Jrn 108 Group 20

1) How Breaking News Stories Have Been Covered and Broken 2) Sports Press Conferences Coverage 3) Diversity of Sports Newscasters and Athletes Team members: Aleksandra Berzins -- David Segal -- Brendan Wilner -- Nick Russo Chase Kallen -- Grant Essenmacher -- Emily Seigneurie -- Austin Schmuecker

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Odell Beckham with one of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen

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A recent study shows that diversity in sports newscasters has not significantly increased at all in the past 10 years. This specific study at Indiana University shows that only 6 percent of the nation's top print and online sports editors are minorities, and only 13 percent of sports reporters are people of color. The 2008 report, conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida, also found that women make up only about 11 percent of print and online sports news departments. Although people don't necessarily hear about this issue too often it is in fact an issue and needs to be addressed. Recent Studies are spreading awareness and hopefully this issue will eventually be diminished.

-Nick Russo

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Here you can see the impact of having sports press conferences after games and how heated they can get, and how public they can get as well.

Brendan Wilner

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Sports press conferences have been going on for years now, but now with the power of the media and how athletes are always being interviewed, the athletes can get into more trouble. Back in the 1900's we didn't have the technology we do now, so what players would say during a press conference would travel a lot longer to the fans. With Twitter, anything anyone says in a post-game interview whether they are an well-known player or not will be posted on the internet instantly. The problem with this is that if they said anything bad and would want to take back they can't because it's too late, but back in the 1900's before internet, they could fix up the quotes a little better if they wanted too. That is why players have to be extremely careful when they talk to the media during press conferences.

Brendan Wilner 

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Currently, the human population is the largest it has ever been.  Because women are a large part of our population and sports play a significant role in the majority of our lives, these human experiences deserve to not only be reported, but reported equally and accurately for all.  In today’s world,...

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The tragic death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001 broke hearts across the world.  And the way that we found out about it was none other than the media.

Long story short, NASCAR didn't have good safety standards back then.  He was killed instantly.  But it was now FOX handled the tragic situation that showed the world what happened.

They started by interviewing Ken Schrader (driver of the No. 36 car pictured above).  Schrader went into the No. 3 cockpit and checked on Dale.  On TV, he was interviewed and visibly shaken up, but he didn't say too much because he didn't wanna speculate and jump to any conclusions.

Then, they interviewed Michael Waltrip, the winner of the race and a driver for Dale Earnhardt's team that he owned.  He was ecstatic that he won the race, but was later quoted after the news came out as saying "This was the best day of my life, and then it became the worst."  I still get goosebumps thinking about this tragic day, and I was only 5 years old.

They later cut to the media center, where NASCAR president Mike Helton came out and made a statement, stating those infamous words: "We've lost Dale Earnhardt."  The hearts of people across the world that were watching ached for everybody and Dale.  In my opinion, the media handled this tragic situation to perfection.

The anchors were solemn in speech, the coverage never wavered because the viewers wanted to see what was happening (obviously) and they absolutely killed it, I think.  They turned what was a dark spot in NASCAR history, and what could've been in sports media, into a ring of hope.

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I am a huge NASCAR fan, so when NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver AJ Allmendinger (yes, that is a real name) tested positive for adderall, I was somewhat shocked, for a few reasons.

First off, I was shocked that a NASCAR driver tested positive for drugs.  After all, it isn't a sport like football or baseball where PED's are such a problem.  Allmendinger was taking the pills to combat his ADHD, but they were on the list of drugs deemed illegal, so he had to pay the price.

Secondly, the timing of this was incredible.  The news came just mere hours before he was supposed to race in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.  He was escorted out of the track and a replacement driver was flown in last minute.  But now, let't get to what really matters when it comes to this project: how the media handled it.

The various media outlets covered and handled this incident strangely.  ESPN isn't too big on NASCAR coverage, so they weren't too educated on the incident.  But networks like SPEED, which is 100% motorsports oriented, were.  Those networks looked at it from all sides, like the owner, driver, sponsor and family side.  And considered everybody.  But ESPN didn't.  They made false assumptions and were called out on it.

Overall, the media broke this news story strangely and handled it strangely as well.  It was broken on live television and handled differently than from other drug incidents in major sports (like NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.)

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In yet another NFL domestic violence case, this one was somewhat underreported due to the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases that were arguably more severe and came out and broke at different times.  Arizona Cardinals RB Jonathan Dwyer was arrested in a domestic violence investigation involving his wife as well as his child.

This breaking news story was broken in the same way as the aforementioned Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases were broken, but this was different in the sense that it was the third such case the NFL had experienced in the span of about 2 weeks, so it wasn't taken as seriously.  It was more of a "Wow, again?  What else is new ..." kind reaction.

The sports news/media outlets covered this is in the same ways that they covered the two prior, but not as much.  Why?  It's simple: Jonathan Dwyer isn't as big of a name as Adrian Peterson, who has arguably been the best running back in football, and Ray Rice.  People who watch networks such as ESPN want to hear about the top stories with big names, and Dwyer wasn't a big name.

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Cleveland Browns WR Josh Gordon was suspended by the National Football League for one year after testing positive for the second time for marijuana.  The suspension was later reduced to ten games, but personally, what caught my eye, was how the media handled this story.

Whether it was ESPN, ProFootballTalk, FOX Sports or any other sports outlet, the story as primarily looked at from a pure football standpoint.  I can see this if it were the Cleveland Browns, but as a large media outlet that many kids watch on a daily basis, I believe that they had an obligation to talk about how you shouldn't use marijuana because it is illegal.

Overall, this breaking news story was broken and covered in a respectful manner, don't get me wrong.  But I do also believe that the media could also have maybe educated their viewers on marijuana use.  Some former players that are now analysts were even quoted as saying that they have done marijuana before as a player, which doesn't help things much.

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" That was a disgraceful performance, in my opinion. We threw that game, we gave away it away by doing that." - Mike Gundy

Bloguin

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Wildest Sports Press Conference Ever presented by TheHeckler.com

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Sports Press Conferences

According to Dave Roos the formal definition of a press conference is; a staged public relation event in which an organization or individual presents information to members of the mass media. To specially associate it with sports, members of a team or club are able to answer the medias' questions so that the general public are able to get their questions answered by the direct source.

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Diversity of Sports Newscasters

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport has done a study of minorities and women in 2012 that are journalists or newscaster for sports. Not much diversity has changed since 2006, unfortunately.

Ninety percent of sports editors are white and men. This includes newscasters,editors, journalists, columnists, and reporters. ESPN is the worlds largest sports outlet and surprisingly enough, only 11% are of color and 8% are women. The percentages continue to drop which shows a lack of diversity in the business for sports writers and reporters. Many people are trying to change this but the barriers for minorities and women entering the sport’s writing world still exist.

Emily Seigneurie

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9.17.14

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ESPN.com provides comprehensive sports coverage. Complete sports information including NFL, MLB, NBA, <<College Football, College Basketball>> scores and news.

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The latest Tweets from SportsCenter (@SportsCenter). All things sports, all the time. Nominate top plays using #SCtop10. *If you send us a tweet, you consent to letting ESPN use and showcase it in any media*. Rockin' Bristol, CT since 1979

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"In the heat of the moment, sometimes sports' biggest names can lose their filter. The result can be shocking. It can be downright crazy. It can even be heart wrenching." -Bleacher Report

The most memorable and most watched sports press conferences in history are often the ones where athletes and coaches have meltdowns. Some famous ones are Allen Iversons "Practice" press conference, Derek Anderson's meltdown after a Monday Night Football loss, and even the Lebron "Decision." If a press conference is a typical Q and A session where athletes and coaches do not want to be there, it typically is not talked about.

- Grant Essenmacher