Dissertation: Social Media and Sport - Has the rise of Twitter improved or degraded football...

ME6121 - Dissertation

Social Media and Sport; Has the rise of Twitter improved or degraded football journalism practices?

Michael Baker

H16341

A Research Project submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of BA (Hons) in Sports Journalism awarded by the University of Chester.

April 2014

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AcknowledgementsFirstly, I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor Jo Warburton for her continued support and advice throughout the process of conducting this research project.

I would also like to extend my gratitude toward Mark Ogden, Paul Wheelock and Gary Rose for being engaging and insightful interviewees.

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AbstractThis study analysed and assessed the impact social media tool Twitter has had on football journalism practices, to the extent that a conclusion could be drawn on whether it had improved or degraded the industry.

Since its inception in 2006, Twitter’s popularity has soared, so much so that it is now Facebook’s main rival in the social media market. Its unique functions, including the ability to tweet 140-character messages, being able to follow not just your friends but celebrities and journalists and the notion of the retweet have helped sustain its popularity.

The main body of this dissertation followed a review of previous research on Twitter, how it has affected the journalism and sports journalism industries, before honing in on football journalism. It is the literature review that provided the foundations for this investigation.

Interviews with leading industry names at different levels were held to establish football journalists’ thoughts and opinions on Twitter while a week-long content analysis of England’s most popular newspaper was performed in order to triangulate primary research and draw a conclusion on whether the social media tool had ultimately improved football journalism, and its practices such as match reporting, breaking the news and the transfer rumour.

This dissertation established that, while Twitter may not necessarily be beneficial to newspaper sales, it is the leading name going forward in regard to breaking news, and both aids and harms a football journalist’s work. It investigated the positives and negatives of the social media tool before coming to a conclusion on whether it had ultimately improved or degraded the role of a football journalist and its practices.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements – Page 2

Abstract – Page 3

List of tables – Page 6

Introduction – Page 7

Chapter One: Literature Review – Page 9

- A brief history of newspapers and sport – Page 9

- The decline of the newspaper – Page 10

- The Internet – Page 11

- The rise of Twitter – Page 12

- The business of sport – Page 13

Chapter Two: Methodolody – Page 16

Chapter Three: Research Findings – Page 22

- Interview findings – Page 22

- Content analysis findings – Page 28

Conclusion – Page 33

Appendices – Page 36

- Appendix A -

- Appendix B – Mark Odgen interview transcript – Page 38

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- Appendix C – Paul Wheelock interview transcript – Page 40

- Appendix D – Gary Rose interview transcript – Page 43

- Appendix E – The Sun’s Ryan Hall Twitter story – Page 45

- Appendix F – The Sun’s Carlton Cole Twitter story – Page 46

- Appendix G- The Sun’s Saido Berahino Twitter story – Page 47

- Appendix H – Interview consent form – Page 48

Bilbiography – Page 49

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List of Tables

Figure 1: Content analysis results – Page 28

Figure 2: Bar chart showing frequencies from content analysis – Page 29

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Introduction

“In just a few short years, Twitter has become the most vital reference tool for journalists

and more and more stories are being directly sourced from the website” (Toney, 2013, p.

33).

This quote from James Toney in his book Sports Journalism: The Inside Track demonstrates

the growing popularity and power of Twitter in journalism. It suggests that since its

inception in 2006, it has gone from strength to strength, and now holds a unique place

within the journalism industry, with an ever increasing number of stories both breaking on

being sourced on the site. It does, however, remain to be seen whether Twitter has been a

completely positive development for football journalism.

Having established a relevant topic of study, this dissertation will fill the gap in the research

field and contribute to the wider understanding of Twitter and football journalism, and

whether the social media tool has improved or degraded the industry’s practices. This study

is not a mere summary of online Twitter and its relationship with football journalism but an

evaluation and informed discussion with working football journalists to determine whether

it has affected the role of a football journalist, to what extent, in what manner and what the

future holds for the relationship between the two.

In examining the impact Twitter has had on the role of a football journalist, this dissertation

provides a historical context (Chapter One: Literature Review), examining the beginnings of

sport and football in print media, the decline of newspapers, the rise of the internet and

social media and the business of sport. The context helps to put the study into perspective

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and offers an extensive insight into the social media tool Twitter and its relationship with

football journalism.

Following an in-depth review of literature on football journalism and Twitter, this study

adopted a mixed-methods approach, using interviews and a content analysis as research

methods to triangulate findings, gather qualitative and quantitative information, and

provide a ground for discussion and explanation on whether Twitter had improved or

degraded football journalism. Each research method chosen is critically analysed in the

methodology.

This dissertation concludes with a reasoned and researched discussion of what impact

Twitter has had on football journalism, if any, and contributes towards the wider

understanding of social media and sport.

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Literature Review

A brief history of newspapers and sport

The newspaper is a periodical publication containing news on current events and can be

dated back to the 17th century. Sporting news, however, is not thought to have appeared in

newspapers until at least a century later according to Goldlust: “The earliest sustained

interest in the reporting of sport in the print media is generally recognised to be associated

with Bell’s Life and the Weekly Dispatch, both popular London magazines in the early 1800s”

(Goldlust, cited in Boyle, 2006, p. 31). It certainly took sport a while longer to really become

a mainstay in UK publications, as Boyle suggests: “By the end of the 19th century,

newspapers in the UK were increasingly commercial, partisan and national commodities,

and sports coverage was recognised as one of the elements that helped to drive sales”

(Boyle, 2006, p. 32). Those in the sports journalism industry have faced a perennial struggle

to be considered important and relevant and those in other areas “often refer to the jibe

that sports journalism is the ‘toy department of the news media’ – that is, in a place

dedicated to fun and frivolity, rather than to the serious functions of the fourth estate”

(Rowe, 2004, p. 41). , However, others disagree, including Boyle who suggests that: “Sports

Journalism is an important part of the news media, but it is fair to observe that it is not

among its most prestigious disciplines” (2006, p. 36). It is important to note that sports

coverage was popular in both tabloid and broadsheet publications, with the readers’ love of

sport seemingly uniting them. “In British sports journalism the class and market division

between tabloid and broadsheet journalism were a significant feature, each with a marked

and distinctive terrain and stylistic mode of address. It is the blurring of these once

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distinctive boundaries since the mid 1900s that is a major aspect of contemporary sports

journalism” (Boyle, 2006, p. 36). Boyle goes on to suggest that the narrowing in the

differences between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers and their shared love of sport and

changed the way that the public see it. “While the growing popular press in the UK at the

turn of the 20th century certainly did not invent sport, their engagement with it, their ability

to create shape and meaning around it, and the process of widespread dissemination of

news associated with sporting events all began to transform what was understood to be the

position of sport in society” (Boyle, 2006, p. 37).

The decline of the newspaper

With newspaper sales falling, it has been suggested that the invention and resultant

popularity of the internet could kill the traditional print industry. “Traditional news outlets,

from newspapers to network news, have been losing audiences. News audiences are

seeking and demanding news from different outlets at different times of the day and in

different ways. The audience for news has not disappeared but it has dispersed” (Kolodzy,

2006, p. 217). For publications, this has a knock-on effect, as Kolodzy further explains: “Daily

newspapers see a decline in readers, as well as a decline in advertising. Technological, social

and economic changes are challenging the traditional news organisations to develop

innovative ways to attract new readers and viewers and to hold on to current ones” (2006,

p.3). Newspapers are no longer the go-to place for an athlete (or indeed anyone) put their

opinions across. Increasingly, pre or post-event quotes in newspapers are obtained through

less traditional mediums. Boyle suggests that “newspapers have become a less important

medium for players to communicate with supporters” (2006, p.133). Much of this is down to

a trust issue, with newspapers, especially those of a tabloid ilk, deemed untrustworthy, and

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in an age where the media play such a huge role in sport, athletes, and particularly

footballers fear persecution and negative headlines.

The Internet

The internet has proved to be hugely important in modern day journalism. “One of the most

important developments in sports journalism in recent years has been the growth of online

publishing, or websites on the internet” (Andrews, 2005, p.146). Indeed it helped develop

and quench the first for interactivity, and Kolodzy suggests: “in the 1990s, the Web changed

news audiences from being passive consumers to interactive consumers” (2006, p. 217).

Readers want no longer want to simply read the news. They want to comment on it, give

their opinion and, in some instances, interact with news. The internet’s creation helped

readers do just that. Journalism in the online era is different. There is more information out

there, more news stories being generated and a bigger, thirstier readership. “Now material

is online it can be accessed from around the world” (Toney, 2013, p. 117). A quick search

online opens up thousands of news stories from all time periods and helps news in its

perennial fight to remain relevant, though often it can be too much information. “Perhaps

the main advantage online journalism offers over other forms is that is eliminates the fixed

news deadline. A website can be updated at any time, and technology is available that it can

deliver breaking stories direct to people’s desktops” (Andrews, 2005, p. 148). These days,

fans themselves can be labelled citizen journalists. Internet forums first allowed sports fans

the medium to comment on news or events and the internet has only increased fan

interactivity. “The fan experience doesn’t stop at the turnstile, it continues after the match

on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube” (Toney, 2013, p. 50). Toney is correct in that after

matches, fans will often take to Twitter or Facebook or indeed an online football forum to

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air their views and grievances alike, and the increase in personal blogs covering football in

recent years, leading to The Guardian creating their ‘Football Blogisphere’, a network of the

top, best-written football blogs, means that interactivity is at an all-time high.

The rise of Twitter

“Introduced in 2006 as a short message system meant primarily to serve as a cell phone

application, Twitter has grown into a vast news and information network used across

multiple platforms by millions of people globally” (Morris, 2009).Twitter’s popularity since

its inception has continued to grow, and now only Facebook is used more than it in the

social media sector. It is “one of the fastest growing social networking sites in terms of

audience, gaining more than 190 million global users who post 65 million tweets each day”

(Wauters, 2010). The concept behind Twitter was originally microblogging, restricting a

character limit to each post in order to get users to be concise with that they want to say

but it has developed into a fully-fledged social network. “Twitter allows users to create

‘microblogs’ wherein they can construct and distribute communicative messages to others”

(Goodyear, 2010). These messages, or tweets, have become popular and, as Murthy (2011,

p. 781) suggests: “In terms of audiences, terse updates on social media and social

networking websites have produced new audience configurations.” Sports journalism is

among the industries that have accepted social media quickest and adapted to it best.

“Twitter is approached here as a relatively new online service that is attracting extensive

media coverage, and a media practice undertaken by millions of users. This platform's

operation is helping to produce stories about sports, intensifying and proliferating media

sports content and information available in the public sphere, and forcing new ways of

thinking about the interaction between sport and digital media by sports organizations,

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athletes, journalists, publicists and fans” (Hutchins, 2010). In fact, many journalists now feel

that Twitter is vital, certainly for exposure and gaining a followship and readership. “In just a

few short years, Twitter has become the most vital reference tool for journalists and more

and more stories are being directly sourced from the website” (Toney, 2013, p. 33). Lasorsa

et al (2011) studied tweets from the 500 most followed journalists on Twitter and found

that “in addition to a technological infrastructure that affords greater information sharing,

the rise in the use of Twitter has created more opportunities for user-generated content-

sharing—including increased opportunities for news-sharing by journalists” This increase is

likely to attributed to Twitter becoming a more credible source for news and journalism. In

an analysis of 150,000 microblog postings, Jansen et al (2009, p. 2186) found that

consumers increasingly use such platforms for “trusted sources of information, insights, and

opinions.” Certainly there is a great deal of trust between journalist and follower. They

report the news and the reader is only likely to believe the story if there is trust in the

relationship. Murthy suggests that Twitter and sports journalism now go hand in hand and

that the relationship has evolved. “Though restricted to 140 characters, Twitter has

methods of connecting tweets to larger themes, specific people, and groups. Tweets can be

categorized by a ‘hashtag’” (Murthy, 2011, p.785). This is particularly vital, with sports

journalists able to hashtag a team’s initials if a story or tweet is relevant to them. Fans and

readers can then search using the hashtag and have access to a number of stories, articles

and tweets.

The business of sport

Both sports and newspapers are now business-orientated professions and industries.

Sporting institutions must now strive to make a profit as well as achieve on-the-field success

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while newspapers especially are desperate to make more money and, with newspaper sales

dwindling, they are increasingly on the look out for more, innovative ways of doing so. “A

key factor, often ignored by those academic critics of sports journalism, is the impact that

the changing position of sports within society has had on the range of reporting of sports-

related news. For example, the economical and political profile that was given to the

successful campaign by London securing the 2012 Olympic Games was covered across the

business, news and feature pages of newspapers” (Boyle, p. 26, 2006). Many newspapers

have used Twitter as a means for increasing circulation and getting exposure; the social

media tool offers a promotion of tweets which are fed to every user, while the innovative

use of hashtags and command words will enable newspapers and journalists alike to get

their stories and articles out there, especially through search engine utilisation.

Commercialisation is the buzz word in journalism currently and essentially means the act of

involving something in commerce: in this instance the newspaper. “The ongoing

commercialisation and internationalisation of the business of sport, its relationship with

corporate capital and national and international media companies has resulted in those

journalists who write about sport finding their traditional beat encroached upon by business

and political journalists” (Boyle, p. 26, 2006). With football now widely considered a

business, increasingly stories in the press revolved around what happens off of the pitch.

Indeed Toney agrees: ““So much of sport is no longer about what happens on the field of

play. Indeed what happens off the field of play can frequently be more interesting and it

gives the journalist the chance to tell the readers something they didn’t know” (Toney, p.

107, 2013). Portsmouth Football Club has seen its sorry plight and fall from grace well

publicised in newspapers, particularly their three successive relegations due to financial

issues and it is these problems which Toney draws upon: ““A sports journalist needs to be

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able to understand a balance sheet – vital following the introduction of financial fair play

regulations or working out whether a cash-strapped club can pay interest on their debts. A

journalist needs to understand business – the difference between a limited company and a

public limited company, what occurs at a shareholders meeting and explain what happens

when a business goes into administration” (Toney, p.107, 2013). This holds weight in regard

to Twitter, because the social media tool is ultimately a business platform for newspapers;

they can promote stories or interviews via it, and certain stories can garner certain trends.

There is a great amount of theoretical evidence that suggests Twitter has changed the way

in which football journalists work. But this dissertation aims to investigate whether the

social media tool has improved or degraded football journalism practices.

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Methodology

“Having used the literature to establish a theoretical basis” (Clough and Nutbrown, 2012, p.

116), this dissertation is equipped with the relevant secondary resources to best answer the

core question behind this research study:

Has the rise of Twitter improved or degraded football journalism practices?

In order to best answer this question, this research project was broken down into three sub-

questions, the first of which was:

- Has Twitter affected the way in which sports journalists report and break the news, cover

matches and live events and publish transfer rumours?

This dissertation examines whether the rise of Twitter has had a positive or negative impact

on three football journalism practices; the breaking news story, the match report and the

art of the transfer rumour. These three practices have been identified because they are vital

to the modern day sports journalist’s work.

A key element of a journalists’ role is to break the news. This means that as soon as they

receive relevant or newsworthy information, it is their responsibility to relay said

information to their audiences and readership. Twitter has certainly affected the breaking of

news; several big industry names now have accounts on the site solely dedicated to

breaking news stories, while a number of stories over the past five years are renowned for

having been broken first on Twitter, including the deaths of former British Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher and former South African Prime Minister Nelson Mandela. Boyle (2006,

p. 83) suggests that “the print media have found that new technology has enabled them to

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shift deadlines and given a greater degree of flexibility” when it comes to developing the

breaking news story.

The modern day football journalist must have a number of skills, but few will be as

important as match reporting. The sports sections of national newspapers are often filled

with match report of big games, while a local reporter will cover every match a team in their

region plays. Steen (2008, p. 76) suggests the match report, which involves attending an

event and providing a descriptive article on what happens, is important to the readership;

“publications want to be at every event that matters to their readers”. Certainly, Andrews

(2006, p. 43) agrees, suggesting that “describing sporting events is one of the key skills of

the sports writer”.

Gossip columns, meanwhile, are now incredibly popular. With the internet affordable and

accessible, a number of websites claim to provide the latest transfer rumours, and the

nation’s sports journalists have indulged in this increasingly popular form of news. The BBC

Sport website publishes daily gossip columns, while The Sun’s Football Confidential often

features over a two-page spread during peak months August and January.

Secondly, from the Literature Review it was discovered that Twitter had found its way into

the every day life of journalists, but it is not yet evident to what extent the social media tool

is essential, hence the second sub question:

- To what extent is Twitter now an essential tool for sports journalists?

Finally, in the digital age and an ever-changing technological market, Twitter could just as

easily fade into the social media abyss, much the same as the likes of Bebo and Tagged.

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Therefore, this dissertation will draw conclusions on what the future holds for Twitter and

football journalism:

- What is the long-term future of Twitter and football journalism?

Interviews

Structured interviews were selected as a first means for gathering primary research. Two

interviews took place in total and were used as an opportunity to address the rise of Twitter

and the impact it has had on football journalism. The first interviewee was Mark Ogden, The

Daily Telegraph’s Northern football correspondent, responsible for covering the likes of

Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton respectively. Mark was selected

as an interviewee because of his use of Twitter; his account boasts 64,000 followers and he

has tweeted over 13,000 times. A second interviewee was Paul Wheelock, formerly of The

Chester Chronicle and now Blackburn Rovers reporter at the Blackburn Telegraph. As a

regional football journalist, Paul was chosen again because he is prolific on Twitter but also

to potentially offer a different opinion to that of a reporter on a national scale. Finally, Gary

Rose, former chief sports writer at the Swindon Advertiser and now an online football

journalist at the BBC, was interviewed to get a third, web-based opinion on Twitter.

Interview questions were carefully worded, open, in order to let the interviewee fully

elaborate in their answer, and unstructured to “wealth of valuable data” (Bell, 2010, p. 164).

Interviewees were first contacted via e-mail to get their consent and, if given, a further e-

mail was sent briefing the interviewee and listing the questions they would be required to

answer.

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“You will have a responsibility to explain to respondents as fully as possible what the

research is about, why you wish you interview them, what will be involved and what

you will do with the information you obtain” (Bell, 2010, p. 160)

After obtaining the consent of the interviewee to avoid ethical issues via e-mail and consent

form (Appendix H), it was determined that the interviews would both take place over the

phone, due to the interviewee’s busy schedules, time constraints and financial issues. The

main areas the interviews researched were how Twitter had changed a football journalist’s

job and the effect it had had on the way they break news, report on matches and speculate

on transfer rumours, football journalists’ personal opinions of Twitter and to what extent it

had become a necessary tool in their jobs and what the future of football journalism and

Twitter would be like.

Answers were transcribed in order to provide credible, qualitative data to be studied.

“Researchers adopting a qualitative perspective are more concerned to understand

individuals’ perceptions of the world” (Bell, 2010, p. 5). Furthermore, interviews were

selected as a research method because they allowed the subject to open up and reveal their

opinions. “Qualitative methods embrace and honour subjective experience – not only of the

informants and participants, but also of the investigator” (Minichiello and Kottler, 2010, p.

8).

However, conducting interviews was a time-consuming and expensive. While travelling was

not an issue in this instance. hiring/buying recording equipment proved costly and “the

transcript process is lengthy and can take up a lot time. (Robson, 2007, p. 74). Interviews

were conducted over the phone, firstly to fit around the subjects’ busy schedules, but also

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to save money from not travelling to meetings. Additionally, transcribing three thirty minute

interviews proved to be an incredibly time-consuming process.

It must also be noted here that further issues arose due to the very nature of the telephone

interviews, although these were anticipated and accounted for prior to the interview

process. Such issues included permissions for digital recording and use of quotes for

publication in this dissertation, while the telephone interviews didn’t allow for eye contact

or the chance to build a relationship and rapport with the interviewee.

Content Analysis

A content analysis was selected as a research method because it is a “research technique for

making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context” (Krippendorff, 1980, p.

21). The content analysis was performed on The Sun newspaper, the best-selling and most

popular publication in England according to most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report

from August 2013. A week’s worth of editions were studied (Monday 25th November 2013 -

Friday 29th November 2013), The entire newspaper was studied on each of these days in

order to find sports-related stories and articles influenced, shaped and affected by Twitter.

Sports stories were identified and then a process of identifying articles stemming from

Twitter, Twitter handles under bylines or at the end of stories and the very mention of the

word Twitter, or a variation of it, began, in order to quantitavely test the affect the social

media tool has had on the hard copy or printed newspaper. A content analysis was used in

conjunction with interviews in order to triangulate research findings by adopting a mix-

method approach. “The ‘mixed-method’ as it is often referred to is an effective and ever-

growing approach to research methods” (Tashskkori & Teddlie, 2003). Combining methods

was the favourable option, because it enabled the gathering of both qualitative and

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quantitative data and, as Denscombe (2007) suggests: “researchers can bring together

within a single research project elements that have conventionally been treated as an

‘either/or’ option.” The triangulation model was chosen because it offers the chance to

further back up whatever findings were discovered. “It is selected as a model when a

researcher uses two different methods in an attempt to confirm, cross validate, or

corroborate findings within a single study” (Greene, Caracelli & Graham, 1989, p. 260).

The major weakness of content analyses is their time-consuming nature. “In some instances,

the universe may be small enough to be analysed in its entirety. More often, researchers

must sample a subset from that total universe which, is itself, too large to be analysed in

full” (Gunter, 2000, p.66).

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Research Findings

Interviews

This section investigates the professional opinion of three football journalists at different

levels of the industry. Those interviewed are Mark Ogden, The Telegraph’s North West

football correspondent, covering the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool

and Everton on a daily basis; Paul Wheelock of The Blackburn Telegraph, who reports on

Blackburn Rovers’ fortunes on a daily basis, and Gary Rose, a BBC Online Sports Journalist.

The interviews were carried out individually, in order to maximise original thinking and

unique responses. The core question asked was how the rise of Twitter has changed the

interviewee’s job or how they interpret the role of a football journalist. Mark Ogden

(Appendix B) suggested that Twitter had changed his job in many ways. While he did see

and understand the positives to Twitter, he was mostly scathing and negative of the social

media tool. He disagreed with the growing trend of transfer rumours and gossip columns.

He felt that football players’ tweets tended to register to fans and followers as more

important than their comments in the press. Finally, abuse, a huge factor for anyone on

Twitter, was another negative that Mark pointed out and one that he felt football journalists

(with their vast follower counts and industry reputation) have to deal with regularly in

modern times. Paul Wheelock (Appendix C) suggests that the role of the football journalist

has changed in three key areas: “We’re now more accountable for the news we break, our

stories are more interactive and everyone in the industry is a lot more accessible” (2014).

Breaking news seems to be the key area that Twitter has affected most and potentially

benefited and Gary Rose (Appendix D) agreed with both Mark and Paul. He, however,

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touches on the concept of competition between newspapers and news companies,

suggesting that: “Twitter, and social media in general, has massively changed the role of the

traditional football journalist. It now provides a platform where news can be broken

instantly and journalists have to be fully aware of it to avoid being seen as behind their

competitors.” All three answers resonate with what Lasorsa et al (2011) found in their study,

particularly where they suggest that: “in addition to a technological infrastructure that affords

greater information sharing, the rise in the use of Twitter has created more opportunities

for user-generated content-sharing—including increased opportunities for news-sharing by

journalists”

After questioning the three interviewees in the hope to get a general, broad answer, specific

questions related to three football journalism practices to gauge whether Twitter has had an

effect on them, be it positive or negative, or whether the social media tool is yet to have an

impact. The first area of discussion was breaking news, which all three interviews had

previously touched on, and is a hugely important practice for all in the journalism industry.

Mark Ogden was the first to break the news of former Manchester United manager Sir Alex

Ferguson’s imminent retirement in May 2013 and valued the breaking story above almost

everything else: “The days of a newspaper back page breaking a story are a thing of the

past. If you have something to reveal now, nine times out of ten it will be tweeted first”

(2014). Paul Wheelock agreed, suggesting that Twitter had become the place to break news

now, not the usual mediums of newspaper, TV and radio. Progression was certainly key

here, and Gary Rose (Appendix D) offered a detail insight into why more and more

journalists are using Twitter to break their news and the competition they face to be seen as

the first to break the news: “It has made it more difficult, because you are in immediate

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competition with a host of other journalists who could utilise Twitter to break news stories.

However, it is often the first place I go to to break news stories, rather than more traditional

mediums such as websites” (2014). The ability to feed readers with breaking news

immediately has been identified as a key benefit of the social media tool by all three football

journalists, and Andrews, in Sports Journalism: A Practical Introduction agreed, adding that

readers can receive breaking news stories on the go: “Perhaps the main advantage online

journalism offers over other forms is that is eliminates the fixed news deadline. A website

can be updated at any time, and technology is available that it can deliver breaking stories

direct to people’s desktops” (2005, p. 148). With the improvement in mobile phone

technology, this has been enhanced in recent years, with the Twitter app on Android and

App Store among the leading tools for breaking news. Toney agreed with this sentiment,

suggesting that: “someone with a smart phone , laptop or tablet and a Twitter account will

always beat a story that’s been files, edited and then published” (2013, p.27).

A second football journalism practice researched was match reporting. In an age where

multiple websites online broadcast all of the top matches, discussions turned to where

match reporting was still a key skill for football journalists and how Twitter had affected this

one-time most important skill. As a national football journalist, Mark Ogden felt that Twitter

hadn’t changed the way he reported on matches. He admitted that Twitter would be a

distraction and that, when there will be others out there live tweeting, there was no need

for him to do so as well. Interestingly, Paul Wheelock disagreed. He felt that Twitter had

changed the way he reported on matches, suggesting that because he worked for a

regional, local publication, covering a smaller football team, the thirst for information was

admittedly smaller, but being fed much, much less. He described a match day live set-up the

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Blackburn Telegraph run for every match. Here, Paul would kick off his match reporting at

12pm, up to three hours before a game would start, and use Twitter to convey messages

about team news, predictions and so forth. Not only did this feed his followship’s thirst for

information, but it enabled them to get involved, to Tweet messages of their own and

comment on pre and post-match news. Perhaps the key difference between the respective

jobs of Mark Ogden and Paul Wheelock and the teams they cover and the amount of

information out there, leading to the difference in opinion. While Mark covers four of the

top Premier League teams, who will have news about them reported in the national press

every day, and up to 50 journalists at their games regularly, Paul reports on a Championship

side whose only readership will be their local and regional supporters. This could suggest

why Mark feels that Twitter has not changed his role while Paul is of the opinion that it has,

and massively. Gary Rose holds the unique position of being able to say he has covered

football teams both on a national scale and a local scale, and was perhaps best placed to

offer insight on how Twitter had changed the way matches are reported on. Like Paul, he

felt live blogging/live text commentary were hugely beneficial to both reader and journalist:

“with the advent and popularity of live blogging/live text commentary, Tweeting updates

from matches takes on as much importance as a match report in my eyes.” (2014) Certainly

the very idea of a live blog to cover sporting news and events is one that has now become

commonplace in football journalism, with the BBC among the big industry names to provide

daily running news blogs and almost all football teams providing minute-by-minute action.

Toney argues that the hashtag function of Twitter is key in such blogs, as it helps fans and

readers to get involved and increases interactivity: “Many of the games are live, reports on

the website are instantaneous and there are minute-by-minute blogs of the action and

Twitter hashtags for fan reactions” (2013, p. 41). While Mark Ogden felt that Twitter had not

25


changed the way he reported on or covered football matches, perhaps because he is a

national journalist and because of the wealth of information already out there, it is evident

that the lesser teams or lower league sides have been quick to adopt the live blogging

approach, and that there is a thirst for it among readers.

A third and final football journalism practice researched was the art of the transfer rumour.

Now commonplace in newspapers and on radio and TV, rumours and gossip on which player

is moving where, who a certain manager is wanting to sign and so forth are hugely popular,

and both Mark Ogden (Appendix B) and Paul Wheelock (Appendix C) touched on that. Mark

suggests that he will only tweet about a transfer rumour if he knows it is definitely

happening. He also adds to he rarely adds fuel to the fire, and will try to knock a rumour

down if he believes it to be false, stating that: “I’m not really into floating possibilities”

(2014). Paul feels that national newspapers, like the one Mark works for, have more leeway

when it comes to printing transfer rumours. He felt that if he were to print a piece of

transfer information, and said information turned out to be false, he would be letting his

readership down, whereas national publications and national football journalists are able to

print rumour after rumour, because their readership is relatively large and continuous. Gary

was more positive of Twitter when talking about transfer gossip, suggesting that it was post

useful in keeping up to date with the latest rumours and discovering if any of them do

indeed have any substance and could therefore provide a story or news article for the

future.

The interviewees were each questioned on whether they believed Twitter had any negative

repercussions for football journalism, and what they were. Mark Ogden (Appendix B)

26


touched on abuse and Paul Wheelock (Appendix B) was able to elaborate. He mentioned the

recent Stan Collymore (2014) case, in which the former football player and current

TalkSport Radio pundit opened himself up for abuse on account of having a different

opinion to the masses and certain stories in the tabloid press. He added that Twitter users

have to be incredibly careful as, unless privacy settings on a user’s account are put in place,

anyone can receive abuse. He also pointed out a second negative to Twitter, suggesting that

the social media tool had become ‘the truth’, alluding to the fact that much of the

Twittersphere will believe anything they read on the site. Abuse and fake accounts were the

common themes agreed between the interviewees, and Gary Rose (Appendix D) mentioned

both when asked about the negative aspects of Twitter. He felt it was incredibly easy for

sports journalists and readers alike to be duped into believing the Tweets of a fake account,

and that the abuse sports stars and sometimes journalists themselves receive is something

that anyone in the industry has to be aware of, understand and deal with professionally.

When questioned on the future relationship between football journalism and Twitter, both

interviewees were in unison in their opinion. Mark Ogden (Appendix B) predicted that more

and more stories will be broken on Twitter and suggested that there could be a spike at the

upcoming 2014 football World Cup. Paul Wheelock (Appendix C) agreed with him and

believes that it is not going away, rather it is here to stay. He felt that Twitter had more

positives than negatives and added that: “It’s fast, it’s accessible and it’s free and I think

they are huge factors going forward in football journalism and what audiences want”

(2014). In a turn of unanimous agreement, Gary Rose (Appendix D) also felt that Twitter is a

long-term venture, at least until something can out-Twitter Twitter. He added that: “There

will always be the need for immediate news and reaction to news that Twitter provides”

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(2014) and it is this thirst for sporting news that will likely see Twitter continue to grow in

popularity and use. Mark’s prediction that there will be a spike in Tweets at the 2014

football World Cup could prove true. In Sports Journalism, The Inside Track, Toney provides

quantitative data on the previous two Olympic Games and the 2010 football World Cup: “At

the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Twitter users were posting 100 million tweets per quarter; four

years later in London, this number had grown to 400 million a day. Fans wrote nearly 3000

tweets per second during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, while 7196 tweets per second were

published during the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup final between Japan and the USA”

(2013, P.118). Indeed sport seems among the central players in Twitter’s evolution and the

ability to comment on, get information from and simply watch things unfold in a sporting

event, particularly football, will likely continue to develop.

Content Analysis

Figure 1. Content analysis of The Sun newspaper between November 25th 2013 and

November 29th 2013.

V1 Number of sports/sports-related storiesV2 No. of times Twitter (or variable, e.g Tweet) is mentionedV3 No. of Twitter handles under bylines/in storiesV4 No. of stories/quotes directly taken from Twitter

28


Day V1 V2 V3 V4Mon 25th Nov 2013 46 1 7 1Percentage 2.17% 15.22% 2.17%Tues 26th Nov 2013 35 4 7 3Percentage 11.43% 20% 8.57%Weds 27th Nov 2013 41 2 1 2Percentage 4.76% 2.44% 4.76%Thurs 28th Nov 2013 33 1 3 1Percentage 3.03% 9.09% 3.03%Fri 29th Nov 2013 32 0 2 0Percentage 0% 6.25% 0%

Figure 2. Bar graph providing visual representation of each variable totals for each day

between November 25th 2013 and November 29th 2013.

V1

V2

V3

V4

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Fri 29th Nov 2013Thurs 28th Nov 2013Weds 27th Nov 2013Tues 26th Nov 2013Mon 25th Nov 2013

V1

With between 32 and 46 football-related stories every day between the 25th and the 29th

November 2013, it is safe to assume that the thirst for sporting news has increased

immensely, especially considering sporting news merely covered the back pages as recently

29


as 50 years ago. Boyle (2006, p.51): “There is no doubt that sports journalism is now a more

important part of this section in the UK press market than at any other time in its history

and the expansion in the size of newspapers is only of the reasons for this situation.” Indeed

the popularity of football and sport in general is testament to the sports pages and pullouts

that now exist in national and local publications. “Across the press market there has been a

marked growth in the amount of space devoted to sports” (Boyle, 2006. P.51). Sports pull-

outs are particularly popular, with The Sun providing ‘Goals’ every Sunday, Monday and

Wednesday to cover the weekend’s and midweek’s fixtures. “From two or three pages at

the back of the paper a few years ago, many national daily and Sunday newspapers have no

expanded their sports coverage to daily, separate sections of up to 28 pages – more space

than they devote to general news or the arts” (Andrews, 2005, p. 2).

V2

Up to 11% of The Sun’s footballing stories mentioned Twitter or a variation of the word

during the week beginning November 25th. These included stories that mentioned an

athelete or sporting star’s Twitter handle, the word ‘tweet’ and indeed Twitter itself, and

stories were often formed through Twitter (V4), with sports journalists taking what a

sportsperson would say on the social networking site and turning it into news. These

statistics prove that Twitter has slowly but surely found its way into the print media and that

it is a useful tool for communicating with sports stars, obtaining news and breaking stories.

The mentions of Twitter or its variations also prove that language is ever-evolving, with

words like Twitter and Tweet not featuring in print media many years ago. As a comparative

study, social media sites Facebook, Youtube and Instagram feature much less than Twitter

both in print and broadcast media.

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V3

Twitter handles are increasingly used in newspapers as a way to connect print readers to the

online, technologically advanced world. It provides a link to Twitter and enhances the

newspaper’s multi-platform usage. 15% of footballing stories on Monday 25th November

2013 had Twitter handles under the byline or at the bottom of the article. This shows that

The Sun is particularly technologically advanced in the digital age, and that the publication is

targeting interactivity with its readers and aiming to be further enhance their multi-platform

state. The Sun boasts a hugely interactive website, with videos, pictures and quizzes and

Twitter is arguably a tool newspapers and the media in general are striving to utilise in the

digital age. The use of Twitter handles, evident in Appendix F, allows readers to interact with

the journalist who published the story, and opens up the option to follow said journalist and

his subsequent stories and posts. This certainly lends itself to Kolodzy’s opinion that “the

Web changed news audiences from being passive consumers to interactive consumers”

(2006, p. 217), with The Sun directly targeting these interactive consumers by publishing

Twitter handles under stories and bylines. Toney (2013, p. 50) agrees, and particularly in

match reporting suggests that: “the fan experience doesn’t stop at the turnstile, it continues

after the match on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.”

V4

The number of stories generated from Twitter has steadily increased over the years. Be it

transfer rumours in the gossip columns or an athlete sending out a particularly controversial

tweet, newspapers are increasingly going to Twitter to find news stories. For example, West

Brom striker Saido Berahino tweeted about not featuring for his side (Appendix G), which

was turned into a controversial news story by The Sun on Tuesday 26th November (2014).

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Other examples of stories being directly sourced from Twitter included Carlton Cole sending

a particularly controversial Tweet to a fan (Appendix F) and Leeds midfielder Ryan Hall’s

Twitter outburst over not playing (Appendix E). There generally seems to be a correlation

between number of footballing stories and number of times Twitter or its variations is

mentioned, with there being more mentions when The Sun prints more footballing stories.

These findings corroborate with Toney’s suggestion that: “In just a few short years, Twitter

has become the most vital reference tool for journalists and more and more stories are

being directly sourced from the website” (2013, p. 33).

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Conclusion

This section discusses the research findings which were precipitated during the course of

this research project. The study investigated what impact, if any, that social media tool

Twitter had had on football journalism, more specifically three of its practices, breaking

news, match reporting and transfer rumours. It attempted to discover whether Twitter had

improved football journalism or indeed degraded these practices. Finally, it discussed the

future and ongoing relationship between football journalism and Twitter and what would be

next for the thriving industry.

As mentioned previously, Twitter has garnered huge popularity since its inception, and

journalism is one of the industries that has adapted quickest to its meteoric rise. Many in

the industry blame it, along with the internet, for the decline in newspaper sales. Research

findings suggest that this is the case, with key figures in the industry agreeing with the

sentiment.

The qualitative interviews were very useful in supporting the main study; the three

participants possessed the useful knowledge of the subject. Responses from Mark Ogden,

Paul Wheelock and Gary Rose provided an insight into the world of football journalism and,

all being particularly prolific on Twitter, offered genuine expertise on what kind of effect the

social media tool had had on the industry. All three were full of praise for it, listing plenty of

positives, though both thought it wasn’t without its negative effects. From interviewing

three journalists in the industry, it was evident that Twitter is a tool that has been utilised

and will continue to be utilised because of its interactivity, its technological advancement

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and its innovation. It became clear that the hashtag function was key, with search bar

optimisation high on a journalist’s thought list when writing headlines or links. This ties in

with Murthy’s (2011, p.785) theory that: “though restricted to 140 characters, Twitter has

methods of connecting tweets to larger themes, specific people, and groups. Tweets can be

categorized by a ‘hashtag’”. Twitter also proved to be useful in the practice of match

reporting, with live blogs allowing fans and readers to post their thoughts on such things as

team news, chances and substitutions. In regard to breaking the news, it is evident from the

interviews that Twitter is the place to find and break news, with all three journalists

touching on the ease of which to get news out there via the social media site.

The content analysis of The Sun newspaper provided primary, quantitative research and

discovered that Twitter is increasingly finding its way into newspapers, be it merely a handle

of a sports journalist, or indeed an entire story or article stemming from posts and

conversations on the social network site. However, stories obtained from traditional

sourced, be it interviews or press releases, still far outnumbered those that were obtained

via Twitter. It is perhaps best to look at Twitter at this stage as a tool to assist with reporting

the news, rather than rely on it purely to obtain news. It certainly helps journalists form a

relationship with footballers and quotes from posts on the site are indeed usable in stories,

but just now it is not the defining tool in gathering news to fill newspaper pages and

websites. It was clear to see that interactivity was high up on newspaper’s agendas, with

Twitter handles for journalists publishing stories under their bylines and stories, prompting

readers to potentially follow their subsequent posts and stories and improving the

publication’s multi-platform state.

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There were limitations of the study which saw an inability to access some academic

literature; Twitter is a relatively new phenomenon and there is a lack of quantitative

research into it and many sports journalism books precede the social media site’s inception.

However all sources available were utilised to full effect.

Another limitation was the difficulty in obtaining face-to-face interviews with prospective

participants due to their time-consuming schedules. Face-to-face interviews would have

built a better relationship between interviewer and interviewee, perhaps improving trust

between the two, and would have likely been better for producing questions off of the back

of answers. Instead, some stages of the interview were quite forced, due to the semi-

structured nature of them and the risk of a phone interview going wrong. All participants’

responses were, however, particularly useful to study.

With regard to the future, research findings suggest that Twitter is likely to be around for a

while yet. Unlike Facebook, journalists and readers alike seem to have adopted and

embraced Twitter. It will likely continue to be the place to break news, and will only

continue to grow in popularity. Major upcoming footballing events, including the 2014

Champions League and World Cup tournaments respectively should see a huge spike in

usage, with football journalists from around the world frequenting the site and relaying

information through it. Whether Twitter will eventually die out remains to be seen; its

meteoric rise shows no signs of slowing down and more and more people are using it as a

source of news and a place to interact with the latest stories.

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This dissertation is offered to provide a better understanding of whether Twitter has

improved or degraded football journalism practices. Findings suggest that on some levels,

Twitter has improved football journalism practices. Running commentary and live blogs

improved fan and reader experiences, while in terms of receiving breaking news, Twitter

aided the speed of the process. However, Twitter wasn’t without its negatives, as false

accounts and false news are evident on the site, while abuse is a large issue going forward

for the social media tool. Particularly alarming was the amount of news being obtained via

the site. The Sun newspaper’s football stories were up to 11% from Twitter during one day

of a one week period studied in a content analysis, with most stories simply being what

football player has said via the site, and not hard, traditional news. Overall, in terms of the

role of a football journalists, the positives far outweigh the negatives in this instance and the

rise of Twitter has improved football journalism practices.

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Appendices

Appendix A

These instructions have been formulated for the content analysis of The Sun newspaper.

V1. Number of football stories throughout the newspaper on each day. Stories were taken from both the traditional sporting sections at the back of the publication and also any football-related stories throughout the rest of the newspaper, be it current affairs or special pull-out.

V2. Number of times Twitter was mentioned in recorded footballing stories. Twitter or any variable (Tweet etc) were recorded)

V3. Number of Twitter handles in stories or under bylines. Journalists bylines were recorded in order to test the newspaper’s interactivity while handles used in stories were recorded in conjunction with V2 and V4.

V4. Number of stories directly sourced from Twitter. Stories sourced included football players posting particularly controversial information on the social media tool and were recorded to test the to what extent The Sun used Twitter to produce stories.

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Appendix B

Full transcript of interview with Daily Telegraph football journalist Mark Ogden, held on January 8th 2014.

Interviewer: When did you first hear about/start using Twitter?

Mark Ogden: It was in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup. We had been given a social media briefing at the Telegraph and Twitter was explained to us, how we should use it to promote stories etc. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue about it until that point. I just thought it was something Lady Gaga used to promote her music!

Interviewer: How would describe the way in which Twitter has changed the role of the traditional football journalist?

Mark Ogden: It has changed our job in so many ways, mostly in a negative sense. The positives are that it can be used to break stories, it can sometimes be a source of good stories and it enables you to build a list of followers which may ultimately be something that media organisations can monetise. If that happens, the amount of followers you have could make you more valuable to the company you work for. Negatives? Every trivial rumour results in a call from the office for it to be checked out. Tweets from players / celebrities gain more currency than they really should and abuse from followers is sometimes an issue. There are many other issues, but those are the main bugbears.

Interviewer: How has Twitter affected the way you break news/report on news?

Mark Ogden: It’s simple really. The days of a newspaper back page breaking a story are a thing of the past. If you have something to reveal now, nine times out of ten it will be tweeted first.

Interviewer: How has Twitter affected the way you report on matches?

Mark Ogden: It hasn’t really. Some journalists tweet live updates, but until I’m told I have to do that, I won’t. I find it distracts from the job of doing a match report, so I’m not really going to waste time tweeting about chants or corners. Ten other people will be doing that at the same time, so no point flooding the market!

Interviewer: How has Twitter affected the way you deal with/report on transfer rumours/gossip?

Mark Ogden: Only if I know something for definite. Sometimes a rumour can get out of hand, so I’ll tweet something to knock it down. Equally, if a transfer is happening, I’ll tweet about that. I’m not really into floating possibilities.

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Interviewer: Can you expand on what you feel the benefits of Twitter are?

Mark Ogden: As mentioned earlier, it can gain you a following, build your profile and enable you to break stories. And in a world where media organisations are trying to make the internet pay, journalists with a large number of followers could be more appealing to advertisers, and therefore more valuable as employees. That may be a long way off, but if a journalist has 100,000 followers, I’d imagine companies would pay to be associated with them as they will be gaining access to that many eyes and ears.

Interviewer: And again with the negatives to Twitter?

Mark Ogden: Abuse, made up nonsense that ends up wasting my time, and a 24-7 churn of noise.

Interviewer: What do you see for the future of football journalism and Twitter?

Mark Ogden: I can only see more stories being broken on Twitter. I think there will be a spike at the World Cup, which could take it on to a new level.

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Appendix C

Full transcript of interview with Blackburn Telegraph football journalist Paul Wheelock, held on January 13th 2014.


Paul Wheelock: I think I started using it in 2011 and I think I’d only heard of it the year before. That’s only because in my previous job, there were certain journalists or fellow colleagues who would use it. I was covering a non-league (football) team at the time and I only started using it because it was actually becoming a viable tool to check on the scores and to check on what people in the game were saying. So I was actually using it as a research tool before joining myself in 2011.

Interviewer: How would you describe the role of a football journalist before Twitter?

Paul Wheelock: It was still much of the same. I don’t think the job has changed. We’re still trying to break news or give fans a readers’ insight. It’s just the fact that nowadays get the news and stories out there almost immediately. Say for example you are at a press conference, for instance I was at one this morning and Leighton Baines announced a new deal at Everton. Straight away, the local journalists and the national journalists can get that story out there. Within 15 or 20 minutes, they can get four or five paragraphs up on a website so it’s just a way of as soon as hearing something, getting it out there, be it to your followers or readers.

Interviewer: Is there any other way that you think Twitter has changed the role of the football journalist?

Paul Wheelock: I think journalists are probably a lot more accountable in the sense that previously you could write a story and it would go in the paper and maybe go on your website. So it’s a lot more interactive now. You could write a story and immediately someone has commented on it and started a debate. I think Twitter has probably made football journalists and football players and football journalism more accessible than it ever was. With Twitter you can contact anyone 24 hours a day and engage in conversations. So we’re now more accountable for the news we break, our stories are more interactive and everyone in the industry is a lot more accessible.


Paul Wheelock: Twitter has probably become the place to break the news. It’s so hard to break news explosively, even as a local paper, because it’s out there so quickly. Say for instance today, I knew about Blackburn Rovers being linked with a player. So I try to keep

40


that back, even just a little line the paper, but the Sky Sports journalists will get it out there straight away. So in many ways, Twitter is now where news gets broken. You have to be careful in football, because sometimes you are fed wrong information or bad information. But you also are forever fighting to be the first to get the news out there. It’s hard.

Interviewer: Do you therefore think it’s having an adverse affect on newspapers and their websites?

Paul Wheelock: Yeah, I think you could say that. A lot of people think that the whole internet is bad for journalism and I don’t particularly agree with that. I think we’re in these times now where there’s no going back. It’s nice to think that once there was no internet and every bit of news came from newspapers but we’re never going to go back to those days. So you could say that Twitter is having a negative effect on things like sales but I think that it’s just the way it is now and I can’t see it going anywhere.

Interviewer: Has Twitter affected the way you report on matches?

Paul Wheelock: Yes, unquestionably. On all levels.

Interviewer: How?

Paul Wheelock: If you’re at a game now, you probably start coverage at midday on a Saturday. Everything is on Twitter. Goal updates. Team news. With The (Blackburn) Telegraph for instance, we have a live matchday blog. So we’ll start the day with team news, have a bit of a debate about who’s playing and who’s not, goal and chance updates and write up a brief summary at the end. In my previous job at the Chester Chronicle, where I covered Chester FC, because we didn’t have that matchday live service, I still posted updates on Twitter. I found that during the game it was like a running commentary on Twitter. And that’s the case for any journalist really, it’s totally changed the way you report on matches.


Paul Wheelock: I’ve covered Chester, Wrexham and now Blackburn. So this has been an eye-opener for me because you are competing with Sky Sports and you are competing with national journalists who have probably got really good contacts. And what I’ve found is that because these links come straight away, fans tweet you saying things like ‘is this happening?’ and ‘is this player signing?’ and ‘is he interested?’ and honest to God, I’m terrified. As a local journalist at a paper like the Blackburn Telegraph, I think you should always try to stick with the truth and not sort of add to the rumours and gossip. If we print a story about a player being linked and they don’t sign, it feels as though we have let the

41


readers down. Whereas the nationals can take a bit of a gamble, some of them even have gossip columns, because it does generate a lot of interest.

Interviewer: Do you believe there are any negatives to Twitter?

Paul Wheelock: Of course. In the respect that Twitter becomes the truth. People will often believe everything they see on Twitter. There are spam accounts that Tweet spam links and even journalists are often fooled by them. What we’ve seen recently with Stan Collymore, who works for Talksport, where he’s opened himself up to a lot of abuse for having a different opinion to most people and for some stories in the press. I’ve not ever been on the end of anything in my life but you have to be so careful and I think that is the major downside to Twitter.

Interviewer: You mentioned TalkSport, who have recently stopped using their Twitter account in support of Stan Collymore. Do you see this kind of thing becoming a regular occurrence and what do you see for the future of football journalism and Twitter?

Paul Wheelock: I don’t think it’s going away. I think it’s here to stay. I’m not going to be cynical and say that newspapers will die out but more and more people will get their news from Twitter. You only have to look at the numbers of followers football clubs and newspapers and journalists have. It’s fast, it’s accessible and it’s free and I think they are huge factors going forward in football journalism and what audiences want.

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Appendix D

Full transcript of interview BBC Sport Online football journalist Gary Rose, held on January 24th 2014.


Gary Rose: I was aware of Twitter when I was working as a journalist in Hong Kong but did not properly embrace it until I became the chief sports writer of the Swindon Advertiser in 2011.

Interviewer: How would describe the way in which Twitter has changed the role of the traditional football journalist?

Gary Rose: Twitter, and social media in general, has massively changed the role of the traditional football journalist. It now provides a platform where news can be broken instantly and journalists have to be fully aware of it to avoid being seen as behind their competitors. Also, before Twitter, official sources provided news for journalists via their website, or through spokespeople, whereas Twitter is now their preferred means of flagging up news stories i.e FA announcing England squads etc. So, again, more often than not a football journalist needs to be aware of what news may break via an official source on a given day, and keep an eye on their Twitter feed.


Gary Rose: It has made it more difficult, because you are in immediate competition with a host of other journalists who could utilise Twitter to break news stories. However, it is often the first place I go to to break news stories, rather than more traditional mediums such as websites. For example, at both the Swindon Advertiser and now at the BBC, I would first break news on Twitter and then link to a full story on the website with my next Tweet. Twitter provides an immediacy that publishing to a website cannot match at the moment.

Interviewer: How has Twitter affected the way you report on matches?

Gary Rose: I found Twitter fantastically useful for reporting at football matches when I was covering Swindon. At the time, none of the Swindon Advertiser’s rivals utilised Twitter to doing running commentary on matches and I found my followers hugely appreciated minute by minute updates from games. I have continued that at the BBC and, with the advent and popularity of live blogging/live text commentary, Tweeting updates from matches takes on as much importance as a match report in my eyes.

43



Gary Rose: Twitter is hugely useful for keeping abreast of potential transfer news. It can alert you to potential gossip and then I have found it a useful tool to monitor the subject of the gossip to see if more official sources comment on it. An example would be, if a newspaper reported a player was set for a move somewhere, I would utilise Twitter by putting that player’s name into the search bar and then seeing if any official, verified sources are talking about it. It can also introduce you to agents/team-mates etc who can sometimes provide a quote on the subject matter, which enables me to build a news story around it.

Interviewer: What do you feel the benefits of Twitter are?

Gary Rose: Direct engagement with readers/other journalists/sports figures. Provides instant ability to break or react to news and it is also useful for research purposes because the vast amount of users on it.

Interviewer: Are there any negatives to Twitter?

Gary Rose: It could be easy to duped by a fake account or take as fact something that is not true. It also opens up journalists and sports personalities alike up to potential abuse.

Interviewer: What do you see for the future of football journalism and Twitter?

Gary Rose: It usefulness is only going to grow until something can ‘out Twitter’ Twitter. There will always be the need for immediate news and reaction to news that Twitter provides.

Interviewer: In your opinion, has Twitter improved or degraded Football Journalism?

Gary Rose: For me, it has improved football journalism because it encourages reporters to always be on the ball and pushes them to be the best they can. Without such immediate competition from others, it could be easy to become lazy but the need to provide readers with up-to-date news pushes journalists to work hard and always be aware of the latest news.

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Appendix E

An article in The Sun obtained via Twitter.

2013, November 25. Hall over for Ryan. The Sun, p. 57

45


Appendix F


Beasley, R. 2013, November 26th. Twitt Cole. The Sun, p. 56

46


Appendix G


Bryce, G. 2013, November 26. Saido in Twitter storm. The Sun, p. 64

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Closer view:

Appendix H

The following is a sample consent form, sent via e-mail to each of the three football journalists interviewed. It was used to prove that their consent to be interviewed for this research project was obtained and that this dissertation is ethically sound.

48


I volunteer to participate in a research project conducted by Michael Baker from the University of Chester. I understand that the project is designed to gather information about academic work.

1. My participation in this project is voluntary. I understand that I will not be paid for my participation. I may withdraw and discontinue participation at any time without penalty. If I decline to participate or withdraw from the study, no one on my campus will be told.

2. I understand that most interviewees in will find the discussion interesting and thought-provoking. If, however, I feel uncomfortable in any way during the interview session, I have the right to decline to answer any question or to end the interview.

3. Participation involves being interviewed by a researcher from the University of Chester. The interview will last approximately 30-45 minutes.. An audio tape of the interview and subsequent dialogue will be made. If I don't want to be taped, I will not be able to participate in the study.

4. I understand that the researcher will identify me by name in follow-up reports using information obtained from this interview, and that my opinion could be used in order to draw a conclusion to answer the research question.

5. Faculty and administrators from the university will not be present at the interviews but will have access to the transcript of the interview. I understand this and I am happy for whatever I say to be read.

6. I understand that this research study has been reviewed and approved by a faculty of media Dissertation supervisor at the University of Chester.

7. I have read and understand the explanation provided to me. I have had all my questions answered to my satisfaction, and I voluntarily agree to participate in this study.

8. I have been given a copy of this consent form.

My Signature Date

My Printed Name Signature of the Researcher

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Bell, J. 2010. Doing Your Research Project. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press.

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Boyle, R. 2006. Sports Journalism: Context and Issues. London: SAGE.

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