The effects of market driven journalism on the fourth estate are questionable at best and disastrous at worst. In market driven journalism, "viewers and readers are transformed into customers, news into products, and circulation or signal areas into markets" (McManus, 1). A prime example of the negative effects of market driven journalism can be found in the realm of sports journalism, specifically at ESPN. The popular sport network's market driven focus and attention to the bottom line has resulted in less diverse television programming for viewers and questions about the integrity of ESPN's reporters and a lack of faith in sports journalism in general.
[...] Market driven journalism also leads to the questioning of the integrity of media outlets and those individuals that report the news to consumers. ESPN's journalistic integrity was just recently questioned by Oklahoma head football coach Bob Stoops. Stoops said on Tuesday, November 16th, in his weekly news conference that college football poll voters should be made aware that ESPN has a contract with the Southeastern Conference. This statement was made in response to the network's Saturday morning college football analysts stating multiple times that Auburn should be the nation's No team and not Oklahoma. [...]
[...] Croteau, David, Hoynes, William. The Business of Media. (Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, 2001). Cohen, Elisia L. “Online Journalism as Market-Driven Journalism.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 46 (2002): 4. Fernandez, Bernard. “Another Body Philadelphia Daily News November 2003. Greenfield, Aaron. “ESPN Pitchmen Sacrifice Their Shrinking Journalistic Integrity,” St. Petersburg Times September 2004. Grimshaw, Colin. “Living Dangerously,” Campaign March Kim, Steve. “Max'D Out on ESPN, Kellerman Moves to Fox Sports,” Max Boxing [...]
[...] What DeLuca is admitting is that ESPN is more concerned with appealing to its advertisers and desired consumer market and turning its tennis coverage into a commercialized product than providing a quality product to tennis fans. He was also asked why ESPN had repeatedly stuck with a star's match even if they were easily beating their opponent. Pagliaro admitted, guys showed Roddick routing Ulihrach when I want to see Dent playing Chela in a stadium court match that Dent won 7-5 in the fifth. [...]
[...] He responded, communicate that ESPN is more than sports news. Our objective has been to broaden the network in terms of potential viewers” (MCN, 1). ESPN's market driven journalism has shown that they are indeed more than sports news; they are a network concerned more with advertising dollars and expanding its customer base than providing loyal ESPN viewers with diverse, engaging, and objective sports programming. Sources Cited Beam, Randal A. “Content Differences Between Daily Newspapers with Strong and Weak Market Organizations,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 80 (2003): 2. [...]
[...] ESPN's quest for profits and market-driven sports journalism has also helped to bring the sport of boxing to the brink of extinction. First, boxing coverage was transferred from ESPN to ESPN 2 so sporting events such as the Surfing World Tour, “which can bring in $15 million in sponsorship money,” could be shown on ESPN (Grimshaw, 35). In 2003, ESPN2 announced that it was moving the “Friday Night Fights” start time from 10PM Eastern Time to 12 Midnight, thus taking the bouts out of prime time in at least 70% of the country. [...]
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