Sports journalism is essentially a form of reporting on events pertaining to sports and sporting topics. Sports journalism began in the late 1800s when it mainly was aimed at the elite social circle and progressed gradually into a mainstream element of the media industry with prominent newspapers now having dedicated sports wings. Today, sports journalism has developed substantially and there are numerous websites and sports portals that cater to this need. It has become a vibrant, online and competitive arena in which both the sports organization and the sports journalists have to excel.
The sports media today is a popular source for all sorts of news stories. Most popular of them is the college football championship, especially the Rose Bowl which has become synonymous with the sport. However, the rise of social media websites like Twitter and Facebook has also made it easy for the public to get the latest updates on the go.
As such, many sports journalism websites and blogs are opting for shorter, bite size bites that attract the maximum audience and are hence easier to update. This is ideal for newspapers as they have to maintain a large staff to do all the writing work and still give time to their normal editorial work. The same has to be said for websites that want to gain traffic to stay updated with the latest sports coverage. As the competition is stiff from other websites, the sports editor has to ensure that he or she has enough content on their hands to attract readers while not overwhelming them with too much information.
Some sports editors are now opting for sports news portals run by organizations like the Associated Press, because they are a little more professional in nature and provide better coverage than the independent freelance sites. They are also able to edit sports media events better than freelancers who may not have the right technical know-how to properly report on sporting events. While it is true that freelance writers struggle to write about certain sports coverage, the AP has proved that they know how to handle sports news in a better and more professional way.
Today, many people think of sporting events as matches between teams or individual athletes where scores are announced at the end of an event through live commentary. However, sports journalism has evolved to a much greater extent where journalists cover games and events in a broader context. Sports journalism has seen many advancements over the years. It started off as a part of the wider culture of sports reporting covering amateur as well as professional sporting events and has come a long way since then.
With the increasing number of people interested in reading up about sports, especially in the sports journalism segment, there has been an increase in the demand for quality and informative articles. There are plenty of freelance sports journalism sites available on the internet that can help you start your career as a sports reporter. The National Sports Journalist offers full coverage of both amateur and professional sports competitions for both sports reporting and blogging.