothing to say, speculating on promotions and
organizational shifts, and photography that is of very high quality
○ Sport has received its own add-ons, mostly 16 or 24 pages wide
○ Got its own celebrity columnists and entertainment reviewers
○ Has produced a new breed of professional sportsmen who have become sports
writers
○ More ambition among journalism students to write about sport than about politics
or wars, and sports journalism courses are being offered now
● Sports journalism accounts for some of the finest newspaper coverage
○ Profoundly intellectual
○ Pretentious
○ Reporting of professional sports is now key to success
○ Big names writers and very thorough reporting
○ Sport is about imagination and fantasies and at least half the population is getting
them these days
● Latest Press Debates:
Document Summary
No area of newspaper reporting has expanded more in terms of scope than sport. Example: the premier league and nick hornby will presumably take the blame for both sky tv and wapping, along with rupert murdoch, which put an end to pagination restrictions. Classless and a national phenomenon, and in its wake sport in general. From around the globe, sky sports televises around the clock. Intellectual reputation was provided by nick hornby. Bbc radio 5 live is devoting most of its evenings, nights and phone-ins to this. No official could afford not to have a football team that he or she "sponsored" and sport became the default topic in all parts of society. Despite the inability of sports pages to gain much attention to cover the travel costs of sending sports reporters across the globe, the newspapers could hardly opt out. Used to be match reports and statistics, soccer pools, and "rattling the woodwork"
