The topic I looked at for my three articles was Women’s football on a local scale. The three subjects I looked at in particular to do with women’s football was the pay in the women’s game, the sexism in women’s football and the coverage with women’s football. All these topics involve issues related to politics, economy and social culture.
When doing my primary research on Women’s football and the specific topics I looked at in my three articles, I wanted to make sure that these topics were something which was newsworthy for my chosen audience.
With me already having some knowledge on women’s football, it helped with my primary research. For example, for the article on coverage in women’s football, I knew that there was now a ‘Women’s Match Of The Day’ but I needed to further my knowledge on the things I already knew. So with this example, I looked at when the programme was usually aired. Just from this bit of information I can then began to develop on this and start to ask questions such as ‘Is this a good time for fans of women’s football to watch the show?’ and ‘How many people are actually seeing it if is being shown on the Sunday after the men’s Match Of The Day?’.
Writing for particular delivery context
Another factor involved in my primary research was deciding on who my audience was and where my articles would be published. I looked at many different styled online news websites from The Telegraph to the Daily Mail and took note of their writing styles and what publication would suit my topic.
After looking at many different sport articles I felt that the one which would suit my topic and style of writing best was The Telegraph. This online publication style is much more formal than some of the others I looked at.
I felt that my pieces have all been written in a formal style with the language used being not too complex so that what is being said is clear to understand and allows younger ages to take interest in the articles and not just adults. The Telegraph also had its own ‘women’s sports section’ which suited my three articles as they were all on women’s football.
From looking at some of the Daily Mail articles, for example the one to do with footballers having to wear masks, the stories are created through rumours and usually not the complete truth. This is something which the Daily Mail do regularly which often also includes a long title involving key words such as a well known footballer’s name or a worldwide club to help with the search engine optimisation and get more clicks. This style is seen as more informal which wasn’t how I wanted my pieces to be portrayed.
With my stories not being related to just one area in the UK, I felt it was best to target a national newspaper rather then a local one as the stories being written are ones which anyone can take an interest in across the country, especially those who enjoy sport and football in particular.
Finally, I noticed in The Telegraph’s articles, especially when looking at the ‘moment in time’ piece written by Vicki Hodges that they like to include as much detail as possible where ever they can, which is something I also made sure I did so that the readers were able to clearly understand what was being said and added some further detail to what was being described.
News Values and Ethics
New values and ethics is very important when creating articles as it must have an impact on the audience but also be accurate and reliable. They want to read about something which is up to date with things they haven’t heard about before, including quotes which may be exclusive to the piece being you are creating.
The three stories I created on women’s football were all newsworthy and were pieces which would want to be read by sports fans but also may open up to feminists with it being related to the issues involved in the women’s game in the UK.
In the first article to do with the lack of coverage in women’s football in the UK, I was able to make it relatable and engaging to people who may not know as much about women’s football by comparing it to men’s football and the significant difference between the two. I did struggle to find accurate statistics but if I was to have found some, it would have strengthened the piece and increased the impact created.
The second article about the political and social-cultural issue on sexism in women’s football includes the news value of conflict. Having sexism still in the women’s game is the kind of topic people want to learn more about and understand the detail involved. I have exclusive quotes from people in the women’s game talking about the sexism they’ve seen themselves and why it’s still happening. This story creates an impact as this kind of negative news will have an effect on the audience.
In the third article related to the once again political and economical issues of the pay in women’s football, I was able to get an interview with Liverpool Women’s footballer Rinsola Babajide. By getting an exclusive interview with a women’s footballer playing for one of the best clubs in the country it adds the news value of prominence. Babajide is someone who when playing will be very much in the public eye. The audience will want to read the thoughts of a professional player because of her status and how her pay may be effecting her life.
Looking at the ethics in journalism, if the information being provided was inaccurate or made up, then not only would the audience lose trust in articles created by the writer but also lose trust in the place the article was published. The audience rely heavily on journalists giving the truth with accurate quotes.
When doing some further reading on ethics in journalism, a quote which caught my eye was “Journalists should do no harm. What we publish or broadcast may be hurtful, but we should be aware of the impact of our words and images on the lives of others.”
I think this is a very important part of the ethical side to journalism. We have to be aware that not everyone is going to like what is said in your piece and may take offence to some things said. For example some people may have found it hurtful in one of my pieces when professional women footballer Toni Duggan says that women don’t deserve to be paid the same as men at the minute. The reason the reader might not like this comment is because they have a different view to Duggan and it’s not the ‘norm’ in terms of what is usually said in mainstream media to women’s pay.
Hypothetically, If I was to put in my piece that ‘men will always be better then women at football and there is no way that women deserve as much coverage as the men’, then not only would this be hurtful to so many people but also very sexist and not ethical at all. This would then lead the reader to think the publication it was on and I were just trying to enforce an opinion onto them so that they might agree with it because of it being in the mainstream media and publications.
Representations
When writing my stories, I felt that my representations effected how the reader may have been positioned after reading them. In all three of my stories, the main quotes came from women who were involved and had an interest in football. This meant when they were talking about the issues, they were all on the side of women’s football and how the issue being discussed needed improving.
For example when talking about the social-cultural issue with Georgia Stevens of sexism involved in women’s football, she believed that there was still sexism in football and although it had improved, it was still a massive issue. However, if I was to have gone with someone from the mens game to talk about this issue they may not have been as aware of the sexism still involved in women’s football. However, I feel that it made more logical sense when writing these pieces to have the main quotes coming from someone who was involved in the women’s game.
I do think that the views put across in my pieces not just from the people I interviewed but also myself are usually also represented by the other newspapers which may be why these views are so common for people to now think.
Women (being the represented group) in sport used to be seen a lot differently 10/15 years ago with the stereotypical view being that ‘women aren’t as talented as men’ at sports however, compared to men footballers, women footballers are still a minority group. The previous stereotypical view is something now in the past in the UK’s mainstream media but there are still people (usually with less of a voice) who will agree with this statement but that will be the minority and is unlikely to be published unless said by someone famous as this is a story which people will take interest in and cause controversy.
In the article to do with the economic issues related to the pay in women’s football, I made sure that I got another quote which was against what Babajide said. I feel that in a news story it is good to have both sides of the argument as it gives it more balance and it comes back to the point of being ethical in journalism and trying to give both sides of the story but I did represent the side of both men and women should be paid equally as the stronger argument. This shows the effect the writer can have on the article. Even though my articles involved a lot of quotes, I was still able to have an input and share my own voice.
Creating a narrative
Another feature used in my articles which we learnt about in the module was creating a narrative. By creating a narrative in my piece I am able to layout the piece to the audience the way I want it to come across.
For example looking at the key roles theory created by Vladimir Propp and their jobs in the text. If you look at the article related to the sexism involved in women’s football, I positioned the people in the text who were against women’s football at the villains as they are associated to why there is still sexism in women’s football. The heroes in the text are the women playing football. Them being the heroes suited the text as this is what is mainly being supported throughout the text so it made sense for them to be seen in a good light. Also, by putting them as the heroes and the sexist people as the villains it will be more likely to shape the audience to want to avoid being like the sexist people as they don’t want to be portrayed this way.
Another way I used narrative in my text was through Todorov’s equilibrium theory. This is where everything in the story starts fine and then something disrupts the equilibrium. This kind of narrative makes the reader want to read on and understand the whole situation. After that there is a new equilibrium but it may not be the same as the first one. In my article on the economic and political issue of women’s coverage, I started the piece of with an equilibrium saying how there has been a rise in the coverage and viewing figures of women’s football.
I then created the disequilibrium where I compared it to other countries coverage like the USA and it showed how far behind it was in terms of coverage. The new equilibrium was created by saying how the amount of coverage of women’s football in the UK is still on the rise but that there was still more work that needed to be done. This equilibrium meant that the problem isn’t completely fixed and is a good piece to follow up in a few months time.
When doing some further reading, I found a quote on creating a narrative which stood out to me. In the book, “Analyzing narrative: discourse and sociolinguistic perspectives” written by Anna De Fina and Alexandra Georgakopoulou it said “Narrative resists straightforward and agreed-upon definitions and conceptualisations. Instead, its study tends to be a minefield of multiple and at time competing perspectives in a wide array of humanities and social science fields.”
This quote indicates to me that when creating a narrative it’s important to think about the one you are trying to create to the reader. There are so many ways you can create a narrative which may not fit or go with the story or characters involved. This could then lead to the wrong message being put across to your audience and them taking a different perspective to the one you wanted them to take.
Harvey Lawrence's Sport Blog 