Normative values: Analyzing sports media and what it could be

In 1975 Norman Mailer and Little, Brown publisher released one of the more introspective books to cover Muhammed Ali to date. The book, The Fight followed Ali through his quest to reclaim his title as the heavyweight champion of the world after the belt was stripped from him because of his unwillingness to fight in the Vietnam War. Set in what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as the Republic of Zaire, Mailer followed and documented events regarding Ali during the weeks leading up to his fight against George Foreman. He did not just watch Ali train and speak to him at scheduled press conferences, Mailer trained with Ali; he frequented his hotel room; he snuck into his locker room when other sports reporters were barred from entry; and he openly rooted for Ali, believing that his victory would circumvent the agreeable social order in exchange for audacity, inventiveness, and art (Barra, 2013). Throughout the book, Mailer, as a journalist, enjoyed a unique closeness to Ali that produced one of the most vivid accounts of what became the fight of the 20th century. He abandoned the normative values present in journalism: objectivity, impartiality, fairness, truthfulness, and public accountability. He leaned into the story and allowed himself to get lost in the charm, exuberance, personability, and intensity of Ali. The result of abandoning the normative values in western journalism was a story about Ali, that looked at the man as well as the myth, and agreed that both were worth writing about.

The Fight provided an example of why sportswriters throughout the 20th century, though part of western journalism, abandon normative values; the best story is often hidden behind the wall of idealized beliefs. This abandonment of key western journalistic principles often led to the trivialization of sports journalism. At its best, sports stories are a driving factor in increased readership and revenue for media companies. At its worst, sports writing is filled with homer stories and journalists who sway towards fandom more often than they sway towards being an objective writer. Mailer represented this dichotomy with Ali well. He saw Ali as something close to a god. In his writing, he didn’t hide that belief. One could argue that his belief in Ali as a man, guided one of Mailer’s most famous passages in King of the Hill as cited by Barra (2013)

The closer a heavyweight comes to the championship, the more natural it is for him to be a little bit insane, secretly insane, for the heavyweight champion of the world is either the toughest man in the world or he is not, but there is a real possibility he is. It is like being the big toe of God. You have nothing to measure yourself by. (para. 17).

Every sporting event was a spectacle. Every great athlete was likened to a deity above the rest of humanity. Every fallible athlete was seen through the eyes of mounting expectation, and sports writing’s willingness to abandon key tenants of the normative principles in journalism allowed for a deeper essence of their stories to be told.

As time has moved forward, sports journalism and writing have sought to professionalize themselves (Garrison & Salwen, 1994). Unlike much of the sports journalism in the mid-20th century, through professionalization sports journalism attempted to take an approach that does seek to uphold certain normative standards and ethical values (Oates & Pauly, 2007). However, those attempts to professionalize sports journalism center around normative theory, and in the digital age, questions surrounding the acceptance of normative values in both digital and print sports journalism remain persistent. Moreover, the continued attempts to professionalize sports journalism in the digital age have limited the coverage of athletes, sporting events, and people around sports — even as the world grows more interconnected than ever before. Yet, it has also created a vacuum where hybrid models that balance strict adherence and flexibility with normative values have found relative success.

This topical paper on sports journalism will look at the profession through the lens of normative theory. It will look at the history of normative theory in western journalism and the discovery of normative roles within different forms of journalism. From there, the paper will explore the normative values and their history, specifically, detailing ideas of objectivity and independence from journalists and how sports journalism has often differed. Additionally, this paper aims to investigate the print and digital divide between the previously assumed normative values and the direction the profession was heading. Lastly, this paper will explore the modern-day digital initiative of sports journalism, and how internet first reporting has restructured the normative values within the profession but has not changed the normative roles it serves.

Normative roles and theory in western journalism

Normative theory in media describes the ways media systems are controlled and operated by various forms of power, spanning from government to the public (Communication Theory, n.d). The normative theory first appeared in Siebert et al. (1956), where the authors described the various media systems and theories including libertarian theory, authoritarian theory, social responsibility theory, and Soviet media theory. In Siebert et al. (1956) it is understood that “the press always takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures within which it operates” (p. 1). This theoretical framework has guided research into normative values of various press systems given the unique top-down power structure of different countries and cultures.

Though sports journalism does not directly contribute to democracy as conventionally understood, it plays a role as an extension of journalism within western media systems. For example, within libertarian media systems, the idea of the marketplace of ideas is nearly assumed. Baron and Davis (2020) explained that in capitalistic systems, there is a notion of self-regulation, and it is in self-regulating that the government is excluded from operations; thus, there is a competitive marketplace for ideas, in which consumers are trusted to pick and choose the best information to buy.

Under the marketplace of ideas theory, capitalistic media systems apply the laissez-fair doctrine to society’s mass media, encouraging ideas to be freely traded amongst the population (Baron & Davis, 2020). The notion of the marketplace of ideas still is easily seen in the hard news media channels of mass communication in America. To add, Napoli (1999) described the use of the marketplace of ideas as a call for deregulation amongst communication mediums. However, those internalized beliefs are found within sports journalism as well. Simmons (2002) noted that the marketplace and democracy are built on the free flow of information.

In sports journalism, the same notion of free-flowing information and the marketplace of ideas is understood. Information is given to beat writers from the teams they cover. That information is then organized, reported, repackaged, and distributed to the various readers and subscribers. From that point, those readers can choose to buy or sell the writers given information to construct their understanding of the teams they follow. This form of communication indicates that, though sports journalism is not directly linked to the political, its processes mirror that of conventional hard news journalism. The writer is the provider of the information: good, bad, or ugly. That information is then given to the public to decipher the public’s perception of the truth. Indicating that sports journalism, as a profession, may be guided by the same normative theory assumptions found in libertarian media systems because, in the west, it exists within a society founded on libertarian principles.

Due to the understood assumptions of libertarian media systems, journalists’ normative roles within American society are often argued, debated, and contested. As sighted in Hanitzsch and Vos (2016), Cohen (1963) sought to distinguish between a neutral and a participatory role of the press as it pertained to foreign policy. Following that distinction, Janowitz (1975) identified two more media roles: gatekeepers and advocates. Four sets of journalistic professional roles were discovered by Weaver and Willhoit (1986, 1996), and those four roles were the disseminator, interpreter, adversarial, and mobilizer. In more recent years, journalists’ normative roles scholars identified similar roles and tasks for journalism in society. Those roles are to observe, inform, participate in civil life through discourse, and advocate for diverse voices (Christians et al., 2009).

Since many normative roles were conceived in western society, their function in an American libertarian-based media system goes hand and hand. Moreover, they are governed by Western society’s normative values and ethics as it pertains to journalism and mass communication. Normative ethics in journalism within America are understood as seeking truth, minimizing harm, acting independently, being accountable, and seeking transparency (SPJ Code of Ethics, 2014). Seeking truth means journalists should be honest and courageous in seeking out, reporting, and interpreting information. Minimizing harm urges reporters to treat sources, subjects, colleagues, and members of the public with deserving respect. While acting independently sees that journalists avoid conflicts of interests, refuse gifts and favors, and deny favorable treatment from certain sources due to conflicts of interests. Lastly, accountability and transparency encourage reporters to take responsibility for their reporting, explaining decisions made along the way and acknowledging mistakes. As previously noted earlier, sports journalism has not always followed normative values during its fulfillment of normative roles within American society. As a result, sports were looked at as the toy department, lacking seriousness and common ethical standpoints, even though their production was a primary driver of revenue for media companies.

The history of normative values, objectivity, independence, and sports reporting

Norms in western journalism were developed to control the conditions of western news media and the everyday news worker. At the start of the 20th century, these normative values made primary sense when industry news sold its product to the middle class. As Neron (2012) puts it, “[T]he norms of western journalism do not describe what journalists do, of course. Norms are idealizations of what perfect agents do in perfect situations. Sometimes, if conditions are amendable, they are useful tools for thinking through problems and for encouraging, enticing, and exhorting” (p. 452). In looking at normative values as a sliding set of tools, one can see that when not in an amendable situation, these same values can yield primarily negative results. One example used in Neron (2012) was the normative value of objectivity. The author details how objectivity does not work in a media system incapable of providing consolidation of differing viewpoints. Neron goes on to state that “it makes no sense” for journalists to offer both sides of an argument or belief if it is two viewpoints such as a Black nationalist group and a white supremacy group (2012). However, in American media systems, the news often attempts to do so to a fault.

The history of the normative value of objectivity in journalism dates to the start of the professionalization of the practice in the western world. Schudson (2001) traced back objectivity norms use within American journalism to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Schudson (2001) states that it is the norm of objectivity that “distinguishes U.S. journalism from the dominant model of continental Europe” (p. 1). Yet, within the disciple of journalism, there has always been relative contention over how objectivity is achieved outside of theory. Post (2015) detailed that most journalists view objectivity as letting the facts of a story speak for themselves. Directly in line with the marketplace of ideas ideology. Post (2015) also expressed that journalists are actively seeking ways to improve objectivity in news, even though many contended that news media cannot exist outside of some level of subjectivity.

Subjectivity within objectivity is an understood normative value, as well, within journalistic communities. Subjectivity within objectivity means understanding the burden of proof on a given source of information. Journalists are taught to decern between reliable points of view and the dangers of unquestionably accepting every view with the same level of validity. Gorman (2013) described the action of decerning valid points of view from what amounts to misinformation as

objectivity does not consist of simple stenography, of uncritically giving every blowhard with a head of steam the opportunity to vent; it involves examining all the available facts with the aim of arriving at a conclusion — not the truth or my opinion, but a truth or an opinion, as in a scientific investigation or a court of law. (p. 1).

Genuine objectivity does not see the normative value as simply two sides to every story. Instead, it looks at it as each story is complex and multifaceted. Every piece of information a journalist comes across, every source interviewed, and every second spent discovering the truth within an investigation needs to be examined with critical thought and care. For hard news and daily reporting, that definition of objectivity makes sense. However, in the relatively subjective world of sports journalism, that same sense of normative objectivity is not as exhaustive in comparison to hard news. Layden (2017) in his assessment of sports writing in Sports Illustrated, explains that,

writers have used their attachment to a college team or professional franchise as a tool to better connect with an audience. ESPN personalities Scott Van Pelt and Mike Greenberg have made narrative devices of their affection for Maryland basketball and the New York Jets, respectively, with scant blowback. There’s little doubt that hometown writers in small markets have been doing this for decades (para 10).

The acceptance of relative subjectivity in sports journalism came with the embrace of the fan within the sport. Indicating that within the historical arc of normative values within media practices, sports journalism has aired on the side of advocacy journalism over pure objectivity. Writers within sports recognized that in tapping into the emotion of the fan, relatability and profit typically followed. However, in the push to professionalize sports journalism, one sees an increased push towards definitive objectivity with reliance on analytics and administrative sources, eliminating the voice of the fan from mainstream digital and print publications.

Impartiality is another central tenant of the normative values found within western journalism. LibertiesEU (2021) defined independent journalism as “any news media that is free from influence by the government or other external sources like corporations or influential people” (para 3). In an ideal world, journalists operating in America’s media systems are free to report on things as they happen, without a vested interest, and with no direct consequence to the media agency. However, that is not reality. Even in news media, journalists must maintain source relationships. They also must make money for the media company. With money as the primary motivator of news, independence in journalistic activity is a normative value illusion. Journalists are not independent of the political ideology carried by the company, they are not independent of monetary goals set by the business side of the company, and they are not independent of their source relationships and their informational influences. Jenson (2013) explained this precarious nature of independent relationships citing that media companies hire those that fit the given political ideology of that organization. For example, Buzzfeed would most likely not hire a men’s rights activist to be the website’s editor-in-chief; therefore, assuring that independence from political ideology is impossible in a capitalistic media system where the primary goal is maximized profits.

Within sports reporting, the lack of impendence is an inherent truth. The Dallas Mavericks are partners with The Dallas Morning News. Brad Townsend and Callie Caplan are the two reporters who cover the Mavericks for The Morning News. Though they stand at arm’s length from the basketball organization, the corporate partnership between the Morning News and the Mavericks may serve as an inhibitor to authentic independence in the stories written about the team from one of Dallas’ largest newspapers. Independence cannot exist when the entity a newspaper covers is also advertising for that same news organization. Yet, sports dependence, instead of impendence, is an understood reality.

A secondary example of dependence within sports journalism is when it was reported by the Los Angeles Times that Adam Schefter, in 2011, emailed a full draft of his story to Bruce Allen, then WFT (Washington Football Team) president, before it was published to ESPN. In the email obtained by the LA Times Schefter is cited saying, “[P]lease let me know if you see anything that should be added, changed, tweaked… Thanks, Mr. Editor, for that and the trust. Plan to file this to ESPN about 6 a.m.…” (Farmer & Fenno, 2021, para 16). Though Schefter’s actions are seen as unethical to standard journalistic practices, they are not out of normal for many league insiders on mainstream media platforms. Following the publishing of Schefter’s email to Allen, ESPNPR (2021) tweeted out Schefter’s statement addressing the situation, where he described the criticism as fair, but also cited it as a common practice to double-check factual information with a primary source. Independence in sports reporting, much like in news reporting, has always carried with it a sense of illusion. No journalist is ever completely independent from the society they are told to report on.

The toy department and sports reporting

Sports journalism’s lack of adherence to the normative values found in everyday news journalism has marginalized the sportswriters in the newsroom as nothing more than entertainment journalism. They provide the dessert, while news reporters provide the meat and potatoes to readers’ lives. Rowe (2007) concluded that, though sports journalism is moving towards practices of professionalization, it still exists in an insulated world that reflects, ponders, and inquiries about sporting events and sporting people. This notion indicates that as much as modern sports journalism seeks to provide thought-provoking stories, it is closer to entertainment journalism than hard news journalism. The self-sustaining world of sports journalism feeds into its central modality: providing more content surrounding sports for readers to enjoy. That modality functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy, as sports can tend to grow distant from the everyday happenings in individuals’ lives. Moreover, the continued use of celebrity athletes, coaches, and administration members as sources only adds to the alienation of the pragmaticism in sports journalism, amidst its already established deviations from normative values. The result of the cyclical nature of the sports journalism system is a section in a newspaper or on a digital website that provides an escape but never explains the given world around a reader.

The toy department analogy does not stop at the general assumption of the sports department. Within the sports department, there is a separation between digital sports journalists and print journalists. McEnnis (2018) coined this separation between digital and print sports journalism as the toy department within the toy department. In his study, he found that traditional sports journalists consider their profession as defined by more traditional journalistic norms while downplaying the norms established by their digital native counterparts (McEnnis, 2018). The trivialization of digital norms in journalism serves to elevate the traditional journalists’ perspective and perception of themselves and their work. It is similar to how news journalists trivialize sports reporting because it does not adhere to the established normative values of that found in hard news. As a result, “traditional sports journalists assert their maligned professional attitudes and practices as culturally important and valuable when compared to the ‘sub-standard’ digitally native practitioners elsewhere within their department” (McEnnis, 2018, p. 1428). Thus, sports journalists and sports journalism in the traditional sense exist to uphold established norms and traditions found in the profession’s history; meaning, it is slow to change, but once it does, it reinvents normative values to guide the younger journalists who are more inclined to accept the natural normative shifts and changes.

The print versus digital divide and changes in normative values

In the early 2000s, with the advent of the internet and continued accessibility to the digital world, sports blogs changed the complexion of what was considered sports journalism. In Billard’s (2006) Sports Illustrated story, he detailed how through online blogs, sports journalism changed the traditions and standards of sports reporting. He explains that blogs concentrated on a different voice in sports. For decades, newspapers felt detached from the reader. They provided a story, but not from the vantage point of the reader. Blogs and online internet-based reporting bridged that gap. It disrupted the normative flow of information within sports media, giving the voice to the fan who, for decades, felt ignored within the traditional practices of print-based sports journalism (Billard, 2006). In representing the fan, blogs and internet-based sports journalism culture grew exponentially. Online communities formed and created a flow of information that was not from beat reporter down, instead, communication was conversational with the blogger and their audience.

One catalyst in the growth of online blogs was Bill Simmons, now media mogul and former owner of The Ringer, editor-in-chief of Grantland, and writer for ESPN’s page 2. Before his success as a sports journalist, he was a blogger under the name of The Sports Guy. He primarily wrote about Boston sports, and he echoed the sentiment and feelings of the local fan. He leaned into the fact he was not a traditional journalist, but instead, something different. His Sports Guy blog was filled with a mesh of pop culture references intertwined with his opinion on games and sporting events. This intriguing blend filled a non-traditional need within the sports media community, and it elevated Simmons’s career to the heights it is at now, where he sold The Ringer to Spotify for $196 million (Richter, 2021). Vogan and Dowling (2016) postulated that Simmons’ blend of some traditional journalistic norms and new, adept, digital norms allowed for his growth online, and the growth of his digital media network. That unique combination of digital journalism was by design. In Billard’s (2006) Simmons is cited as saying, “I think the main reason I’ve done well is that I like sports…I feel a lot of people in the media, columnists for big papers, don’t like sports. I think fans can relate to me partly because I’m not in the locker room” (para 41). Simmons’ open embrace of his partiality connected him to the fan in a way the giants of the media industry could not. In the face of professionalization within sports journalism, Simmons sought to lean into the casualness that is writing about sports. He channeled what existed in Mailer’s book The Fight, only his doing so came from a digital platform, not a print one.

Nonetheless, the advent and growth of digital journalism have changed the norms by which sports journalists, writers, and media companies operate in the day-to-day. From the media company perspective, English (2011) discovered that within the United Kingdom, newspapers tended to publish double the number of web-first stories, however, they tended to save in-depth pieces for the newspaper the following days. His study also highlighted a shift in the early 2010s of content directly written for the website arm of newspapers, as opposed to print stories also published online. Regarding the individual writer’s perspective, it changed the fabric of their reporting norms. Mortiz (2015) found that in the digital age, the model of gathering information, sorting, and reporting has flipped. Through in-depth interviews, Mortiz proposes that the model is now gathering information, reporting it (tweet it), and then sorting it for a full-length feature story or blog (2015). The result of this flipped model is a sacrifice for accuracy in the name of speed, and the creation of internal feelings within journalists for always having to be “on” (Mortiz, 2015). One proposed reasoning for these issues within the digital versus print sphere is, though digital journalism has brought new normative values, reporters who blog tend to fit their work into traditional definitions of what it means to be a sportswriter (Schultz & Sheffer, 2007). In short, the formal training of journalists has not caught up to the new normative practices of the digital model of reporting. Shultz and Sheffer (2010) described that many traditional journalists see the added digital element of their work as just another stressor, while younger journalists tend to embrace the digital world to build their readership and their brand.

The debate settled

The digital versus print debate in sports journalism has settled, for the most part. With the rise of media entities like The Athletic, the digital model for journalism appears to have won out. It has not displaced print sports journalism, but it has forced print to engage in the new digital norms and values established. Some of these new norms include writers placing themselves in their game stories. Recent sports writing does not take a bird’s eye view of the contest, but instead, places the reader in the eye of the journalists, and it seems that digital-native journalists support this new norm. For example, Cato (2021) writes, in his story published in The Athletic about Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic, “I didn’t react much when he hit this shot on Sunday” (para 3). He continued when he wrote, “I don’t know exactly what shape Doncic is in today, and I won’t participate in that game” (Cato, 2021, para 20). Cato’s story highlights the uniqueness of the new digital media landscape. Regarding The Athletic, its content has forced traditional media entities to rethink their strategies. Moreover, Buzzelli et al. (2020) detailed that digital media entities such as The Athletic, have forced traditional media companies to change their normative operations just to stay alive in the crowded sports media world. The way The Athletic went about creating this digital journalistic niche was to hire established writers in the local media market, and from there, empower them with the creative freedom to cover the teams they are on the beat of, as they see fit (Buzzelli et al., 2020).

Without being defined by traditional journalism’s normative roles, writers at The Athletic are encouraged to extend their creative liberties. To add, as a subscription-based media organization, it can offer better pay than most traditional media entities for sports journalists, and in turn, that persuades many established writers to do away with the confines of traditionality and seek a position at The Athletic (Buzzelli et al., 2020). From the reader’s standpoint, once subscribed to The Athletic, they are given the traditional news one could expect from a newspaper beat: team injuries, lineup changes, scores, stats, and standings. However, this information is organized as a media stream instead of independent stories. While receiving standard information, readers also enjoy in-depth analysis in which writers are free to insert opinions, but still, practice restraint in openly cheering for the teams they cover. It appears, at least on the surface, that The Athletic has found success because the company exists in a happy medium between traditional journalistic norms and the freedom found in blog websites and digital norms.

Conclusion

The normative values found in America’s media systems are in place because of the libertarian approach to how the media should function within society. Libertarian principles of communication created the backbone of the marketplace of ideas theory and the normative functions, values, and roles of individual journalists within America, as well as media agencies operating in the West.

Sports journalism has successfully fulfilled multiple normative roles; however, it has often struggled to uphold the normative values of standard journalistic practices. As a result, the practice of sports journalism has been trivialized by those within the hard news sectors of the journalism profession. Often, sports journalism lacks impartiality, independence, and objectivity. The lack of adherence to those listed normative values raised questions from many regarding the ethical standards of sports journalism. These prodding questions forced the professionalization of sports journalism, as traditional sportswriters aimed to find a higher standard for their profession. However, that standard ignited a debate during the advent rise of digital sports media. Much like the profession during the mid-20th century, digital sports journalists knowingly strayed from the normative values in the search for different ways to produce, report, and describe sports news. When the debate settled, digital sports journalism and its norms of brevity, access, and immediacy won out. Yet, it did not displace traditional journalism, instead, it forced traditional journalism to shift towards a hybrid model for its continued relevancy.

The acknowledgment of the shifting nature of sports journalism’s normative values recognizes the beauty within the profession. Though it has not been perfect, and sports journalism has often made mistakes, it has appeared open to change with each younger generation. However, that does not mean every change has been a positive one. The normative values that created Mailer’s The Fight also created The Athletic. In openly acknowledging the writer’s existence in the story, and the unavoidable subjectivity within sports writing, the best stories are told. When print sports journalism did not acknowledge the inherent subjectivity of the work, it created a vacuum for digital sports journalism to grant the voice to the fan or consumer, mirroring the role of activist journalism within the given normative roles. Normative values are values that exist in an idealized world. That is why they are hard to follow when in the field. By acknowledging one’s subjectivity, sports journalism opens itself up to writing the complete story. In doing so, the cycle of the self-fulling prophecy of sports journalism is broken. As the world grows interconnected, one must hope that digital entities like The Athletic blend the best of traditional normative values while remaining open to constructive change; existing in the happy medium between fandom and the first scribe of sporting history.

References

Ballard, C. (2006). Writing up a storm. Sports Illustrated, 704(13), 58–65.

Barron, S. J. & Davis D. K. (2020). Mass communication Theory: Foundation, Ferment, and Future (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Barra, A. (2013 December, 26). Norman Mailer, sportswriter. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/12/norman-mailer-sportswriter/282115/

Buzzelli, N. R., Gentile, P., Sadri, S. R. & Billings, A. C. (2020). “Cutting editors faster than we’re cutting reporters”: Influences of The Athletic on sports journalism quality standards. Communication & Sport, 20(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479520945658

Cato, T. (2021, November, 1). Latest Luka Doncic performance not only helping Mavericks but also generating new ways to explain eminence. The Athletic. https://theathletic.com/2925739/2021/11/01/latest-luka-doncic-performance-not-only-helping-mavericks-but-also-generating-new-ways-to-explain-eminence/

Christians, C.G., Glasser, T.L., McQuail, D. (2009). Normative Theories of the Media: Journalism in Democratic Societies. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Communication Theory. (n.d.). Normative theory — four theories of the press. Comunicationtheory.org. Retrieved from https://www.communicationtheory.org/normative-theory-four-theories-of-the-press/

Cohen, B.C. (1963). The press and foreign policy. NJ: Princeton University Press.

English, P. (2011). Online versus print: A comparative analysis of web-first sports coverage in Australia and the United Kingdom. Media International Australia, 140(1), 147–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x1114000118

Farmer, S. & Fenno, N. (2021 October, 12). Jon Gruden emails were part of June court filing by WFT owner Dan Snyder. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2021-10-12/nfl-jon-gruden-emails-washington-football-team

Garrison, B., Salwen, M. B. (1994). Sports journalists assess their place in the profession. Newspaper Research Journal, 15(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10/1177/073953299401500205

Gorman, B. (2013). Review: objectivity in journalism. Canadian Journal of Communication, 43(1), 1–2.

Hanitzsch, T. & Vos, T. P. (2016). Journalism beyond democracy: A new look into journalistic roles in political and everyday life. Journalism, 19(2), 146–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916673386

Janowitz, M. (1975). Professional models in journalism: The gatekeeper and the advocate. Journalism Quarterly, 52(0), 618–626. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769907505200402

Jensen, R. (2013, May 17). The Collapse of Journalism and the Journalism of Collapse. Insight. https://um-insight.net/perspectives/the-collapse-of-journalism-and-the-journalism-of-collapse/

Layden, T. (2017 December 20). Root, root, root for my team: Sports reporting continues to move further away from objectivity. Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/media/2017/12/20/sports-media-reporting-objective-journalism-fans

LibertiesEU. (2021 October 28). Independent journalism: Definition, importance, and how to protect it. Liberties. https://www.liberties.eu/en/stories/independent-journalism/43789

Mortiz, B. (2015). The story versus the stream: Digital media’s influence on newspaper sports journalism. International Journal of Sports Communication, 8(0), 397–410. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/IJSC.2015-0071.

McEnnis, S. (2018). Toy department within the toy department? Online sports journalists and professional legitimacy. Journalism and Sport, 21(10), 1415–1431. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918797613.

Napoli, P. M. (1999). The marketplace of ideas metaphor in communication regulation. Journal of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02822.x

Nerone, J. (2012). The historic roots of the normative model of journalism. Journalism, 14(4), 446–458. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884912464177

Oates, T. & Pauly, J. (2007). Sports journalism as moral and ethical discourse. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22(4), 332–347. https://doi.org/10.1080/08900520701583628

Post, S. (2015). Scientific objectivity in journalism? How journalists and academics define objectivity, assess its attainability, and rate its desirability. Journalism, 16(6), 730–749. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884914541067

Richter, F. (2021 June, 17). The stead rise of podcast. Statista. https://www.statista.com/chart/10713/podcast-listeners-in-the-united-states/

Rowe, D. (2007). Sports journalism: still the ‘toy’ department of news media? Journalism, 8(4), 387–405. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884907078657

Schefter, A. [@ESPNPR]. (2021 October, 13). Statement from Adam Schefter [Tweet].

Schudson, M. (2001). The objectivity norm in American journalism. Journalism, 2(2), 149–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/146488490100200201

Siebert, F. S., Peterson, T., & Schramm, W. (1956). Four theories of the press. University of Illinois Press.

Simmons, D. R. (2002). Big media: its effects on the marketplace of ideas and how to slow the urge to merge. The John Marshall Journal of Information Technology and Privacy Law, 20(2), 247–286.

Spj.org. 2016. SPJ Code of Ethics. [online] Available at: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp [Accessed 20 November 2021].

Vogan, T. & Dowling, D. (2016). Bill Simmons, Grantland.com, and ESPN’s corporate reinvention of literary sports writing online. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 22(1), 18–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856514550637

Weaver, D.H. & Wilhoit, G. C. (1986). The American journalists. Indiana University Press.

Weaver, D. H. & Wilhoit, G. C. (1996). The American journalists in the 1990s: U.S. NewsPeople at the End of an Era. Erlbaum.