WHAT Podcast: How Has Sports Media Changed Over the Years?

It has been an exciting start to the NBA season, with plenty to talk about in just under a month of regular season play. First we talk about what has surprised us, like punches thrown, early season trades and Golden State Warriors intrigue. Of course we have praise for the surprising Trail Blazers bench who are in mid-season form.

Then we talk about how overwhelming the media has become, with so many big personalities, so many choices and so many platforms for fans to follow. We share some of our favorite media resources for following the NBA (in addition to Blazer’s Edge, of course).

Finally we talk to our favorite media resource, Anne Peterson of the Associated Press. Anne tells us how things have changed since she was a young reporter. What is easier? What is more challenging? Finally, she gives us the inside scoop about what it was like on press row the first time LeBron James came to town in a Lakers uniform.

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Notes:

• 1:20 Jimmy Butler is really good at press conferences.
• 2:30 Fights and suspensions! What a way to start things off! Are there cracks in the Warriors? This is a team that had practice with the Harlem Globetrotters because they are so hard to keep engaged.
• 8:00 Surprisingly fun teams: Clippers! Clippers?
• 9:20 Extremely high offensive numbers
• 10:45 Players are changing teams.
• 11:30 What will happen to Melo?
• 14:45 Biggest Blazer surprise: how fast the bench got good. Believed they could maybe get there thought it would take a while. Evan Turner is going to get them paid.
• 16:00 Media is starting to become as big as the game. Media members are becoming characters.
• 17:40 Favorite places to go for information. Good Morning, It’s Basketball Newsletter, Bleacher Report Team Stream, Bball Breakdown Youtube Channel, Cleaning the Glass
• 21:00 Love watching other market local broadcasts, Indiana Pacers broadcast team is great.
• 32:30 Anne Peterson, Associated Press How has sports media changed since she became a reporter?
• 34:40 Had a Tandy “laptop” but you could only see 65 characters at a time. She did the boxscore live.
• 37:20 When the internet came it changed a lot. Its nice for consumers who want to look for specific coverage about specific teams.
• 39:20 Teams now provide a huge amount of information that reporters don’t have to look up or figure out for themselves.
• 40:30 Writers now have to set themselves apart with good story telling.
• 41:00 What has changed? Deadlines have changed. You used to have a certain deadline, but now they want everything immediately. Also, reporters have to do their own copy writing.
• 42:00 Etiquette question. What do you do if you see a typo in an article?
• 43:30 How are some ways that media has changed the game? Deeper connections between teams and players and fans. Instant replay was probably driven by media.
• 46:30 Does media in smaller markets have a bigger proportionate impact on their fan base than media in larger markets?
• 47:45 Media row on the night LeBron James debuted as a Laker.

Follow Blazer’s Edge on Twitter @blazersedge, WHAT Pod @HoopsAndTalks, Tara @tcbbiggs, and Cassidy @CassidyGemmet. This week’s guest: Anne Peterson (@anniempeterson)

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Music used in the episode: “Happy Alley” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License