How to become a sports journalist. Sports commentator

When sports journalism was just born in Russia, playing sports was perceived by the overwhelming majority of Russian society as a useless pastime and inappropriate for a serious adult. Writing about sports at that time was considered something almost indecent and shameful. The social status of the profession, where passionate students, former and current athletes, doctors, carried away by ideas, went physical education, was short. “A sports journalist, as such, is not always recognized in our country as a figure worth reckoning with.<... >It’s hard to be a sports journalist here!”1 complained prominent sports commentator A.V. Savolain.

But this is what distinguished the first sports journalists - everyone who came into the profession and stayed in it for a long time did not do it in search of material wealth. This branch of journalism was the last to be affected by commercialization, so it was quite widespread, and until the beginning of the 20th century. and generally accepted practice was when authors did not receive any money at all for their materials and worked from pure love to sports. These people were required to have selfless and selfless devotion to their chosen cause, inexhaustible enthusiasm, and sometimes simply heroism. The words of Pierre de Coubertin, who derived the formula according to which he actually developed in the 19th century, are surprisingly suitable for them. sports all over the world, including in Russia: “In order for a hundred people to become interested in sports, it is necessary for at least 50 people to engage in it. And for these fifty to engage in it, it is necessary for 20 people to be real specialists. And for these people to appear twenty, we need the existence of five capable of showing miracles of courage in the name of sport."

IN Soviet time The prestige of the sports journalist profession has increased significantly. As Sergei Dovlatov put it: “Football and hockey replace religion and culture for Soviet people. In terms of emotional impact, hockey has its only rival - alcohol.” Therefore, leading sports journalists were not just famous personalities, they were real celebrities on a par with the athletes themselves - the idols of millions. In fact, this is partly true to this day. Sports commentators, for example, are often much more recognizable than political or economic commentators, and are real media "stars" who are invited to the programs "Fort Bayard" and " Last Hero" along with popular singers and artists. However, one thing remains true - a sports journalist still has to be an enthusiast (and even a fanatic) of his craft.

This is probably why people come to sports journalism from a variety of fields, professions and educational institutions, and the diversity of “origins” here is perhaps brighter than in any other branch of journalism. However, there are also the most typical, well-trodden paths to getting into journalism. First of all, just like a hundred years ago, sports journalists become former and current athletes, coaches, judges, doctors - the most competent people in this field, who know both the theory and practice of sports. This path to sports journalism is described in Karel Capek’s story “How a Newspaper is Made”: “A completely different spirit reigns in the sports department, or among the “athletes” - the spirit of strength and courageous composure. This department is usually in charge of a person who has really worked hard in the past some sport, for example football. For this he now pays by being an expert in speed skating and skiing, fencing, boxing, tennis, discus throwing, swimming, gliding, rowing, basketball, shooting, horse racing, hockey, cycling, motoring, aircraft modeling, archery and several other sports, such a wide range of sports forces him to spend most of his time in the editorial office, getting fat and receiving visits from ardent athletes who bring him information about all kinds of competitions, matches, competitions, races, all-arounds, finals. , semi-finals, etc. His room is always crowded with broad-shouldered and long-legged, very seasoned young people who, probably, in due time will themselves become the head of the sports department and host young athletes.”

Further, many talented and high-quality sports journalists came from among fans - people who, for one reason or another, have never been involved in sports professionally, but cannot imagine their existence without it. For example, for the master of sports journalism Lev Ivanovich Filatov, his acquaintance with sports began when he, as a boy, attended a football match between Dynamo and Spartak in Petrovsky Park and from then on became a “red-white” for the rest of his life. Many similar examples can be found in modern journalism. Thus, he is not ashamed of his fan “origin” and the leading football columnist of the Sport-Express newspaper Igor Rabiner often mentions it. Some of the fans who retrained as journalists needed to receive a journalistic or other similar humanities education to do this, while others managed to do just fine without it.

In general, an extremely complex and controversial question arises - how much special education is necessary for a sports journalist? St. Petersburg sports journalist Boris Khodorovsky answers it this way: “You need to become a sports journalist in the process of your life. My colleagues with whom I work have different diplomas. For example, I graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Dnepropetrovsk state university them. 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia.<...>I don’t believe that a person can be taught sports journalism. You can develop qualities in him and give him knowledge that will help him become a sports journalist, but it is impossible to teach sports journalism.<...>To become a good sports journalist, you need to have a rich life and sports experience. Practice is also necessary, especially if a person studies at the journalism department and dreams of becoming a sports journalist, then he should start practicing from the very first semester. And in conclusion, I can add that a person should love sports and his profession, even more than himself."

Perhaps because love for sports (and, accordingly, knowledge of it) is an indispensable condition, relatively few people come to the sports press from other branches of journalism. One of the best modern sports journalists in Russia, Vasily Utkin, who once moved from the political editorial office to the sports one on the principle of “covering the embrasure with his chest” is a striking, but no less rare example of such an option for finding oneself in the profession (however, Vasily Utkin and Now he is not limited only to sports projects in journalism; just remember his program “Morning Spread” on the radio station “Echo of Moscow”). Sometimes in non-sports publications the sports department is entrusted to employees of the information department, “news people,” which is far from the best option, since, as a rule, these are, firstly, the busiest people in the editorial office, and secondly, the most versatile. But sport still requires not only literary talent, but also special knowledge, connections, and contacts. And the deeper the immersion into sports journalism, the more specialized knowledge is required, since sports life is not limited to football and hockey, which “everyone understands.”

The specialization of a sports journalist is a series of questions that do not have clear answers: “How many sports should a journalist know?”, “How well?”, “Where should I stop and is it possible to stop at all?” There are no answers, and even if well-deserved champions come to journalism - ready-made experts and specialists in their sport - the questions do not go away.

Let's remember Karel Capek's phrase and sympathize with the sports journalist, who in this new capacity should know more than when he was an athlete, and master more and more new sports. Journalists are sometimes called "amateurs." Like, the profession requires you to know a little about everything. But a sports journalist is simply forced to be an extremely competent amateur, and know a little less about the sports he writes about than specialists. But they, specialists, are experts in one sport, and a journalist, often, in several or many. D. A. Tulenkov emphasizes this feature: “Today modern journalism can be represented as a set of specialized areas, within which there are even narrower specializations.<...>A journalist, for example, writing about rowing, must know the history of his sport, politics international federation rowing sport and the International Olympic Committee in relation to the disciplines of rowing, economic prerequisites and the potential for the performance of a particular team at the largest regattas, the culture and tactics of this sport, as well as the ability to work with official websites on their topics."

Knowing and being able to do all this is extremely important not only for successful self-realization in the profession. But also because, as the sports journalist and editor Oleg Dmitrievich Spassky emphasized, “the popularity of a particular sport is largely determined by how, how cleverly and interestingly we talk about it.” So the requirements of competence, deep knowledge of highly specialized issues are, in the end, one of the aspects of the journalist’s responsibility to athletes, fans, readers and, more broadly, to sports. And again, it turns out that the problem of a journalist’s professional skills rests primarily on the need to be charged with boundless enthusiasm and love for sports, without which the constant self-improvement necessary for a sports journalist is impossible.

Back at the beginning of the 20th century. Dr. Alexander Konstantinovich Anokhin, one of the most respected pioneers of sports publishing, wrote: “A sports correspondent must satisfy two basic requirements: 1) know what he is writing about, 2) be impartial.”

Our contemporary Boris Khodorovsky states: “A sports journalist must have three qualities - mobility, impudence and erudition. A person must devote himself entirely to the profession, therefore he must be mobile, i.e. be ready to go to the next assignment at any moment. Impudence is also necessary, because the more assertive a journalist is, the more likely it is that he will complete his task. And erudition is also needed, because a journalist must have the necessary knowledge in his field."

It seems that what Anokhin wrote is as true now as the words of Khodorowsky. Erudition, mobility, impartiality, and even arrogance (in the sense of persistence) are really needed to correspond to the specific features that are inherent specifically in sports journalism. Erudition or competence (“knowing what you are writing about”) was discussed above. Now let's talk in more detail about other requirements.

Mobility is associated with such a feature of sports journalism as increased efficiency. Since modern sport is very dynamic and lives one day at a time, today, journalism must keep up with numerous sporting events - hence the haste, constant time pressure, accelerated creation of text directly to the issue. “Opening a newspaper, as a rule, the day after the event, the reader wants to clarify the facts, compare his impressions with the opinion of a specialist and be sure to learn more about the athlete, what kind of person he is, how he managed to achieve success.” Deadlines well past midnight are typical for a sports daily newspaper, since a significant part of sporting events takes place in the evening (and international competitions, given the time difference, even at night), but the reader in the morning expects the latest information in detail, because he is not ready for anything else. agree. And he gets it! Such efficiency, which is the norm for sports newspapers, is beyond the capabilities of even leading socio-political publications.

The increased efficiency of publishing periodicals requires from a sports journalist not only mobility, but also knowledge of modern computer technologies that speed up the process of information processing. You need to be proficient in all the means of quickly sending texts and photographs to the editor, be able to work in modern editorial and publishing systems like K4 Publishing, Quark Publishing, INPrint or AxioCat, in which the entire process of passing material “through the chain of command” from the author, who is, perhaps, at the same continent, before the layout of the issue in the editorial building - on another, it is automated and compressed in time, since several users (editor, designer, proofreader, etc.) can work on the page simultaneously and in parallel.

True, sports journalism has one more property that makes it possible to partially alleviate the difficult need for journalists to work closely on operational work - this is the predictability and predictability of sporting events. D. A. Tulenkov emphasizes: “Who, except a sports journalist, can know in advance in what place and at what time this or that event will happen, which will definitely have to be told about? The resignation of this or that official can only be predicted, like the weather or a fall ruble in the foreign exchange market. Accidents and disasters are completely impossible to predict.<...>A sports journalist knows exactly what he will need to write about in a month or six months of a specific date and month. The reason for everything is the sports calendar.

An athlete's life is scheduled by the hour, and so is a sports journalist's life. In this situation, the only difference between an athlete and a journalist is that his life in this status is short. A sports journalist tied to his profession may experience this stressful schedule throughout his life. Before the start of each year, sports federations by sport draw up a calendar of competitions, scheduling the time and place of tournaments and matches."

At the same time, the same researcher points out that the programming of operational events in sports turns out to be closely related to the same specialization: “Sports journalist in federal funds mass media I am interested in calendars of games for their sport, both national and international, but at the highest state level. A provincial sports journalist is mainly interested in domestic competitions on an all-Russian scale, where he monitors the performances of athletes from his region, although there is also interest in foreign competitions, but only with the participation of fellow countrymen. Provincial sports journalists, it should be noted, were least affected by the fragmentation of specializations. They still write about football and hockey, and athletics with fencing.<...>Materials about specific events are planned, mainly reportage ones. The appearance of reports and information notes depends only on the presence of the journalist at the place of the event known in advance. Interviews are also planned, but this is more difficult to do, because, firstly, it may be impossible to predict who will be the hero of the competition, and secondly, whether this hero will want to talk. However, the degree of planning is great, especially in high-performance sports, when you need to communicate with recognized sports stars of your country, regardless of the result, since only a few get the opportunity to defend the honor of the country and the choice of a journalist is extremely narrowed. It is impossible not to notice that analytical genres<...>are planned in advance within the framework of all journalistic specializations, since this kind of material takes time to write, and therefore follows a noticeable period of time after the completion of the events."

And another unique feature of sports journalism, which D. A. Tulenkov points out, is the abundance of numbers that a sports journalist has to deal with. “This includes data from match reports, and our own calculations on various parameters of the game, and all kinds of tables and graphs. Not a single operational material in the serious sports press can do without a statistical selection. Consumers of sports information are interested in both the result on the scoreboard and how they played or whether certain athletes competed, and what their positions or the positions of the country they represent are in terms of the results of the entire competition, which can last either a month or about a year, depending on the specifics of the tournament itself, to analyze the situation. in a specific match or competition, to confirm your thoughts with facts, you have to use numbers. For example, in football, not only goals are counted, but also the number of fouls, yellow and red cards for teams, the number of offsides, corners, shots taken to the side or on target. goals, the number of hits on the posts and crossbars, the percentage and time of possession of the opponents' ball, the number of substitutions, the number of minutes spent by a particular player on the field and all his personal statistics are recorded. All these figures today serve as a significant help in assessing the fight and the performance of specific performers on the football field."

One of the important criteria of professionalism in sports journalism is the requirement of objectivity and impartiality. Its importance and relevance are due to the fact that former athletes, coaches, and fans often become sports journalists. Consequently, people do not come to the editorial office from a vacuum, but with already established preferences, views, opinions - absolutely subjective. Often they are members of some kind of sports society, have friendly and business ties with representatives of the sports business, or simply have a favorite team since childhood. And when it comes to “our own people,” impartiality is threatened by bias, and a sports journalist has no right to it. Oleg Spassky in his book quotes the words of the legendary sports journalist, AIPS President, Englishman Frank Taylor: “A journalist must always be above the mood of the fans, see the game deeply and be fully aware of the high responsibility that access to the pages of the press and the public places on him.” television screen."

Former columnist for the Sport Express newspaper Igor Rabiner thinks about this: “99% of sports journalists grow up to be fans.” I support Spartak, but let someone try to point out a publication where the red and white were not me on the contrary, after failures you criticize your favorite team more sharply, because you feel more strongly about them. I don’t see anything wrong with journalistic attachments, because in most cases the objectivity of a non-fan journalist makes readers sad. Sickness is a symbol of love for football. love generates counter-reader emotions. The main thing is that there is no dullness and indifference in your work."

Lev Filatov covered this issue somewhat differently in one of his books. He also talks about football, but his words can easily be extrapolated to all sports in general: “People who write about football are most afraid of suspicions of sympathies and preferences. Every word they say is weighed and verified, it seems, with the sole purpose of finding out who they are for.” or against whom it is, in order to reveal a fan in the author and immediately set in motion heavy, caterpillar-like accusations of bias, one-sidedness, almost malicious intent... A young reporter warned about this, when entrusted with a football article, puts on a white robe, rubber gloves and disinfects the pen. And still the editor looks at him with caution and tries to clear up what is written:

• - You said something more about blue ones than about striped ones, and they’re warmer...
• - But they played better...
• - It doesn’t matter, everyone is equal for us.

The editor knows that in football everyone is not equal. But he is tired of telephone calls in the morning with far-fetched reproaches for his biases, and he, knowing full well that it is still impossible to predict how this or that phrase will be interpreted, tries to cross out at least something.

A journalist will be forgiven for illiteracy, dry food, and lies, but not for favoring one of the teams. And somehow it has already become established, it has become legalized that his business qualifications are measured by the ability to keep an ear to the ground, or, to put it delicately, in an inoffensive way, by tact.<... >

For a journalist, fan subjectivity turns into limitation, narrowness, wretchedness - everything that makes the pen crooked. The objectivity of a journalist is not a pretense, not a camouflage, it is his freedom, his qualification.

So, sympathies are either suppressed and forgotten, or deeply hidden, and not a single living soul knows about them. And the journalist intelligently and smartly explores the role of midfield players, the interpretation of universalism, the merits of a long pass, arrhythmia, zone defense, and the intensification of all operations. Well, that's par for the course. If you have taken up football professionally, then there is no need to turn your nose up at boring matters; if you please, understand them, be ready to listen and understand the coach and player and argue with them, and, as far as possible and necessary, feel on an equal footing with them. Without this, it is not only difficult to exist in the football world, without it it is also difficult to write, because a match is almost always a competition of football art, and by our position we are included in the jury."

Parties directly involved in the competition are not required to be objective. Athletes and coaches are ready to suspect a journalist of being interested in the success of their opponents or of simply sympathizing with them, just as they jealously watch the refereeing on the field or court. And, unlike the same judges or people writing (also, therefore, judging), sports figures can afford to be biased and unfair - just remember the loud letter from Russian football clubs to the RFPL with accusations against “Soviet Sport” on the eve of its 85th anniversary. summer anniversary. But journalists themselves must remember this, without once again giving reasons for suspicion.

Closely linked to the requirement of objectivity is another pressing question: “Can a journalist be friends with athletes?” Even if we leave aside all personal sympathies and proceed only from a purely pragmatic point of view, it is obvious that close acquaintance with sports figures is useful and should be maintained in order to always have the latest information, the necessary consultation, a significant opinion - everything that makes it easier and faster the work of a journalist. On the other hand, relationships that go beyond the boundaries of work are fraught with unpleasant consequences, which Lev Filatov also warned about: “Having gotten involved in it (in the world of sports - approx. K.A., S.I.) wide acquaintances on an equal, friendly footing, the journalist risks slipping from the commanding heights assigned to him by his professional duty. A man with a pen, a notepad and a tape recorder, even if he knows a lot, even if he sympathizes with someone, enters into someone’s position, is nevertheless appointed by his position in order to guard the interests of the game. He is obliged to keep in his soul the ideals of victorious, pleasing to the eye, honest football and compare his everyday impressions against them. Then he is able to bring something to the football business, then he will fulfill his duty to readers and spectators, who are constantly looking for confirmation of their own views and requirements.

If he, a gentle soul, is imbued with compassion for the “good guys”, for “old coach Mikhalych”, if, sitting down at the typewriter, he begins to remember how pleasant it was the other day to sit and chat with these guys on a bench and what else lies ahead for them meeting, then it is impossible to guarantee that for today’s defeat, instead of direct and precise words, evasive, delicately false words will not appear. Some of the interested parties may thank him for his “understanding.” And the journalist, without knowing it, will retreat back by the amount of his concession."

Oleg Spassky partly disagrees with the opinion of his respected colleague, who believed that true, selfless friendship is possible between a journalist and his hero, which does not impose any restrictions on the work of the correspondent: “Friendly relations between an athlete or coach and a journalist are, of course, possible. They arise most often “spontaneously”, out of mutual attraction, and not at all because the reporter has found a reliable and inexhaustible “source of information”, and not because the athlete is looking in friendship for ways to gain additional popularity that the press can bring, or, on the contrary, an opportunity to avoid public critics."

Igor Rabiner offers his own interpretation of the issue of friendly relations: “They do harm when it comes to relations with club leaders - I got burned by this myself at one time and since then I have tried to maintain a reasonable distance in contact with them. As for the players, friendship with it only helps the journalist. You know much more about what is really happening, and even if you often don’t write about it (and this is an indispensable condition for friendship with an athlete, since a lot of information “for internal use” is given to you not for publication), then you won’t be able to avoid the obvious nonsense that comes from lack of information.”

In any case, true friendship is a rare thing, it may happen, or it may not. But there is always a compromise option that protects against the dangers of close acquaintance and at the same time provides the opportunity to receive accurate and exclusive information - this is cooperation based on mutual respect. Mutual means that the will of both parties is needed, but with his own, a journalist should adhere to balanced and objective judgments, have his own reasoned opinion, fulfill his obligations - i.e. comply with the basic requirements of the profession. And then it will not be necessary to have a close acquaintance with the athlete for him to agree to another interview or, if necessary, a short comment on the phone - the athlete’s opinion of the journalist as an honest and impartial professional who can be trusted will be enough.

However, the issue of friendship between journalists and sports people is closely related to a more serious and painful problem, and it has lived as long as sports journalism has existed - this is the problem of maintaining the independence of the opinion of a sports journalist, the right to a free and balanced judgment. Journalists who speak critically of athletes, clubs, sports organizations and (especially) their leadership constantly face pressure of the most different ways from obstruction of access to information to threats and attempts at force. The arsenal of means by which various subjects of sports communication try to prevent unwanted journalists from doing their work is very wide: refusal (with various motivations) to provide information, deprivation of accreditation for competitions, prosecution, administrative pressure.

Moreover, these means are constantly becoming more refined and sophisticated, and are increasingly based on the material and moral “tying” and “taming” of the journalist. At the beginning of the 20th century, as A.K. Anokhin wrote, the organizers of the “world championships” in popular French wrestling demanded that reporters write what they wanted - “and then they will feed you, caress you, even make the work of writing easier by giving ready-made reviews, and try to write what you think is necessary,<...>Not only will you not get entry into the fight, but you also risk tasting the strong hand of Mr. fighter." In the subsequent period, issues of removing an objectionable journalist from the newspaper page in order to ensure a correct reflection of Soviet sports reality were resolved at party authorities at various levels.

Nikolai Dolgopolov, President of the Federation of Sports Journalists of Russia, writes about the current state of affairs: “The center of sports life has shifted from sports committees, sports societies to large and elite clubs. Good luck in big-time sports, financial success, free funds allow them to pay more attention to us, sports reporters Unfortunately, here too, in my opinion, there are attempts to tame reporters to unquestioning obedience. Here the club invites the master of sports reporting to a competition in an overseas country. If the club wins, why not praise the players and the team, paying tribute to the victory. ? And if there is failure, and even due to poor play, quarrels between the athletes? The club, which paid for the hotel, meals, flights and even gave out pocket money, insists: the situation must be mitigated, the referee, anyone - but not us and not our guys. - girls. And the journalist, who has accepted all the benefits in advance, finds himself in something like a glorious trip, and perhaps a new one looms ahead, and this forces him to change his own convictions. And in the final report, the accents change, exculpatory notes sound... In short, the reporter is betraying himself and his business."

Federation of Sports Journalists of Russia (FSJR) - all-Russian public organization, created in 1990. It unites sports journalists from about 80 constituent entities of the Russian Federation on a voluntary basis. The main goals of the FSJR are declared to be: development of sports journalism, promotion of a healthy lifestyle and Olympic ideals, assistance to Russian sports journalists in fulfilling their professional duty and improving the quality of work, assistance and support to veterans of sports journalism. The president of the federation since 2002 is Nikolai Mikhailovich Dolgopolov, who has been working in sports journalism since 1972. Physical and legal entities can receive the status of a member of the FSJR after making an appropriate decision by the executive committee and paying a membership fee. The Federation is built according to territorial principle and operates in more than half of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The headquarters of the federation is located in Moscow, and on the territory of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation it has its own structural units- regional branches, which are headed by chairmen elected at general meetings of branch members. The Federation is recognized by the Russian Olympic Committee as a member and the only organization that has the right to represent sports journalism in the Russian Olympic Committee. The FSJR also has contacts with sports federations, the National Sports Foundation, the Union of Athletes, sports societies and departments, local sports committees, etc. The FSJR conducts professional competitions, selecting the best “by profession,” and also annually determines the country’s ten best athletes, teams and coaches (the “Silver Doe” award).

How to deal with such temptations in order to avoid agreements and compromises with conscience? Follow the ethical standards of the profession, your own moral principles and the laws of sport with its constant requirement of fair play. The very deepening into the profession, mastering its subtleties, understanding the mechanics of the movement of sports processes helps to get away from superficial views on anything, saves from one-sidedness and haste in assessments, and leads to the integrity of perception and understanding of the sports world and one’s place in it.

But in addition to the honesty and integrity of journalists, for an objective and truthful reflection of sports life in the media, something else is necessary, no less important. It's about about the independence of the sports publications themselves, which would allow them not to look back at the wishes of clubs, companies, federations and other subjects of sports activity seeking to impose their ideas about what is happening on journalists. Today, even the country's leading newspapers, such as Sport Express and Sovetsky Sport, can only declare their independence from outside influence. Of course, in reality these statements are not 100 percent true. Publications of a lower rank are even less independent in their information policy; they are forced to focus on the one who provides them with financial resources, information and other necessary means to carry out their activities.

Still, work in sports journalism is quite specific, distinguished by features and conditions, which basically have a generic connection with all journalism as a whole, but in particular practical manifestations they are very unique.

To begin with, this originality manifests itself at the stage of searching and collecting data. The most important point here is obtaining access to information about the internal life of sports clubs, societies and organizations, since only by watching sports competitions, studying and analyzing their results, it is impossible to get a complete understanding of the reasons for victories and defeats and explain them to the reader - he already knows results of matches, sees their broadcasts. It is necessary to penetrate deeper into sports life, to get to places where the path is closed to ordinary fans - this is the only way to discover the cause-and-effect relationships of events.

The most important concept here is “accreditation” - a word of Latin origin, implying trust in someone and recognition of his authority to carry out a certain type of activity. Thus, by accrediting a journalist, the organization recognizes his right and obligation to obtain the necessary information and creates for this the necessary conditions. The Law on Media states: “An accredited journalist has the right to attend meetings, meetings and other events held by bodies, organizations, and institutions that accredit him, except in cases where decisions have been made to hold a closed event.” Accreditation makes it possible to receive necessary information quickly, clearly, conveniently and familiarly (access to the press box and conference rooms for press conferences and briefings, receiving press releases and printouts of competition protocols distributed by the organizers, etc.). Accreditation is provided upon application from the media, made in a pre-established form, which, as a rule, can be easily found by contacting the official website of the organization or its press service.

The same law on the media states that “a journalist may be deprived of accreditation if he or the editorial office violates the established accreditation rules or disseminates untrue information discrediting the honor and dignity of the organization that accredited the journalist, which is confirmed by a court decision that has entered into legal force.” However, recognizing the importance of accreditation in carrying out the duties of journalists, organizations see its provision (and deprivation) as a serious lever of influence on journalists, moving them to reverse side(deprive, refuse) without waiting for a court decision. Another popular step is that, having detected bias and bias in the publications of individual authors or publications, management decides to limit contacts with these representatives of the press. O. D. Spassky wrote: “A theory was born a long time ago, unjustified in any way, unconfirmed by any facts and, in my opinion, extremely harmful, that communication with journalists has a detrimental effect on the team’s performance, especially if journalists begin to criticize the athletes.”

A certain compromise option for organizing communication between journalists and athletes is the mixed zones (mixed zones) that exist at many sports facilities - an invention that facilitates (but at the same time regulates) communication between a journalist and athletes. These are strictly designated (and, as a rule, fenced) places in which journalists can communicate with athletes without obstacles or intermediaries, provided, however, that they agree to communicate and are ready for it.

The last clause, unfortunately, is quite fundamental, since among Russian sports journalists one can constantly hear complaints about the lack of a culture of communication with the press among our athletes. This is especially true when it comes to football. If representatives of other sports still understand that attentive and tactful communication with journalists helps to increase their personal popularity and the popularity of the sport they represent, then football players, spoiled by the extreme and close attention of the press to their persons, often allow themselves to ignore requests even for an express interview . In many foreign countries, where sports media are more independent and independent, such neglect would be punished by friendly obstruction and harsh criticism from publications, but in modern Russian realities this is impossible. So domestic journalists have to show that indispensable set of qualities that were mentioned above - resourcefulness, perseverance and even arrogance.

At major competitions, large press centers are created - a whole complex of services, premises, and technical means necessary to ensure the prompt and uninterrupted work of dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of journalists. "The press center is not only a workplace for journalists accredited at certain competitions. It is also their club, a place of communication, a place of meetings, consultations, mutual interviews. People come here to find out the latest news from a colleague, to receive confirmation or, on the contrary, to hear a refutation of information that has penetrated the pages of the press, to find out something interesting about a young athlete who unexpectedly became a winner. This is a club where colleagues at work and hobbies meet."

Ensuring the operation of press centers, holding briefings and conferences, providing journalists with processed information, acting as intermediaries between them and athletes - all this is among the tasks of special press services that exist in almost every sports club, organization, and federation. At the moment, such press services are an important link in communication in the field of sports. And the presence of well-established contacts with such press services is an indispensable condition for existence in the profession of a sports journalist.

But for successful work in the field of sports journalism, the information that can be obtained in the press box, at a press conference or in the mixed zone is not enough. Here, many journalists record on their voice recorder a kind of general, collective interview, which will then appear, with one variation or another, in many sports media. Truly exclusive information is difficult to find at a press conference. In order to obtain it, a sports journalist must have his own constant sources of information, search for, establish and maintain contacts with people from the world of sports. This side of the profession is built on personal connections with sports figures, on an attentive and respectful attitude, on compliance with ethical standards and the inadmissibility of violating obligations. For a journalist, the opportunity to quickly obtain the necessary data or urgent consultation as a result of one phone call is based on the trust of an athlete or coach in him, who, from the experience of previous communication, know that the correspondent keeps his promises and agreements, does not allow himself to distort (take out of context, speculate and etc.) received information, coordinates sensitive points of statements that can cause trouble for the informant, and takes into account many more diverse aspects that inevitably arise in interpersonal communication.

An important step in working with information is its verification - both from the source that provided it, and in other ways - by checking with documents, one’s own observations, referring to reference books and databases. This is relevant for all journalism, but especially for sports, since, firstly, as already noted, sports are characterized by an abundance of statistical figures, the handling of which requires accuracy and precision, and secondly, the world of sports is, first of all, people , its inhabitants, who tend to make mistakes themselves and be offended by the mistakes of others.

The opportunity to collect the most complete, diverse and reliable information possible opens up additional options for the journalist to complete the editorial task when he moves on to the stage of creating a journalistic text. The key point in which the journalist’s creative idea, his own unique style and the valuable information obtained are combined with the conditions for the implementation of the task set by his superiors (scope, timing, topic, purpose and audience of the publication) is the choice of the genre form of the material, which was described in sufficient detail earlier.

Currently, there are more serious problems, the unresolved nature of which allows fans, athletes, coaches, judges, and sports officials to present serious reproaches and accusations of insufficient content, quality, and analyticalness to the field of journalism that serves their interests.

The most common reason for reproaches is the incompetence of sports journalists in the issues they undertake to cover and, moreover, the most common illiteracy. As a result, superficial interviews with sports stars with a clear yellow tint appear in the sports press, serious discussion of the problems of Russian sports is replaced by fanning scandals, and less is often written about technology, tactics, psychology of different sports and other important components of sports life than about the money of clubs and earnings of athletes.

In fact, it is quite common for fans and athletes to be dissatisfied with the state of sports journalism. This is not surprising, because sport evolves very quickly and often outstrips the way it is reflected. Therefore, it can almost always be said that sports journalism can be more analytical and more journalistic and better meet the needs of its audience. And it's almost always true. But this only emphasizes the importance social tasks challenges facing sports journalism, the need to constantly search for new solutions for them and the variability of paths for further development.

Dolgopolov N. Will we live according to the laws of Samaranch? URL: infosport.ru/Press/sfa/1998N3-4/р20-21.html.

Spassky O. D. Who do journalists root for? P. 117.

Spassky O. D. Who do journalists root for? P. 52.

Ahead of the caustic jokes about cats and pharmacies around the corner, I inform you that the best sports journalist in the world is Bill Simmons, a regular columnist for ESPN, author of the most popular sports podcast B.S. Report and Chief Editor a side project of the same company Grantland.com. Simmons regularly appears on lists of the most influential people in American sports, and his columns are read by millions. He also recently conducted an all-sports interview with Obama, wrote a couple of best-selling books, and his salary, as of 2008 (when he had not yet entered television as an executive producer of the outstanding documentary series 30 for 30), was in the region of a million dollars a year.

If you have already come to your senses after this figure (by the way, I was told recently that Roman Shirokov sincerely believes that sports correspondents earn “well, at least twenty” a month, and keep in mind that for Shirokov a “ruble” is only local name music group), then you were probably wondering how to become so famous and popular just by writing sports columns. Since Bill himself doesn’t give much advice, I took the liberty of highlighting the most important things from his biography and interviews, revealing them and explaining them from the point of view of my own observations of sports journalists.

Write, write, write

The 10,000 hour rule really works - to learn how to do something perfectly, you need to do it for a very long time. It works worse in the opposite direction - you can write about sports for at least 50 thousand hours and still end up as a dubious press attache and chairman of the foundation for combating anti-Semitism, but not at least an interesting columnist. But the fact remains that there is no talent without work experience. Partially related experience will be suitable - you can write novels or columns about religion for years - but the experience of sitting on Facebook or making spreadsheets in Excel at a job you don’t like will definitely not be suitable.

Simmons began working as a sports reporter for the Boston Herald in 1992, straight out of college, but he began writing much earlier. Bill had a regular column in school newspaper, he started his own homemade magazine in college. There is no level here special significance(especially since at the Boston Herald he most often had to answer calls and transfer protocols), he never had teachers, but it is very important to simply gain these very hours of experience, trying to make each text more interesting than the previous one. After working at the Herald, Simmons couldn't find a suitable job and ended up opening his own website, receiving only nominal money from AOL, which hosted his columns on the intranet. In fact, Bill has been writing several texts a week for twenty years.

By the way, I have always been amazed by people who send resumes to the site, in which they indicate that they can write “reviews, analytical articles, etc.”, without giving a single example of finished text (or better yet, an example of their blog on the Tribune "or somewhere else that is really in demand by readers, as was the case with Simmons' BostonSportsGuy.com). “Take it first, and then I’ll write it there” - that never works. The text is a very honest thing; you can’t confuse someone with big words in your resume. Write more and better, and you won’t have to send your resume to anyone - employers will contact you themselves.

Stay patient

“For the first nine years of my career, virtually no one read my columns,” Simmons says. Bill, of course, is somewhat modest - in 2001, his site was visited by up to 10 thousand people a day - but before that he had to work for many years without obvious results.

Actually, it’s quite hard, and in his place almost anyone who isn’t crazy would give up. Simmons actually gave up one and a half times. In 1996, he quit writing, realizing that he couldn’t live on the fees, and got a job as a bartender, while simultaneously inventing his own personal website (don’t forget, in those days the Internet was something strange for very peculiar people). In 2000, he almost gave up writing again when he had the opportunity to work as a realtor - but after much doubt (he wanted to kill someone due to insufficient demand, when all efforts seemed to be in vain), he nevertheless continued. Well, in 2001, when Simmons was already 32, ESPN offered him a three-column tryout contract. He himself believes that if he had started writing ten years later, he would have achieved fame much faster - but the question arises whether he would have been able to write as interestingly if he had started at a different time.

Take full advantage of opportunities

The first of three columns Simmons wrote as part of his trial contract was titled "Is Clemens an Antichrist? "and was dedicated to Roger Clemens, one of the best baseball pitchers in history, who did not become a legend of any club and had practically no personal fans. The column became ESPN's most-read piece of the week and effectively defined Bill's career.

Let's take another look at the headline: "Is Clemens Really the Antichrist?" Do you feel the scale of the statement? Believe me, a column with the main idea “We’ll wait and see” or “Such simple guys who don’t grab stars from the sky are also needed in football” would not have worked that way. If you only have three attempts, don't waste them on passing thoughts, don't write anything that anyone else could write. Nobody needs anyone else, soon all boring people will be replaced by programs and robots. Look for really powerful moves, make far-reaching conclusions, grab the stars from the sky. If you are invited to a program, say, on a radio that no one wants, say something that at least someone will remember. You don’t have to take this idea to the extreme - it’s clear that suicide on live television will be an event, but it’s unlikely to help you in your career - but always remember that the unusual is remembered better than the good.

And by the way, Simmons' first book (about baseball) was called Now I Can Die in Peace. Think about the headlines - believe me, in the media it is better to appear as an overexcited hysteric than as an empty space.

Study the materiel

You don't necessarily need to know everything in the world. There are a lot of things that in our time it is more correct to look on Google: the exact number of goals of the striker Zubko in 2001 does not interest even the striker Zubko himself. The main thing is to know enough to give your writing depth.

Simmons recalls being a true sports fanatic in his youth (by the way, didn't you have a notebook with any sports signs as a child?) He read everything he could find, he had complete binders of Sports Illustrated and Inside Sports from 1974, thick folders of clippings from GQ, The National and the New Yorker, as well as hundreds of books. In addition, he clearly watched a lot of TV and has an impressive memory (I personally am terribly jealous, because all I remember about my first Russia-Cameroon match in 1994 is that I watched it).

But the most important thing is to remember the interesting things. Remember not names and numbers, but movements, sensations, fun facts and the role of personalities in history (by the way, one of my favorite Tribune bloggers, Vitos1981, does this very well, urgently subscribe to all his blogs). Simmons sometimes draws so easily on comparisons from different sports from completely different eras that this erudition is somewhat overwhelming - but it also delights, because it allows him to notice trends and find funny coincidences. Our brain is designed in such a way that it loves to find similarities in distant things; this causes an almost physical feeling of pleasure. And yes, if you can make a relevant, insightful comparison from pop history or a famous novel, that works, too.

Create discussions

Simmons once said that he never wrote traditional columns. An ideal traditional column has almost no comments except admiring ones, there is nothing to add to it and there is no need, it closes the topic (this is approximately how I read, say, Grigory Revzin in Kommersant). Simmons, who had been writing on his own small website for three years, knew that the hardest part was getting people to come back again and again. Therefore, he likes to ask questions in his texts, formulate some kind of opposition, come up with concepts that can then be applied to various phenomena. He doesn’t shy away from “what if” texts; he can seriously discuss the degrees of greatness of players - everything that fans love to talk about and that before him seemed unworthy of a sports journalist. What Simmons is most proud of, it seems, is that his lyrics give people new reasons to drunkenly argue at the bar, such as which month is better to be a fan, April or October.

And, of course, you shouldn’t think that if your text has almost no comments and no one wants to continue the discussion, then you are a great author, to whose words there is nothing to add. Most likely, no one is interested in your words.

Find your own way to talk about sports

Simmons has his own mythology - a lot of different terms that he either invented himself or began to pay increased attention to them (for example, the “Tyson zone”, denoting the degree of inadequacy of a public person after which no one can distinguish made-up news from real ones - Mario Balotelli achieved it quite a long time ago). Simmons constantly tells some stories from his own life, sometimes having a rather distant relation to sports. His very approach, based on the perception of the viewer who is rooting for players and teams, and not some kind of “objective sports reality,” was also an innovation in its own way (it’s not for nothing that the bastion of tradition ESPN sent him to its Page Two to emphasize that everything this fun is still something alternative).

Simmons can write a long text about the fact that in the USA they don’t know how to make sports series, and offer his own stories, he can write a column about how women together with their men, he can start a correspondence with the best-selling author Gladwell by saying that he hates him and was thinking kill him until he realized that Malcolm was Canadian. In principle, you can expect anything from him - he may not even write about some big event (he often talks about current events in podcasts), but instead write something global, generalizing and with references to ten B-movies , which no one but him watched.

It is not at all necessary to copy Simmons' language and methods exactly. Moreover, it is better not to do this: the difference in cultures and languages ​​has not been canceled. But learning to come up with your own formats and themes is vital. And don’t pay attention to those who ask what your writing has to do with sports - stereotypes are only needed to joke about them.

Continue working beyond text

To become the best, you cannot be a journalist only within your texts - this is not a job that ends at the end of the working day. The audience needs to be entertained anytime, anywhere, in different formats. Readers have a million reasons to be distracted and only one head - and your goal is to make them remember you and your ideas more often.

“I started tweeting at first just to spread the word about book events and stuff like that. I didn't think it would be so much fun. Twitter for my lyrics are scenes cut from the final version of the film. This is a great place to comment on something that has a very short lifespan and definitely can't be turned into a column in time. And most importantly, he really helped me write. It's a real challenge to come up with jokes that are 140 characters long, it keeps your brain working all the time. I love challenges like this."

As a result, Simmons finds time to write something on Facebook for his 275 thousand subscribers and jokes regularly on Twitter for 1.68 million people. By the way, if you're still jealous of his salary, try to figure out how much you'd make if one subscriber roughly converted to a dollar per year.

Have a sense of humor

Here, I probably won’t even give examples - Simmons has selected jokes, full of sexism and egocentrism, in almost every text. If you don't have a sense of humor, you too can make a career in journalism: become a photo blogger, get involved in criminal investigations, or go into financial analytics. But, alas, you have nothing to do in sports journalism - here people need to be entertained first of all. Humor can be very restrained, almost invisible - this is how they often write English authors; if your character is more suited to buffoonery and Rabelaisianism (for those who don’t understand, we are talking about jokes about ass) – you can also take a risk. It is important that thanks to this the text is alive and human: robots cannot joke. In addition, a successful joke can be remembered by the reader and convince him of the meaningfulness of your existence, even if you mixed up all the equipment and in his eyes turned out to be “meaty in a bad way.”

It is clear that it is not necessary to joke in every text and in general this should not be any obligation. A sense of humor also requires a sense of proportion, of course (although being vulgar is often better for an author than being not at all). But don't forget, the main thing is that a sense of humor is of little value if you cannot take yourself seriously - in such cases it usually degenerates into unpleasant toxicity.

Save landmarks

“When I was young, I wrote a lot, but I didn’t know how to do it. “Breaks of the Game” (a book about the 79-80 season of Portland) was the first book that I fell in love with. From the first pages I realized that this book was for me. I read it in one weekend. A few months later I read it again. I read it so many times that the spine fell apart and I had to buy another edition.

In college, while I was gradually figuring out my future, I read it every year to remind myself how to write—how to use words meaningfully, how to construct sentences, how to tell the stories of human life without using too much direct speech, how to turn historical anecdotes into living stories. This became my personal writing course. When the second book was lost on the beach due to an unexpected wave, I bought the third at a used bookstore for $5.95. Best purchase of my life. I read it again every two years to make sure my swing hasn't deviated too much from the ideal direction - like a golfer coming to his first instructor to check his swing."

You can't write in a vacuum, as if you've just invented the alphabet and are sitting in front of a wet clay tablet. Your language is a consequence of your impressions, and if you don’t have clear guidelines, then it will be influenced by vague, unconscious ones: all those countless kilometers of tongue-tied language written about sports in Russian. Find samples for yourself, try to understand what exactly you like about them and how you can achieve similar effects yourself. These may even be texts not about sports; in principle, the main thing is that the mechanisms contained in them to influence the reader are applicable.

Develop ideas

Simmons' massive volume, The Book of Basketball, which became an immediate bestseller, was born out of a somewhat dubious idea to rank Hall of Fame basketball players by their degree of greatness. Quite quickly, he realized that not all statistical indicators mean something, that times are significantly different, that a lot can be compared only by deeply studying the circumstances - as a result, an attempt to answer a not very important question led to really important problems: why one player better than another, how different basketball eras differ and how important a player’s contribution to victory is. As a result, Simmons wrote a fundamental work and went on a tour of American cities, signing his books in such numbers that he even began to fear carpal tunnel syndrome.

Any phenomenon that is not sufficiently organized in your head, any incomprehensible observation, any pattern and any question, if it forces you to think about it, can become an idea for a text or a series of texts. Value your ideas, write them down somewhere - even if it’s difficult for you now or you don’t have time, maybe in a year or two you will find the answer or the right approach.

Cheer for the underdogs

Simmons began writing as a "Boston Boy" and, of course, grew up rooting for local teams, including the Red Sox. Already in the prime of his career, he saw the incredible - in 2004, the “curse of the Bambino” was lifted, and the club won the World Series for the first time since 1918. The Red Sox were always an exciting team and the best losers in the world—and trying to explain and understand those disastrous losses is a big part of Simmons' legacy.

Something similar can be said about the once great Celtics, who spent the entire 90s far from success and rose again only in the late 2000s. After moving to California, Simmons immediately began going to Clippers and Los Angeles Kings games. And by the way, he also supports Tottenham in football.

Remember, victories are not very inspiring unless we are talking about your favorite team: the story of a victory is interesting to everyone only if it turned out to be incredible, unusual or incredibly hard-fought. Once you find yourself on the side of those who constantly win, you become more boring and forget that there are always many more losers in sports than winners. And, of course, nothing develops a sense of humor more than defeats - and this, as I noted above, is one of the main professional qualities Nowadays.

Expect failures

“I don’t know what will happen next and I can’t accurately predict what the next five years of my life will be like. Part of me wants to become an outsider again - say, launch my own sports website, call on talented writers and designers and try to compete with the big players. Like Frank Deford (former SI writer and novelist), who founded the National newspaper. True, National went bankrupt, losing 100 million. Bad example.

But I want to do something just as crazy. I like to take risks, I am not afraid of failure and, moreover, I am not afraid of terrible, unforgivable, shameful failures. So anything is possible. The most best prognosis It will probably be that in the next five years Simmons is going to shamefully and unforgivably fail with some of his over-ambitious ideas. Write it down."

By the way, since this interview, Simmons has headed his own website about sports and pop culture, albeit within ESPN. But something else is important here: if you are trying to develop in several directions, at least one of them will definitely result in failure. The main thing is not to get depressed and give up on projects that have become a problem for you.

And yes, keep in mind that once you become really popular, articles like “Is Bill Simmons the Antichrist? " and " 10 Reasons Bill Simmons Sucks ". Your main task is to ensure that these texts are less talented and interesting than your own.

In preparing the material, interviews with Simmons from the Huffington Post, NY Magazine and AV Club were used, as well as Wikipedia and excerpts from his texts over the years on Grantland and ESPN.

A sports commentator is a journalist who covers sporting events in real time.

Features of the profession

Commentators, as a rule, are professional journalists who have excellent knowledge in a particular sport; Vasily Vyacheslavovich Utkin is a prime example of this. He completed four courses at the Faculty of Philology of the Moscow Pedagogical State University. V.I. Lenin. Never played football at any serious level. Since 1992, he got a job on television as an editor, hosted the TV show “Football Club”, became a football commentator in 1996, and in 2004 and 2005 he was a winner of the TEFI Award in the category “Best Sports Commentator of the Year”. The profession is suitable for those who are interested in foreign languages ​​and Russian language and literature (see choosing a profession based on interest in school subjects).

And the great Ozerov! Honored Master of Sports, 24-time USSR tennis champion, People's Artist of Russia, famous sports commentator, many of his sayings went to the people. Ozerov was not a journalist, he studied at the acting department of GITIS, then worked at the Moscow Art Theater as an actor. And already at 28, he conducted his first independent report on the Dynamo-CDKA football match.

Nikolai Ozerov reported from fifteen Olympic Games, thirty Ice Hockey World Championships, eight World Football Championships and six European Football Championships! He worked in forty-nine countries around the world as a sports commentator!

Only the great Kote Makharadze could compare with Nikolai Ozerov! Kote received a theater education at the Tbilisi Institute of Arts, then worked in the theater as a director and actor, and became famous in Georgia. We visited Kote and sports achivments. Makharadze won the USSR Cup three times as part of the basketball Dynamo, in which he played from 1944 to 1948.

Everyone loved Kote Ivanovich Soviet Union, because Kote Makharadze had incredible charm and kindness. His remarks were often funny. Here are some of them: “And I say that Lipko couldn’t see anything between Filimonov’s legs!!!”, “The referee gives a warning: don’t take the ball from the Colombians, they also want to play”, “The referee took the penalty out of his pants”, “Moscow army men play in red shorts with blue sleeves”, “Here... a blow! I noticed him back at the hotel.”

In general, if you want to become a commentator and don't have charm, it will probably not work out or it will turn out poorly.

But if you want to know what advantages there are in this profession, then keep in mind: the profession of a commentator is diverse, multifaceted and interesting. A commentator can comment on a competition, conduct discussions on sports topics on television/radio, work as a columnist, host television shows, write articles, and conduct his own columns in sports publications.

A lively and active young man will also envy a sports commentator because you won’t get bored with her - this is a “complex profession”: it includes writing from texts, analytics, hosting television and radio programs, and direct live participation in a sporting event (not one cannot do without a commentator). The profession requires a person to be collected and react with lightning speed to what has just happened.

Let's quote from the book by Kote Ivanovich Makharadze: “You must always remember that millions of “abnormals” are watching the report and listening to you, ready to tear you to pieces if you say something wrong or wrong about their favorites. But we give our all, giving our all, not in order to please anyone. But because we serve our favorite business, which gives us great joy and pleasure. And we are not chasing a long ruble: the commentary profession is the lowest paid among journalists. Despite the fact that nervous tension, the degree of dedication, the intensity of emotions, in general, in terms of the costs of the entire psychophysical apparatus of a person, this is the hardest work. This requires a special gift, the ability not only to think with lightning speed, but also to instantly splash out thoughts and words directly into the air.”

Workplace

The place of work of a sports commentator is television and radio studios, stadiums.

Important qualities

Any profession requires a certain image life. A person who dreams of becoming a commentator works endlessly, travels everywhere, flies, changes time zones, constantly communicates with people, very different people. This means that a sports commentator must passionately love sports, he must remember a million names, facts, little things, he must be talkative and positive, have a rich lexicon, be able to speak emotionally, artistically, excitingly. And again from Kote Makharadze’s book: “I was often asked what is special about my reporting. Why are they acceptable and interesting to everyone? social groups, including housewives and pensioners? I've been thinking about this and I think I've found the right answers. One of the reasons, I think, is that I never lied, or tried my best not to lie. Everyone is well aware that there was an era in our lives when it was necessary to lie, to introduce elements of ideology even into sports reporting. I tried my best not to do this, using moments of silence, subtext, humor, and finally. Another reason is the emotional intensity of the reporting. I always worried myself and tried to convey my feelings to the fans. Emotional restraint in our profession is very often not beneficial. And one more thing: I never slandered in my reports, did not allow myself caustic remarks or harsh assessments. Your grievances and Bad mood“I always left the commentator’s booth outside the door and tried to be friendly and objective.”

Where do they teach

As a rule, people who want to become commentators receive a higher education in the profession of journalism, go to work for one or another sports newspaper, TV or radio program to practice, gain skills and gain experience and knowledge in a particular area. It happens that a sports commentator himself was an athlete. And the examples of Nikolai Ozerov and Kote Makharadze tell us another way.

– Who is a sports journalist? How is he different from an ordinary journalist or sports commentator?
– A sports journalist is a person who writes or speaks about sports, is immersed in this topic, and is completely focused on it. It is precisely his chosen work profile that distinguishes him from his fellow journalists who write on other topics. Sometimes it even seems to me that people specializing in political or social journalism take us somewhat frivolously. Obviously, we are used to the fact that sports are always talked about at the end of news broadcasts.

Of course, I would also classify the work of a sports commentator as sports journalism. The commentator simply conveys information to the viewer directly during the broadcast, and the journalist does so a little later.

– Where can a sports journalist work?
– In print and electronic media, as well as on radio and television. Among paper publications, I would highlight the oldest sports newspaper currently published, as well as another serious publication, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.

From online media I like the site as well.

Radio and television sports journalism is actively developing. The country's main sports radio station, Sport FM, where I work in the St. Petersburg office, celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. This is the second year that it has existed - the main sports channel in Russia. By the way, I would recommend that high school students who want to go into sports journalism pay attention to television. Television provides enormous scope for realizing one's journalistic potential. If the soul is in the mood for commentating, a person can commentate on matches. You can become a news anchor or make original programs. Of course, the last option is for people who have been in the profession for a long time, have managed to earn a big name for themselves, and their opinion will be interesting to the audience.

You can get a job as a correspondent on television. However, it is worth considering that this specialist must always be in the thick of things, so his work involves multiple, often long, business trips. A person needs to consider whether he is ready for this. Previously, I could fly in from one business trip in the morning and fly to another in the evening, and I really liked this rhythm of life. Now I have a family, and I want to spend more time with my family.

– How did you become a sports journalist?
– By education I am a specialist in public policy and management, graduated. When I was still in school, my friends took me to football. I really liked the game and the atmosphere at the stadium, and soon I had the chance to try my hand at sports journalism. My good friend, TV journalist Vladimir Obukhovich, saw that I was interested in this. It was he who brought me to my first publication, where I began to try myself in this difficult profession.

My parents were categorically against such a turn in my career. They said that a sports journalist is not a serious profession, especially for a girl. They doubted that I could earn a living from this. It was very difficult.

– Is it really more difficult for girls to work in sports journalism, because this field is considered “male”?
– I actually periodically encountered male chauvinism. It happened that I cried at night because they didn’t understand me and didn’t accept me.

Fortunately, if ten years ago they pointed fingers at girls in sports journalism, now in our country, female sports journalists are beginning to be perceived normally by fans, spectators, and athletes. Respondents are willing to communicate with me. And in the West, more girls work in sports journalism. Beautiful, knowledgeable about football or hockey, speaking knowledgeably, and not reading a text written by an editor. Men are more likely to become commentators.

– What education is best to get to become a sports journalist?
– In principle, anyone who wants and knows how to write can become a sports journalist. Among my colleagues there are many former athletes, people with medical education and even the military. But a journalistic or philological education, of course, will not be superfluous. During the training, at a minimum, they will teach you how to write texts correctly, which will not make the editor cry hot tears, and they will tell you about the basics of the profession. And some journalism faculties even have sports journalism departments - for example, in.

There are schools of sports journalism in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where a person with any education can come. There, accomplished experts tell young people about how to be a sports journalist. In Moscow, for example, for several years now there has been a “School of Sports Journalism” by A. Shmurnov and I. Rabiner, whose graduates work in the same “Sport Express”, as well as Vasily Utkin school. But, unfortunately, girls are not accepted into it.

– How can a novice journalist become in demand?
– It seems to me that the fastest way to success is to find an approach to an athlete who rarely talks to journalists and get exclusive information. This skill will allow a person to quickly gain a reputation, and only then people themselves will begin to ask the person’s opinion on this or that matter. It's like in college - for the first two and a half years you work for your grades, and then the grades work for you. For example, some of my colleagues came to the radio many years ago as young correspondents, and now they have become big stars sports journalism.

– What competencies does a sports journalist need?
– He needs to love sports. Or a specific sport. There are people who write, for example, exclusively about football, who are completely immersed in this sport and have an excellent understanding of it.

But whether it’s worth rooting for a certain team is a moot point. I know fan journalists who know how to abstract themselves and write objective texts, but not everyone can do this. Sometimes aspiring journalists write to me and ask me to evaluate their articles. If they root for a team, it's often immediately obvious. From every line one can see, for example, “I love Spartak!”, “Spartak is the best team.” There is no question of any objectivity.

A sports journalist needs to be able to handle stress and be able to communicate with people. Of course, sometimes you can get tired of communication. But, in my experience, a couple of days alone should be enough to miss your precious respondents and run off to talk with them again, negotiate, and do interviews.

– Should a sports journalist be an athlete?
– It’s good if a journalist goes in for sports. For example, Match TV employs a wonderful commentator Konstantin Genich, who was a former professional football player. Naturally, he understands the whole process from the inside: how difficult it is for football players, how training is organized, how games are played, etc. But still, a sports present or past is not a prerequisite.

– How will sports journalism develop in the near future?
– I think sports journalism in Russia will develop along the Western path. I should note that our foreign colleagues are excellent at making sports journalism a real show. For example, not long ago I watched match promotional videos in the English Premier League. These videos are just real little movie masterpieces. I think Russian journalists also need to move away from the usual academicism and towards interesting things that will captivate the public.

– What can a sports journalist get tired of?
– An aspiring journalist needs to be prepared for the fact that he will have to go to the stadium in any weather. Whether it’s cold or raining, he must come to the match and sit for two and a half hours. And then work about the same amount of time after the match. For example, often after late matches my colleagues and I had to leave the Petrovsky Stadium late at night.

Not all athletes like to give interviews. There are refusals, and sometimes quite rude ones. At first I was very upset by this, I began to think that perhaps I myself had done something wrong. But then I accepted that some people simply don’t like talking to the press.

– What can a sports journalist do if he decides to try himself in something new?
– It happens that a sports journalist is responsible for a certain team in his publication. Such people often end up on the other side of the barricades and become club press attachés (specialists who represent the interests of the team in contacts with the media - approx. site). This is quite convenient, because the former journalist still has contacts with colleagues.

Also, a sports journalist who is deeply immersed in a topic can become a sports manager, PR manager or sports selector and look for young talented players.

– Is there any opportunity to gain experience while still at school that will help you get a job as a sports journalist in the future?
– A high school student can take part in the annual commentator competition organized by Match TV. To do this, just find a segment of the match on the Internet, comment on it, write a short story about yourself, attach a photo and send it to the competition. Several of my friends ended up on television this way.

Many publications periodically look for interns - people who want to try themselves in sports journalism. Of course, interns are entrusted with the most minor tasks, but this good opportunity enter the industry.

Lately there have been a lot of guys starting a blog on some portal like Sports.ru. If they know how to obtain information, write interesting interviews and notes, they quickly become popular and in demand in the profession. The advantage of such blogs is that it doesn’t matter how old the author is. Let him be fifteen, but if he writes well, they will read him with pleasure.

– What would you recommend to read or watch for schoolchildren who are interested in sports journalism?
Books about sports journalism are, first of all, funny stories. They don't teach you how to interview, it's just life school. That’s why my friend Kirill Legkov’s book “Fighters of the Invisible Sports” comes to mind, which, unfortunately, was released in a limited edition. I would describe it as a collection of tales about St. Petersburg journalists. Another colleague of mine, Vladimir Geskin, published the book “How Young We Drank.” Interesting book came out from the famous commentator Ilya Kazakov, called “Foot’sick people.” The author talks about how he had to communicate with many athletes. He opens them from an unexpected side. It seems to me that a person who would like to get into sports journalism would find this very interesting to read.