Practical guide to the nuts and bolts of communication in sport management

Britt-Marie Ringfjord
Dept. of Media & Journalism, Linnaeus University, Sweden

This is a handbook, written by three authors from different professional backgrounds in sports. Brad Shultz, a former sports reporter, Phil Caskey, a former sports information director and Craig Esherick, a former head coach for men’s basketball team at Georgetown University. This combination of experiences contributes to new and interesting approaches to the media sports industry. The changes in sport media and in the sports business consist of complex relationships between different sectors of society, which needs to be understood and described by researchers and practitioners. The focus in this book is on how the development of new technologies for communication through the internet has affected the opportunities of the media business and sports industry.

The book consists of thirteen chapters and covers four main sections on an overall level. The first four chapters chart the relations between sport media and sport organizations, as well as sport celebrities. In these chapters some basic communication models are introduced in a brief historical overview from print media, via broadcast media, to social media in the current media landscape and the impact on sport media relations. The first chapter introduces McCombs and Shaw’s well-known agenda-setting hypothesis (old model) dominated by the one-way transmission and distribution of mass media news. Dominant (sport) news values and (sport) audiences interests shape and has effect on a public agenda that priorities the same set of sport media (McQuail & Deuze 2020). According to the transmission perspective, the sports media audience is seen as a mass-homogeneous whole and as passive consumers of sport news. The development in technology and online media is presented as a shift in power (new model), where sport media audience not only consume sport media but also participate, create and communicate their own sports content. Media participation in a positive account refers to the breakdown of the clear divide between the media industries as producers and media audiences as consumers. The negative account notice media participation with malicious intent such as cyberbullying, trolling and doxing. In both accounts, the lack of interest among media professionals in general and journalists in particular form resistance to change established routines and values. This process is summed up in convergence culture – a concept coined by Jenkins (2004 in McQuail & Deuze 2020). Media participation and the shifts in power control are challenged by the fact that the gate keeping function is now used by both the media professionals and by the audiences as ways to navigate online to and from sport news and information (McQuail & Deuze 2020).

In contrast, participatory citizenship in a local context has the function of creating loyalty among sports audiences, for the local sports clubs as well as for locally produced sports media.

Chapter 2 about the print media discusses how the media landscape for printed press and sport media has changed. Some titles have disappeared but several traditional media has endured and adapt to the new technology using the available platforms and media formats for producing and communicating sports news. The sport media business has also developed sport news 24/7, where the multi skilled reporters work hard to maintain the elusive audiences’ interests, competing with a wide range of available sports content. The following chapter on broadcast media raises questions about pay-per-view programming and subscriptions. Broadcasters are losing money and quality is suffering when sport media is competing with social media and home videos distributed on YouTube. In contrast, participatory citizenship in a local context has the function of creating loyalty among sports audiences, for the local sports clubs as well as for locally produced sports media. This is confirmed in journalism research and the latest Media Barometer about Swedes’ willingness to pay for quality journalism by subscribing to local media where digital sports broadcasts often are included (Kroon & Eriksson 2019; The Swedish Media Barometer 2020).

Chapter 4 introduces facts about the development of social media by the three most popular media sites in the world, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, including the number of users worldwide. Sports organizations were quick to pick up and use social media to increase their market share, develop relationships with fans and find new sponsors. The number of users on social media also indicate that sport media has played its role, when the new relationships take place directly via social media between the sports organizations, the athletes and their fans. This chapter also presents guidelines for communications on social media written by Caroline Williams, the Director of Communications for USA Basketball.

The next three chapters focus on the job of sports information specialists and the communication skills needed in sports industry. In chapter 5 the Sport Information Director (SID) is described as the backbone in every sport organization and displayed with examples from existing assignments through detailed lists. In sum there are several skills and responsibilities in this profession, such as to plan for interviews and press conferences, to update the association’s website and social media, and important knowledge about rules and regulations. Chapter 6 continues with the interview, developing how to plan, conduct and present the results from a good interview. Two methods are described, to make a pre-interview to test questions prepared in advance and to use a conversational approach that allow the interviewer to ask follow-up questions. The following chapter addresses the writing skills that are a necessity to develop proficiency in the craft of being a sports information director (SID). This chapter is also practical oriented, and supported with examples and tips on how to develop skills for different forms of writing such as news releases, features, notes from games and writing for social media. The importance of knowing the different target groups is to know the fans, the sponsors and the competitors. Like sport journalists, the SID must meet deadlines and have a sense of when and in what format news or information should be released.

The following four chapters cover guidelines for media information, events preparations, press conferences, publicity campaigns and crisis management. Chapter 8 on creating promotional guides emphasizes the organizations image and identity that is considered one of the important tasks for the SID. Sport education high schools and sport organizations publish their online versions of the guide as one way to be interactive in recruiting and promoting their image. The chapter gives examples on how to write and present information, fact sheets and programs. Chapter 9 is a manual of how to prepare games, press conferences and special events. The event management is closely attached to the SID organization, working hard with different preparations. In chapter 10, “Publicity Campaigns”, focus is on how to work with publicity plans in cooperation with athletes and coaches. In this process the ethical considerations and ten rules for publicity campaigns are important parts. This section ends with Chapter 11, “Crisis Management”, that involves the creation of a plan for how to act in a crisis. This is important in all activities related to public relations and strategic communication. One important actor in crises management is media organizations that need information and must be dealt with. The crisis plan helps the organization to find routines that often require some adaptation to the actual event. Even if a crisis management plan exists, it cannot fully cover unforeseen events. This is also evident in the examples described in the chapter.

The book ends with two chapters with slightly different approaches that place the sports industry in global and legal contexts. Chapter 12 discusses sport communication and globalization, where the most popular sports are covered by the sport media in all media formats. These World Cup events are followed by the fans situated in different contexts and create opportunities to land new contracts or sponsors for teams and elite sport stars. This work as a communication director in an international sport organization is illustrated by interviews with a sports journalist and a communications manager. The 13th and final chapter highlights the importance of ethics, laws and regulations related to the sport media and sports communications industry. The introduction of key areas is relevant to the relationships that the sports organization’s communications manager maintains. The importance of knowledge in the profession of sports information specialists is to navigate in spheres of other sports and media expertise, as well as develop one’s owns skills to handle these issues representing the sport organization. The main content of this chapter covers the laws, regulations and ethics for sports journalism and the media, and its effect on the sport communication professionals.

This handbook opens up for these discussions for and about professionals in sport media management, to explore and develop knowledge in learning situations.

Above all, this handbook provides an American perspective on sports media and sports management. The book is supplemented with several models and photos that illustrate terms and concepts used in journalism science and media and communication science. The examples used from the authors’ professional experiences also provide good support for explaining the sports management practice by ending each chapter with discussion questions and suggestions for exercises.

With this in mind, the advantage is the hands-on approach and the rich examples used to illustrate professional skills. This is a practical guide to the nuts and bolts of communication in sport management. Writing an updated handbook that covers the complex sport industry and all the actors involved, is perhaps a mission impossible. Especially when employees in the global sport media and sport media organizations lives and works in different parts of the world where similarities and variations in media policy still coexist to a large extent. In Europe, Public Service media has held a special position that also regulated the global sport media event as a guarantee that all citizens would have access to the World Cup, the Olympics and the European Championships in their national broadcast channels. In the current media landscape, Public Service competes with commercial sport channels, which has led to citizens’ individual media consumption now being dependent on income. The rapid changes also affect legislation, regulation and ethics through the complex relations between international sports and media organizations and various collaborations between states in federations. In Europe, the European Union largely controls media regulation for the Member States, which has an impact on both legislation and the development of scientific and practical ethical approaches in sports media and sports organizations.

From my perspective, a Scandinavian media scientist and teacher, this handbook raises questions about these differences. In the light of #metoo, the sustainable development movement and an ongoing pandemic, we see how the effects have consequences at the international level as well as for national and regional levels in areas where sports media and the sports industry operate. This handbook opens up for these discussions for and about professionals in sport media management, to explore and develop knowledge in learning situations. With the support of a solid theoretical understanding of sport media, strategic communication, and management, this book will provide a practical guide suitable for undergraduate courses at universities.

Copyright © Britt-Marie Ringfjord 2021

References

Kroon, Åsa, & Eriksson, Göran. (2019). “The Impact of the Digital Transformation on Sports Journalism Talk Online”. Journalism Practice, 13(7), 834-852.

McQuail, D., & Deuze, M. (2020). McQuail’s media and mass communication theory (Seventh edition Denis McQuail, Mark Deuze. ed.). London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.

Media Barometer 2020 (2020) ed. Ohlsson, J., Gothenburg: Nordicom, University of Gothenburg.