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SPORTS JOURNALISM
‘I always turn to the sport section first. The sport section record people’s accomplishments; the front page nothing but man’s failures.’ - Earl Warren.
Nice sentiment but I don’t think Senator Warren has been following our national football, cricket and rugby teams lately.
Sports journalism is changing - the proliferation of dedicated TV channels, websites, radio stations, niche publications and, of course, newspapers offers a world of opportunity and has changed the nature of the job.
Gone are the days when you’d turn up, perhaps write one quick story for the first edition then revise it with a more considered take before heading off in the general direction of last orders.
Now you might be providing a live blog, snaps for a website and updating a Twitter feed before you get around to writing your story.
You might be juggling the demands of a website that craves immediate SEO-friendly content with the requirements of a newspaper - who still want the latest and freshest take on the story with a witty, punchy and original intro.
But despite these changes, the key skills remain.
When the NCTJ wanted to develop a specialist module to reflect this growth area, they turned to the reporters and editors at our own sports news service, Sportsbeat, to shape the syllabus and design the examination.
Every year Sportsbeat supplies over 20,000 stories to more than 200 newspapers around the UK. Covering more than 50 sports at local, regional, national and international level, the NCTJ recognised we were ideally placed to help shape this qualification - because, as employers, we know the skills needed from graduate reporters.
This module will introduce you to the concepts at the heart of sports reporting.
You learn how to develop a ‘runner’ and file ‘on the whistle’. We’ll introduce you to dressing in quotes, quotes-led rewrites and round-ups.
Although you might still read the newspapers from back to front, you will soon learn that sports news increasingly dominates the news editor’s agenda as well.