SCM Hosts Series of Sports Media Panels at Berra Museum

More than 60 sports media professionals, including top editors from The New York Times, ESPN, the Boston Globe and the Associated Press, and 56 students attended a series of sports media panels hosted by the SCM at the Yogi Berra Museum on Monday. The event was a joint regional meeting for the Associated Press Sports Editors organization and the Association for Women in Sports Media.

Kelly Whiteside, assistant professor in the School of Communication and Media, moderated the panel on the abuse female sports reporters face on social media, which featured reporters from The Daily News, ESPN and USA Today. Given the issue has made the job of a female reporter more challenging than it’s been in about 25 years, the panelists discussed strategies to combat the abuse.

Tom Franklin, also an assistant professor in the School, served as a panelist on the multi-media panel and detailed the necessity of being able to take quality pictures, edit and transmit them, report, post content to a website and understand code.

Another panel examined the growing field of data journalism and featured reporters from the New York Times’ Upshot, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. "It’s just journalism, not data journalism," as one panelist said. "You wouldn’t call it word journalism."   

Lindsey Berra of MLB.com hosted a panel focused on athletes turned broadcasters and the shrinking opportunities for "civilians" in the booth. Jessica Mendoza of ESPN, who became the first woman to call a MLB playoff game last month, joined via Skype.