Blogging presents challenge for sport organisations

Sport organisations are grappling with what to do about bloggers, according to research by a University of Arkansas professor. Issues centre on whether to grant access to bloggers and what requirements to set to grant credentials for this new media form.

Stephen W. Dittmore, an assistant professor of recreation who specialises in sport management, recently presented an analysis of how sport organisations approach bloggers and blogging. He spoke during the annual conference last week of the North American Society of Sport Management in Columbia, S.C. Dittmore conducted the analysis with three colleagues at Wichita State University.

Blog is short for Web log and is generally described as a diary-style Web site that offers commentary and news. Bloggers are occasionally referred to as citizen or grassroots journalists, but commercial media also publish online blogs.

In a summary of the research, Dittmore cited an incident in 2007 that crystallised the debate over what journalists should be allowed to do from a press box. During the 2007 NCAA Super-Regional baseball playoffs, the NCAA 'ejected' a Louisville Courier-Journal writer from the press box and revoked his credentials because he was live-blogging in violation of an NCAA policy that considers the action a live presentation. As such, blogging violated NCAA broadcast agreements with CBS and ESPN.

In another example framing the debate, Dittmore wrote that the Dallas Mavericks pro basketball team instituted a policy last year that denied locker room access to writers whose 'primary purpose is to blog.' The NBA intervened, ruling that bloggers credentialed from news organisations must be admitted.

'Traditional definitions of what constitutes a news organisation are evolving,' Dittmore said. 'Sport organisations such as the New York Islanders and the Washington Capitals have issued media credentials to bloggers, many of whom are fans and have no journalistic training.'

The study addressed two questions: What types of policies exist pertaining to providing event credentials for bloggers? What types of restrictions do the policies place on credentialed bloggers? The researchers looked at the blog-related policies of a variety of sport organisations, including international governing bodies, professional sport leagues, college conferences and individual teams or institutions.

The analysis of restrictions on bloggers included how the policies addressed the level of access afforded bloggers, live updates from events in blogs, the use of other forms of media such as photographs in blogs, use of the sport organisation's protected marks in blogs, and advertising in blogs.

The researchers found that perceptions vary regarding the legitimacy of bloggers and their value to the sport organisation, and many organisations have yet to formalise blogging policies. Protecting the interests of the sport organisations is often a key part of blogging policies because of concern about how bloggers will present the sport organisation, they found. On the college scene, larger Bowl Championship Series schools more often only grant media credentials to bloggers from 'credible' or 'legitimate' media outlets, while smaller, non-BCS schools more often evaluate requests on a case-by-case basis.

Dittmore's co-authors at Wichita State are G. Clayton Stoldt, Jordan R. Bass and Laura Biery.

Dittmore joined the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions in August 2008. He released results last year of a study of the effectiveness of team-operated blogs from the marketing perspective. A case study of the Los Angeles Dodgers blog was published in the September issue of the International Journal of Sport Communication in an article titled 'Use of an Organisational Weblog in Relationship Building: The Case of a Major League Baseball Team.'

Dittmore is co-author, with Stoldt and Scott E. Branvold, of Sport Public Relations, a textbook used worldwide in sport management and public relations programs. Dittmore directed media operations for the organising committees at the 1996 and 2002 Olympic Games.