Sports Journalist Career Research Paper

Fed up with a career you don’t enjoy? Tired of spending your day stuck behind a desk or getting your hands dirty? If you are a sports fan then the career path of a sports journalist would be just right for you. In order to be one he/she will need to know what education, skills required, job outlook, work environment, and salary involved in a sport journalist career.

Knowing what education and training is required will be key to becoming a successful sports journalist. “If you plan such a career, include courses in writing; grammar skills will be a necessity. You should also consider a strong background in the humanities and use free electives to take sports courses from the physical education program” (Heitzman 62). Achieving a bachelor's

“Quite a few papers offer paid summer internships. Some even provide decent salaries and some have programs specifically designed to recruit women and people of color” (Lynn). Different colleges may demand students to enroll in liberal art classes such as English, history, economics, and political science, so students are primed to cover stories on a wide range of subjects. As a student, working on with the school newspaper can be helpful to obtaining a full-time job following graduation. Constant news experience is key to becoming a good sports writer. Landing a part-time job with a local newspaper during the summer is what working

Writing about sports requires thorough knowledge of many sports. Reporters write feature stories on players and coaches, and provide insight on trends involving the team or sport they cover. Besides game coverage, team news, player transactions and coaching changes are also what journalist write about to let fans know, they not only write about what happens in the game, but also the reasons teams succeed or fail. Reporters give their personal opinions on why players or coaches did something and why they made the decisions they did. Sports writers have access to teams and players that few other people get to experience. Working with top athletes can be very intriguing, writers usually get to witness top competition and always with a prime seat. If a sports journalist gets a chance to cover a top professional team, they will be writing about millionaire players, coaches, general managers, and team owners. “Sports writers typically enjoy what they are doing. Although they remain neutral at the games they cover-objectivity is a must- they get to see top games, teams, and athletes. Sports writers spend much of their time out of the office and may travel extensively” (Angst). Writers do not work the regular eight hour day as most people, many games are at night and the writers rarely work from nine a.m. to five p.m. starting early in the day pitching story ideas with editors.