DISSERTATION FINAL PAGE NUMBERS

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction

Section 1.1: Background

Sports coverage has become one of the most vitally important aspects of the British media for centuries. However, Boyle (2006, p.1) says that sports journalism “in many ways remains a paradox”.

In the hierarchy of professional journalism [sports journalism] has been traditionally viewed disparagingly as the ‘toy department’, a bastion of easy living, sloppy journalism and ‘soft’ news. (Boyle, 2006, p.1)

Despite this, sports journalism been prevalent in newspapers and press, as well as gaining increasing coverage over the years. As Andrews (2005, p.2) notes, sports reporting in British newspapers has gone “from two or three pages at the back of the paper” to national newspapers having their own separate sections for sport. Furthermore, Boyle (2006, p.2) indicates that newspapers “can devote up to a third of editorial space to coverage ofsport”.

With this increased coverage, sports journalism (and its stars) often finds itself away from the back pages and crossing over into other specialist areas such as fashion or business. The modern media era has seen an intense popularisation and globalisation of sport, especially football. This has unleashed the phenomenon of a ‘sports star’ which has increasingly become a part of the journalistic culture.

In addition, Boyle and Haynes (2000, p.177) argue that “sports journalism has always been viewed as a key component in the make-up of the popular press” and that “football and footballers themselves are often subject to the same scrutiny given to others in related entertainment industries” (p.186).

However, Boyle and Haynes (2000, p.186) say that “ironically, at a deeper structural level” this can mean that while an audience knows more about the private lives

of individual players, this focus has led to other areas ofsport journalism to be neglected.

“Ironically, at a deeper structural level, this means that,while we may know more about the private sexual peccadilloes of individual players… the exposing or investigating aspect of the sports business is in fact the terrain of a relatively small section of the media. (Boyle and Haynes, 2000, p.186)

This is an interesting topic deserving to be studied because sports journalism holds an important place in the media as its own entity. Marshall (2006, p.11) says that “sport is perhaps the transitional cultural activity in itsmediated form that moves between the idea of hero and the celebrity”.

With sportsmen and women (especially Premier League footballers) being amongst some of the best paid and instantly recognisable people on the planet, the media’s spotlight has become firmly fixed upon this group of elite ‘sport stars’.

British footballers and its stars have become an integral part of the landscape of the media entertainment industry, where everyone wants a part of you. (Boyle and Haynes, 2000, p.103)

This has created a much wider range of sports stories than ever before. A footballer’s personal life, off-the-field business ventures or fashion choices, grabs the media’s interest just as much as the player’s ability to run box-to-box, put the ball in the net or deliver the perfect dead-ball. Boyle (2006, p.102) asks “to what extent is thischanging the relationship between journalists and the sports that they cover?”

This is the basis of why this topic deserves to be studied;whether or not the media abandon stories relating to the game itself when dealing with footballing celebrities and the extent to which a greater focus is placed on ‘gossip’ or ‘private life’ stories. As such, being an aspiring sports journalist, I am interested in studying how

prominent these types of stories have become in sports journalism.

Thus, in order to understand and compare the importance of such stories, I aim to identify the norms and conventions of how the media report on both celebrities and sport stars. Firstly, I shall focus on how the ‘celebrity culture’ phenomenon has affected sports journalism, notablythe journalists’ adapted approach to reporting sports matters. Secondly, I shall decipher the extent of importance that these stories have over more conventional forms of the medium.

Section 1.2: Outline of study

This study will focus on three British newspapers (The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Sun) and how each reported on some of football’s superstars: David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. Each of these footballers is world-renowned for their talent on the pitch and, perhaps thanks to this talent, have come to be recognised in equal measures off it.

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to investigate what effect these elite footballers have on the reporting of football in these three papers, and how this may affect the quality of football journalism in the eyes of football fans.

Recently, these footballers have shared a common experiencein the media’s spotlight. They have each been subject of huge money transfers from the English Premier League to Spanish footballing giants Real Madrid and its ‘Galácticos’. Therefore, in light of this event, we shall be able to see if the footballers were subject to private-life reports at the expense of their on-pitch coverage.

Chapter 2 (which follows the introduction) contains an extensive review of the literature relating to this study. Here the topics of celebrity in sport, the conventions of sport reporting and David Beckham as the “quintessential” sports are discussed.

In Chapter 3, I set out my research questions and provide detail of what exact research methods I conducted in the process of this study, with Chapter 4 presenting these findings.

Chapter 5 is where this data is analysed and discussed, followed by Chapter 6 where I draw conclusions from the study, as well as outlining any limitations I have faced and how this study could be developed upon in future.

Chapter 2 – LiteratureReview

Chapter 2: Literature Review

The following contains an extensive review of the literature relating to this study. This includes; the notion of celebrity in sport, the conventions of sport reporting, David Beckham as the “quintessential” sports star are explored thoroughly throughout this chapter.

Section 2.1: Celebrity in sport

There is extensive discussion within the academic literature on the topic of celebrity in sport and many writers sharing similar views.

For one, Nayer (2009, p.1) suggests that “celebrities, one might say, are everywhere.” It could be suggested that the notion of celebrity in today’s culture is defined as someone who is simply famous for being famous. Marshall (2006, p.19) says that in order for a modern phenomenon such as celebrity to “work”, an audience requires a “knowledge and para-intimacy of individuals” and “depends on an audience that understands and celebrates the malleability of identity and primacy of the individual”.

In addition to this, Nayer (2009, p.4) defines a celebrity as “an individual or event that the public watches: someoneor something that is recognised by a large number of people”. These definitions become even more relevant when the celebrity is a sports star. This idea is depicted by Nayer (2009, p.15) who states that “the sports star is a hero, as opposed to a mere celebrity.”

Furthermore, Boyle (2006, p.111) argues that the sports industry has “always had its pantheon of heroes and villains”, but says that these are often created by “media coverage and sports journalism in particular”. The notion of a ‘sports star’, however (in terms of modern history at least), is a relatively new idea. Rowe (1995, cited by Redmond and Holmes, 2007, p.197) suggests that before the 1970s “there was nothing chic or fashionable about sport orsports stars”.

Andrews and Jackson (2001, p.7) say that given the “centrality of noteworthy individuals” in sports culture, it is little wonder that a thriving sport celebrity industry has come to the fore. They argue that these individuals are selected upon certain specific qualities that position themselves as “deserved benefactors”, statingthat: “The ascent to sport celebrityhood is habitually reduced to individual qualities such as innate talent, dedication, and good fortune.” (Andrews and Jackson, 2001, p.8)

There is clearly an agreement and recognition of celebrity in sport between these authors. They identify the celebritysport star as an individual that the media (and therefore journalists) pay close attention to. Boyle (2006, p.32) says that the print media’s promotion and integration of sport as ‘news’ in the newspaper is a big reason for this.

The print media were also heavily implicated in the creation of sports stars and the tangled relationship between players, agents, promoters and journalists that would come to characterise much of modern sports journalistic practice. (Boyle, 2006, p.32)

However, little is made of the impact this has on these journalists; only that this dynamic has changed the way sport is covered in the media. The notion of celebrity can,therefore, be applied to how a sports journalist works. Certain elite ‘sports stars’, take David Beckham as an example, can change how they report on their specialist sport.

Section 2.2: Conventions of sport reporting

In British sports journalism, Boyle (2006, p.36) argues that tabloid and broadsheet journalism each has a “marked and distinctive terrain and stylistic modes”, arguing that while the popular press in the UK did not invent sport, “their engagement with [and] their ability to create and shape meaning around it” began to transform what was understood to be the position of sport in society.

Koppett (1994, cited by Boyle and Haynes, 2000, p.169) outlines four ‘don’ts’ for a sports journalist, meaning things they should look to not include in their work:

1) Don’t take cheap shots.2) Don’t form close friendships.3) Don’t be afraid of arousing anger, but don’t pick on people to

show you’re not afraid.4) Don’t deny an error, or compound it by looking for justification.

(Koppett 1994 cited by Boyle and Haynes 2000, p.169)

However, Boyle and Haynes (2000, p.170) say these principles “are clearly idealized” and that it is not difficult to recall instances where these codes have been broken or totally ignored by journalists in search of an exclusive story. Boyle and Haynes (2000, p.172) suggest that the pressure to “embellish or sensationalize” has comeabout thanks to an increase in the number of media outlets that cover sport.

As in other areas, such as rolling television news, it remains highly debatable whether more outlets actually means better information for the viewer. (Boyle and Haynes,2000, p.170)

Boyle (2006, p.40) argues that the 1960s saw the newspapersgo through several changes “that have directly shaped printsports journalism ever since”.

Sports journalism went in two directions; there was an impressive expansion of lively and serious writing about sport, mostly from the ‘quality press’, and a headlong rushinto scandal in the ‘middle market’ papers like the Mail andthe Express as well as the tabloids. Like the quality press

they were no longer able to rely on match reports to sell newspapers. (Holt and Mason, 2000 cited by Boyle, 2006, p.40)

Boyle (2006, p.42) also interviewed media commentator Roy Greenslade on the experience of British sports journalists.He (Greenslade) suggested that by the 1980s, “a substantivechange in sports journalism and its attendant culture had taken place”.

What you gradually saw in the popular press was that editors began to impose on the barons and telling them whatthey should do… If you look at The Sun from 1981 onwards, the editor takes the view that we must be more critical, more edgy, and you see a gradual transformation. Reporting is no longer enough, things are shown on television. Every match report now had to be about what the manager thought of the game, what you thought of the manager, what the players thought of the game, and you see the growth of quotes. (Boyle, 2006, interview with Greenslade, 2004)

Whannel (2001, p.140) argues that the tabloid revolution ofthe 1980s created a heightened focus on stories about easily recognisable star figures. Boyle (2006, p.38) suggests that “while the press did not invent football, they changed it by amplifying its importance and helping tocreate its heroes”.

Andrews (2005, p.3) says that “to cover sport successfully [a sports reporter] needs to understand the audience who will be consuming it”, claiming that fans know their sportsand their teams inside out. He also suggests that the action of sports stars off the field is almost as importantas that on it.

There is the movement of players from one club to another etc. etc. and the daily activities of sports people who have become personalities and celebrities in their own right. (Andrews, 2005, p.64)

However, he admits that sports writing “once had the reputation of being clichéd prose churned out by lazy hacks” (2005, p.8) “The standard of writing in sports sections has risen enormously in recent years, so that it

now bears comparison with the best of any other forms of journalism” (Andrews, 2005, pp. 8-9). So, what impact has this had on sports journalists? And to what extent does this model for sport reporting still exist today?

This impact is something that is explored in an academic journal written by Coombs and Osborne (2012). The case study itself was devised in order to “understand the perceptions and experiences of sports reporters tasked withcovering Premier League sides” (Coombs and Osborne, 2012, p.413).

Their investigation involved sixteen interviews with “working sports journalists whose primary responsibilities included coverage of Premier League football clubs” (ibid.,p.416).

There were some interesting findings regarding the importance placed on “what happens on the pitch, rather than what happens in restaurants” (ibid., p.421). Interviews with these journalists revealed that football’s global audience has created limited media spots, leading toa “culture of suspicion between clubs and the news organizations” (ibid., p.420).

Footballers are now extremely wealthy, and their private lives considered fair game for the gossip pages. This dynamic is accelerated when a player develops a relationship with another public figure, typically including pop stars and models. Paparazzi follow their every move, and these young (and typically ill-prepared) men find their casual off-hand comments to be splashed across headlines and reported with varying degrees of accuracy. Football journalists noted the importance of making clear contrasts between what they do and the coverage described above. (ibid., p.421)

The findings of Coombs and Osborne are in contrast with other authors cited earlier in this chapter, and suggest a different view on the celebrity culture in sport. However, although they acknowledged the dynamic, little comment or criticism was made in reference to the impact this type of coverage has on sport media as its own medium.

Coombs and Osborne (2012, p.416) recognise this, saying “research looking specifically at sports journalism has tended to be somewhat less critical of globalization and more interested in examining changes brought on by evolvingnew media technologies”.

This suggests that there is a gap in research with this particular topic; that of the lack of research on the impact the phenomena of celebrity has had on sport reporting, (i.e. in terms of the extent these stories feature over conventional sports journalism).

Section 2.3: David Beckham

David Beckham, the biggest sports star and “the world’s most famous association football player” (Gilmour and Rowe,2010, p.229), has been the subject of extensive research byscholars and authors alike. This is one reason why my data analysis has included Beckham. Haynes (2007) uses David Beckham as his primary focus and analyses a “dramatic change in the media coverage of sport” (2007, p.362).

Beckham, or at least, the commodified Beckham, has profitedfrom the same kinds of processes that create kings from fools, luminaries from dullards, It Girls from under-achieving nymphets. All have been delivered to a vast audience courtesy of a media with a seemingly inexhaustibleappetite for celebrities. (Cashmore, 2002, cited by Haynes,2007, p.361)

This media attention has given Beckham the opportunity to not only be celebrated, but also scrutinised in equal measure. Briggs et al. (1997, cited by Whannel, 2001, p.139) compares this scrutiny to “shaming punishments” used by thecourts in the pre-modern periods. “Just as pillorying took place in the most public place available – town squares at midday on market day; so contemporary pillorying happens inthat most public of places - the tabloid press.” (Whannel, 2001, p.139)

Whannel (ibid., p.139) argues that this “tabloid castigation” has created a hostile atmosphere for Beckham with football fans. He says that Beckham’s abuse was rootedin three main factors:

The hatred of Manchester United prevalent among football fans, the tall poppy i factor, and Beckham’s sending off in the 1998 World Cup. (ibid., p.40)

Beckham’s sending off in the 1998 World Cup in the quarter final against Argentina was probably the biggest reason forthis. Beckham, rather lazily, kicked out at Diego Simeone and was sent off by the referee. England went on to lose the game on penalties, and were knocked out of the tournament. Whannel suggests that this moment allowed

Beckham “to be constructed as a sacrificial victim” and thescapegoat by the British press.

The episode was the subject of hostile press comment; it unleashed a torrent of abuse from the terraces, and Beckhambecame the butt of jokes (ibid., p.141)

Beckham is a unique case, and therefore a suggestion that the conventions of sports journalism are being compromised when dealing with sport celebrities, especially footballersis difficult to assume from one isolated incident.

However, the way the media covered Beckham leads us into the methodology chapter of this dissertation which will explore how the media set agendas, what effect this can have on its audience and the importance this can place uponcertain news topics in the eyes of the audience (see Section 3.3).

Chapter 3 - Methodology

Chapter 3: Methodology

The studies previously mentioned in the literature review of this dissertation have explored the impact the phenomenon of celebrity has on sport, the conventions and norms of sports journalism and how the media agenda was constructed towards David Beckham. This chapter will now look to take these views forward, focusing research on three British newspapers and its coverage of football celebrities specifically.

I am studying British newspapers (The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Sun) and each paper’s reporting on three football superstars (David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale). Data will be collected from the papers themselves and also from an audience of football fans (by ways of an online survey), and this research will help this dissertation come to a conclusion.

The purpose of the content/newspaper analysis is to gain a greater understanding into what type of stories each paper focus their content towards, and how their articles are perceived by its audience is the purpose of the survey; theaudience analysis of football fans who consume football journalism.

Section 3.1: Content/newspaper analysis

The first part of primary research I conducted was to investigate the type of stories that were most prevalent infootball journalism, and will aim to answer the following questions:

1. How are British newspapers used in terms of football journalism?

2. Are these newspapers giving its audience what they want to read?

3. And, finally, are these newspapers reporting on football differently?

In order to answer these questions, articles were taken from three British newspapers (The Guardian, the Daily Mail andThe Sun) over the course of a week. I chose these three

papers as I could compare between tabloid journalism (The Daily Mail and The Sun) and that of a broadsheet/Berliner (The Guardian). This allowed me to compare how each paper reports on football and to see any potential differences.

I used the online database ‘LexisLibrary’ in order to gather these articles. Search terms were narrowed down by the player’s name, the newspapers, and the date-ranges of each transfer dates (which can be seen on the following page).

Each footballer had a week’s worth of articles analysed from these three papers in the week each player was transferred from the English Premier League (and their respective clubs) to Spanish football giants Real Madrid. The week was chosen based on the days either side of the official transfer date and the transfer date itself. This allowed me to see how the papers were reporting on each player before their transfers, as the news broke, and finally the reaction to the transfer. However, in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, as his transfer from Real Madrid was agreed long in advance of his actual move, the articles were be taken from the week his transfer was made public knowledge.

The transfer dates of each footballer (and dates articles were analysed between) are as follows:

1. David Beckham Manchester United to Real Madrid – Wednesday 18 June, 2003(Monday 16-23 June, 2003)

2. Cristiano RonaldoManchester United to Real Madrid – Wednesday 1 July, 2009(Monday 8-15 June, 2009)

3. Gareth BaleTottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid – Monday 2 September, 2013(Friday 30 August-6 September, 2013)

These footballers were selected as they were widely recognised as among some of the best players in the PremierLeague during their playing careers in England, and their careers have taken similar paths (i.e. to Real Madrid).

The research looked over all three newspapers, the content of their articles and the purpose they seem to serve. The findings will be put into different ‘categories’ and presented in Chapter 4. These categories were chosen in order to differentiate ‘football related’ stories. This allowed me to analyse the newspapers quantitatively.

I categorised the articles into the following topics:

1. News of the transfers themselves2. Personal opinion of the journalist (i.e. feature style pieces

about football)3. Interviews with football ‘professionals’ (e.g. the player

themselves, pundits)4. Stories about players (football related)5. Stories about players (not related to football e.g. about

their private life)

The analysis also looked at how the player was discussed inthe articles.

Section 3.2: Audience analysis

The second part of the study’s research looked at how football news is consumed. A survey was put together askingseveral questions in order to answer this. Some of the information I wished to elicit is as follows:

1. What does the audience look for in good football journalism?2. What sort of football stories do football fans like to read?3. What is their opinion on the quality of football journalism in

British newspapers?

The survey was created with online service ‘Google Drive’ and made use of its form creation application. The survey aimed to collect around 100 responses and was posted to a public forum of football fans in order to collect appropriate, relevant responses. I identified reddit.com and its sub-reddit (/r/soccer) as the perfect place for this as it has a community of around 200,000 subscribers.

The survey included multiple-choice questions to provide quantitative data, as well as open-ended questions encouraging the participants to give their opinions; this will form qualitative data – this data will be presented visually. For example, data received from responses to the survey will be presented in graph form (e.g. pie charts, bar graphs) in order to clearly show a percentage/number ofresponses and analysis will be given for the reasons respondents gave their answers.

One method of highlighting key words or themes from responses will be through use of ‘word clouds’ and an online application called Wordle. Williams et al (2013) notesthat a word cloud is “a particular form of visualizing textin which the more frequently a word appears in the data being analysed the more prominent it will appear in the visualisation.”

Findings from this survey will be considered alongside my content analysis (see section 3.1) in order to come to a conclusion about the state of football journalism when the context is that of a celebrity. Participants of the survey will remain anonymous in order for them to speak openly and

honestly in response to the questions. This will be made clear at the beginning of the survey, as well as the purpose of the survey and how it relates to my research.

Section 3.3: Agenda setting/framing

Larson (1994, cited by Wimmer and Dominick, 2003, p.408) suggests that agenda setting theory “proposes the public agenda”.

What kinds of things people discuss, think, and worry about(and sometimes ultimately press for legislation about) – ispowerfully shaped and directed by what the news media choose to publicize. (ibid., p.408)

The basis of this theory is that the topic that the media devote a lot of attention to, the audience will likely be most interested or care the most about. One of the more popular subjects of research in this area, according to Wimmer and Dominick (2003, p.409), surrounds framing analysis. “How the media choose to portray the issues they cover”. (ibid., p.409) This type of research usually includes several methods:

Content analysis is used to define the media agenda, and surveys are used to collect data on the audience agenda. (ibid., p.409)

This is the exact reason why I have chosen both these research methods in my study. The content analysis will be able to define which stories are most prominent throughout each paper’s football journalism (the media agenda) and thesurvey will gather participant’s opinion of this (the audience agenda).

Chapter 4: Findings

Chapter 4: Findings

Section 4.1: How British newspapers report on footballing ‘celebrities’

As explained in the methodology section of this dissertation, to gain an understanding of how British newspapers are used in terms of football journalism, data was collected from three newspapers (The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Sun). This data will be presented in the following section in an effort to establish a conclusion asto how football celebrities are reported in football journalism.

Articles were collected over a seven-day period based around specific transfer dates of three football superstars(David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale) from English clubs Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, respectively, to the Spanish Galácticos of Real Madrid. These articles were separated into five categories of purpose (as noted in Section 3.1).

4.1.1: David Beckham

David Beckham’s €35 million transfer from Manchester Unitedto Real Madrid in the summer of 2003 remains arguably the most talked about transfer in the history of football. Based on the academic literature seen from the literature review of this dissertation, then captain of the English national team, Beckham was perhaps known more on a global scale for his good looks, various hairstyles and marriage to his pop-star wife and Spice Girl (Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams) than he was for his talent on the pitch.

Figure 1 shows a combined pie chart of all the articles takenfrom the week of Beckham’s transfer (16-23 June, 2003) thatdirectly refer to David Beckham. The Sun made the most number of references to the star, with 91 articles (41%).

Figure 1: How often David Beckham was mentioned in articles (16-23 June,

2003)

52; 23%

81; 36%

91; 41% The GuardianDaily MailThe Sun

Figure 2 breaks down the articles and puts them into separatecategories of context. Though each paper differs slightly, what remains consistent is that each paper dedicated most of its content to stories about David Beckham that were notrelated to football.

Figure 2 shows that the majority of stories these newspapers were writing were ‘gossip’ stories about the footballer as opposed to articles relating to the game.

Figure 2: Breakdown of content from the three newspapers (David Beckham)

Transfer

Opinion/feature

Interviews (i.e. players/pundits/managers)

Football related

Non-football (i.e. private lives)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

The SunDaily MailThe Guardian

The Guardian focused 18 articles out of 52 (34.6%) on such stories. The Daily Mail, 27 of a possible 81 (33%) published the second highest number.

Although The Sun published one more story not relating to football than the Daily Mail (28), these types of stories contributed to the lowest percentage of The Sun’s overall content between the three (30.8%).

One significant difference between the three paper’s content is those put into the Interviews category. It is clearfrom Figure 2 that The Sun dedicated a lot of articles to interviews with people in the footballing world.

Figure 3 shows a table of the number of articles in each category in each newspaper and the percentage this figure represents in terms of the paper’s overall content.

Figure 3: Number of articles referring to Beckham and the % this fi gure represents of each paper’s content

The Sun Daily Mail The Guardian

Total

Not football 28(38.4%)

27(37.0%)

18(24.7%)

73 (100%)

Football 21(45.6%)

13(28.3%)

12(26.1%)

46 (100%)

Interview 26(66.7%)

11(28.2%)

2 (5.1%) 39 (100%)

Opinion 12 (25%) 20(41.7%)

16(33.3%)

48 (100%)

Transfer 4 (22.2%) 10(55.6%)

4 (22.2%) 18 (100%)

Total 91 (41%) 81 (36%) 52 (23%) 224 (100%)

Figure 4 visually shows a summary of all these stories from all three newspapers. This data’s findings indicate a lack

of stories exclusively about David Beckham’s transfer itself (i.e. the details of the move). However, it is important to note that categories such as Opinion/feature and interviews were naturally discussing Beckham’s move to Madridthroughout the week.

Figure 4: Summary of stories from all three newspapers

8%

21%

17%21%

33%

Transfer Opinion/featureInterviews (i.e. players/pundits/managers)

Stories about player (football related)

Stories about player (not football related i.e. private lives)

In summary, this research has shown a clear divide of stories between those that are focusing on non-football related matters and those relating to the game. The next case study in this chapter looks at a more recent football superstar in Cristiano Ronaldo.

4.1.2: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo wore the same number 7 shirt as Beckham had at Manchester United and soon established himself as one of the club’s greatest ever players. Ronaldo spent six hugely successful seasons at Manchester United (winning 3 Premier League titles, an FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League) before becoming the most expensive footballer in history in the summer of 2009, with Real Madrid spending anunprecedented £80 million on him.

Figure 5 shows a pie-chart of all articles written from the week of the transfer (8-15 June, 2009) published in, again,The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Sun. Again, much like with Beckham, The Sun made the highest number of references to Ronaldo out of all three papers (44), equating to 48% of the overall stories published.

Figure 5: How often Crist iano Ronaldo was mentioned in articles (8-15 June, 2009)

23; 25%

25; 27%

44; 48%The GuardianDaily MailThe Sun

In addition to this data, Figure 6 shows that as well as publishing the highest number of articles throughout the week, The Sun also contributed the most stories relating to non-footballing matters.

These stories accounted for 34% of the paper’s content for the week. This data, when referring to The Sun, is comparableto that of Figure 10 and the paper’s content distribution surrounding David Beckham. This shows a clear pattern in the paper’s handling of footballing celebrities.

In contrast to this, articles relating to non-footballing matters (such as Ronaldo’s private life) made up only 3 (15%) of stories in The Guardian. The number in the Daily Mail is comparable to The Sun, standing at 32%.

Figure 6: Breakdown of content from the 3 newspapers (Crist iano Ronaldo)

Transfer

Opinion/feature


Football related

Non-football related (i.e. private lives)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16


Figure 7 shows The Sun’s content distribution in the week of Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer with that of David Beckham’s. Ronaldo’s chart is on the left with Beckham’s on the right.

This data shows that the paper’s focus on non-football related stories remained similar between the two footballers. 15 articles were published focusing on non-football stories in the week of Ronaldo’s transfer, making up a majority of 34%. Though there were more stories written about Beckham, a very similar percentage of these were not relating to football in any sort of form, with 28 (31%) being published.

Figure 7: Categories referring to Ronaldo ( left) and Beckham (right) in articles from The Sun

5; 11%5; 11%

9; 20%10; 23%

15; 34% 4; 4%

12; 13%

26; 29%

21; 23%

28; 31%

Transfer OpinionInterviews FootballNon-football

In addition to this data, the similarity between the two footballers is not just exclusive to non-football related stories as the content distribution by The Sun remains virtually identical. For example, football related stories both equated for 23% of the paper’s content throughout the week, despite the big difference in number of stories published (The Sun printed 10 about Ronaldo, whereas it was over double this amount with Beckham, the paper printing 21stories).

In terms of all three papers combined when referring to Cristiano Ronaldo, Figure 8 shows a table of the number of articles published and the categories they belonged in, as well as the percentage that the category made up of the respective paper’s overall content.

Figure 8: Number of articles referring to Ronaldo and the % this fi gure represents of each paper’s content


Total


8 (30.8%) 3 (11.5%) 26 (100%)

Football 10 (50%) 3 (15%) 7 (35%) 20 (100%)Interview 9 (81.1%) 2 (18.2%) 0 (0%) 11 (100%)Opinion 5 (20%) 9 (36%) 11 (44%) 25 (100%)Transfer 5 (50%) 3 (30%) 2 (20%) 10 (100%)Total 44

(47.8%)25

(27.2%)23 (25%) 92 (100%)

As discussed already, The Sun places most of its content’s focus on stories not relating to football. However, this data shows that the category in the majority for the other two papers is Opinion (i.e. feature style pieces written by

the paper’s football writers). The Guardian published 11 sucharticles, making up 44% of the paper’s overall week. The Daily Mail had 9 such stories, which contributed 36% of the paper’s content.

In summary, it is clear to see from Figure 8 that each paper’s use of football journalism and their styles are quite different. Not only in terms of sheer amount of articles published, but also in terms of the categories these articles can be grouped into. In order to explore these findings further, the third, final and most recent case study will be presented; Gareth Bale.

4.1.3: Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale became the world’s most expensive footballer (overtaking Cristiano Ronaldo, the previous case study) in the summer transfer window of 2013. The 24 year old Welsh winger signed a six-year deal to play for Real Madrid, leaving Tottenham Hotspur, for a record £86 million.

Figure 9 shows a pie chart of three British newspaper’s articles referring to Gareth Bale during the week of his transfer (30 August – 6 September, 2013). This case study is unique when compared to the previous two as this week isthe only one that coincided with Premier League fixtures inEngland. For example, Tottenham Hotspur played Arsenal on 1September (losing 1-0). Therefore, it should be considered that football related stories may be more prevalent in the papers throughout this week.

Figure 9: How often Gareth Bale was mentioned in articles (30 August – 6 September, 2013)

27; 21%

33; 26%

67; 53%

The GuardianDaily MailThe Sun

This data shows that over half of total articles were foundin The Sun with 53% (67 of a total 127) of stories published by the paper. The Daily Mail printed the second highest numberwith 33 (26%), The Guardian last with 27 (21%).

This data is broken down into categories in Figure 10. From this data, we can see that the focus that The Guardian and The Daily Mail put on stories that were non-football related were one of the lowest categories in terms of each individual paper’s overall content. The Guardian printed fivesuch stories, which was 18.5% of their overall week. The Daily Mail published less with three stories, making up 9.1% of the paper’s content throughout the week.

Figure 10: Breakdown of content from the three newspapers (Gareth Bale)

Transfer

Opinion/feature


Football related

Non-football related (i.e. private lives)

0 5 10 15 20 25


In contrast to this, we can see from the data that The Sun’s focus on such stories was much higher. 20 out of 67 of all the paper’s overall publshed articles (29.9%) were non-football related stories, the highest category of story forthe paper. The Guardian’s highest category was stories that were football related (12 out of 27, 44.4%), whilst The Daily Mail ’s was opinion or feature style pieces written by the paper’s football writers (9 out of 33, 27.3%).

Comparing these two papers further (The Guardian and The DailyMail), Figure 11 shows two pie-charts of the two papers content throughout the week.

Figure 11: Category breakdown of articles referring to Bale in The Guardian ( left) and The Daily Mail (r ight)

5; 19%

4; 15%

1; 4%12; 44%

5; 19% 7; 21%

9; 27%

7; 21%

7; 21%

3; 9% Transfer Opinion

Interviews FootballNon-football

Other than the categories of Interviews and Football, a similardistribution of content is exhibited between these two papers, the most comparable being stories put into the category of Transfer. Five stories put into this category were published by The Guardian, whereas The Daily Mail printed seven (18 and 21% respectively).

In terms of the content of all three papers, Figure 12 shows a table breaking down all the number of articles published and the categories they belong in. Also, the percentage that the category made up of the respective paper’s overallcontent is shown.

Figure 12: Number of articles referring to Bale and the % this fi gure represents of each paper’s content


Total


3 (10.7%) 5 (17.9%) 28 (100%)

Football 17(47.2%)

7 (19.4%) 12(33.3%)

36 (100%)

Interview 9 (52.9%) 7 (41.2%) 1 (5.9%) 17 (100%)Opinion 10

(43.5%)9 (39.1%) 4 (17.4%) 23 (100%)

Transfer 11(47.8%)

7 (30.4%) 5 (21.7%) 23 (100%)

Total 67(52.8%)

33 (26%) 27(21.2%)

127 (100%)

Section 4.2: How football journalism is consumed by itsaudience

The methodology of this dissertation explained the need to explore football journalism and how its audience consumes it. In order to do this, an online survey collecting responses was carried out. In total, the survey obtained over 100 responses, although not all questions were required to be answered. Therefore, not every question has the same number of responses.

However, the results gathered from all responses will be presented in the following chapter in the hope of drawing parallels between what consumers want to read from journalists and what is actually being written.

4.2.1: Consumption of football journalism

In order to analyse what football fans wanted to read aboutthe sport itself, I first had to understand where these fans went to consume football news. As I was looking at theprint media in the first part of my research, I wanted to investigate the extent to which consumers were using this platform as a news provider.

Figure 13 shows a word cloud from the most regularly used words from the answers that participants gave in answer to the question, “In general terms, what do you look for in good football journalism?” – The most frequent appear to be“analysis”, “writ ing”, “interesting”, “knowledge” and “sources”.

Figure 13: Word cloud for survey responses to question, “In general terms, what do you look for in good football journalism?”

These most frequent words (“analysis”, “writing” and “knowledge” especially) can grouped into a theme that represents journalistic qualities. One such respondent illustrated analysis as an important feature of good football journalism, suggesting that they looked for “solid and interesting analysis”.

Another suggested that the quality of writing determined their interest in an article: “If I’m not reading a match report or transfer rumour, the writing had better be good enough for me to stick around for the duration of the piece.” One respondent argued that as well as having to “beable to write well and be concise”, a good football journalist should “have a knowledge of the sport”, stating that “it’s important the journalist knows what they’re talking about.”

One user responded by saying that they look for “knowledgeable analysis that adds something worth reading to a match report”. Another respondent said that a good football journalist should give analysis that can “offer insight where most would overlook or simply not see what itis really happening in front of their eyes”.

Participants of the survey, of whom 99% (104) were footballfans, were asked where they liked to read their football news. Figure 14 shows that less than 20% (41 of 215) of respondents choose the print media as a platform they like to receive football news from. However, there is perhaps some overlap between online media and that of the print media as each of the newspapers have their own respective online presence.

Figure 14: Where do you like to read football news? Tick all that apply.

4.2.2: Content the audience wants

In order to explore the previous findings (see 4.1.1) in more detail, the following (Figure 15) shows the results of when participants were asked what type of football stories they like to read.

The responses below show that these stories are the ones that football fans least like to read. This question, again, allowed participants to choose more than one response. Only 34 (30.9%) of people who participated in thesurvey said they liked to read stories about players that weren’t relating to football.

This is compared to 95, 88, 82 and 70 (86.3%, 80%, 74.5%. 36.6%) respondents in the rest of the categories relating to football.

Figure 15: What type of football stories do you like to read? Tick all that apply.

As shown above in Figure 15, football stories are what football fans consider to be the most enjoyable and/or important aspects of football journalism. Match reports, transfer news, press conferences/interviews (all stories relating to the game of football) are given much greater attention than stories relating to a player’s private life.

Below (Figure 16) is a word cloud of the most used words fromwhen participants were asked to respond to the question “Onthe whole, I prefer to read football stories that focus exclusively on the game”.

Figure 16: Word cloud for survey responses to question, “On the whole, I prefer to read football stories that focus exclusively on the game”

The most common words seem to be “football” and “game”. One respondent said that the game of football itself “is interesting enough without the need for celebrity stories to be involved”, arguing that the central focus should be on the game.

In response to the question (see Figure 17) “On the whole, I prefer to read football stories that focus exclusively on the game”, 80% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. This clearly supports Figure 15 and the importancethat football fans place on stories of this nature. In comparison, only 12 participants either disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Figure 17: Survey responses to question, “On the whole, I prefer to read football stories that focus exclusively on the game”

Many users who agreed with the statement said they did so as their enjoyment of football comes from the game itself, and football journalism should reflect this. A common themewas that the private lives of players are something that does not interest them as football fans.

One respondent said they were “not interested in a player’sprivate life”, stating that “I’m a football fan, not a fan of gossip”. Another said that although they enjoyed readingabout “banter” between players and/or managers, they hated football gossip.

One user responded by saying that although they are interested in “off-field issues that affect clubs”, they predominantly cared about the game on the field. Another response suggested that they didn’t care about what playersdo in their free times, stating: “They’re humans. They deserve to do what feels comfortable outside the public spotlight.” Another added that they “like to know about players as footballers, not as celebrities.”

One user suggested that stories that focus exclusively on the game were “the main reason for the creation of sports journalism” as what fan’s demand is “to read about the game’s actions and events”.

4.2.3: Focus on celebrity in football journalism

Participants of the survey were asked whether or not they thought that a focus on celebrity was damaging to football journalism. Figure 18 shows a word cloud that has been made up of all the answers given to this question. From this, the most popular words are “football”, “journalism”, “players” and“celebrity”.

Figure 18: Word cloud for survey responses to question, “The focus on celebrity is damaging to the game”

More than half of respondents agreed with the statement to some degree, as shown below in Figure 19. In response to the statement “The focus on celebrity is damaging to football journalism”, 57% of participants agreed with the statement.With 31 people (31%) claiming they were unsure, the 59 thatagreed to some degree with the statement is a majority.

Figure 19: Survey responses to question, “The focus on celebrity is damaging to football journalism.”

Those that agreed were generally of the opinion that a focus on celebrity was damaging because it took away from the game and wasn’t particularly necessary. The most

frequent words from the word cloud above allowed me to identify which quotes to look for.

One responder agreed with the statement, suggesting that “it’s unnecessary” but that “the most talented players willbecome celebrities so journalists will naturally talk aboutthem the most”. The same respondent also stated that: “As long as the journalism is still offering insight, is entertaining and educational then there is no problem.”

Another respondent held the view that “extra exposure can add pressure on players” and that it can “make footballers focus less on their play”. Despite a majority of responses agreeing with the statement, ‘unsure’ was the second most popular response. One such respondent argued that there were “pros and cons” of a focus on celebrity: “They can be looked up to as heroes, but it can distract them and put them too high, almost looked up to as gods.” This respondent then stated:

“On the other hand, there’s nothing we can do about this – people like them, so people report on them, and the circle goes round and round. I can’t believe how much money some players make, but I still love them like a little kid. So who’s to say where it becomes damaging?”

Those in the minority who disagreed generally gave the reason that a celebrity culture isn’t necessarily damaging football journalism because it adds personality to footballers and can create interest. One user claimed that:“It was the celebrity status of certain footballers that helped to start my passion for football.”

Another argued that football isn’t just limited to the game, but also “to the lifestyle”, arguing that “all players and managers are basically celebrities” and that “it is important for fans to create human connections” withthese people: “These connections create storylines and drama, and I think that is better for the enjoyment of football as a whole.”

4.2.4: Fan’s perception of British newspaper’s football coverage

Participants of this survey were also asked to rate the quality of football journalism in three British newspaper’s(The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Sun). As shown in Figure 20, The Guardian was clearly regarded as the newspaper with the highest quality of football journalism. Conversely, The Sun received poor ratings.

Figure 20: On a scale of 1-5, please rate the following newspapers according to the quality of their football journalism

1 (poor)

2

3

4

5 (excellent

)

Unsure

0 10 20 30 40 50 60


In response to the question, “On a scale of 1-5, please rate the following newspapers according to the quality of their football journalism”, 64% rated The Guardian as either a 4 or 5 out of 5 in terms of quality. A common theme for the reasons why the paper was given such a high percentage of positive ratings was its focus on football itself.

One response in favour for The Guardian said they rated the paper highly as it “focused the most on analysis”. Another listed several reasons why they believed The Guardian was deserving of a high rating: “Varied topics, fresh perspectives, articulate writers, longer articles, a sense of humour.”

Users also suggested that it was the paper’s “broadsheet” style that was more appealing to them, as opposed to that of a tabloid. The idea that The Guardian didn’t “adopt a sensationalist approach of tabloids” was a common opinion. For example, one response stated that “The Guardian tends to stray away from sensationalist, tabloid topics. They are usually well-written, have sharp analysis and good stats.”

The Guardian’s journalists and writers were also praised in the responses:

“Their insight makes sense and they seem to be a bit more reliable when it comes to sources and news.”

“Essentially [The Guardian] talent-spot writers that are insightful and good to read.”

In contrast to the good ratings of The Guardian, the ratings received by the Daily Mail and The Sun were much less complimentary. 62% of participants considered the quality of football journalism in the Daily Mail either a 1 or 2 out of 5. The Sun received a 79% share of 1 or 2 ratings, and notone rating of a 5.

The common opinion held by participants of the survey on the Daily Mail ’s quality of football journalism places it below that of The Guardian. A common response was that the paper is quite reliable in terms of transfer rumours. However, although one user stated that they find the paper to be more reliable than The Guardian for football rumours, the Daily Mail is “far less reliable when it comes to regularfootballing news and stories”.

The opinion held generally in regards to the quality of theDaily Mail ’s football journalism was very “hit and miss”. For example, one response suggested that “the Daily Mail wins on sheer volume” with lots of articles to comment on, but “thequality of writing is low and often sensationalist”.

As mentioned above, The Sun received the lowest overall rating. The most common reasoning for this majority response was that the paper uses poor sources and relies onshorter, gossip stories.

One response stated that “[The Sun] relies on its headlines”, often printing “nonsense”. Another felt that The Sun “just wants a good story” and “will lie if needs be”.Figure 21 shows a table calculating the average rating for each paper.

Figure 21: Table breaking down each paper’s individual ratings and the average score


1 56 36 42 27 29 23 8 24 204 1 4 445 0 5 23Unsure 13 11 11Total 105 105 104Average score 1.31 1.78 3.45

Chapter 5: Discussion

Chapter 5: Discussion

5.1: Content/newspaper analysis

In the methodology (Chapter 3) of this dissertation, I discussed this study’s intentions in terms of research. I wanted to answer how British newspapers are used in terms of football journalism, whether or not these papers are giving its audience (football fans) what they want to read,and if different papers report on football differently. Having presented findings from this research in the previous chapter, this data will now be discussed in detail.

5.1.1: What type of story is most prevalent in British newspaper’s football journalism?

The results presented in the previous chapter show that stories focusing on non-football matters are most common throughout the three British newspapers I used in my content analysis (The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Sun). Of all the stories and articles published in all three newspapers that were researched (443 in total), 138 were articles not relating to football. This is equal to 31.2% of the stories.

These findings certainly seem to support the views of Whannel (2001, p.140), as shown in the literature review ofthis dissertation (Chapter 2). Whannel argued that there is‘a heightened focus on stories about easily recognisable star figures’. Also the views of Greenslade (cited by Boyle, 2006) suggesting that papers can no longer rely on amere match report to sell copies.

Evidence can be seen of this from several figures presentedin the previous chapter, but where this is most obvious comes from Section 4.1.1 on the topic of David Beckham and Figure 2. This data supports the argument made by Cashmore (2002, cited by Haynes, 2007), which is discussed in the literature review, that there was a dramatic change in the way the media covered sport as a result of Beckham. These

findings clearly indicate that football journalism is beingdominated by stories not relating to the sport itself.

5.1.2: Are these papers giving its audience what they want to read?

Having found that the majority of articles that papers werepublishing were non-football related stories, another question I intended to answer in my research was whether ornot this content was what the audience wanted to read.

In order to answer this, data collected from my audience analysis (a survey taken by over 100 participants) must be presented here. From the literature review of this dissertation, the discussion of Andrews and Jackson’s argument that a “thriving sport celebrity industry has cometo the fore”. Therefore, I wanted to investigate as to whether this focus affects the audience’s perception of football journalism.

Figure 17 presented data to suggest that (based on findings from 5.1.1) these three newspapers were not giving its audience what they want. Figure 17 showed that the majority of football fans preferred to read football stories that focused exclusively on the game.

Further evidence to support this can be seen in Figure 19, where the majority of participants agreed that a focus on celebrity is damaging to football journalism. The audience’s perception of the quality of football journalismis discussed later in this chapter in 5.2.

5.1.3: Are these newspapers reporting on football differently?

Previous findings have suggested that the three newspapers I used in my research focused the majority of their articles on non-footballing matters, but more data is needed to show whether or not each individual paper reportson football differently.

Evidence to support that the papers do indeed report on football differently comes from Figure 11, which compared articles referring to Gareth Bale in both The Guardian and The Daily Mail. This data found that both papers, for the most part, distributed their content across the categories of transfer stories, football related and non-football related stories relatively equally.

However, the categories of Opinion (feature style articles written by the respective paper’s football writers) and Interviews (i.e. stories based around comments made by the player themselves or other figures relating to football) were quite different. This indicates that the two papers have different policies in terms of their output of football journalism. Despite this, these two papers published a similar number of articles.

The Daily Mail published 139 out of the 443 total articles that made up my research, which made up 31.4% of all articles (the second lowest between all three newspapers). The Guardian printed the lowest number with 102 out of 443 (23%).

The Sun printed the most articles over all three weeks and all three footballers. 202 articles out of 443 total made up just less than half (45.6%) of all the articles. Evidence to support this can be seen in Figure 5. This type ofdistribution between the three papers was consistent throughout the reporting of all three footballers.

5.2: Audience analysis

In order to see how football journalism is perceived by itsaudience, I created a survey for participants made up of football fans and asked several questions based around football journalism. I looked to find answer to the questions what does the audience look for in good football journalism, what sort of football stories do fans of football most like to read and what is their personal opinion on the quality of football journalism in three British newspapers.

5.2.1: What does the audience look for in good football journalism?

The findings that were presented in 5.1 showed that the majority of football journalism is made up of non-football related stories. In order to see how this is perceived by the audience, participants were asked in the survey to givetheir opinion on what they believed made up good football journalism.

Figure 13 shows the most popular words from these responses with the most frequent appearing to be “analysis”, “writ ing”, “interesting”, “knowledge” and “sources”. These words and this data highlight some of the most important themes that fans look for in football journalism.

The audience responded favourably towards The Guardian with the common opinion being that this paper focused the most on analysis of the game. Based on what the responses said about themes they looked for in good football journalism, an argument can be made that The Guardian produces the best quality of football journalism from the perspective of the audience. This certainly helps explain the findings of Figures 20 and 21.

Guardian averaged 3.45 out of 5 for the quality of its football journalism. With The Daily Mail (1.78) and The Sun (1.31) scoring much lower than The Guardian, these findings would seem to disagree with the view of Andrews (2005, p.3)which was discussed in the literature review of this dissertation. Andrews’ view that the action of spots stars

off the field is almost as important as that on it does notseem to be true in terms of what football fans prefer to read.

5.2.2: What sort of football stories do football fans like to read?

From the data shown in Figure 15, the majority of football fans preferred to read football stories that focused exclusively on the game. A common reason for this was presented alongside Figure 17, which showed that most football fans were not interested in the private lives of footballers and were only concerned with the game itself.

A strong argument can be made that this is why The Sun’s average rating (seen in 5.2.1 and Figure 21) of 1.33 in regards to the paper’s quality of football journalism was lower than the other two papers, as The Sun was the paper that consistently focused most of its content on stories that were not relating to football.

For example, one such article from The Sun with the headline of “INTERVIEW; RIO FERDINAND; BYE BYE BECKHAM; UTD STARS SPEAKOUT; FOOTBALL; EXCLUSIVE” i i was one of 26 out of 91 articles (28.6%) the paper published in the week surrounding David Beckham’stransfer to Real Madrid. This was a story that focused around the two player’s (Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham) friendships and off-the-field relationship.

Having seen what the audience of football fans consider good journalism in 5.2.1, these sorts of stories can arguably be a major contributing factor as to why The Sun received a low rating for its quality of football journalism.

Chapter 6: Conclusions

Chapter 6: Conclusions

The primary purpose of this dissertation was to investigatewhat effect superstar or ‘celebrity’ footballers have on British newspapers and how this may affect the quality of their football journalism in the eyes of football fans.

The study has explored various arguments to these stars detailing certain elite footballer’s impact on the industry, and has presented sufficient primary research that has allowed several discoveries to be made.

Section 6.1: Significant discoveries

My research has proven that an elite footballer’s impact onthe practice of football journalism causes British newspapers to focus the majority of its articles on storiesnot relating to football, with stories about off-the-field matters holding a higher priority than any other.

The most significant findings of the dissertation are as follows:

1. The majority of stories or articles that refer to elite, superstar footballers focus on non-football related matters.

2. The majority of football journalism’s audience prefer to read stories that focus exclusively on the sport itself.

3. Of the three British newspapers involved in this study, The Guardian is perceived by the audience as the newspaper with the highest quality of football journalism, the audience rating the paper 3.45 out of 5. (2nd = The Daily Mail, 1.78 – 3rd = The Sun, 1.31)

Celebrity footballers have undoubtedly had an effect on football journalism; with newspapers focusing the majority of their attentions on individual players as opposed to publishing stories relating to the actual analysis of the game of football (something this study found the audience desired the most).

However, this appears to be affecting the tabloid format ofnewspapers (i.e. The Daily Mail and The Sun) more so than a Berliner, such as The Guardian. Therefore, the study has

shown that journalists and newspapers report on football very differently with the primary research conducted showing that tabloid newspapers are more likely to focus onnon-footballing matters.

It is also true that the audience of football journalism are using the print media as a platform for their news consumption less than its online counterparts. Consumers prefer to read their football news online and want stories ‘focusing on the game’ over any other form of content.

Section 6.2: Limitations and development paths

One possible limitation of this dissertation was that during the data collection process I was only able to receive just over 100 responses to the survey. Though I believe that the results of the survey show a true reflection of how the audience perceives the quality of British newspaper’s in terms of their football journalism, I feel that had I collected more responses then my data would have benefited.

Should this study ever be taken forward, certain elements of the work may be improved on to give further weight to the arguments put forward.

For instance, I would like to hold focus groups with football journalists to gather their professional insight into how celebrity footballers affect their profession. This would strengthen the conclusions presented in 6.1 and add another relevant standpoint.

Also, I would carry out the content analysis over an entireseason’s worth of articles to gather much more extensive data as to how the paper’s report on the elite, superstar footballers.

Finally, I would like to research the audience further. Oneof the most significant findings was that the majority of football fan’s prefer to read stories focusing exclusively on the game – I would look further into why this is case.

List of figures

Figure 1: How often David Beckham was mentioned in articles (16-23 June, 2003)

Figure 2: Breakdown of content from the three newspapers (David Beckham)

Figure 3: Number of articles referring to Beckham and the% this figure represents of each paper’s content

Figure 4: Summary of stories from all three newspapers

Figure 5: How often Cristiano Ronaldo was mentioned in articles (8-15 June, 2009)

Figure 6: Breakdown of content from the three newspapers (Cristiano Ronaldo)

Figure 7: Categories referring to Ronaldo (left) and Beckham (right) in articles from The Sun

Figure 8: Number of articles referring to Ronaldo and the% this figure represents of each paper’s content

Figure 9: How often Gareth Bale was mentioned in articles(30 August – 6 September, 2013)

Figure 10: Breakdown of content from the three newspapers(Gareth Bale)

Figure 11: Category breakdown of articles referring to Bale in The Guardian (left) and The Daily Mail (right)

Figure 12: Number of articles referring to Bale and the %this figure represents of each paper’s content

Figure 13: Word cloud for survey responses to question, “In general terms, what do you look for in good football journalism?”

Figure 14: Where do you like to read football news? Tick all that apply.

Figure 15: What type of football stories do you like to read? Tick all that apply.

Figure 16: Word cloud for survey responses to question, “On the whole, I prefer to read football stories that focus exclusively on the game”

Figure 17: Survey responses to question, “On the whole I prefer to read stories that focus exclusively on the game”

Figure 18: Word cloud for survey responses to question, “The focus on celebrity is damaging to the game”

Figure 19: Survey responses to question, “The focus on celebrity is damaging to football journalism”

Figure 20: On a scale of 1-5, please rate the following newspapers according to the quality of their football journalism

Figure 21: Table breaking down each paper’s individual ratings and the average score

Appendices

Appendix 1: LexisLibrary online newspaper archive data

Appendix 2: Survey responses

Q1:

What type of football stories do you like to read? Tick all that apply.Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)

Match reports, Transfer newsMatch reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Stories about players (not related to football; e.g. about their private

life)Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)

Match reports, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,Opinion / debate e.g. Who should be in England's World Cup squad?

Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related)

Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news

Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,Stories about players (football related), Stories about players (not

related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news

Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (not related to

football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)

Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)

Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Stories about players (football related), Stories about

players (not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players


managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,Stories about players (football related), Stories about players (not

related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,Stories about players (football related), Stories about players (not

related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)

Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Tactical Analysis


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)

Transfer newsMatch reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Extra stories, about

history, etc.Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Transfer news, Stories about players (football related), Stories about

players (not related to football; e.g. about their private life), tacticalanalysis pieces, historical pieces, opinion pieces by experts or

journalistsMatch reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players


managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)

Transfer news, My Club (West Ham)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,

Stories about players (football related), Tactical analysis, specific to amatch or in general


Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Stories about players (football related), Long-form articles like what the

Guardian doMatch reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related),Stories about players (not related to football; e.g. about their private

life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related), StatisticsMatch reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers




(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers, Uefa

Competitions newsMatch reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managersMatch reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)


Press conference/interviews with players or managers, Stories about players(football related), Stat comparisons etc




Match reports, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managersMatch reports, Stories about players (football related), Stories about

players (not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Stories about players (not related to football; e.g. about

their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)


Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news

Match reports, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,Stories about players (football related)


Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers


(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers




(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related),Stories about players (not related to football; e.g. about their private

life)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (not related to football; e.g. about their

private life)Match reports, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,

Stories about players (football related), Tactic Analysis (Zonal Marking)Match reports, Transfer news, Stories about players (football related)Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or managers,

Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players or

managers, Stories about players (football related)Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers, Stories about players (football related), Stories about players

(not related to football; e.g. about their private life)Stories about players (football related)

Match reports, Transfer news, Press conference/interviews with players ormanagers




Match reports, Stories about players (football related), Tactical(his)stories, Statistics, period pieces, longform stories


Transfer news, Stories about players (football related), Stories aboutplayers (not related to football; e.g. about their private life)



Q2:

Where do you like to read football news? Tick all that apply.Online news websites

redditOnline news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)

Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media(e.g. Twitter)

Online news websitesOnline news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)


Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)

Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media

(e.g. Twitter)Online news websites

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Reddit

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websitesOnline news websites


Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)


(e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)



Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media



Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)



(e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)

Online news websitesOnline news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media

(e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media

(e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Reddit!

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)

Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media(e.g. Twitter), Reddit

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)


Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter), redditrumour mill


Online news websitesOnline news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)

Online news websitesOnline news websites, Print media (newspapers)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)

Online news websitesOnline news websites, Print media (newspapers)

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websitesOnline news websites

Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites

Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media(e.g. Twitter), /r/soccer



Online news websites


Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)

Online news websitesOnline news websites



Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media




Online news websitesOnline news websites








Online news websitesOnline news websites, Print media (newspapers), Social media

(e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Social media (e.g. Twitter)Online news websites, Print media (newspapers)


Q3:

In general terms, what do you look for in good football journalism?No bullshit straight to the point.

Non biased is key.

If you're going to make it detailed don't use shit sources like twitter andgoal.com.

AnalysisJournalists own opinions

HumourTruthful accounts, facts and figues and simplicity so I understand the

content.AccurateEngaging

InterestingExpert opinion

Interviews with players/managersInteresting to read

A knowledge in what they are writing about is a good start, not necessarilyprofessional experience but some experience.

Balanced, or as balanced as possible. I don't want to read an article thathas huge bias towards one team or one player (Ronaldo is a good example forReal Madrid) there's huge bias for and against him and it's boring to read.

Backed up with proper sources or interviews with the player/team/manager inquestion, or at least some who has more authority than a sports journalist.

Objective and unbiased reportingStrong writing

Breaking the story first

Rarely wrong in reporting transfersquotes

different views to controversial issues

not the Daily MailSomeone who knows what they are talking about and a person/interviewer who

will ask questions outside of the usual garbage.impartiality

arguments backed with statisticsFootball talk i.e. tactics

-Truth-Balance

-Discussion-Non-sensational headlines

-Direct quotes-Simple languageFacts and Humor

Genuine journalism instead of headline grabbing rubbish.

Interesting and different content.

That they show knowledge and love for the game.Factual accuracy and objectivity

Unbiased, knowledge of the game aside from the typical goals scored etc.Informative with NAMED sources - nothing attributed to anonymous sources

close to a club.

Solid writing. If I'm not reading a match report or transfer report/rumor,the writing had better be good enough for me to stick around for the

duration of your piece.

Insight - there's a lot to choose from. Everyone can (and does) talk aboutthe huge budgets in Manchester or wily managing in London or the scrappy

play from pick-your-place. Find something different to write about,analyze, discuss. Give a talking point that nobody else is and you'll stand

out from the crowd. If not, you're just another sheep in the herd.The outlet having a trusted reputation

News being broken quicklyEditors that are unbiased or open about their allegiances

Reliability, team-related, humor1) Engaging, original topic, tell me something I don't know instead of

analyzing tactics for the thousandth time.

2) Clarity of thought and explanation, some journalists beat around thebush trying to make a point. Favorite journalists begin with a joke or

something, then summarize their point, explain their point, and finish withtying their point into a larger viewpoint or meaning.

3) Be funny. Make me laugh. Make me want to read your weekly column.1) Engaging, original topic, tell me something I don't know instead of

analyzing tactics for the thousandth time.

2) Clarity of thought and explanation, some journalists beat around thebush trying to make a point. Favorite journalists begin with a joke or

something, then summarize their point, explain their point, and finish withtying their point into a larger viewpoint or meaning.

3) Be funny. Make me laugh. Make me want to read your weekly column.Well writtenNot bias

Fair to the player e.g no sarcastic comments about players such as 'flop'Know what they are talking about

What paper they write for

Non-biased writing, knowledgable about tactics, stats and player infoAccess to managers/players/other important parties, that regular peasants

would not have access to.

Knowledge. Half the time I read/watch/listen to football journos, I'mthinking: "I know all of this already, why is this dick getting paid tostate the bloomin' obvious?" So when they offer a bit of insight or

knowledge I wouldn't have picked up myself, I am more inclined to listen.

Accuracy. The amount of times journalists get basic facts incorrect isastounding, and it undermines the entire piece. I saw an article stating

that Man Utd were unbeaten in six games, even though they had lost to Spursfour games earlier. I threw my laptop at the dog in anger.Interesting story, not too long, range of ideas and views

Great analysis of matches and tactics. Up to date transfer news and reportsof the goings-on in clubs.

1) Consistency 2) Reliability & Credibility

3) Organization1) Actual Sources

2) Intelligent Writing3) Relevance to Article Title

AccurateKnowledgable

Interesting discussioninteresting perspectives, balanced arguments, statistic backing

For GOOD football journalism? Reliable sources for things like stats andtransfer confirmations, I also really enjoy the behind-the-scenes of

clubs/players or when managers or quality annalists explain tactics etc.But I can also enjoy bad football journalism especially regarding transferrumours. It can be a lot of fun to imagine stuff like Messi going to Real

Madrid.1) Getting an accurate news story and not something along the lines made up

transfer rumors.

2) Viewpoint of a club's situation that a soccer/football fan may not beaware of, basically make the reader think.

3) Knowing what they are talking aboutfacts, statistics

-Intelligence, going further into the game than just who won. -Well written, I feel the Sun and Mirror lack this sometimes.

-Bigger Picture, looking at the issues from a global perspective.A unique or interesting view on a story

Facts, rather than speculation

An enjoyable writing style (not just football journalism)- Unbiased

- Anything that doesn't have sensationalist statements

- The writing should not simply scratch the surface, should add somemeaningful insight

Not trashy, lazy journalism, people who don't hop on a bandwagon (e.g. RvPgrumpy at United, or slating Ozil because everyone else is doing it), alsogiving valid points to the argument you provide and giving a pure, unbiased

approach to every piece.1) Wit - there are lots of people that write intelligently but few with any

real panache to their writing.

2) Levelheadedness. A lot of publications make shit up and exaggerate likecrazy. I don't like this.

3) Investigative reporting.Accurate, knowledgeable, well written

ImpartialityIn-depth analysis

Varied topics1. A solid knowledge of the game, as in no factual errors for players

stats, ex clubs etc.

2. Unbiased.quality sources

Quotes that aren't taken out of context or mis-used. Accurate stories notopinion based rubbish (dailymail).

1. Clearly defined sources (e.g. The manager, agent, player as opposed to"those close to xxx have said")

2. Respect. Those in football are still human beings, invading theirprivacy & spreading baseless rumours is poor form.

3. Not the daily mail.Honesty, well informed, clear

little bit of humour, facts (evidence) and straight to the pointTransparency, Factual based writing that analyses both sides of the stats.

ReliabilitySolid and interesting analysis, verifiable sources, quality of English

language.Impartiality

Credibility (legitimate sources)

Good analysis and writing style1) Accuracy in reporting; important the journalist is telling the truth2) Knowledge of the sport; important the journalist knows what they're

talking about3) Entertaining; Perhaps the most important one, it's vital that thejournalist is entertaining, otherwise it'll be a struggle to read the

piece.Something deeper than just writing what was seen by everyone - I don't need

someone describing how someone kicked the ball in the net!objective reporting of news

analysis

factual rather than attention grabbing headlines/stories.Critical analysis, offering insight where most would overlook or simply notsee what is really happening infront of their eyes. Cox is a good exampleof a journalist who can point out small nuances that make an impact ont he

game. Gary Neville is a TV pundit who is also good at this.Reporting accuracy, articulate writing and intelligent analysis.

not wild speculationthought provoking comment and opinion

original points made about football matches and players, not cliches inmatch reports

Facts, unbiased and legitimate resources.Accuracy. Up to date. Depth.

Lack of bias. Investigative, non-hysterical journalism. Understanding of sport and those who play.

Concise with lots of information and infographics instead of gossip andhearsay.

Impartiality, Tactical knowledge, grammarReputable, relevant, and timely

- no sensationalism- technical knowledge- good writing skills

Accuracy and correctness, knowledgable analysis that adds something worthreading to a match analysis/report

A few rare websites find the balance of reporting EXACTLY between the BBCand Goal.com. It's almost official, but not quite. They tend to break the

more reliable gossip first, yet they still maintain a great deal ofprofessionalism and credibility.

In case you don't visit Goal.com. they are complete shit. They purposefullytarget casual fans and very young people who are not interested in engaging

in any discussion but want to vote on CR7 vs Messi.Analysis, knowledge

Relevant, Concise, Well-sourcedAccuracyUn-bias

No quotes out of context/quote miningAsk good questions

Know the sportBe respectful

1) Tell me things I don't already know!2) Give me insights form people who have access to places I don't have

access to.3) Don't be too dry.Well-written reports.Trustworthy sources.

Bro, i'm sleepyGood Sources (real stories not baseless rumours)

backed up by facts/statistics, quotes instead of random assumptions made up

by the journalist1. Reputation of the publication2. If the news concerns my club.

3. Direct quotes.

In no particular order.Interesting storyQuality writingNot too short

Interesting opinion pieces.

Interesting stats.

Tactical analysis.Good clear headline

Nice image related to the articleBackground facts on the related articleUnbiased, analysing play, statistics

Sources

Unbiased Opinion

Sources- New insights- Well written

- Beyond fandom / mere reporting of outcomesacute analysis. Facts and figures. Well written

Insightful, original, and balanced.reliable information. in-depth analysis of football match. relevant

pictures. relevant and interesting statistics.Interesting, knowledgeable stories. New information.

Q4:

Please rate the following newspapers according to the quality of theirfootball journalism. [The Guardian]

41 (poor)

44

Unsure5 (excellent)

32

5 (excellent)4

5 (excellent)44

5 (excellent)Unsure

41 (poor)

5 (excellent)Unsure

33444

5 (excellent)1 (poor)Unsure

5 (excellent)5 (excellent)

Unsure44

5 (excellent)3444

5 (excellent)33343

5 (excellent)

UnsureUnsure

5 (excellent)4444

5 (excellent)43


3344434334


43

5 (excellent)43

Unsure3444

5 (excellent)4

1 (poor)44

Unsure4344

Unsure5 (excellent)

25 (excellent)

43442

5 (excellent)Unsure

43


444

Q5:

Please rate the following newspapers according to the quality of theirfootball journalism. [Daily Mail]

1 (poor)323232

1 (poor)1 (poor)

21 (poor)1 (poor)

31 (poor)Unsure

31 (poor)

2Unsure

21 (poor)

33

1 (poor)4

1 (poor)Unsure

22

Unsure3

1 (poor)2323

Unsure43234

1 (poor)1 (poor)

UnsureUnsureUnsure1 (poor)

22

1 (poor)2

1 (poor)23

1 (poor)3

1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)

222

1 (poor)22

1 (poor)3

1 (poor)33

1 (poor)1 (poor)

3Unsure

23

1 (poor)1 (poor)

23

1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)Unsure

222

1 (poor)Unsure

23

1 (poor)423322

5 (excellent)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)

32

1 (poor)3

Q6:

Please rate the following newspapers according to the quality of theirfootball journalism. [The Sun]


23

Unsure4

1 (poor)2


21 (poor)Unsure

21 (poor)

2Unsure1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)

22

1 (poor)Unsure1 (poor)1 (poor)Unsure1 (poor)

3232

1 (poor)2

1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)

3

UnsureUnsure1 (poor)

21 (poor)1 (poor)

31 (poor)

222

1 (poor)3

1 (poor)232


32

1 (poor)2

1 (poor)2

Unsure1 (poor)Unsure1 (poor)Unsure

1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)

21 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)Unsure1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)1 (poor)Unsure

2

41 (poor)


22

1 (poor)1 (poor)

21 (poor)

2Unsure

22

Q7:

Please give reasons for your answers.The guardian makes you pair for there website so that's an instant no.

The sun has always uses shit sources and brings up none sense when it comesto transfer windows. And Hillsborough what were they thinking?

Daily mail isn't too bad, Usually they have a lot of pundit's or Exfootballers covering a lot of ground and use "OK" sources.

Guardian: ImpartialDaily Mail: Hidden Agenda

The Sun: Full of titsI feel that the sun just wants a good story so will lie if needs be anddramatise situations. The guardian provides a more factual overview of

sport that I can understand.Never read guardian for sport.

Mail and sun are both more sport orientated in my opinion.Guardian very good/interesting and enjoy their Football Weekly podcast.Daily Mail is less interesting and read the paper less often anyway.

Don't read The Sun so can't comment.I think they're all pretty much the same, they just cater for different

audiences. I do enjoy reading the sun's football journalism more, because Ithink it's more "down to earth" than the Guardian.

I love the Guardian as a paper but feel the football section is too formalfor the game.

The Daily Mail is poo. I think a lot of the stories are just crap about theplayers and teams are I don't really find Rooney cheating on his wife for

the 5th time that interesting. (I don't find Rooney that interestingeither...)

Guardian has a great rep for news, this extends to football. Even givegreat coverage for my local league, MLS

Daily mail makes up stories. In your country England, people call the DailyMail the Daily Fail.

Sun reported the Hillsbrough disaster in an irresponsible way, absolvingthe police of blame and pinning it on Liverpool fans. Many Englishmenboycott the Sun, especially in Merseyside. Even as an American, I join

Liverpool and Everton fans in not reading the Sun.

Daily Mail and The Sun are drivel for the sake of getting money and clicks.They are fleet street media which is a street closer to the Tottenham andWest ham teams of London. They constantly berate teams that are their

rivals. It doesn't make for good reading. i.e

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2578661/INSIDE-TRACK-Mesut-Ozil-cost-Arsenal-42-5m-isnt-worth-two-bob.html

Neil Ashton writes this horrible stuff about our best player and as we knowwith the media it influences the way people think.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2582261/NEIL-ASHTON-Spurs-actors-no-idea-derby-defeat-hurt.html

Shows his true colours and his obvious bias against rivals. Horrible thathe's making money writing this stuff.

The Sun have an awful relationship with premier league teams for being atabloid much like TMZ. Prying into footballers lives unnecessarily and

writing lies and selling them.

The Guardian is an excellent independent news source whom I trust gettingmy normal news off of, not just football news. In a world of journalism

ruled by political favours, the guardian, bbc, independent and thetelegraph manage to maintain a clean record when it comes to reporting

anything let alone sport.I don't really read these. I like to get news from social media because

news travels faster.Guardian has it's share of criticism but also has many great historicalarticles and interviews. Daily Mail has good articles here and there, butlots of rubbish too. The Sun has mostly rubbish and a decent and a rare

decent article.All rumors

Mail and Sun rely on headlines and obvious stories. They often printnonsense and employ idiots.

I don't read themDM has the odd profile that is interesting and some xfer news, Sun is crap.

Guardian has some really bad moments but generally better.All round poor to appeal to casual fans.

I live int eh United States, so my exposure to these papers is via theirfootball writers on Twitter. The Sun is complete and utter rubbish unworthy

of lining a birdcage. The Guardian is generally pretty good, and theinsight and writing there generally strong. The Daily Mail is completely

hit-or-miss in my opinionNot English but isnt the Sun kind of like a tabloid. I trust the Guardian,

and the Daily Mail is alrightDo not read these newspapers

Guardian is usually the best written of the 3The sun seems to push an agenda but has good storys

Mail is self explanatory.The Guardian is trustworthy; the others aren't!

The Sun and the Daily Mail make stuff up most of the time. The Guardian'sinsights make sense, and they seem to be a bit more reliable when it comes

to sources and news.

Apparently The Sun's is okay, but they seem more interested in finding outwho the top players are shagging then actual football.

The Guardian is pretty good, their articles seem based on actual factswhich is quite refreshing.

The Daily Mail's ethos is: "throw enough shit at the wall and some of itwill stick." Some does. A lot doesn't

Don't read daily mail. The sun I find deals in too much speculation. I likethe guardian as it reads better and feels based more in fact, though that

may just be stigma attached to each newspaperSun is essentially just rumours and basic match reports.

Guardian provides the most analysis.Mail has a fair few interesting stories usually, especially online.

The Guardian & Daily Mail can have decent articles, and also have them donewell with good facts and writers. They can drop during Transfer Windows,

but hey who can blame them.

The Sun - well they are a terrible organization, and since the disaster ofHillsborough in 1989, should not be considered a credible newspaper.

Guardian contains knowledgable journalists who cover the game, very rarelyventuring into players personal affairs.

Daily Mail has good quality columnists with specialities for geographicalregions.

The Sun covers players personal lives, looks at cheap gimmicks and isshrouded with deceit throughout the papers history.

the daily mail and the sun constantly report stories out of thin air. theguardian at least quotes other sources

I'm not from England so I don't really follow any of them, unless they areposted on r/soccer.

Does not know the newspapers well enough.The guardian provides a selection of great writers whose opinions I care

about. They write with authority (Jonathan Wilson, Simon Cox.. etc)

Never really read the daily mail.

The Sun is just something I don't feel I can trust. They blow issue out ofproportion to sell papers. They are a disgrace to print journalism and page

3 is disgusting.The Daily Mail are too guided by their overlying agenda (anti-immigration

etc) to ever offer a truly objective or unbiased article.

The Sun rely too heavily on impact words, and it becomes toosensationalist.

The Guardian offer a balanced view with knowledgeable and articulatewriters. No one is perfect though.

It is quite obviousThe Mail and Sun are both tabloids, I believe that the Sun's qualities arelimited in term of them reporting things plucked from thin air, the Mail

journalists seem to have an improved approach to their writing with validpoints yet still re-report stories, the Guardian have very impressivejournalists, Daniel Taylor being one, who provides insight into topics

giving valid evidence and information from inside the club.The Guardian is the best by a mile: it has regular cut-and-dry factualstuff but it also runs engaging pieces that delve into niche aspects offootball, such as retrospectives, Barney Ronay's mad descriptive pieces,proper tactical stuff like Zonal Marking and Jonathan Wilson, the always-excellent Joy of Six and all sorts of others. It does transfer rumours likeeveryone else, but is the only paper that approaches it with any levity.Essentially they talent-spot writers that are insightful and good to read.

Forgot to add the Monday European round up with Sid Lowe, RaphaelHonigstein and the other feller, not to mention AC Jimbo. Fuck, the

Guardian is so good.

The Daily Mail is surprisingly sometimes quite good, especially when itcomes to pieces that rely on images, but the writing and editorial policy

is mostly shit.

The Sun is lowest common denominator stuff.The Daily Mail has Adrian Durham which immediately makes it a terriblesource of football journalism. The Sun has too much gossip but is better

than The Mail. The Guardian is very high quality.Guardian - varied topics, fresh perspectives, articulate writers, longer

articles, a sense of humourDM & Sun - rely on sensationalism, gossip, short articles, high-profile

guest contributors (not always a good thing)I do like the DM's abundance of football content but often regret clicking

when the article is two paragraphs long.The Guardian:

I like that they cover further areas of the sport, such as their regularinterviews that go into depth and their coverage of European football is

easily the best of the British media.

Daily Mail and The Sun:

Sensationalised yellow journalism.i don't know any of these

The Guardian contradict themselves and like to exclude themselves from thegroup of newspapers that supposedly make up false rumours. Where to beginwith the dailymail? I enjoy reading the physical print version , match

reports and interviews etc, but the content on the website is embarrassing.Outrageous falsified stories, hugely biased opinions, it goes on. Accordingto the daily mail, Strridge is unloved by Liverpool fans, Ronaldo agrees to

join Man U every summer and man city bid £200 million for messi everytransfer window. Of course there are never any sources for these made upmesses. I'd rather read their unending content on Taylor swifts legs thanfootball.The Sun shouldn't ever be considered due to their treatment of

Liverpool fans after Hillsborough.

The Daily Mail just seems to be a rumour mill. The Sun is average, but theGuardian occasionally has a decent article or column on things likefootball folklore (the fan subbed on by Redknapp during a preseason

friendly, for example)Guardian has a mix with some good journalists

Daily mail is generally badThe sun is awful and has regular spelling mistakesWell written. Higher percentage of good articles.

More percentage of bad articlesPure shite. it is like shit stirring

The Guardian isn't brilliant - the Telegraph, the Times are better footballpapers. In particular with The Times Daniel Finkenstein is quite good, RodLiddle in their Sunday Times sport section is quite an amusing rent-a-gob,and their Monday 'The Game' section is far and away better than anythingthe Guardian or Observer produces. The Telegraph is good for 'in-play'

match reports and stories about Manchester United (I'm a Chelsea fan). TheGuardian used to spend lots of time complaining about Tottenham fans using

the word yid, or talking about the best jacket to wear to a stadium.

The Mail prints loads of guff but occasionally you get a glimmer of astory. Bit like the news section, they are pretty good at getting the

stories, although "The Mail has learnt" is not a proper source.

The Sun is OK, simplistic analysis though.The guardian tend to have more analytical and interesting insights into

football (including the Secret Footballer)

While the Mail and Sun tend to produce more sensationalist pieces on parwith a gossip column purely to sell papers/get page clicks

The Guardian has amazing coverage of football in my opinion, with uniquejournalists like Barny Ronay, Jonathan Wilson, Michael Cox et al addingtheir own knowledge to the brand, and with the king of televised footballJames Richardson at the helm, their coverage is top. The Mail and The Sunare difficult to really analyse, but they're pretty cack by comparison, in

my experience anyway.They cater for their specific audiences well. The Guardian often has someinteresting pieces, whereas the other two are just annoying pun-based

hysteria and xenophobiaI don't read the Sun. Other two could do better. Nature of Daily Mail isquantity over quality with regards to submitting as many new stories as

possible and it works well for them in terms of traffic but not in terms ofreal insight. Guardian for me gets lost in itself too often and ends up

muddying the waters with overly elaborate and nonsense pieces.Tabloids tend to run all possible transfer rumours, regardless of their

source. They also lean toward simplistic tactical analysis, moreAnglocentric opinions, and would rather grab a semi-literate recently-

retired footballer for a column than make the offer to a qualityjournalist.

i tend to stay away from the sun,

mirror are always touting ridiculous transfer rumours and expecially fees(eg 70mil for draxler)

guardian is good but i prefer the columnists in the telegraphThe sun is utter bs. DM can be biased towards certain team so can the

Guardian.The Guardian is pretty good but the match reports are a bit patronisingmost of the articles are a bit niche or focussed on events on off the

field.

The Daily Mail wins on sheer volume, and lots of articles to comment on,but the quality of writing is low and often sensational.

The Sun is utterly useless. Most transfer gossip is completely made up.Articles are short, completely exaggerated and there's not much of a

comments section.

Guardian is generally okay, but seems to be a bit flaky in reporting thecorrect news lately. Mail and Sun are trash.

The Guardian I trust due to its broadsheet nature compared to the tabloids.I like the opinion pieces in the Guardian. The DM is click baiting and the

S*n isn't worth the paper it's printed onAs someone living in the US, this is based on my limited exposure to these

papersEverybody knows that!

I don't read a ton of articles from any of these sources, being from the USI can't honestly rank the accuracy of any of these sources

The Sun is not a newspaper. The Mail is fairly unreliable, and littered with irrelevant opinion pieces.

The Guardian covers football competently generally.Also, The Telegraph covers football reasonably well, certainly better than

The Sun or The Mail.The Guardian has by far the most knowledgeable columnists. The Daily mail

and the sun read like gossip magazines.Zzz

sun is all bsdaily mail will sometimes have something worthwhile to read

the guardian usually has better things to read still not great thoughThe Sun seems to publish lots of unquoted stories with headlines which are

usually not true, and only tend to report true stories after otherpublications have reported them first.

The Daily Mail is second best for football coverage. I find them to be morereliable than the Guardian for football rumours, but far less reliable when

it comes to regular footballing news and stories.All fairly poor.

Guardian is professional Dail Mail & The Sun is unprofessional and full of jargon

The guardian is generally unbiased

The daily mail is terrible for anything as is the sunGuardian tend to stray away from sensationalist, tabloid topics. They areusually well written, have sharp analysis and good stats. Daily mail ishalf and half... it usually has a lot of good articles and sporting

stories... you just have to sieve through the rubbish at times to findthem. The sun is mainly tabloid irrelevant stories with hardly any value.The Guardian is one of the best in the world and have excellent writers

like Sid Lowe.

Daily Mail tends to be quite bad, with the occasional good article.

I don't read The Sun.too many unreliable stories from the sun and the daily mail.

Q8:

On the whole, I prefer to read football stories that focusexclusively on the game.

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Q9:

Please give reasons for your answer.You're personal opinions as a sports writer should be kept for your wife, I

don't want to read them.Because i enjoy football, the only thing that interest me about the players

and the game is the football side.I'm not particularly interested in football

Not bothered about a player's private life unless it is dramaticallyaffecting the way they perform

Not interested in a player's private life, I'm a football fan not gossip.I like most of the story to be about the game - that's why I'm in that

section afterall, however I don't mind a few enteries about what's going onoutside the sport, if it relates to the game. (Drug use, crime etc)

I like to know about the game as a whole, like the culture surrounding it,the players, the executives. It's just as important to me as the matches

themselves.Off the field stuff is fine, only if it affects on the field results.I don't really care about what players do in their free time. They'rehumans. They deserve to do what feels comfortable outside the public

spotlightStories that are about a player's personal life don't really interest me at

all. I like to know about players as footballers, not as celebrities.I enjoy reading more about players' lives than the actual game. Not so muchthe restaurants that they like to eat at, but the other aspects of their

daily life (i.e. training, appearance on TV shows, how they are adapting tonew clubs and languages)

Anything not related to the game is not necessary to readI can get non-football stories, gossip etc from the internet/social media.

I do not care about unrelated stuffThere is nowhere near enough focus on the game.

More interest in the game than who they are shagging.I also like to read player and manager reaction

I do like some managers and player banter, but I hate football gossip - akapersonal life

I really do not care who is sleeping with whose wife. In rare circumstancesI find myself interested in things that are not directly related to

football, but generally I only care about things that make a difference onthe pitch.

I enjoy reading match reports, transfer news and other topics based aroundthe game. Any ansulary stories about private lives etc do not interest me

at all.Sometimes I enjoy football stories that revolve around the player as well.I love the sport and always want to read about it - the rivalries, the

glory, the controversies, etc. It's wonderful!It's the main reason for the creation of sports journalism, the demand to

read about the games actions and events.I'm trying to learn more about the way the game is played on at the highest

level from around the World.

Some things outside of the game are fine as long as it is accurateinformation about a club's financial situation or even about FIFA like the

Qatar or Brazil World Cup situations. Not a big fan of gossip such astransfer rumors with no real evidence or player's personal lives.

I love the game itself. It was grabbed me and my attention when I wasyounger. I still feel I can never know enough.

I feel football is interesting enough without the need for celebritystories to be dragged in.

I like reading about the topically event happening on the pitch and howthey effect all around them.

What do you mean 'focus exclusively on the game'? The game as in one match,or the game as in football in general? Where does the game end? Characters

are important to football, gossip less so.Twitter and other social media is for private lives, not newspapers.

Don't care for footballers' private lives, but some of the most interestingarticles have been about not only football but the culture of it as well.Agree as it (mostly) keeps the reports accurate and not fished out of

someone's arse.I don't care which players are having affairs or who said what about whose

mother. I care about football.Match reports should be match reports

Would rather have different articles for different topicsBroader interest stories flesh out dry reporting. I want to find out thatAshley Cole shot someone with an air-rifle, that South African goal-keepers

are on the take, that stadiums are shutting down and that Wayne Rooneyshags Grannies. It's entertaining. Don't care so much if someone roles out

of a night club looking pissed (drunk).Football should be about football, the tactics and playstyles are the

things i find most interesting in football.Like a bit of both, but definitely prefer proper stories about football

than some rubbish about Ledley King's latest bird.I can make up my own mind on the game, I don't need a certain publication's

agenda telling me what I should or shouldn't be thinking about whathappened.

A good story doesn't need to be exclusive to match analysis. Rumours arealso exciting if there is some evidence to back them up and when your clubis in the transfer market players being linked with your club is also ofinterest. The downfall of Manchester United for example is of interest tomost fans and it's of no coincidence the media are writing about it every

day.It depends what external factors are at play. For example, I don't care

what is happening in Mario Balotelli's private life, but I would incrediblyinterested to know the politics surrounding issues such as World Cup

hosting decisions.player and manager comments and rivalries can be just as entertaining, butonly the headline is needed. In depth reports about the game rather than

speculation on team selection etc is better.To much emphasis on opinion.

The media circus that follows the lives of managers and players off the

field does not interest me in the slightest. I love to look into tactics,squads, how teams are doing and could improve on the pitch.

The game is the most important part, to be sure, but off the fieldinteractions and transfer news can be just as important, so I agree in

part. The central focus should be on the game, but perhaps not exclusively.I prefer to know all about what happened during the match and to find out

in detail what the highlights were like.I'm more interested in football related articles than gossip

I think that many football stories end up focusing on things that aretotally irrelevant to the actual game and don't add much to the actual

storiesThere can be interesting stories (economics, cultural) around football

I like analysis of the match, things based on performance and things thataren't always apparent throughout the match

I like to read about the off-field issues that affect clubs as well, butpredominantly I care about the on-field game. I have very little interest

in the personal lives of footballers.I occasionally enjoy reading about players' lives outside of the game. I

also enjoy transfer speculation, and I don't consider that focusingexclusively on the game.

It is most important what they do on the field but, is also good to seethem donating to charity or playing with kids.

There are lots of interesting stories regarding agents, coaches, coachingtechniques, back-room deals, youth teams, referees, etc.

For the most part, I also enjoy reading stories that dissect the a managersstyle (tactics, man management, etc), especially if its the manager of a

team I support, or an upcoming fixture.its fun to read random facts about footballers or teams every once in awhile, i won't actively look for them, but if i come across something by

chance then why notI'm not interested in scandals that players are involved in, since I don't

particularly care for stuff like that.I'm really interested by the surroundingsDon't really care about off-field matters.I prefer to read all aspects of football

who cares what footballers get up to outside the game (except ballotelli,he's hilarious!)

My favourite articles are ones that focus on what happens behind the game.i am a football fan, i read a story on football to know more about the

game, not the private lives of the players etcQ10:

The focus on celebrity is damaging tofootball journalism.

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Q11:

Please give reasons for your answer.What David beckham, CR7 and messi do in there own time is up to them, I

couldn't care less if Ronaldo goes off and gets a manicure. But if he getscaught snorting coke, Taking drug enhancements and tax evasion then that's

all good.Gives footballers less time to concentrate on the football.

The exposure can add extra pressure, especially around big games andtournaments

I like this type of journalism as a consumerThere is still good football journalism available. Focus on celebrity

culture is just one aspect sensationalising players' glamorous lifestyles,doesn't need to affect football journalism just kept separate from it.Again, my interest is in the football not what they do of the pitch.I don't know if it's "damaging" it's just not really necessary to me

personally - others may find it interesting. Football, unfortunately, is abusiness and if focusing on them as celebrities makes them money they'll do

it.

I guess in the sense that Beckham left top flight football because heappeared to enjoy the celebrity side more was damaging to the England squad

(maybe?) but I feel that was just his choice.

Ronaldo seems to be able to do both!I like to know about the players, but the focus on the stars is damaging

the sport.Mario Balotelli

On the dailymail the other day I read about Mesut Ozil buying pizza from anormal pizza joint. I don't really think anything else needs to be said.I don't think it ruins journalism, but I think they should be in its own

world and not be mixed in with the regular football news.Too much focus on the love lifes of footballers. Footballer wives are all

very similar: fluffed up gold digger aspiring models.The popular papers - i.e Mail and Sun - pander to the lowest common

denominator. Whereas the Guardian produce quality yet lose a lot of moneyand isn't as widely read

Not sure, haven't seen that much focus on celebritiesIt's just filling out the pages, can't blame someone for doing the job.The focus on celebrity helps the globalization of football. I would nothave started to watch football if it werent for the countless youtube

videos of Ronaldinho that I watched after his prime. Those showed me howbeautiful football can be. Its his celebrity status that helped start this

passion.Yes and no, yes because it effects the content of the storys away from thegame, no because without the 'celebrity' it would not be as big as it is,

resulting in less content and focus on the game overall.It creates interest so I suppose it isn't necessarily a bad thing but sometimes it seems a bit unnecessary. Say for example the whole Giroud cheated

on his wife storyI'm not interested in it, but I don't think it's particularly damaging.It's not like it's replacing quality journalism, just supplying a market

that evidently exists.Football journalism should be predominantly about football. Not the livesof the players away from the pitch. I like conversations about who's thebest player it which is the best goal or who is going to win but I Dont

enjoy reading about messi's new £18million house etc.Not necessarily, football isn't limited to the game but to the lifestyle.

There's pros & cons - they can be looked up to as heroes, but it candistract them and put them too high, almost looked to as gods.

On the other hand, there's nothing we can do about this - people like them,so people report on them, and the circle goes round and round. I can't

believe how much money some players make, but I love Gerrard like a littlekid. So who's to say where it becomes damaging

It is essentially 'click-bait' to entice readers and gets more attentionthan actual in-depth analysis.

What do you mean with ''focus on celebrity''?Yes. Specifically the latest thing to come out was Giroud had a girl in hishotel or even Januzaj going on a date with a girl at some chicken joint...Those articles are just like TMZ style which I am not a fan of because itis easy to write with no real skill, and, in my opinion, kind of pathetic.I don't see it as real journalism let alone football journalism, it's just

about a soccer/football player.

I'm not sure if that's what you mean by the question but that's what Ithought you meant so I hope it helps!

Takes focus of the game.This is difficult I agree but its just the way the world is. You really

have to divide stories for yourself. Do I really are Ronaldo has opened hisown museum? No. But it is slightly humorous. Same with Bendtner wagging his

willy on that cab.The need to sensationalise makes the game seem more like a soap opera than

a sport.Sensationalist journalism is becoming more apparent to sell copies and make

names for themselves.Focus on celebrity might be basic journalism, but it doesn't damage

journalism per se. It's just one crass branch of journalism, the properstuff still gets through.

Some journalists would rather talk about John Terry's latest (hypothetical)scandal than his continued excellence on the pitch.

Just look at the disgrace the daily mail is.Ultimately, it's a sport. Some players are massive cunts off the pitch

(Ashley Cole) but are still model professionals when playing.

The fact that a player is having an affair or got in a fight with theircleaner is irrelevant. They're paid to play football, nothing more.

Dont understand questionIts unnecessary

Celebrity is the flavour that makes football journalism a bit moreinteresting. Celebs rarely appear on back pages of papers anyway.

I care about football not the players private lives.Can't really answer that question, sorry.

It does take up column inches and get on players' backs needlessly, but asthe internet is limitless it doesn't prevent the good stuff fltering

through too.The most talented players will become celebrities so journalists willnaturally talk about them the most. As long as the journalism is still

offering insight, entertaining and educational then there is no problem inmy opinion.

The focus on celebrity is damaging to all culture, let alone footballjournalism. It also turns players into brands, which is damaging for

accurate analysis. If a tabloid has a commercial deal with a sponsor thatis attached to a footballer, they are going to be in two minds aboutprinting disparaging analysis of that footballer, even if he's playing

particularly badly to the detriment of his team.Puts added pressure on players, getting pictured at a nightclub should not

be a crime.

football journalists as celebrities?personally i enjoy watching sky sports news when they get someone in whorepresents the media, or sunday supplement for example. often they knowwhat they are talking about compared to idiotic ex players (merson)

Bias left and right.Football is becoming more about what happens to a few individuals off thefield rather than teams on it. After Aston Villa beat Chelsea the otherday, an admirable result won by a stunning goal, all that the media havetalked about is Mourinho's reactions. Who cares what his reactions are -

they have absolutely no consequence to what happens on the pitch!Annoying to see these people worshipped as gods and hounded for working.It is slightly damaging in that it tends to take away from a win or a losswhen there is one celebrity who is focussed on more than the actual game

itself.Some players reputations get in the way of true journalism

I am neutral about the impact of celebrity on football because it alldepends on the actual player and the team they play for. It can be a badthing because it detracts from the focus of the game, but it also brings a

lot of exposure for the sport that has previously not existed.Not interested in Football gossips

Celebrity-stalking is not journalism and belongs in a rag. The same goesfor football celebrities. It detracts from actual news.

I think as long as it's not an everyday occurrence for talking aboutcelebrity in football, then occasionally doing it is alright. However, whensomeone is a shit player and they are popular in the tabloids I don't like

it.It's almost a necessary evil. I don't like it but I suspect the celebrityfocus is what gets the casual fan's attention. You're running a business

and you need those clicks.I wouldn't say it is necessarily damaging to the game, all the players and

managers are basically celebrities, and it is important to have a greaterhuman connection to the actors of the football stage so to speak. These

connections create storylines and drama, and I think that is better for theenjoyment of football as a whole.

For example, I think anyone can admit a certain amount of satisfaction andenjoyment over the Moyes and Manchester United Saga.

don't really care, some people enjoy knowing which footballer is bangingwhich model...not really my thing

Hounding players is annoying to players themselves. Even though they'reseen in the public light, some stories should go unpublished, like the non-

story of Jack Wilshire smoking a cigarette outside of a nightclub.

Obviously I do understand that this is usually done to sell papers.I don't care how X dress or who he fucked.

Damages it slightly, maybe.Footballers are doing a job for our entertainment. They should not be

demonised through mediaI'm not sure it's damaging football journalism - after all there are

publications that produce well written good football journalism. You justhave to find it sometimes through the crapy stuff which isn't important or

relevant.Football is a game opposed to the individual, it's all about your team,

your club, your friends, your fans, the collective.

Bibliography

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