We as sports fans and sports professionals have learned that the way we communicate with sports and the way sports communicates with us are always changing and evolving. Previously, it was just enough to watching your favorite athletes on tv or, before that, listen to their heroics on the radio. You as a fan could live vicariously through their achievements and dream of someday being the centerfielder of the Yankees.
Then came the internet and everything changed.
\Now we can learn everything there is to know about and athlete, and even communicate with them directly using social media.
I believe social media will only drive us closer to our athletic heroes. We already know about players' fantasy teams, love lives, financial and criminal records, and even their religions. We will very soon have active, accepted openly gay athletes in the men's major sports. I believe they will see much hesitation and ridicule but soon thereafter they will be accepted by most of the fanbases. We will of course learn about these kinds of personal facts without much work or perhaps in spite of the athlete's better interests. Social media will have the first scoops, followed by traditional media to bring it to the masses. I like the quote from Rein, Kotler and Shields "It's fair to say that the media landscape over the coming decades will look considerably different than it does now. Moreover, the storytellers and strategists who formerly worked in these media channels will increasingly find employment with the content providers and nontraditional information distributors" (Rein, Kotler, and Shields, 2007). This is already a truer statement than not, with so many journalists turning to mediums like podcasts and twitter to form identities and reach new audiences.
It's difficult to say what the future holds because if you told me just 10 short years ago that the podcasts and twitter of our current era would replace or at least push the traditional television and radio of yesterday for relevance and reach I would have laughed. But now, they could be phased out by more direct forms of communication. Perhaps, the leagues will lessen their penalties for use of social media during games in hopes of embracing the attention it garners them and their brands. We most certainly will see seemingly every athletic department and sporting team employing social media engagement professionals who promote the brands as well as employees whose sole role is to limit the uses of social media by their team's players and staff.
Ooh, that blog was good. I should retweet it.
References
Rein, I., Kotler, P., & Shields, B. (2007). The Future of Sports Media. Futurist, 41(1), 40-43.
Then came the internet and everything changed.
\Now we can learn everything there is to know about and athlete, and even communicate with them directly using social media.
I believe social media will only drive us closer to our athletic heroes. We already know about players' fantasy teams, love lives, financial and criminal records, and even their religions. We will very soon have active, accepted openly gay athletes in the men's major sports. I believe they will see much hesitation and ridicule but soon thereafter they will be accepted by most of the fanbases. We will of course learn about these kinds of personal facts without much work or perhaps in spite of the athlete's better interests. Social media will have the first scoops, followed by traditional media to bring it to the masses. I like the quote from Rein, Kotler and Shields "It's fair to say that the media landscape over the coming decades will look considerably different than it does now. Moreover, the storytellers and strategists who formerly worked in these media channels will increasingly find employment with the content providers and nontraditional information distributors" (Rein, Kotler, and Shields, 2007). This is already a truer statement than not, with so many journalists turning to mediums like podcasts and twitter to form identities and reach new audiences.
It's difficult to say what the future holds because if you told me just 10 short years ago that the podcasts and twitter of our current era would replace or at least push the traditional television and radio of yesterday for relevance and reach I would have laughed. But now, they could be phased out by more direct forms of communication. Perhaps, the leagues will lessen their penalties for use of social media during games in hopes of embracing the attention it garners them and their brands. We most certainly will see seemingly every athletic department and sporting team employing social media engagement professionals who promote the brands as well as employees whose sole role is to limit the uses of social media by their team's players and staff.
Ooh, that blog was good. I should retweet it.
References
Rein, I., Kotler, P., & Shields, B. (2007). The Future of Sports Media. Futurist, 41(1), 40-43.