HOW DOES SPORTS MEDIA WORK IN AUSTRALIA

I’d be lying if I said that my passion for analysing the workings of the media in this country doesn’t  stem from when I was a teenager constantly scouring the sport sections of any newspaper I could my hands on to find out the latest information about my favourite sporting teams. Mind you, when
I say ‘favourite’ I’m speaking fairly loosely. I would read pretty much any article on any team and most sports. From AFL and cricket to European soccer to rugby league and union to horse racing and baseball... I was, and still am, a sports nut.

Over the years, through personal contacts, I’ve had the opportunity to witness the machinations and inner dealings that form the sports media in Australia. It may not be as straight forward as you think.

You see, traditionally, journalists have had to work hard to establish contacts – including rapore and friendship – within sporting clubs and organisations. These contacts will help a journalist out with a story they may be working on by providing quotes or inside information. The payoff is that they can often subsequently push an agenda with said journalist in order to get exposure on a certain topic.

The understanding would often be that anything said off the record stays off the record and the writer treats the contact and their organisation fairly when reporting on them. Sound like a good system? It must be, because it’s worked that way for decades.

But the modern age has blown a fresh wind through this scenario, and a lot of the pieces have been knocked out of place. I used to go straight to the sports sections of the Herald-Sun, The Age and The Australian in the school library when I was a kid to get the latest news. But if I was a teenager these days I would simply follow my favourite clubs on Twitter, or like them on Facebook.

You can do that now! Sports bodies, clubs and even players can reach their supporters first hand now with the greatest of ease, and without the media acting as a filter.

Is sports journalism on its way to becoming obsolete? Well, for one, a sporting body would never publish anything negative about itself – so hopefully that means independent journalists stay relevant. But surely the habitual ‘matey’ atmosphere of mutual benefit that has lived in sports media relationships is a thing of the past?

Sporting entities have their own news outlets these days. The AFL, controversially, now even has its own media company! Rugby League, Racing and Cricket’s national associations have all set up platforms whereby they can inject their own information at will into the public sphere. If done intelligently, they can influence a great deal of the mainstream media agenda.

Says noted Melbourne sportswriter Ron Reed; “The relationship between sport and the media is absolutely critical for the survival and prosperity of both parties. Football is the lifeblood of the Herald Sun, for instance, and the massive interest from all media keeps the major sports afloat. But yes, the nature of the relationship is shifting with the bigger sports... Quite where this is leading remains to be seen but the game is definitely changing.”

One can’t help but think that maybe the old communal partnership system that existed could still be in play today if it weren’t for the fact that media scrutiny on sports stars is so intense today. ‘Off the record’ doesn’t really exist when someone is going through another person’s rubbish at 2am.

I feel that we, the public, the readers, are losing out. This situation means that we do not get the same level of insight, wisdom and first-hand colour from a feature article on one of our sports heroes as we once could’ve expected... because the trust between reporter and subject is swiftly evaporating.