Big Ten Weekend

Indy.Com

I'm gonna be downtown this weekend during the Big 10 basketball games. I have always wondered about the different aspects of broadcasting that go into effect during such a huge event. First we would have to examine which news stations would be present. Surely, ESPN and our local news stations will be there. But, we have to think about what stations actually get increased viewership from these games. Most likely cities in which the Big 10 teams are located. So, we should expect all of these cities to be in downtown Indianapolis this weekend. Besides which stations will be in town, we must examine the ease of getting interviews with the players. There is going to be a lot of basketball players here, however, you only want to interview the well-known athletes. It is a given that the local news stations will interview Jajuan Johnson because he is a hometown star. But, after him what should they focus on.
There are so many questions to be asked in sports journalism and I think the answers are very easy to discover based on the purpose of sports journalism. Sports journalism is supposed to entertain people, whereas basic journalism is used to educate, inform, and assist citizens. Because sports journalist don't have to worry about entertaining and informing their audiences, they are free to focus completely on increasing viewership. In class we have been talking extensively about the struggle to inform as well as entertain, but we have failed to examine the ease that comes with journalism that focuses on entertainment only. The only road block that I can see with entertainment journalism is the fact that you can't blame low viewership on your intent to inform before you entertain.