By Thomas Strübin
Since its beginnings, sports journalism has been held in low esteem, both within editorial offices and in public opinion, compared to other journalistic practices. How can this be explained?
Despite its massive expansion at the end of the 20th century, sports journalism still has a bad reputation today: the sports journalist is seen by some as a “subordinate journalist” and his section as “seeking recognition and poorly regarded by the industry” (Solidaires, 2012). The following analysis is intended to show why sports journalism is so devalued without confirming or refuting the criticism of it.
Sport is not considered “high culture”
Historically, the delegitimization of the sports section in the columns of a newspaper concerned its subject matter (Wille, 2013). Sport, a topic whose interest “was often perceived as a sign of a lack of culture, especially in countries that have developed and valued a ‘high’ literary culture from a courtly tradition”, such as France (Defrance, 1995).
In an interview for Eurosport, the French journalist and writer Philippe Auclair, who specializes in English football, echoes these thoughts, explaining that in France “sport is not considered a noble subject, unlike in Anglo-Saxon culture”, where it “is part of education”. If the subject is not “noble” enough, then sports journalism is also despised, “despised like the material it deals with” (Marchand, 1989).
Amateurism and subjectivity
Apart from its subject matter, sports journalism has also been criticized for a long time in terms of its form and content. Some see its style as too amateurish, whether because of the “thoughtless abuse of Anglo-Saxon terms”, the “imprecision of vocabulary” or even the “false boldness of certain images”. As early as 1961, the French Syndicat des journalistes sportifs (sports journalists’ union) stated [2] that the jargon used “has done much to discredit so-called sports journalism”. Thus, journalists specializing in sports are “those who are unable to do anything else” (Marcillac, 1994).
Furthermore, sports journalists are sometimes stigmatized as “fans” (Marchetti, 2002), as “an irrational actor, a surprising mixture of incompetence and hysteria that produces an unambiguous discourse” (Bourgeois, 1989). Behind this lies the assumption that sports journalism is inherently partisan because its practices are “conditioned by spectacle and polemic” (Wille, 2013).
An understanding with its sources
In addition, sports journalism is criticized for maintaining too close a relationship with its main source, the sports environment. The cause of this lies in the historical development of these two worlds, because they are interdependent and have formed in symbiosis. An “ambiguous relationship between carrier and object”, for which the founding of the Tour de France in 1903 by the newspaper L’Auto is a typical example (Wille, 2013).
This criticism has intensified since the 1990s and the explosion of sport on television, which for some has become a “special world in the field of information” because it is dominated by the “abusive mediatization of athletes” and the “massive introduction of capital” (Solidaires, 2012). The “economic-sporting sphere” has since required sports journalists to “maintain a capital of relationships and legitimacy with sports stakeholders”, even at the risk of falling into self-censorship or even cronyism (Wille, 2013). By losing their independence, they would thus maintain a “tempting relationship” with this sphere (Parrot & Patrin-Leclère, 2011), i.e. a complicity with their sources that is deontologically and ethically unacceptable.
New generations
Due to its popular nature, an overly amateurish form and an attitude perceived as subjective, sports journalism has been discredited in the French-speaking industry and public since its beginnings. Added to this is the accusation of conniving with sources, and the field’s position in the professional hierarchy is relatively low (Marchetti, 2002).
However, since sport has become a “sociological and commercial phenomenon” with “an impact on all areas of society”, sports journalism today requires “additional knowledge in law, economics, medicine and the socio-political environment” (Solidaires, 2012). As a result, the “morphological developments” of sports journalists “tend to resemble those of journalists working in other fields” (Marchetti, 2002). It remains to be seen whether the new generations of “higher qualified” professionals and the “more critical” treatment of their subject matter will lead to sports journalism one day being held in higher esteem.
This article, Sports journalism – ugly duckling of the journalism profession?, was originally published in the European Journalism Observatory on November 26th 2024