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Player media puts traditional media on the outside looking in

This is an excerpt from Sports, Media, and Society by Kevin Hull.

Player Media

Similar to how teams are connecting directly with fans, the players themselves have been able to do the same. Using social media, players can have their own news and updates show up directly on the feeds of fans’ accounts. This has created the idea of player media where players are, just like teams, bypassing the traditional media and creating their own content directly for fans. Players are creating personal updates through social media, athlete-­run websites, and podcasts. While that is appealing for the players, it has created a situation where the traditional media can find itself on the outside looking in when it comes to interviewing athletes.

The Appeal of Team and Player Media

Player and team media is appealing for a variety of reasons for ­those involved, but the ability to avoid the traditional media might be the biggest draw. If players and teams want to communicate directly with their fans, they no longer need journalists to act as the middleman and relay ­whatever information needs to be passed along. For some of the athletes, a theme of trust, or a lack of it, seems to be a key reason why they want to try to ignore journalists. Former NFL cornerback DeAngelo Hall was an early adopter of Twitter ­because, in his words, “If you have something posted on your Twitter site, that’s exactly what you have to say. It ­hasn’t been doctored up by a writer or any of the media” (Yahoo! Sports, 2009, para. 12). When promoting why athletes should want to be a part of The Players’ Tribune, Derek Jeter said, “It’s a trusted place, a place where they can speak freely and not have to worry about how their words are twisted and turned” (Feinberg, 2015, para. 5).

Concerns for Traditional Media

For traditional media, this rise in teams and players delivering their own news should be especially concerning. When LeBron James announced he was signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, the deal was revealed through his own agency on Twitter (Youngmisuk, 2018). James’ fan base got the information from James himself, and can now follow the Lakers’ website, Lakers’ social media accounts, and James’ social media for the latest information on the player and the team. With all ­those options available, a fan might not feel the need to read the Los Angeles Times or ESPN. One of the primary reasons for reading journalists is to get the latest news, and now team and athletes are able to fulfill that purpose themselves.

With this shift, some traditional media entities have developed a “if you ­can’t beat them, join them” mentality. As NBA star Paul George was entering his own ­free agency, he wanted to document his plan for his fans. A three-­part first-­person documentary about his quest aired on ESPN during its ­popular SportsCenter program (Hall, 2018). This was essentially ­free advertising for George and it was ESPN that was giving him the platform. Instead of competing against the player to deliver this news, the sports ­television network partnered with him to become an ally in the player media movement.

Summary

Sports journalists ­will likely forever have a gatekeeping role in the ­process of getting information from the source to the audience. However, the creation of team and player media has somewhat ­limited that power when it comes to certain stories. Teams and players can deliver stories, quotes, and information direct to the audience, without needing a journalist to act as the middleman. For teams, this creates a situation in which ­every story they want out to the public can be published on their website, while negative stories, such as ­those about a painful loss, can be “spun” to look less damaging. For athletes, they can tell their story exactly how they want it to be told, as many have a strong distrust of the media. Team and player media should be seen as a threat to traditional media members, ­because if fans can get information and news directly from the teams and players themselves, then many fans might be asking why they need the traditional media.

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