Box Score Beat

Twitter Still Changing the Game

Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by Collin Orcutt in NBA, Shifting Journalism, Social Media

Twitter continues to be a game changing tool for journalists — in both useful and confusing ways. On one hand, it’s a great way to find quotes and reactions from athletes. On the other hand, it lessens the press’s ability to differentiate itself from an every day fan since they both now have the same access to athlete tweets.

Today on Deadspin, Barry Petchesky wrote a post about how Twitter is changing the way everyone, both press and fans alike, are now regarding athletes:

“There was an era when athletes were just people, when you could drink with them in a hotel bar, or send your kid to their front door to ask for an autograph. Then television came along and suddenly the were larger than life, and we as common fans had no hope of interacting with them other than cheering for or booing them from our seats.

Ironically it’s technology that’s bringing us full circle. Communications are a two-way street now; you could scream at your TV before, but the players inside couldn’t hear you. But they’re always checking their Twitter.”

The post was spawned by a press release that Petchesky received from a Canadian pizza chain. The restaurant, Boston Pizza,  started a social media campaign aimed at getting Shaq to visit one of their locations.

Petchesky examines what this kind of campaign says about the fan/athlete dynamic, then ends his post with an interesting question: “And, more pressing to a dwindling but vocal minority: with this access, where does that leave the press?”

His post immediately reminded me of the recent exchange between TrueHoop writer Henry Abbott and NBA rising star Kevin Durant. Last Friday, Abbott wrote a post about Durant’s surprisingly low +/- stats. Durant responded to the post via Twitter (response 1, 2 and 3), and then Abbott wrote another post in response to that. It was fascinating exchange and something that wouldn’t have happened in a pre-Twitter world (also fascinating: that Durant doesn’t know what plus/minus is).

But Petchesky’s question still stands: where does Twitter leave the sports press? The social media world is changing so quickly that it doesn’t seem there’s a definitive answer. What do you think?

Tags: Barry Petchesky, Deadspin, Henry Abbott, Kevin Durant, TrueHoop, Twitter