Sport Information Overload = Not Enough Information?

THERE WAS A TIME when journalists got to know athletes.

There was a time when journalists went beyond public relations specialists and sports agents and learned about the lives of our sporting heroes. George Plimpton, among the greats who practiced New Journalism, even practiced with the Detroit Lions. As a quarterback. He even got into a professional game, and his book about the experience was made into a movie.

These days, all of the media - bloggers, reporters, broadcasters - are herded into press conferences where they all receive the same information, and it's hard to get beyond the superficial facts.

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe wrote, "Today's players are protected from the media by team publicists. There are too many people with media passes. Players don't need us. We are a nuisance - tolerated at best. Interview access is parsed out like a high school hall pass."

Is this a matter of allowing athletes to have their privacy or is this a way for sports teams (and athletes) to control the messages that are coming out?

Because there is such a massive proliferation of media outlets, have we lost the ability to get information?

Time-Shifting Prime Time Means Viewers Have Control.

THE AUDIENCE for prime time television shows is shrinking, according to an article in today's New York Times. More than 6 million viewers have disappeared since last year.

The culprit? The Internet, TiVo, DVR and other video on demand services.

The industry folks call it "time-shifting." And they are freaking out about it.

While they enable viewers to watch more hours of television, they hurt the rate of commercial recognition, as about half of all commercials are skipped in time-shifting modes, according to the Times.

“Honestly, if I could wish away the DVR, I would,” Alan Wurtzel, head of research for NBC, told the Times. “But I can’t. It’s growing.”

Without advertising, there's no money to finance programming (including news). The ultimate result is that the popular shows gain greater audiences and the less popular programs get markedly smaller audiences.

Personally, I'd rather watch Yacht Rock on Channel 101.

If you know how to make money on the Internet, you could be the next Bill Gates. Start thinking.

(the photo of the TiVo cakes come via Flickr).

Why Make a TV Show About a Dying Industry?

JOURNALISM MAY BE in its most dire time in the history of the craft, but MTV thinks people will watch a program about the profession. They have a new show, The Paper, about a Florida high school newspaper.

A columnist from the Contra Costa Times writes: The show marks a real departure for the youth-centric cable network. It's not "The Real World," or "Laguna Beach," or "The Hills." Rich, hot-looking kids aren't making out in Jacuzzis. They're not slamming shots in some raucous club. They're not prancing about in skimpy bikinis on spring break.

Instead, the show just focuses on smart, normal kids going to class, sacrificing large chunks of their social lives and pouring their passion into a ... newspaper.

Television has a fascination with the print world, from Sex and the City (Sarah Jessica Parker played a sex columnist) to Ugly Betty (she works at a magazine) to I'm from Rolling Stone, another MTV production about interns at the legendary music mag.

Are people really that interested in the inner workings of print publications? Or are these shows destined to fail?

$2.5 Million Per Baby? Seriously?

PAYING PEOPLE for interviews is a controversial practice. Some people fear that paying subjects will create a perception that the subjects are saying whatever they have to say to get paid.

But does that same fear hold when you are talking about a celebrity gossip rag buying celebrity baby photos?

People mag reportedly paid $5 million for exclusive rights to the images of Jennifer Lopez and her twins.

Is there anything wrong with that?

Journalists Can Make An Impact On People.

ON THURSDAY, author, journalist and community leader Mister Mann Frisby spoke to the class.

Mister is a former reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News who quit to write books. His newest book - featuring interviews with Bernard Hopkins, Jill Scott, Common, Kirk Franklin, John Legend and India Arie - is due out soon. The image above is the new book's cover (click here to read the blurb on the back).

Raised in South Philly and educated at Overbrook High and Penn State, Mister also writes columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He's a pretty inspirational guy.

Click on the embedded links to learn more about him and his work.

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