I really loved the Costas Now clip that Mike showed. In that small one minute and 54 second piece Buzz Bissinger, Will Leitch and Bob Costas touched on all the major issues that come into my mind whenever I’d think about blogs and their legitimacy.
Bissinger expressed his feelings on how he believes blogs can be mean-spirited and unprofessional. Leitch eloquently stated, that in order for a blog to achieve great success, it requires the same amount of time, skill, dedication and effort, that a “traditional journalist” would need to produce a quality story or a daily column.
I don’t think there’s a need to choose between old school and new school reporting techniques and styles. There’s a need for both in today’s market. For readers that want straightforward news, and expert analysis will turn to Sports Illustrated or ESPN. They have to be objective and give little to no biased opinion at all. Journalist just interpret the facts . And while that is the proper way to deliver the news it's not always entertaining, which is why people turn to blogs. They're looking for a partial viewpoint that they can share and agree with, to help validate their own beliefs.
While some blogs are serious in the vein of mainstream sports websites, others take a more humorous approach, take Deadspin.com for instance. While everyone and their grandmother’s uncle has already posted content on the Alex Rodriguez controversy, Deadspin decided to take the story in a different direction. Instead of grilling the steroid angle they decided to goof on A-Rod for how orange his skin looked when he was interviewed on ESPN. (Think Oompa-Loompa) Going as far as to jokingly ask "What Color is A-Rod?". Sharp humor is a great way for blogs to stand out from the pack. Humor has always been apart of covering sports sometimes it works (Pardon The Interruption), sometimes it fails (Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football).
In the end traditional sports coverage and blogs alike will continue to serve the masses leaving them both informed and entertained.
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Being a blogger you have to be different from other bloggers. Techniques and angles make up the theme in covering stories that are known to others. Everybody did a comment on the A Rod incident and DeadSpin did a different angle. It was funny watching him because he was scared. Everything that he was saying was forced into his head the day before, by his agents and special people around him.
Great Technique for all writers.
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