Thursday, August 24, 2017

Women working in sport media and public relations: no advantage in a male-dominated world

Sherwood, M., Nicholson, M., & Marjoribanks, T. (2017). Women working in sport media and public relations : no advantage in a male-dominated world. Communication Research and Practice, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2017.1365176

Globally, the public relations industry is overwhelmingly female, while sport media is overwhelmingly male. This positions the women who work in sport public relations at the intersection of two gendered industries. Drawing on analytic frameworks understanding organisations as gendered, this study explores the experiences of women in public relations, communications, and media relations roles in Australian sport organisations. From a survey (n = 123) and interviews (n = 16) this research found – surprisingly – that the Australian sport public relations workforce was almost equally male and female. However, women were not equal across other variables, and participants also reported that their gender had negatively influenced their work. This study found that despite being employed in almost equal numbers in a traditionally male-dominated field, the context within women work is still gendered.

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Who controls sport news? Media relations and information subsidies in Australian sport media

Sherwood, M., & Nicholson, M. (2017). Who controls sport news ? Media relations and information subsidies in Australian sport media. Media International Australia. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X17713340

Anecdotal evidence suggests that sport organisations in Australia have taken significant control of the news agenda through the employment of media-relations managers, who deliver regular, routinised information subsidies – such as media releases and media conferences. This article explored the impact of these subsidies on the news through a survey (n = 123) and interviews (n = 37) with media-relations staff employed in Australian sport organisations. It found that the scheduling of media conferences and the selection of sources to appear at these conferences is highly strategic and routinised within professional sport organisations, with little apparent input from sport journalists. This has the potential to lead to further criticisms of sport journalism, which has long been labelled the ‘toy department’ of the newsroom.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Once a journalist, Always a journalist?

Sherwood, M., & O’Donnell, P. (2016). Once a Journalist, Always a Journalist? Journalism Studies, 0(0), 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1249007

ABSTRACT. The traditional model of journalism in western societies, dominated by legacy media outlets such as newspapers and television, has undergone fundamental change in the twenty-first century. One consequence has been significant job losses within these newsrooms. As journalists negotiate new employment post-job loss in Australia, this paper asks, how has this impacted on their professional identity? Drawing on varying conceptualisations of professional identity as a set of values and as a set of work practices, this paper presents data from a survey of 225 journalists who had been laid off between 2012 and 2014 in Australia, to explore whether and how journalists’ professional identity changed after redundancy. The results indicated that professional identity was likely to fade post-job loss, which indicates that identity may be more closely linked to a journalism work context. In addition, the paper found that the loss of institutional legitimacy may also be affecting the respondents’ current journalism practice. Conversely, not all participants who noted their identity was intact still worked as journalists or in journalism. This research has implications for the changing media workforce, as it indicates that notions of journalistic professional identity are still contested and complicated.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Controlling the Message and the Medium? The impact of sports organisations’ digital and social channels on media access.

Sherwood, M., Nicholson, M., & Marjoribanks, T. (2016). Controlling the Message and the Medium? Digital Journalism, 1–19. http://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1239546

Sports organisations’ recently acquired ability to deliver their own news—through social and digital platforms—represents a potential paradigm shift in the once symbiotic relationship between sports organisations and the media that cover them. While sports organisations once needed the media to deliver their messages, they now have their own media. This study examined the impact of sports digital and social platforms, such as websites, Twitter and Facebook, on sports journalism through 37 interviews with public relations staff in Australian sports organisations and one targeted case study in a professional Australian Rules Football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL) in Australia. It found that while public relations staff in Australian sports organisations still value traditional media coverage, they also signalled that their own platforms were increasing in value as distribution channels. The case study of the professional AFL club found that the club selectively chose to distribute some stories on their own platforms instead of through traditional media. These stories were not simply delivered on the club’s own platforms, but the public relations staff actively framed the narrative of these stories for strategic benefit. These results have significant implications for sports journalism, as it suggests the rapid development of sports organisations’ social and digital media platforms has the potential to irrevocably alter the once symbiotic relationship between sport and media.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Access, agenda building and information subsidies

Sherwood, M., Nicholson, M., & Marjoribanks, T. (2016). Access, agenda building and information subsidies: Media relations in professional sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. http://doi.org/10.1177/1012690216637631

While much research has examined the composition of sport media and those charged with constructing it, namely sport journalists and editors, far less has explored an essential set of actors in the construction of news: sources. This study aimed to explore the construction of the sport media agenda from arguably the most important sport news sources: sport media relations managers. In particular, this paper asked: how do media staff in sports organisations influence the production of news? To answer this question, this paper is based on a qualitative, observational study of a professional Australian Rules football club in Australia, involving interviews, observations and document analysis. Research within a professional Australian Rules football club found that the club delivered high-quality information subsidies that met sports journalists’ newswork requirements. However, media access was almost solely limited to these information subsidies, which are highly subjective and negotiated, which in turn allowed the professional football club to significantly control the subsequent media agenda.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Newswork, News Values, and Audience Considerations

Sherwood, M., Osborne, A., Nicholson, M., & Sherry, E. (2016). Newswork, News Values, and Audience Considerations: Factors That Facilitate Media Coverage of Women’s Sports. Communication & Sport, 1–22. http://doi.org/10.1177/2167479516645535

Abstract: Substantial research indicates that women’s sports and female athletes gain only a small fraction of sports media coverage worldwide. Research that has examined why this is the case suggested this can be attributed to three particular factors that govern sports newswork: the male-dominated sports newsroom, ingrained assumptions about readership, and the systematic, repetitive nature of sports news. This study sought to explore women’s sports coverage using a different perspective, exploring cases where women’s sports gained coverage. It identified Australian newspapers that published more articles on women’s sports, relative to their competitors, and conducted interviews with both journalists and editors at these newspapers. It found that small, subtle changes to the three newswork elements that had previously relegated the coverage of women’s sports now facilitated it. This research provides evidence that, at least in some newspapers in Australia, sports newswork has developed to include the coverage of women’s sports.

Monday, March 02, 2015

Where do journalists go after newsroom job cuts?

O’Donnell, P., Zion, L., & Sherwood, M. (2016). Where do journalists go after newsroom job cuts? Journalism Practice, 10(1), 35–51. http://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1017400

This article explores the aftermath of job loss in journalism in 2012, a year of dramatic press industry restructuring in Australia. It reports the findings of a pilot survey of 95 Australian redundant journalists, undertaken as part of the New Beats project, a five-year, university–industry investigation of what happens to journalists, and journalism, after job loss. Three related questions drive the analysis: Where do journalists go after job cuts? How do they make sense of job loss? What happens to professional identity? In contrast to a recent study of journalists laid off from the British press, and the literature on the aftermath of job loss for older professionals, this research finds that, in practical terms, the Australian journalists had relatively better than expected post-job loss experiences. All but two of the redundant journalists seeking re-employment found some form of work within one year, and, thanks to union-enforced redundancy agreements, most left newsrooms with severance payments that cushioned the financial impact of unemployment. Yet, the majority did not resume their full-time careers in journalism, and many were emotionally traumatised not only by job loss but also career change. The article argues a sense of leaving a newspaper industry in seemingly terminal decline amplified feelings of anger and anxiety about both the future of journalism work, and lost professional identity, prompting many to leave the profession intentionally and seek jobs elsewhere.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Web 2.0 platforms and the work of newspaper sport journalists

Sherwood, M., & Nicholson, M. (2013). Web 2.0 platforms and the work of newspaper sport journalists. Journalism, 14(7), 942–959. http://doi.org/10.1177/1464884912458662

This article reports on research that explores whether Australian newspaper sport journalists use Web 2.0, the second generation of the internet, in their work and, if they do, how. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 newspaper sport journalists, three from each of the nine Australian daily newspapers with the highest circulation. The research found that the most common Web 2.0 platforms used by Australian newspaper sport journalists in their everyday work practices were Twitter, fan forums and Facebook. While each is used differently for reporting, sourcing and researching news, and for interacting with readers, this study found that most sports journalists used this technology within the boundaries of traditional journalistic practices and norms.