Kyrie Irving and how sports journalism is changing

On Friday, Kyrie Irving put out the following statement (from his iPhone notes app, because that’s how we do things in 20202). He cites the COVID-19 pandemic as the means to justify his not speaking to the media. From the statement.

My goal this season is to let my work on and off the court speak for itself.

The obvious meaning of this is that he’s not going to talk to reporters at all this season.

Now, it’s easy to brush off statements like this from a guy who thinks the Earth is flat. But I think it’s a sign of a bigger problem to come for sports journalism.

COVID-19 is going to change how sports journalism is practiced in the U.S.

That’s a very real fear among sports journalists. In talking to many of them, informally, over the past few months, that’s a common theme and a fear. That teams are going to seize on COVID-19, on the social-distancing requirements that have become necessary and common, and use them to take player access away permanently.

During the pandemic, sports journalists are conducting post-game interviews via Zoom, rather than seeking out players in the locker room. This is necessary, and everyone understands the situation. But there’s a real fear among reporters that once the pandemic is behind us, that teams will continue this practice rather than go back to the way it was in the BeforeTimes.

We can have a long discussion about whether or not sports journalists should value access to sources as much as they do. But that’s a separate discussion from this. The fact is, access to sources is important to sports journalists. Two generations worth of media sociology research has demonstrated the importance of access to sources in American journalism, and that holds true in sports journalism as well.

So as we begin to unpack the impact that COVID-19 is having on our little corner of the world here, it’s important to start here. That to sports journalists, being forced to do interviews by Zoom, not having the ability to have one-on-one conversations, of players and coaches being able to put out statements from their iPhones rather than being transparent and accountable to fans and the public is a fundamental retelling in how they do their jobs.

"Our jobs will be forever different"

Thoughts on sports journalism in the age of COVID-19, from Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic:

I’ve thought about this question a lot for obvious reasons. Our jobs will be forever different, but I do expect some elements of the job to return. I’d be shocked if we don’t get in-person interviews back in some form. There’s no reason we can’t talk to people in person once everyone is vaccinated and the virus is behind us. We don’t know exactly when that will be, but we’ll get there at some point. In-person interviews are easier for the reporters, the team and the player.

The question is whether the open locker room will return. Every professional league in the United States has mandated periods where the locker room is open to reporters during the week and after games. I’m concerned that could go away in favor of a “mixed zone” like you see in college sports or the English soccer leagues, where players come out to a designated area to do interviews. The locker room always created an environment for natural and sometimes informal interactions that help build trust and relationships, especially during the week. It also serves to set the scene after games. Of course, there are ways to tell enlightening stories without that level of access, but I think those in-person interactions help bring fans a lot closer to the team. Let’s hope leagues see it the same way. Even a mixed-zone setting, though, would be a step up from Zoom.

My hope is that this further amplifies original content. I know it’s pushed me to think outside the box and find ways to get unique voices into my stories or tell those stories in different ways. It’s never been enough to have a credential, be on the scene and sit in press conferences that are streamed to the public. That’s become more obvious this year. All that said, I hope we’ll return to more in-person access in 2021. It’s essential toward developing trust with the subjects we cover and giving you a glimpse into who these people are.

Read the whole mailbag here.

"You just have to go with the flow" →

In August, the Chicago Tribune held a roundtable discussion with its beat writers about covering sports in the time of COVID-19. Some of the highlights.

Paul Sullivan:

You really cannot plan for anything when everything is subject to change at a moment’s notice, so you just have to go with the flow.

With only a few postgame sessions, players who have a bad game never have to face the music afterward, except for starting pitchers. Managers are more guarded than ever, and off-the-record conversations are becoming obsolete. Sports writers are an endangered species, except for those working for MLB-sanctioned websites that can’t offer honest criticism of the product.

Colleen Kane:

But for now, the weirdest part is interacting with players and coaches only over video calls. … man, I miss face-to-face interactions.

Anyway, with such a large Bears media corps, the calls make it easier to get in one question because we simply push the “raise hand” button and the media relations rep calls on us. That means we don’t have to shout over one another as we usually do at news conferences. But it also means we are sometimes limited to one or two questions per session. Some reporters overcome these circumstances by asking three questions in one turn. I won’t name names.

Jamal Collier:

Look, I totally understand why media access is all over Zoom right now, and I don’t think crowding into a room for a news conference or into a locker room is a great idea. But Zoom calls are even less of a natural setting than a news conference, and the answers suffer because of it. I generally like to do a lot of my reporting in one-on-one settings and treat interviews as a conversation, and that’s nearly impossible to accomplish virtually with a bunch of other people on the line.

One of the biggest advantages to showing up on a beat every day comes from noticing an extra thing at practice or during warm-ups, or from the little side conversations with players or coaches or people in the front office — people I usually see during the season more often than my family.

Phil Thompson

I’m conducting interviews from the couch. I’m watching games from the couch. I feel like a fan now. Maybe I’ll send myself a testy email asking why I’m still using Corsi.

Read the whole discussion here.

Sports journalism in the time of COVID-19

Starting a new ongoing series of indefinite length looking at sports journalism in the age of COVID-19.

First off, a Tweet from Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Les Bowen after the Eagles’ loss on Sunday:

Second, comes several points made by Matthew Fairburn and Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic on The Bills Beat podcast . First, Fairburn and Buscaglia were discussing injuries to several key Bills players in their season-opening victory over the Jets and because the locker rooms are not open (as they were in past years), they had incomplete information.

“We know so much more when we’re in the locker room and able to see these guys, how they’re walking around and stuff and we just don’t have that anymore.” Joe Buscaglia

Fairburn also discussed a story he wrote about how he watched new Bills’ receiver Stefon Diggs.

We were kind of debating leading up to the season whether even being at the game would be worth it, you know, with all these interviews happening over Zoom and everything else, it was like, let’s go to this first game and see what’s what.And my though was, well if I’m gonna be there, I might as well see something I can’t see on TV and I thought, Bills fans are probably missing most the ability to watch a guy like Stefon Diggs everywhere he goes