[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Joanne Gerstner and I am sports journalist and also professor of journalist at Michigan State. Today, we're going to talk about what I do for living and that's sports journalism. What amazing about sports is, it is the one thing that transcends every culture, every race, every religion, every gender on this planet, everybody loves sports. Whether it's you being an athlete yourself, kick around the ball in your backyard with your friends or maybe you played on a team, or maybe you're lucky enough to play it a higher level. We all have a connection of sports, and then guess what, we also follow teams and athletes. Some of us like individual athletes, some of us cheer for the teams that are in our hometowns, and yet other of us cheer for events such as the Olympics or the World Cup or the Super Bowl. There are so many different ways to think about sports and what we're going to talk about today is hopefully going to make you look at sports a little bit differently, through new eyes, the eyes of a journalist. So let's talk about some of the issues and some of the ways that we look at sports. Number one, sports writers and sports journalists have a very important mission. We document as witnesses. So you might be at a game, you might be at a golf tournament, you might be witnessing a practice. You are the eyes and ears for your audience. What you see, what you hear, what you know all comes into play. And people are relying on you to be accurate in what you say. If you show bias, if you like one team or another, it's going to come out in your final news article. Because people care so much about sports, guess what we get a little emotional. Some people think that Barcelona is better than HC Milan. We all have our opinions but guess what, when your the sports journalist you put your opinions away. You look at things objectively, you use the facts, you use the statistics, you talk to the people that are involved to develop you opinion. When you at a game or going somewhere live to witness what is going on you just can't checkout and be a fan. This is not the time to buy some popcorn and sit in the stands and say yay, go team. You're working. You probably have a notebook with you. You probably have a computer. You're taking notes. You're trying to develop what is going on through the facts. So the facts, the facts, the facts. Some of the facts are pretty obvious. The final score. The numbers of the players. Who made a play. Always stick to the facts. Number two, the athletes, the coaches, the people around sports are amazing to talk about. Every single person that plays a sport, no matter what level they're at, has a story to tell. An article can be about a little soccer player who is suddenly becoming a star in his town. You can be writing about Ilona Massey. You could be writing about Roger Federer. Or you can write about the 80-year-old who just ran her first marathon. They all have valuable stories. Don't always just focus on the stars because yeah, we've written a few articles about Tiger Woods in our day. But do we really know who Tiger Woods is? So if you get a chance to talk to Tiger Woods you want to do a different type of article talking about who he is not what he is. We all know he plays golf, right. So when your looking at the sports world, think about different things that you can talk about that are unique. Talk about maybe the goal keeper or maybe talk about the person who lost. There are always a different way to look at things and your ability as a journalist to see the world in maybe a different way is going to make you unique and special, you know what, guess what your going to get to maybe tell some stories and some articles that other people aren't familiar with. Number three, sports is not just about sports. I know. It seems completely ridiculous but let me explain it. Sports is obviously about athletics, but it's also medicine, it's psychology, it's sociology, it's business, it's politics, and sometimes even legal or criminal stories. Athletes are getting in trouble. Stadiums are being built. Contracts are being transferred. Teammates don't get along. You have to know about all of this. One of the things that I've grown to specialize in is concussions in sport. And obviously if you're following sports at all, you know that there is a lot of discussion here in the United States about American football. As well as soccer or ice hockey. A lot of athletes are getting hurt. We want to know why. Sports writers or sports journalists like myself, we need to explain these things to our audiences. You can't rely on jargon or things that are confusing. You need to make the complex simple, and guess what? That's not always easy. So knowing a lot about the world you live in as well as sports can really serve you well. So why do we care about sports? Why does sports journalism matter? I want to give you a challenge. Wherever you are, go look at newspapers, go look on TV, go listen to a radio station, go look on social media. I guarantee you, you will find something about sports. Go to any airport. There's usually a newspaper lying around. The number one missing section of a newspaper will always be sports. People care about sports. It's emotional. It's childhood. It's physical. It's kind of how we have a release in life. To understand what you do, people really care about it. That's probably the most amazing thing to be a journalist, is to have people care about what you do. But the flip side is, people really care about what you do. I hope you've learned a little bit about sports journalism and what I do. And guess what, you can do it, too. It just takes the basic skills of reporting. You need to report well, you need to understand your subjects, and most of all, be fair and respectful of what you're writing about. And yeah, in your free time when you're not being a sports journalist, you can still cheer for your favorite team. [MUSIC]
