Welcome to American Journalism

When examining the differences between American and Ireland sports coverage, one of the most prominent distinctions is the type of stories provided.  In Ireland, most coverage seems to be posted in local and national newspapers, with a heavy focus on current events.  In America, most coverage is online, with stories centered on gaining public attention rather than covering important events.  A recent article posted on the largest sporting website in the country, ESPN.com, reveals the extent of American sports journalism.

           

            The post entitled, “Sooners self-report excessive pasta” literally discusses how three Oklahoma University football players violated school rules by eating too much pasta at a post-season banquet (ESPN).  If it’s not wild enough that this story was covered online, it was also one of the major headlines during newscasts for two days straight.  Journalists analyzed why it’s so bad to eat extra pasta at a banquet, and argued whether or not the public should care.  While I’ve seen some interesting stories in my life, this has to top the list.  I would venture to guess that any Irish native would be blown away if there was an article posted in the Irish Times about Paul O’Connell eating too many potatoes for dinner…The whole thing simply proves that there’s too much sports coverage in the states, so reporters resort to finding crazy stories that will make viewers interested in their newscast.  

            I flipped through the Irish Times and roamed around on RTE today to see if I could find any crazy stories that seemed to be irrelevant to the sporting world here in Ireland.  I, unfortunately, didn’t find any.  A large majority of the coverage was on Ireland losing to England in the Six Nations match yesterday, which makes sense.  However, none of the coverage seemed to be too extensive…Some articles recapped the match, some of them analyzed the loss, and some were focused on player reactions.  This is another prominent difference in sports coverage.

            After the Broncos lost the Super Bowl a few weeks ago, there were hundreds of articles written nation-wide about the game.  While there were some focused on the game itself (much like coverage of the Six Nations match), there was more coverage on Peyton Manning himself.  Speculations of retirement dominated the internet, even though Manning specifically told reporters that he wasn’t going to retire (Brinson).  Questions about his ‘legacy’ were all over tabloids even though he’s statistically the best quarterback to ever play (Jenkins).  The 'speculation' coverage in America versus the fact coverage in Ireland is what creates such a drastic separation between the two countries. I appreciate that sports coverage here is centered on sport itself, not the drama behind the scenes.

            While it’s nice to have sport news 24/7 in the states, I personally believe that coverage is becoming too exhaustive and sports journalism is turning into a soap opera more than it should.

Works Cited

Brinson, Will. "Peyton Manning's legacy at stake after abysmal Super Bowl first half." CBSSports.com 2 February 2014.

Irish Times. "Defeat doesn’t dash Gordon D’Arcy’s hopes." Irish Times Newspaper 23 February 2014.

Jenkins, Sally. "Will Peyton Retire? Why you shouldn't believe his answer." The Washington Post 3 February 2014.

O'Malley, Carl. "Six Nations: England v Ireland: As it Happened." RTE Sport 22 February 2014.

Trotter, Jake. "Sooners self-report excessive pasta." ESPN.com 19 February 2014.