339 Writing For Sports Media 1.1
Match Report
A match report is a written up document, or any written piece, that goes over all the key moments of the match. In this report, you could mention any injuries, goals, set pieces, shots, saves, tackles and the list goes on. To make this match report, you would usually watch the game live whilst writing down all the notes you can, which can be quite hard when trying to watch it as well.
Direct Mail
Direct Mail is an advertising strategy which targets certain people. This is mainly used for E-mails, which you may have received before. For example, you could have been sent mail about offers on Uber Eats or spam mail from scammers like "You won a free iPhone 12". Here is an example of direct mail as Uber Eats tends to send out promo codes to certain people, not everyone. These promo codes usually have a catch that mean you have to spend a certain amount to earn the discount or if its your first time on the app, you could get this offer which entices you to keep ordering as you can save money.
Blogs
A blog is an online journal where you can post your opinions about a topic, your beliefs or just anything on your mind. Blogs can be run independently, by a group or a corporation and can be seen by millions. Most blogs focus on the latest news and topics that have heated conversations about. For example, a recent topic has been "are there more wheels or doors in the world" and this simple question has split the public and caused some heated arguments.
Social Media
Social media is a free platform that you can make however you want it, for example if you are employed by a football club like Bristol City, you might be in control of the social media side of it as it helps to boost awareness. Most people in the world have a social media account either for them or their business, a personal social media account might show you and what you are doing each day and a businesses account might be promoting new products or promoting a similar business that they are working with, ETC.
Live Commentary and Microblogging
In the sports media business, live commentary and microblogging helps to boost community engagement and awareness. Say that your favourite team is playing but you can't watch them live, you could go onto their social media account (mainly Twitter or Instagram) and they will post short "microblogs" like 'Alex Scott scores late winner against Bristol Rovers'. Short posts like this help to engage the audience that can't watch them live. So stuff like this really helps.
Press Releases
A press release is a piece of news or information that a company will send out to inform the public about something important or note worthy. In sport media, a press release could include pre and post match interviews or important events during the game. In some cases, a Press release and a match report are the same thing as people would make a match report to post to the public or to companies that can print it onto a web page or a news paper that the public can read.
Here are the notes that I made during the game between the U23s for Bristol City and Watford FC, they are a bit rushed are may be hard to read but they helped me create a match report for the game which is around 720 words long.
Here is my finished match report and the match report guide that helped me structure my report. In the guide, it goes over the steps you should take to make a successful match report, for example I started by making a Headline and a Sub heading which are the main word/key words you use to describe the match. After doing this, I went event by event through the notes I made and made a paragraph for each key moment.
On the left is the practise match report I made between Rotherham and Sutton for the Papa John's trophy final at Wembley. For this, I had to write down the key events and who made them whilst watching the highlights. So it wasn't that hard to write down the events, but it was difficult to tell who was playing. On the right is another practise document but for microblogging, this game was the Man Utd vs Liverpool game in 2020 where Man Utd were able to win against Liverpool.
1.2 Evaluation Points
This is the SWOT analysis I have made in response to my Match Report feedback. Firstly, this includes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to my match report. the strengths and weaknesses are pretty simple but the opportunities and threats toward my match report were a little tricky as I have to try and evaluate the things I could have improved and the things that were out of my control that affected my match report.
Project Evaluation
Looking back at this project, I can see many positives and negatives throughout. Firstly, with preparation for the Match Report, we had to attend the U23s match between Bristol City and Watford FC and write down notes and the events that happened throughout the match. The things that went well when writing down notes, was that I could keep up relatively well with the game and trying to write at the same time and I had 3 pages of notes by the end of the 90 minutes. The negatives, however, out weigh the positives for this project as for one you are uncertain of what is going to happen in the first place, as there could just be no events throughout the match, luckily there was 2 goals. Another negative was that the team sheet they gave out was wrong in that most players names where spelt incorrectly and this could affect your reputation as a sports journalist. Something else out of my control was the weather, which was cold and windy, making writing hard and coping sat outside even harder as it was difficult to focus on what was happening, but experience would help with this.
`The final thing that could have made this better was that there was no highlights or replays as the HPC is newly made and only has the one stand.
All in all though, the whole match report experience wasn't bad and was quite exciting at some parts. What I would do next time to improve the negatives is do more preparation into who is playing and where they're playing and this project would have been perfect.
Personal Development Plan
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To help improve my match reporting skills I could look over existing match reports and see the type of vocabulary they use when describing the game
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I could get some work experience in a sports media environment to help better my football knowledge and match reporting and writing skills
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I could attend more matches and write notes to help improve my writing skills even more as the more game I attend the better my knowledge of the game will be
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I could also better my football knowledge by learning their names and ex clubs/academies so that I won't need to follow a team sheet, as from experience, people can miss spell their names and still print the team sheet.