Tweet, Tweet! Sports Journalism Has Changed

by Eric Goodman

Up until recently, the formula for sports journalism was quite simple: a reporter attends a post-practice media scrum and either writes or broadcasts the news he has gathered to the thousands of waiting fans. If a player wanted to get his squad fired up by talking trash towards the other team, then he’d usually do it via the filter of the hometown beat reporter. However, in today’s tech savvy world where both fans and players alike utilize social media sites such as Twitter, the way we receive our sports “news” has changed drastically.

Chad Ochocinco Has 627,067 "followers" on Twitter

If you read up on the pre-game war of words between Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and Jets shutdown cornerback Darrelle Revis last week, you were a first-hand witness of the changing face of sports journalism. Whereas ESPN or your local newspaper might have simply reported on what both players were saying to each other in the week leading up to the Sunday, Jan. 3 NFL game, it was actually the website Twitter that was the source for each and every verbal blow.

No longer did a fan need to pick up a morning edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer or the New York Daily News, because if they were a “follower” of either OGOchoCinco (Chad’s Twitter handle) or revis24 (Darrelle’s pseudonym), then they were provided with all the juicy tidbits that either of those established periodicals would have simply regurgitated.

“@revis24-good morning, where’s the lil midget on your island that says de plane de plane, remember that show Fantasy Island-get one,” Ochocinco tweeted to Revis just before Sunday’s 37-0 drubbing at the hands of the Jets.

“We have a clown ladies and gentlemen and his name is @OGOchoCinco. Admission is 50 cents to enjoy his rabbit pulled out of a hat (boring),” tweeted Revis on Dec. 30.

Newspapers that depend heavily on sports coverage had better take note: a heated Twitter exchange between two opposing players is a lot more entertaining than reading dry copy about how Player A said such and such after practice and then having to wait until the next day to read the opposing city’s paper to see if Player B responds. After all, the Internet is what all the cool kids are using nowadays anyway.