OT: writing about sports

Submitted by dnak438 on

Chris Brown of Smart Football has an interesting article based on this piece in the New Yorker on Nick Denton and this one by Bill Simmons.  His conclusions are:

  1. Pageviews, hits, unique visitors — these will drive the news and what articles get written, and not just for blogs
  2.  “Sources” doesn’t mean what you think it means
  3. The above two points are not entirely bad
  4. Just because the above trends are harmless (at least with sports), doesn’t make them good, though, either

And finally, 

Maybe we can’t complain about the digital media coverage we get because it’s no longer in the bloggers’ or journalists’ hands, and instead is increasingly determined by algorithm, based on our viewing habits. In other words, maybe we don’t get the high-brow sports coverage we think we want, because, instead, we simply get the sports coverage we deserve.

I think this is relevant to the readership of this blog because the way that Michigan football is treated by the mainstream media (Freep, ESPN, etc.) that irks us so much is in large part dictated by Chris Brown's (1) and (2).  

On the other hand, I don't think that Chris Brown is positive enough.  His blog, and MGoBlog, are somewhat immune to the pressures he describes and therefore to the voracious appetite to attract new visitors to their site with crazy headlines and breaking news ("Moss to Vikings").  The internet is capitalist insofar as it can very precisely track how many hits a page gets, how long people stay there, etc., but it is also liberating because it is able to tap into niches like "smart Michigan fans" and provide them with high-quality products.

His Dudeness

October 14th, 2010 at 9:54 AM ^

I have this feeling tht quality will win out. Over a long enough timeline those who spout non-factual garbage will become so incredible that people will stop entertaining the notion of hearing what they have to say. This is my hope, but then again people watch Jersey Shore so we are probably all pretty well fucked at this point. Did you hear RR killed a baby? See it here first!