Take your marks: Olympic Blogs
Monday, August 18, 2008
It's been three months: Where have we been?
(More appropriately, where haven't we been? Domestic hotels, international terminals; weddings, [metaphorical] funerals).
Basically, anywhere but Beijing.
Although, with so many great sports blogs reporting live from the Summer Olympics (we gave up counting at 159), who needs to leave the couch? Thanks to Internet 2.0, the Games are on demand.
So, using the standards we developed last year to critique wannabe-Deadspins, we're going to review 15 of the more popular Olympic-focused blogs across categories like style and following. Given the range of Olympic sports and athletes, we're adding one category--scope--to represent how well the blog captures stories that we wouldn't otherwise hear on NBC.
Just like the Games, there are winners and losers. Here are a few blogs that caught our eye--mostly for good reasons.
Group A--New Media Pioneers
If our review had a group of death, this would be it; while very different in style and scope, these five sites are uniformly well-done and varying degrees of enjoyable. Which makes sense; when it comes to blogging, these sites all employ top writing talent and technical know-how (are you listening, Access Hollywood Olympics blog?)
He may work for a newspaper, but Steinberg's mix of hard-won blog cred and participatory journalism--such as his bravery in sampling yak artisanal cheese--separates his work from the print or TV blogs we'll be profiling later. And to be clear upfront: We already loved the popular DC Sports Bog; its temporary transformation into the Beijing Sports Smog leaves us, like Chinese communists, tickled pink.
Post length: Average to slightly long. Several quick-hit posts are just a few paragraphs, but most reach about 500 words.
Output: Frequent. About six posts per day, almost all original reporting (as opposed to linking to coverage or offering brief commentary on, say, a certain swimmer's repeated victories). However, with just Steinberg writing up stories, the Smog's far less prolific than some of the other blogs that we came across.
Style: An engaging mix of reporting and analysis; like a bemused features writer who lets the reader in on the joke.
Scope: Impressive. Blissfully unaware of athletes named "Phelps" or "Nastia," Steinberg almost never reports the headlines. Still, he finds a story everywhere he goes--sometimes, even before he gets there:
So today, in search of my first Olympic sporting event, I walked over to the handball venue, and what did I see? Four parents of two Swedish women handballers, trying desperately to get into the venue.
"We asked everybody, we asked anybody," one of the fathers, Jonas Ahlm, told me. "If you get us tickets for handball, we will teach you everything about handball. You can have exclusive interview with two girls. You can spend night with them."
His wife, Marie, protested this offer.
"Just eat and drink and maybe some little kissing," Jonas clarified.
At this point, I was committed.
Steinberg goes bargain-shopping with swimmers and photographs chubby judo coaches, interviews fashion-plate Craig Sager and relays his fear while holding an actual silver medal. In short, he finds the stories of the Olympics that no one else even thinks to look for. A must-read.
Hat-tips: Steinberg's got a Postie links helper finding about five per day; that doesn't seem great...until you realize just how little love these Olympics blogs tend to show to non-mainstream sources.
Following: Strong. While Steinberg never draws a ton of comments, the ones he gets tend to be clever and interesting. Moreover, he remains a blogger's blogger; all of the other Olympics websites (such as the ones we profile below) clearly read and link to him.
Bill Fitzgerald, Chris Chase, Maggie Hendricks, Nick Friedell, Pat Imig, and Reese Hoffa
Another strong (and very clean-looking) site, mixing punchy commentary with beautiful Getty images. Unlike the Beijing Sports Smog, this blog's much more robust and powered by six contributors; most offer quick hit-analysis, but Olympic shot-putter Hoffa has provided an inside look at life in the Village.
Overall, it's a fine source for major Olympics news, but don't head here for anything that NBC wouldn't tell you.
Post length: Short, although varies by author; Ladies... blogger Hendricks appears to have a three-paragraph limit, while Bog Poll contributor Fitzgerald chips in with longer, less-cohesive pieces.
Output: Prodigious. At least 15-to-20 posts per day, although some (like Hendricks' posts) are essentially a picture with a two-line caption.
Style: Conventional and casual, if a bit irreverent. You'll find the mystery of Michael Phelps' iPod playlist mixed in with regular updates of races and gymnastics competitions. There are a few regular features, like the pictures of the day and create-a-caption, that are nice but not especially compelling ideas. Meanwhile, the daily what-to-watch post has good intentions, but typically just lists NBC's primetime schedule; a what-to-watch-via-NBCOlympics.com would've been much more interesting.
Scope: Nothing special. If you want a quick review of the major Olympic stories of the day (Phelps! Gymnastics! Wrestler refuses his medal!), this is the blog for you. But with the exception of Imig's posts that include would-be Facebook founders and Dream Team windbreakers, don't expect much off the beaten Mondotrack.
Hat-tips: Limited. There's a daily roundup of newspaper articles, but even when crediting another site, Fourth Place Medal doesn't always bother to offer a link.
Following: Very popular. Piggybacking off the heavily trafficked Yahoo! Sports website, every post draws dozens (if not hundreds) of comments.
Olympics FanHouse
Enrico Campitelli, JJ Cooper, Michael David Smith, Tom Ziller, et al.
At first, this solid blog seems like Fourth Place Medal's weaker sister (grubbier layout, smaller pictures, fewer contributors, and a lot less reader traffic). However, FanHouse has more edge--in a good way--and offers opinionated coverage, like whether Phelps' iPod makes him faster or if the much-hyped USA-Spain game even mattered. Meanwhile, NBA star and Redeem Team member Chris Bosh has chipped in a few videos, while a regular "Golden Ticket" post cleverly promised to identify each day's best basketball games (although at the time of writing this, the posts seem shelved), giving the site some extra appeal.
Post length: Short to average. Most posts are about 200 words, although a handful have been twice as long.
Output: Considerable. Up to 20 posts per weekday; not quite so many over the weekend.
Style: Conversational and analytical, with many authors first introducing a topic or recapping an event, then weighing in with a segue like "To me, the most interesting part..."
Scope: Sticks to the big stories, although can take interesting angles on them, such as a critique of FINA for waiting to release images of Phelps' win in the 100M butterfly. More importantly, Campitelli (the blog's sole Beijng-based blogger) uncovered perhaps the scoop of the Games: Beer is really, really cheap at the Bird's Nest.
Hat-tips: Hardly any; mostly links to previous FanHouse coverage.
Following: For whatever reason, none of the FanHouse blogs draw many comments, and the Olympics blog isn't an exception. And maybe that isn't a bad thing; the heavily discussed posts (like this one on Dara Torres, likely featured as some AOL cross-promotion) never seem to make the site's readers look good.
Slate: Five-Ring Circus
Assorted authors
It's debatable which is the bigger stretch: Deng Linlin as a 16-year-old, or Five-Ring Circus as a true blog. Still, the latter's close enough; Slate's built a separate page with daily stories, a Twitter feed, and even a nifty "Sap-o-Meter" feature that tracks NBC's use of...(you know what? Just go check it out). Plus, we need five contenders in the new media divison, and on quality and diversity, Five-Ring Circus can more than hold its own.
Post length: From very short to very long. Nothing gets more pithy than Slate's 20-word tweets; meanwhile, the site's bread-and-butter essays can easily top 1,200 words.
Output: Three-to-five posts per weekday, including the clever Twitter feed, which offers such gems as "I love Usain Bolt's adopted Chinese brothers!" and "The Americans are really struggling with the international free throw line."
Style: Between the essays, the videos, and the Twitter feed, it's all over the map, but consistently expect Slate's trademark mix of smarts and snark. While the writing is great, the headlines tend to promise more than the stories deliver. ("Short sprinters beware," warns one piece examining the freakish success of freakishly large Usain Bolt, but the author eventually concludes that Bolt-sized sprinters will be a rarity for the near-future.)
Scope: Not great with respect to sport--you won't find updates of badminton or handball--but the stories are at least unique. "Dispatches from Beijing" discuss what it's like to watch the Olympics on Chinese TV, while essays and analysis break down the new gymnastics scoring system and the Speedo LZR's effects on run-of-the mill swimmers.
Hat-tips: Very few; a handful of links to other mainstream media sources.
Following: Very strong. More than 1,200 users have signed up for Slate's Twitter feed in about a week, which is hardly shabby; while the comments can be critical, that's nothing new for a Web magazine that prides itself on being contrarian.
Olympics feedChris Mottram, Spencer Hall, Chris Littmann, Bethlehem Shoals, Dan Shanoff, Dave Larzelere, Tom Ziller
It's also a bit unfair to lump the Sporting Blog, which hasn't carved out special Olympics coverage, in with sites like Fourth Place Medal and FanHouse; however, the blog's focused on Olympics coverage for much of the past week, and the hard-working Ziller (doing double duty with FanHouse!) wrote up seven posts over the weekend alone.
Unfortunately, if FanHouse was Fourth Place Medal's weaker sister, the Sporting Blog is the drunk college-age brother obsessed with America's Dumbest Sports Videos; a series of three posts last week offered clips of a Chinese trampoline dunker falling on his head, the Hungarian weightlifter who gruesomely dislocated his elbow, and gym-goers accidentally dropping weights on themselves. Ha.
Post length: Short to average; most posts are a few-hundred words, and videos are frequently used.
Output: Three-to-four posts per day.
Style: Snarky, opinionated, and even humorous, although often sophomoric. Several of the authors (such as Ziller and Shanoff) are well-read across the Internet.
Scope: Ok. The site mostly covers the big stories and sports, with a heavy focus on Phelps and basketball, but there's some acknowledgment of lesser lights like 49er skiff sailing and water polo...even if the authors are generally denigrating the sports' existence.
Hat-tips: A few, including to some of the other blogs on this list, such as the Smog and FanHouse.
Following: Decent. Comments are few-and-far-between (most likely because of Sporting News registration requirements), but as a recent poll indicated, at least 1,000 readers were willing to weigh in on whether Phelps actually won the 100M butterfly.
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Of course, these five just scratch the surface; we'll return to profile other well-trafficked blogs later this week. In the meantime, help us decide which Group A blog has done the best job covering the Games so far.
(Poll not showing up for you? Click here)
Labels: dc sports bog, Deadspin, FanHouse, fourth place medal, Olympics, Slate, sporting blog, yahoo sports
posted by Crucifictorious @ 01:17,
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Are you smarter than Chris Paul?
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Collectivism didn't really work out for the USSR, but for the third time in three months, basket-blogs are cluster-posting the heck out of a topic. Back in March, Hardwood Paroxysm tipped off a 45+ post celebration for the Black Mamba; in April, 20 bloggers sang the praises of Underappreciated Famous NBA Athletes.
The latest con-blog-aration yesterday honored Chris Paul, who at 22...
...rolled up legendary point-guard numbers
...led the Hornets to their best season in franchise history
...has his team up 2-0 over the defending champs in the Western Conference semi-finals
(Truly, a phenomenal year; if Juan Dixon and Maceo Baston are worth a day, Paul deserves an entire week).
Still, it wasn't all gravy for CP3 on his own holiday--he finished just second in the NBA's MVP voting, despite convincingly winning basket-bloggers' own award last month.
Of course, there's one honor that Chris Paul can hold over Kobe--and every other NBA player: A win on "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me," a National Public Radio show that Paul appeared on back in September.
(ht: this guy).
We Rite Goode readers may prefer The Basketball Jones to NPR, so here's a primer on "Wait Wait": It's an hour-long news quiz that usually features a 10-minute segment with a celebrity guest, who's forced to answer extremely off-beat questions, usually with mixed success. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer whiffed on all three “Rock N’Roll Lifestyles” questions; meanwhile, muppet Elmo went 2-for-3 on a quiz called "Shut up! Shut up! I'm going to cut your mic!"
Chris Paul's own quiz was called “You want me to eat what?," which focused on the “least palatable” food products from the 1970s. Want to try your own luck? Here are the three questions that NPR asked Paul; feel free to play or listen along at home. Keep in mind, two of the products in each question are fake--only one is real and the right answer.
Question 1. Kids are a huge target for the processed food crowd, but you’ve got to appeal to the parents too. That was the idea behind one of these failed food products--which is the real product?
A) Liver Pops
Frozen liver treats for your kids
B) Vita-Yums
Chocolate-covered vitamins
C) I Hate Peas
Peas and other unpalatable foods are processed into fake french fries
Answer.
2. While most products are aimed at families, marketers tried to woo single shoppers with which product?
A) Baby Burger Bites
Packets of frozen hamburgers the size of marshmellows
B) Gerber’s singles
Baby food for adults
C) Peanut capsules
Little paper-wrapped packets, with the shells inside
Answer.
3. One smart marketing strategy: Play to customers' natural laziness. But ease-of-preparation couldn’t save which real product?
A) Seat-warmer Dinners
Wrapped dinners you put under your seat cushions and cook with your own body heat
B) Reddi-bacon
From the makers of Reddi-Whip, foil-wrapped bacon you pop in the toaster
C) Fish Jerky
Pre-cooked, freeze-dried perfect for picnics and eating on the go
Answer.
Perhaps the nickname stands for Completely Perfect in 3, as Paul aced the quiz. How did you do? Compare your score to noted luminaries below.
3 correct = Chris Paul, NBA All-Star
2 = Joey Harrington, NFL quarterback (link)
1 = Ken Jennings, “Jeopardy” champion (link)
0 =
Around the Web
Like seat-warmer dinners, a few things we've been sitting on for far too long...
* Bright Side of the Sun puts Mike D'Antoni's return to the acid test.
* The second issue of Sports Northwest Magazine, edited by Seth Kolloen of Enjoy the Enjoyment, is now out; Nathaniel Friedman--a.k.a. Bethlehem Shoals--has an interesting piece on David Stern's middle-America politics.
* One of the most active participants in the basket-blog rankings, the Dream Shake weighs in with their Defensive Player and Executive of the Year. Be warned: The Dream Shake likes the Rockets. A lot.
* Fellow basket-blog voter 20 Second Timeout explains his voting for MVP and other awards. TruthAboutIt.net and Hoops State of Mind also cast their MVP ballots.
* MC Bias sees nothing good emerging from last week's Bissinger/Leith/Costas dust-up.
* He was turning 30 and playing for a middling franchise, so he mocked the GM and demanded a trade all off-season. He was booed by fans and called "selfish" by teammates behind his back. But he sucked it up and carried his team to title contention and raised his game to an MVP-level. Yes, Hakeem Olajuwon went from malcontent to two-time champion--and back in November, we wondered if Kobe could pull off a similar transformation.
Labels: Chris Paul, Deadspin, Joey Harrington, Kobe Bryant, MVP, NPR
posted by Crucifictorious @ 01:32,
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Don't buy what Cuban's smoking
Friday, March 28, 2008
Not long ago, we were talking with a professional sportswriter--a good one, with national name recognition--who didn't have any special, anti-blogger axe to grind.
Of course, we asked Writer X for his opinion anyway.
His experience was typical; he'll check blogs to monitor rumors and feels the pressure of an ever-faster news cycle. But Writer X was generally underwhelmed; a few times, he's checked into a blog's story of a pending trade or player news, only to learn it was just Internet hype or fiction. Meanwhile, when Writer X's slipped once or twice--as we all do--bloggers jumped all over him.
So we pressed him: Do these guys belong in the same locker room as you?
He didn’t think so. According to Writer X,
"Being a journalist is like being a doctor or a lawyer. It's a trade. You can go to school for it, you learn it, you get better over the years...I'm better now than I was 10 years ago, and hopefully I'll be better in 10 years still. These [bloggers]...they don't have that. They can write about [a proposed trade that was never discussed] and it doesn't matter."
It's a common opinion in the MSM, and Writer X expressed it more logically than most.
Too bad he's wrong. There's a reason citizen journalism is a reality and citizen surgery isn't.
True, the average piece of Washington Post political analysis is incredibly incisive, cogent, and clear-minded. Hundreds of WordPress posts on the same topic--nominally--don't come close.
But for a would-be writer with talent and drive, the learning curve from awful to OK isn't that steep; at the least, it's quicker than mastering laparoscopic surgery or understanding legal torts. Besides, plenty of reporters are awful writers and many columnists are annoyingly bombastic--it's just all ironed out by the newsroom, thanks to editors' rewrites and organizations' limits on what they can cover and argue.
Really, reporters only have three things that bloggers don't: Access, editors, and consequences.
But access--long the biggest barrier to legitimacy--isn't a problem in Dallas, thanks to Mark Cuban's decision to allow "all bloggers" to apply for Mavericks media credentials...regardless of age, affiliation, or experience.
Angry that his blogger ban was overruled, Cuban's clearly thumbing his nose by not establishing any ground rules--possibly hoping the policy will blow up.
Call us cynical, but it will. Access doesn't necessarily grant consequences, after all.
It won't go bad right away. But eventually, someone--with nothing to lose--will think he's making a name for himself by asking embarassing, inappropriate questions. Maybe he'll take and post pictures of players' body parts. Something bad. It probably won't be any blogger we've heard of, either, but someone who set up a blogspot address for the stunt appeal. And under Cuban's policy, only 30 seconds--the time it takes to register a free blog--separate any fan from the locker room.
Look, we need to be protected from ourselves. We've already demonstrated bad behavior, on a much smaller scale; after the experience below, do you think Sam Cassell is eager for more non-traditional interviews?
We love the Wizards but certainly don't expect credentials for WRG; the site's infrequently updated and has a small cadre of readers. Other bloggers don't want credentials, either; one Bright Side of the Sun poster just wants to keep writing in his pajamas, commenting on Phoenix without bias.
And we're not alone in responding cautiously. Over on Hardwood Paroxysm, Matt (and commenters) urge bloggers to self-select whether they have "something to offer" before applying for credentials, and to behave once they're issued.
We'd go farther in our advice for the rookie blogger who wants a press pass: Spend some time building a website and readership; write enough posts until you iron out the kinks. By the time you've earned an interview, you'll be a better blogger for it.
But unfortunately, "earning an interview" doesn't matter anymore.
Until today, it took talent, drive, and luck to get in that Mavericks locker room. Now, that's only true for the 15 players who actually work there.
Labels: Dallas Mavericks, Deadspin, mark cuban, newspaper blogs MSM
posted by Crucifictorious @ 15:03,
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That Boise sports blogger posting at 5 a.m. would corner the market
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
So Ballhype--the Digg.com of sports blogs--is sharing truly fascinating survey results of sports bloggers: Their habits, their secret identities, even their boxer/brief preferences.
The survey drew 135 respondents--by my count, only 1% of the 10,000 amateurs and professionals who'd call themselves sports bloggers--so it's hardly representative. But considering that Ballhype is heavily trafficked by "serious" sports bloggers who are looking to network, promote their stories, and even make a little money...well, the study gets a lot more relevant.
A few quick observations jump out:
- Sports bloggers are predominantly white males in their mid-to-late 20s (a real shocker)
- They're concentrated on the coasts and in the upper-Midwest (also, not surprising)
- There appears to be a correlation between bloggers who practice in "secret"--using pseudonyms and not telling their employers--and bloggers who think of their blog as a hobby as well as put fewer hours into maintaining it
- 16% of respondents made more than $500 a month from their blog. We're obviously doing something wrong.
- Most blog posts are posted around 10 a.m.-noon EST and the fewest blog posts are put up at 5 a.m. EST.
You know, I'd write more on the Ballhype sports blogger study, but it'd cut into that precious hour I spend on "activities related to my blog"...and I still need to read Deadspin today.
Labels: Ballhype, Deadspin, sports blogs are on fire
posted by Anonymous @ 13:59,
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Around the Web...
Thursday, June 28, 2007
From the Soul of Baseball: One man's take on the AL All-Star starters. No Corey Patterson?From Slate.com: Kobe and Kevin. Paul Shirley lionizes one, bathes the other in oil. Can you guess which?
From The Wizards of Odds: It's all about the kids...making the old men oodles of money.
From Deadspin: Does anyone feel a draft?
Labels: AL All-Star game, Deadspin, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, NBA Draft
posted by Crucifictorious @ 18:56,
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