Why sports writing lost its oomph

The media’s role in a functioning democratic society is inseparable from the freedom enjoyed by such a society’s citizens. The Fourth Estate should act as a watchdog, hold those in political office accountable and keep the public abreast of what they need to know so they can play their part in what Lyndon B Johnson once referred to as “The Great Society”.

This definition is what should happen but as is life, nothing is that cut and dried. Sports journalism in itself is a niche within the media industry because, essentially right to its core, the subjects covered in sports journalism don’t, in the most part, affect the way society is constituted. There have been exceptional cases where a sport has had a dramatic short-term effect on society, such as the 1995 Rugby World Cup and 2010 Soccer World Cup specifically in South Africa. These events, which have entered the pantheon of our collective history as a nation, lasted approximately 30 days but their “legacy” is something we shall be hearing about for several years to come.

All the goodwill generated during the 2010 Soccer World Cup has once again been drowned out by strikes, negative reporting (“if it bleeds it leads”) and the typically childish antics of our political leadership.

So one would think that sports journalism shouldn’t suffer such fools because it should be disconnected from other events at play.

Sports, to those who follow or play it, offer a welcome distraction to all the nonsense the status quo throws our way. It follows that media coverage of sport in SA should meet the expectations and needs of the audience which craves coverage that can distract them, teach them and essentially, increase their enjoyment of the sport they are watching or reading about.

This currently isn’t the case with sports writing. Sports journalism’s demise as an art form, where once the quality of writing met the quality shown on the field, seems to be a thing of the past. The lack of incisive and invigorating writing within the current media landscape is unfortunate but its demise as a form of expression has been slow and gradual. Granted, there are Tobruks of true journalistic endeavour, but the mainstream isn’t exposed to it on a daily basis nearly as often as they should be. Why is that?

The answer lies within the means of production and the factors that contribute to the gross effort of this production. In South Africa, newspapers and online is where the public receives its knowledge in the written word. The power of TV and radio sends a vast shadow over the impact printed work makes, but in both cases you aren’t asking the reader to discern what is happening based on what they read and perhaps more importantly the tone of what they read.

TV is the laziest medium, where all the knowledge we need is right in front of us, often with a commentator attached. Radio, still a very relevant medium in South Africa due to its accessibility, sits in its own category since the reader is being told what they need to know.

The economic downturn has seen media houses in South Africa centralise content control, so they need less staff and cut down on costs. Printing a newspaper is an expensive business, with the margins not being that large in relation to the price. The online environment is the new frontier, but websites don’t carry that many staff in relation to the amount of news each journalist is supposed to produce. That means more work, less time and usually an ever-increasing audience. A popular rugby website I’ve come across more often than not has an error or two since it was clear that whoever wrote the specific story did so at great speed, thereby skimming on the sub-editing. I’ve been guilty of this before as a history of my previous submissions proves.

Ever since the media and business became one, the victory of quantity over quality was inevitable. Market forces and a slowed production timetable do not sit together because, as the saying goes, time is money. Companies want profit and they want it now.

Thereby, it is the economic imperative that has slowly crippled quality sports writing in South Africa within the mainstream. Today, most stories in the major spreadsheets and to a certain extent most popular websites are simple “he said this, she said that” or “this is happening so now what?” affairs, just repeating what someone else said. Often, if the reader is informed already, such stories are as tasteful as paper, stark and bland.

What sport writing needs is a vehicle where writers have the time, and means, to work properly and not rushed. However, for the mainstream, chances for what is essentially feature writing balanced with reporting the facts are slim, since it just doesn’t make good business. With South Africa’s media landscape already quite diverse and divided, the chance for a single voice to be heard across the board is rather slim due to the commotion all the other voices make.

For a county that is as passionate about sport as ours, what we receive as feedback should seek to inform, offer insightful analysis and even for the person versed in their particular past time, strive to teach them something new. Otherwise it is the same old trollop which only detracts from an event that could bring joy or despair, but in a way that in the grand scheme of things falls into the realm of recreation. Even in loss can a sport be enjoyed. Just ask Newcastle United or Lions fans.

Online is the new frontier where the means of production isn’t an inhibition to the ambitions of a talented writer spreading his or her particular brand of gospel. There are already signs that the quality was always there, but it was in the most part buried under the notion of serving a means to an end.

If sport has taught us anything, it shows that no matter what creed or culture we come from, sport unites us all since it gives a common purpose to be pursued, for better or for worse. What matters most is the journey that is taken together as single entity. Now is the time for those who follow and tell others of deeds upon courts and fields across the land to walk up to the wicket, take guard and play an innings where the bums-on-seats are given their monies worth.