How Social Media Has Forever Changed Sports Journalism

There are two types of debates that take place in a sports newsroom:

• Either the argument focuses on the here and now, like, who is better Bryce Harper or Mike Trout?
• Or, they are based in some mythological, time-shifting world where people from one generation can compete in another, like, how would Bill Russell perform in today’s NBA?

Those where you try to move athletes across generations always add a bit of intrigue, because there aren’t just athletic challenges to endure, there are also societal ones.

Could you imagine if Dennis Rodman played in todays social media era? Or Lawrence Taylor? Or Mickey Mantle?

Now these are interesting discussions. Which is why this infographic produced by the University of Florida is fascinating – they take a historical view on social media’s impact on sports journalism to demonstrate how different things really are in the current sports environment.

The most interesting stat in my view: 54% of all journalists use twitter regularly, which poses the follow-up: what the heck are the other 46% doing!?

Let us know in the comments below what you think is most interesting about this sports journalism infographic:

UF Online B.S. in Telecommunications, Media and Society