2010 Olympics: The influence of advertising on quality broadcast journalism

Imagine yourself as Linsey Vonn yesterday – a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, who has been working her whole life, since she was 2 years old, to bring home an Olympic gold in women’s downhill skiing.

She finally does it, gives hugs to her family in the stands, and picks up a cell phone to call some close friends from home.

Only one thing – nobody wants to answer the phone. Not because they’re not interested, but because nobody has seen it yet. NBC wouldn’t be airing her performance until later that night, on primetime television, when more people were watching.

This post is about power.

We all know – money is a big driver of power. Unfortunately for all of us, nowhere is this more apparent than NBC’s broadcast coverage of the 2010 Olympics.

What do I mean? Well, advertising money, more-so than monumental athletic performances, are influencing NBC’s broadcast decisions during the 2010 Olympics.

NBC is infuriating millions of fans by tape-delaying important events. People online are freaking out, and media publications are picking up on it. Need examples? Read this article by Henry Blodget of Business Insider or today’s piece by Sports Illustrated, or yesterday’s piece in the New York Times.

NBC infuriated millions of “people like me” when they tape-delayed one of America’s treasures – quite possibly the most-discussed performance about a female athlete (ever) – the women’s downhill (i.e., “The Lindsay Vonn Show”).

Crazy, right?

Yesterday, when Vonn performed, I sent around the NYTimes alert saying Vonn had won the gold with the message “yay!” One of my WomenTalkSports friends was a little annoyed that I had ruined the surprise. She apparently was waiting in anticipation to watch in on TV later that night.

While I understand where she’s coming from, that’s not the world that I live in. I don’t “wait” for things anymore. I demand access to real-time updates and breaking news stories because that’s what I deserve as a consumer. And that’s exactly what NBC should be broadcasting.

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How YouTube Direct could change sports broadcasting

Some recent, exciting news – YouTube Direct launched. This post discusses why it’s important for those in the sports world to pay attention to it.

Essentially, YouTube Direct is a platform which allows media sites to permit users to upload videos to YouTube without leaving the media site (see picture to the right). So far, those to take advantage of this new (free) API are mostly traditional news sites – The Huffington Post, NPR, Politico and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Why should people in the sports world care? It all has to do with broadcast media and the diversification of sporting event content.

(First, if you haven’t done so already, read my recent post on NCAA and social media: Friends?.)

Here’s my thinking…

One of my key criticisms of (some, not all) NCAA athletic departments was the fact that many of them aren’t open to the idea of sharing. In particular, I think they don’t broadcast their video content online nearly as much as they should. By limiting themselves to their local markets, they’re limiting their reach to a small, geographic area.

On the national level, let’s face it – not all sports are broadcast on TV. First, there’s just not enough space and licenses. Primary spots are given to “primary” sporting events. Meanwhile, all the others stay within the reach of their local media (which can be quite limiting).

But in both of these situations, there are a few constants – the fans and the athletes.

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NCAA and social media: Friends?

I’d like to extend a huge “welcome!” to NCAA collegiate athletic departments – it seems that this year, you may have finally realized the power of technology in bringing fans into your stadiums. Well, at least some of you have.

What am I talking about? Well, apparently, a panel of [experts?] convened at an NCAA education session and came up with the following finding:

“Programs willing to invest in effective communication can reap far greater support than at any time in their history.”

Couldn’t agree more. I’m just left a little confused as to why it took a panel of experts AND so much time to figure this out. These tools have been around forever. The only thing I can come up with is that there are some weird regulations out there that I don’t know about. Or athletic departments weren’t willing to lose control of their information. But now they don’t have any choice, and control is being relinquished. I guess that’s innovation?

NCAA institutions (especially schools which have strong female programs) should be doing everything they can to get fans, even if that means going online. Free tools exist, starting with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These are ways to connect with people and keep them engaged, and sports fans are some of the most faithful users. Embrace it.

So I have to ask the question -  sports information directors, where the heck have you been?

You’ve got a lot of work to do. You need to show me why my friends and I should care about you. What makes you different and cool? What makes you indispensable?

The NCAA panel was right – unlike any other time in history, there’s a huge opportunity here. But like the millions of Americans who are out of work or suffering in the economic depression, you’ve got some proving to do. Here are a few things to think about:

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Best of ’09: Forming a community, WomenTalkSports.com

This post is the start of a series this week in the WomenTalkSports.com network titled “Best of ’09.” Throughout this week, our community will be posting about their favorite moments in women’s sports in 2009.

There’s no doubt, 2009 was an exciting year in the women’s sports world, and I’m excited to see more posts. For me, though, hands down, my favorite moment was creating the WomenTalkSports.com blog network. It’s the first time in history female sports fans have come together and taken action as a community online.

We launched WomenTalkSports.com in February of 2009 with a mission of increasing attention, awareness and coverage of women’s sports. We felt that traditional media was doing somewhat of a disservice to female athletes by not focusing and covering women’s achievements in sports. For example, when was the last time you picked up the sports section of a newspaper and saw the headline of a female football player, swimmer, ice hockey player or gymnast? It doesn’t happen often.

In the spirit of citizen journalism, we took matters into our own hands. I, along with two of my like-minded friends, Jane Schonberger and Ann Gaffigan (and later joined by Lesley Higgins) decided to start a network of bloggers who take it upon ourselves to cover the achievements of female athletes. We knew there were quite a few of us out there, so we started reaching out and asking if we’d like to come together as a community.

In 2009, our network was born. We now have over 70 contributors to the site, and a community of engaged advocates. We cover local events, discuss the hottest trends in the media, digest cultural and gender issues, conduct interviews, do research and simply do our best to promote women in sport in every possible way. Here are just a few quotes from our members and friends:

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Reading: Cluetrain Manifesto

Image credit: http://thinkwinemarketing.wordpress.com/

This blog post is part of my ongoing weekly series discussing the role of social media and female athletics. It’s also a class requirement for a course I’m taking at John’s Hopkins University.

 

In short, Cluetrain Manifesto by Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger, is a book that changed my life. This is my second time reading it, and I was just as engaged as ever this time around.

The central theme: “All markets are conversations.” The authors talk about the history of markets – “selling things” – as conversations. They used to be hyper-local, and producers directly communicated with their customers.

Throughout the 21st century, technology and innovation have separated these two groups. Social media is giving everyday people a voice, and all of a sudden, producers (now corporate America) are being forced to talk directly with their customers again. Now people like me are in the business of telling them how to do it again, being as authentic and meaninful as possible.

It all goes back to the basics of building relationships – trust, honesty and direct engagement = success.

No matter what industry you’re in, the premise of a “relationship” and a subsequent “conversation” applies, and it’s one to constantly think about as you determine the meaning of “return on investment” (ROI) and continue to define “success” means to you, both online and off.

This is how I, over the past two years, have been grasping the essence of the sports industry. It’s a giant conversation comprised of fans, athletes, business people, brands, the media and consumers.  I chose to dive in head first and made a lot of friends along the way.

Where’s your voice in the conversation about sports? 

Who is the loudest?

Where’s the voice of female athletes in the conversation about sports?

What can Twitter’s geotagging do for sports?

This week, Twitter launched their Geolocation API, giving users the option to have their messages contain their exact locations.

Now, I have to admit, I my first impression was that this feature is a bit creepy, and I do think it may be one of those tools to makes us all a little “too close for comfort.” But there are also lots of useful things that can be done now, too.

Think about the type of power it can give sports fans. Think of yourself having scored tickets to the 2004 World Series championship when the Red Sox beat the Yankees. Or, maybe you witnessed the ever-so-famous 1999 World Cup penalty shot by Brandi Chastain in Pasadena, CA. As a fan, you could break the news quicker than anyone else in the world using your cell phone, right from the stadium, and everyone would know exactly where you were sitting and when. Archived for eternity. Priceless.

Here are some more ideas:

If the stadiums themselves got creative, they might just be able to build some type of API to allow people to communicate and know each other’s geographic seat location. (Maybe we’re not there yet, I don’t know).

Maybe a biker could tweat his specific location on the Tour de France. You can see how he’s doing, what he’s thinking, and where he is. All in real time. Cool.

Or how about something for recreational athletes. Maybe they tweet out their location and receive a message back that tells them where local leagues are. (Similar to a “responsive version” of the WomenTalkSports map of camps, leagues and clinics for women).

Think about sports news – maybe you sent out a tweet to an application that responds with the local scores of games or tweets within 5-10 miles of you. Very cool.

Think about how fans can track their favorite players as they travel around the country and world. For example, geotagging can tell a cool story for those WNBA players overseas right now.

More ideas can be found using your own imagination and reading this ReadWriteWeb post.

“We The Media” of female sports

 

"We The Media" by Dan Gillmor / Photo credit: wethemedia.oreilly.com

This blog post is part of my ongoing weekly series discussing the role of social media and female athletics. My latest reading is We The Media, by Dan Gillmor, who will be joining my class via Skype tonight.

 

 

In short, Dan Gillmor’s book is “important,” and is one that every female athlete sports fan should read. Why? Because he’s 100 percent spot on, and his call to action it’s our only hope for survival.

Gillmor wrote his book in 2004 and then printed it in paperback in 2006, long before the worst economic climates in recent history hit our country, a climate in which journalists from around the world are now suffering, particularly in the women’s sports world, where, as Mechelle Voepel puts it, “Pretty much nothing is ever “safe.””

Look at how Dan’s predictions relate to the the female athletic industry - our one comprehensive magazine died at the end of 2002 because it wasn’t profiting. Not only that, but incredibly talented journalists are taking buyouts and are now living in some shaded area between a freelance writer and a professional blogger, and paid far less than they deserve.

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Mobile technology: A clear tool for communicating women’s sports

This blog post is part of my ongoing weekly series discussing the role of social media and female athletics. My latest reading is  The Politics-To-Go Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics, published by the Insitute for Politics, Democracy & The Internet and George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. In addition, I read through MobileActive.org.

My latest interest in women’s sports has to do with mobile technology (i.e., cell phones) and the opportunity we as athletes and an industry have to communicate with each other using this platform.

First, a recap of my reading. The Politics-To-Go Handbook is a good, quick read for someone who wants to understand the basics of social communication with cell phones – I highly recommend it. Going in, to be honest, I didn’t really know all that much. Now, I feel like I have a solid foundation, at least as far as strategy is concerned. The tactical end of mobile technology education can be adopted with some training, and also regularly reading sites like MobileActive.org.

Although the Politics To-Go packet weighs heavily upon advocacy uses of the technology, it also touches on citizen journalism, the global use/impact of mobile technology, and opportunities for building localized communities of support. I think this is a valuable perspective that needs to be grasped by the women’s sports industry. This posts exposes some of the highlights.

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Womens Sports Foundation Annual Salute to Women in Sports… Here I come

This week, I’m going to do something I’ve been waiting to do for a long time.

I’ll be attending the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports event in New York City as a member of the media and co-founder of WomenTalkSports.com. I’ll be covering the event on WomenTalkSports from in the red carpet and the media room (hopefully in real-time).

Right now, I have 1) no idea what to wear, 2) no idea what to say, and 3) no idea what I’m in for. But I’m not at all scared, and I’m really excited for the opportunity to meet some of the people I respect the most.

Appreciate any tips/advice/interview questions you can give me.

If you’re interested, tickets are still on sale here. If you have a blog, I highly recommend you promote this event, since it’s an important one for our industry. Two thumbs up to WSF (esp. President Jessica Mendoza) for recognizing the women’s sports blogging community as a valuable member of the media.

Check out the recap from last year:

New sites with high school sports coverage: Will they have a positive or negative impact on women?

I was reading Joe Favorito’s Sports Marketing and PR Roundup blog and immediately took interest in a recent post titled Is 24/7 High School Media Coverage Worthwile?

In his post, Favorito discusses recent trends for brands to capture a “younger audience and families” in coverage of  high school sports. He discusses a trend of  “the consumer flock[ing]  more to local coverage than national coverage these days, and the more niche the better.”

This got me thinking about my experiences as an athlete in high school. The local papers were literally “all over us,” and the more successful your team was, the more media coverage you recieved.

Granted, the papers almost always featured more male sports news than female (which, as you know, is typical) but we always had a voice, and one that was heard. People (kids AND adults, male AND female) in my local geographic area literally read the sports section every day. People would frequently approach me to say congratulations, and I’d never even met them before. They knew me from the paper.  And yes, I was a female athlete.

Why did this happen? Because the papers gave us attention. It’s also important to note that specific reporters had a vested interest in their assignments: covering the female teams.

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Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and sports advocacy (Part 2)

 

This blog post is part 2 of a series dicussing my experiences with Facebook, Myspace and Twitter as they relate to  advocacy issues that highly affect the women’s sport sphere. This is an assignment for a class I’m enrolled in as part of John’s Hopkins University’s Digital Communications program.

Facebook:
I’ve decided to “ramp-up” my networking power by joining an event for a local group called Women In Sports and Events (WISE). It’s a “how-to-network presentation and panel discussion with some of the top executives within the D.C. Sports & Events industry,”  taking place this Tuesday at 6pm.

How did I RSVP? Through Facebook, of course. So far there are six attendees (WISE is a local thing – there are groups in every major city). I’ll be sure to look at this panel with an advocacy perspective and check back with any learnings that I find.

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Female Athletes: Here comes everybody

 

Clay Shirkey's book: Here Comes Everybody. Photo credit: Aworkinglibrary.com

This blog post is part of my ongoing weekly series discussing the role of social media and female athletics. My latest reading is Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirkey. This is an assignment for a class I’m enrolled in as part of John’s Hopkins University’s Digital Communications program.

 

I first must virtually “stand up” and congratulate Shirkey on a book that’s very well-written. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how groups of people communicate with each other. Lessons can be applied to a variety of industries, including the focus of this blog, women’s sports.

Shirkey’s book emphasizes the existence of groups of people in society and discusses the self-organizing trends that have emerged due to increased communication between and among groups of people.

Understanding the self-organizing society

Throughout his book, Shirkey emphasizes the fact that the Internet allows people to organize and contribute to a shared goal without a formal institution to guide their work. In fact, he calls his book, “a book about organizing without organizations.” 

Shirkey says that social media help individuals form “loosely-connected groups” that can “accomplish something more effectively than the institution can” (p. 46).  Social media changes the idea of “organize, then share” to “share, then organize.”

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