“Sport is always about more than what’s going on the field… Go deeper and you’ll find powerful storytelling,” said Amanda Shalala, Deputy Editor ABC Sport at the CBAA Conference.
Amanda explored the essentials of sports broadcasting and gave the participants an understanding of how to capture the excitement of sport and connect with the audience. She created the ABC Sport Academy, a suite of free resources for sports journalists, and encouraged participants to make use of them.
“There are so many stories at community level that can be told, said Amanda. “Be open to the types of stories you can tell.”
What makes a great sport story?
- It adds a new and /or different information to a topic
- It adds a different voice or perspective
- Lets you see something in a different light
- Often focused and might be part of a bigger picture, but it’s zoomed in on one person, or one moment or one experience.
- Think about people and and human stories.
- Engages your audience
- Makes people feel something and keeps them coming back.
- Appropriate for format
- Topic vs story
- For more information, see ABC Sport Academy vodcast
News values are:
- Public interest, the need to know rather than want to know.
- Timeliness
- Proximity
- Conflict
- Consequence
- Human interest
- Prominence
- Novelty
“Let’s not diminish fun because people need it!” said Amanda.
“Expand your mind about what a sport’s story is,” said Amanda. “It could be about women’s health or the death of a country footy club?”
When sourcing stories try the following:
- Media releases
- Academics
- Social media
- Media conferences
- Attend a game
- Calendar of events
- Contacts
- Networking
- Other media
- Community outreach
Research is always the basis of good story telling, so try :
- Social media
- Fan communities
- Libraries e.g. Trove for historical material
- Academic databases, journals, e.g.. SPORTDiscus, Google Scholar (set up alerts), JSTOR
- Statista: market consumer data that has lots of data relating to all facets of sport.
- Australian Clearing House for Sport
- Find an expert – universities
“If you’re looking to introduce sport to your station, start with a 5 minute chat in a talk show and then slowly build from there,” said Amanda.