The Discourse of Sports Punditry and Sports Journalism in the UK - Case Study Example

 The Discourse of Sports Punditry and Sports Journalism in the UK Introduction Sports journalism is not widely discussed in comparison with other journalistic spheres in the UK. In order to define the reasons for such an undeserved attitude to UK sports journalism, basic points of view on this kind of journalism are expressed further on. This paper presents a brief overview of sports journalism in UK and its relation to sports punditry. Discourses of these two journalistic spheres are compared and contrasted in order to find similarities and differences between them. Data collection on this theme was complicated by the fact that the vast majority of the studies are focused on sports journalism for punditry in America, and not in the UK. Discourse of sports journalism in the UK Sports discourse is usually discussed with regard to social, political, cultural and economic factors. Discourse discussion is mainly provided with examples from printed sources in order to show how national identities influence on sports events (Boyle, 2006, a). Both sports texts and events were chosen for discussion in this research. On the one hand, the idea of interconnection of politics and sports journalism can’t be underestimated, especially in the modern world, where sport is another tool in the hands of ‘all-mighty people’, which they use as PR move. If television and journalism are considered to be two main spheres of cultural production, then discourse of sports journalism shouldn’t ‘dumb the culture down’ (Oates, Pauly, 2007). In accordance with the definition provided by Boyle (2006, b): “Journalism stands accused of sacrificing accuracy for speed, purposeful investigation for cheap intrusion and reliability for entertainment.” Unfortunately, sports journalism highlights sensations and not sports events; presents celebrities and not achievements. Sports journalism is on market. Its main goal is to satisfy the needs of customers. Thus we are to blame no one but ourselves for a shift in sports accents from sports events and achievements to a kind of society column. Critics explain this change from the point of view that sports journalism has always existed next to entertainment and lifestyle journalism. Abrams (2009) claims: showbiz and sports columns in the Sun and the Mirror are preferred by the readers most of all. Nevertheless it is possible to note that these two newspapers are focused on ‘nonserious entertainment’. An interconnection of sports journalism and politics can be exemplified by the sports news coverage of London’s 2012 Olympic bid or England’s hosting of the 1996 European Football Championships. These sports events were covered in the light of political, economic and public policy issues (Boyle, 2006a). Thus it is evident that discourse of sports journalism is expanded by relationships between sports and politics. On the other hand, it is possible to make a report of a football match with no relation to public affairs. Therefore discourse of sports journalism can be mixed with political, social and cultural issues or it may be specific and limited by the frames of the discussed sports event (Boyle, 2006, a). Discourse of sports punditry in the UK In the modern world sports events evoke a vivid interest in the society. A great interest is caused by fascinating sports events and memorable games. Every viewer has his own opinion and thanks to modern technologies he is able to share his opinion with millions of people. Students are greatly concerned about games and sport events in their universities, high-schools, colleges. They seem to know much about their national teams and can easily explain their failures, but they are really confused with their local team losses. A vivid discussion about recent sport events makes people pundits (Boyle, 2006, a). Discourse of sports punditry is not widely discussed in the literary sources. No proper attention is paid to sports punditry as well. Thus it is necessary to prove that sports punditry in the UK has high social value, because it gives details of sports events though subjective, but fascinating. For example, men in the UK prefer to read sports overviews given by sports pundits. Social preference is not in games or scores, but in gossips and speculations. Online punditry provides with the most updated news and details on famous sports events. In the UK the most visited websites for sports news are newspaper websites the BBC, Sky or the Mirror sports (Boyle, 2006, a). As it was already discussed in the previous section, sports events’ highlighting in the Sky or the Mirror sports has a broad discourse mixing political, social and cultural events. Unlike sports journalism, sports punditry is concerned about making his readers to buy Sky sports package, for example. Sports punditry is in market also. It is directed to increase profits of sports newspapers and catch attention of the audience online. Nevertheless, detailed pundit reports can’t be questioned. There is a wide audience of sports fans in the UK. Thus it is interesting for this audience to get comments from pundits on local and international sports events (Oates, Pauly, 2007). Unlike sports journalism, an option to become a sports pundit is available to anyone: “Citizen Journalism is giving voice to those who, in the pre-Internet era, may have felt voiceless. But some challenge the value of this involvement. Is it really ‘journalism’?” (Abrams, 2009). This point of view undermines professionalism and accuracy of sports reports provided by sports pundits. It is enough for potential sports pundits to set up a blog online. The main point is whether it is possible to become a sports pundit not only to you, but also to the audience world wide. Sports punditry is subjective and thus it highlights sports events prejudicially, unlike sports journalism (Oates, Pauly, 2007). . Conclusion Sports events represent an important part of the life of modern society. Sports discourse is commonly discussed with reference to social, political, cultural and economic factors. Discourse discussion is generally provided with examples from printed sources in order to show how national identities influence on sports events. Every watcher has his own opinion and thanks to modern technologies he is able to share his opinion with millions of people. Therefore discourses of sports journalism and sports punditry are quite different. Sports journalism is concerned about political, social and cultural factors influencing on the highlighting of a certain sports event or it may not exceed frames of sports. Sports punditry is more concerned about advertising issues and is directed on profits increase. A tendency of mixing up ‘sports journalists’ and ‘sports pundits’ is wrong. Their roles are determined by the background and peculiarities of spheres they work at. Sports journalists belong to sports departments and sports journalism belongs to any news media organization. There are organizations devoted to sports reporting: newspapers such as L'Equipe in France, Marca in Spain and others. Sports pundits are amateurs in the majority of cases and their main goal is in hidden advertising or self-expression. Works cited 1. Abrams, J., 2009.Top Ten: Worst Players-Turned-Pundits. [online]. Available at: [Accessed August 14, 2010]. 2. Boyle, R., 2006. Sports Journalism: Context and Issues. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 3. Boyle, R., 2006. Running away from the circus. British Journalism Review, 17 (3), pp. 12-17. 4. Oates, T. P. and Pauly, J. J., 2007. Sports journalism as moral and ethical discourse. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22, pp. 332-347. Read More