The challenges of local sports media

The present- day sports media and coverage of sports here St Vincent and the Grenadines are under siege.

As it is, the importance of recording sporting events, providing features on individual sportsmen and women, is becoming more and more insignificant.

No longer are the majority of people looking to newspapers and radio to get information of local, regional and international happenings in sports, as thanks to the world wide web, that information is always available at the touch of a button.

These fast -paced technological developments have left the traditional media operations as endangered species.

This, as social media have gripped the world of information, almost making the wait on a newspaper article or radio report, in the case of St Vincent and the Grenadines bi-weekly and weekly, an almost archaic and obsolete undertaking.

At an instant, persons who are not even sportingly inclined, are in the know, as there is live streaming of events, whilst others present may choose to go “live” on Facebook.

In addition, with the prevalence of gadgets and choices of platforms, information goes to multiple sources with the speed of light.

Information is disseminated round the clock, and with the built- in mechanisms of persons commenting and critiquing, sometimes douses the impact of the analytical input by bona fide sports journalists, thereafter.

Hence, the battle for survival for the traditional media is further exacerbated , when community sporting organisations and national associations, federations and unions, are going the way of having their own public relations and marketing departments.

These entities control what information is put out, which in essence sometimes either mask or withhold the truth.

Additionally, sportsmen and women are no longer dependent on reputed sports journalists to feature them, as they have their own marketing agents or have others within their circles, do it for them.

But there has been a conspicuous downside to the emergence of social media as the mainstay of sports reporting here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Evidently, there is a shortage of factual background to the articles and features, as missing are critical information needed to put the actual event or personnel into proper perspective.

In the main, what is presented as sports journalism, are basically bits and pieces of facts, loaded with opinions.

Unfortunately, who really cares, as it is what is trending; what is the in thing and the way of the information/ technological age at this juncture.

Substantively, sports journalists give their expertise and roles, add value to a sporting events, along with providing that level of professionalism.

The traditional sports reporters/ journalists, both print and radio, have to contend with the inevitabilities of change.

Therefore, they too have to respond to the threats posed by the invasion of the social media practitioners, albeit novices, but who have a space, a voice, and most definitely shapes and influences opinions.

Necessitated by the transitions and evolution of the media in general, and specifically sports journalism, there has to be that call for reset from traditions and morph with the modern demands.

Realistically, all entities in the game can co-exist, as there are persons who are still around who are yet to clutch on to social media.

Hence, it is imperative that ways are fashioned to ensure that the traditionists keep their space, their niche and provide the small, yet dwindling sector that hold the newspapers and national radio station, as their main source of sporting education and information.

Like everything else in life, change is constant and that truism must always be kept in sharp focus.