Sports Reporters being REPLACED by Content Creators?

here’s Brody Brazil you know the topic and I suppose the real premise of this video are very near and dear to my heart because it’s who I am personally and professionally and where I’ve been what I’m doing what I hope to continue doing for the rest of my years and I hope you’ll find this conversation interesting too i’ve been thinking about this for a while kind of basing my central question around this is the modern-day sports reporter being replaced or surpassed by content creators let that sink in for a second i’ve chosen every single word here carefully intentionally and specifically sports reporter let’s begin with that maybe the traditional person who would cover sports on television or for a radio station or a print outlet like a newspaper the modern-day traditional sports reporter are they being replaced or surpassed when I say replaced or surpassed maybe job-wise there aren’t as many opportunities for the traditional sports reporter anymore kind of the onetrick pony person who does just one thing as a specialty so replaced maybe in terms of a job or how about just surpassed like the typical sports reporter the traditional sports reporter just isn’t getting as many views or eyeballs or attention as content creators now what are content creators that is such a wide openen term i mean by definition I’ve been a content creator for more than 25 years now i’ve been making content since the ‘9s we just never called it that until the last four five six seven years but content creators could be anybody somebody here on YouTube or if you’ve had a podcast for a while or if you’re just big on social media there is no real overarching definition that that really gets down to what exactly a content creator is it could be a number of different things usually it’s multiple things that a content creator does but the premise here the central question is the old way of doing it being surpassed or replaced by the new way of doing it and I also want to make one observation here because I think I can initially answer the question and say yes that might be happening but here’s my observation to go with it sports media and by that I mean sports people who work in media sports media who exist exclusively in those legacy mediums of like working for a television station or a network or a publication or a radio station people who work only for one place and only do one thing and don’t have a podcast and don’t have a YouTube they still exist they just work for a traditional platform the only way and place you can find this person is on a traditional platform that type of sports media person still exists but they are trending far less common than ever before it’s hard to find somebody who just has a radio show i guess the better way to put it is that everybody’s got a side thing or a separate thing or something else that they’re doing a new media form of their presentation to go along with maybe the traditional form of what they do that’s just kind of my observation there’s not many people who are only doing it the old way and so I think we really have arrived at the era of the sports content creator there’s no question about it like this isn’t new but now that we’ve seen it for a handful of years I think we can say that we are deep in this era so what’s different about this era number one buttoned up isn’t really a thing anymore i mean nobody’s coming here on YouTube to make videos in a suit and tie right it just doesn’t happen and maybe people feel more comfortable like when it’s you and I I say talking right now it’s me talking to you but hopefully this feels conversational to you i’m just as you’d find me on any Monday or Tuesday afternoon this is what I look like here in the home studio it’s just not so buttoned up it’s not so formal it’s not so stiff with makeup and yeah of course I mean there’s bells and whistles and lights here and this probably feels more like a a television studio than my home studio but you you understand the point like buttoned up isn’t really a thing anymore in the content creator era nobody expects you to be presenting like an evening news anchor anymore and on that note viewers I also think prefer real talk versus polished or scripted or a delivery off a teleprompter now I could easily like some people do on YouTube I could script every single video I do i could write all the words on that screen over there and I could just read those words to you edit after every mess up edit see like I would have edited right there edit between sentences there’s no gaps there’s not I I just do it in one take and sometimes I have to make some cleanup edits in fact I think I’ve already done one in this video but I try and do it all in one take because I think viewers prefer real talk with some flubs with some retractions or or circling back on things to make them right versus “Hi I’m Brody Brazil and I talk like this and I do all my videos and sound like this and there’s all these different voice inflections up and down until I get to the end of a sentence.” like I used to do that that’s what people for television and radio are trained to do that’s the polished that’s the scripted that’s the teleprompter delivery but I don’t think viewers you let me know in the comments section below i don’t think you prefer that anymore there’s also this which is a little bit more critical to accuracy to integrity reporters of old school eras and and the ones that still exist they aim for objectivity right they’re trying to not be biased they’re trying to see something both ways is they’re trying to present it without any sort of attachments to it whereas creators content creators I think are almost expected to offer perspective and maybe this comes to us in a different age of you know debate shows on television with sports and look what sports radio has turned into it’s literally a 247 debate there’s not a lot of learning or there are some good interviews don’t get me wrong but it’s for the most part it’s a lot of back and forth it’s a lot of conflicting views and that’s simply what I guess people want to listen to but in this day and age creators are expected to come to the table with some opinions come to the table with some perspectives come to the table with more than just well here’s what happened people want to know why did that happen people want to know what’s your opinion on that what’s the background on that fill me in on this so the content creator era has definitely changed what’s expected in terms of well actual content i also think that legacy media and I I don’t think this I know this has so many timing and format constraints whereas here on the internet we don’t like for example if I were doing a television show right now first off nobody would have ever let me talk for seven eight straight minutes to start off a show with my own graphics we got to take a commercial break imagine if I just said “Hey we’ll be right back after this.” And I do know that YouTube sometimes plays commercials during my videos or before the videos that’s fine but there’s no media timing and formatting here on the internet you do a podcast and you need to take a commercial break you take it when you’re ready let me tell you how it works in television producer gets in your ear hey we got 2 minutes until the break 30 seconds left and they start counting you down 10 9 5 3 2 1 to break that’s it you go to break you have to go to break you work on the clock in television and in radio and in in uh print for example you only get so many words on the internet it’s as long or as short as you want it to be on television sorry on the internet here on YouTube it’s the duration you want it you take your breaks or you don’t take your breaks you do whatever you want and I think viewers quite honestly prefer that creators here on social media or in the content creator era era they can also cover like global stories versus legacy media which you know if you work for a regional network or a local television station or a local radio station you’re kind of only covering the main things in your area right so it opens up and I’ I’ve experienced this firsthand on this YouTube channel i used to just cover the stuff I did for work and then I realized I’m more interested in other things beyond just this maybe maybe this is my avenue maybe this is the platform where I could and should do it i started doing it and all of a sudden I reached a lot different audiences so I think you have to retrain your mindset of I’m not just doing this on the internet some people do and they do it just just well i’m covering these stories and I’m not paying attention to anything else but all of a sudden when you widen out the view you realize that it’s just a lot more opportunistic for the content creator than it is for the traditional sports reporter here’s another one legacy media right that’s been studied and taught in colleges and universities for decades i mean look at me degree in broadcast journalism from San Jose State they taught you how to write a story they taught you the ethics of of being a traditional reporter now this is more news less sports but same idea is applying here how to present how to anchor a show how to read a script all that stuff they taught you how to do this but there is no equivalent now like for content creators do they are they teaching that in college is there a degree of content creator there always was for broadcast media broadcast production i mean the production is not that much different but the actual presentation of it like I said I just feel like this is such a shift who could even teach content creating content creation in a in a university or a a higher education situation because it’s constantly changing by the time a textbook is written on how to make a YouTube video the algorithm changes right so it’s just a crazy time in the era of content creation that things are happening so quickly it’s hard to keep up But I do think things have changed let me get to my takeaways i’ve already gone way longer than I wanted to here i think what the internet has done to television like from sports reporters to content creators that’s probably what TV did to radio back in the days in the 40s and 50s and there’s television now then there’s color television and I think what happened was people were shocked by uh-oh the old way we used to do it is gone it doesn’t exist and it’ll it’ll live on but it will never be the same that’s kind of what we’re witnessing with old media versus this new media in business and in life i just I I’ve learned this lesson already maybe midlife and I’ve already understood this there is the constant need to evolve and to never let yourself get set in stone if you entrench yourself in that old media and you think that you know as a as a as a worker in sports that you know things will never change and I’ll I’ll have this job it’ll stay this way forever i mean I think that’s probably applicable to all jobs all trades all fields all that stuff you can never let yourself get set in stone it’s just not going to be that way but I do think that roles and personalities and kind of the rules of broadcasting they just aren’t defined like they used to be i don’t want to say it’s like the wild wild west but the rules just aren’t there anymore you want to put a jump cut in your video fine we would never allow that on television what’s a jump cut you ask you probably know but to the point right it’s different expectations we’re in a different era and I know people were trained on something like I was but it’s not that way anymore and it may never go back that way again that’s the end of my video hopefully you found this interesting let me know if you did in the comment section below if you want to add something you thought I missed I got right or I got wrong i’d love to hear about it also thumbs up down below helps me the channel and the video and don’t forget to subscribe hit that button right now i’d love to see you back here next time

Join channel, access perks ✅ http://brodie.bz/join

*Subscribe now, get more* 📺 http://brodie.bz/YouTube

[[ *MY PLAYLISTS* ]]
San Jose Sharks: https://brodie.bz/sharks
San Francisco 49ers: https://brodie.bz/49ers
San Francisco Giants: https://brodie.bz/giants
Golden State Warriors: https://brodie.bz/warriors
Howard Terminal Ballpark: https://brodie.bz/HowardTerminal
Oakland Athletics: https://brodie.bz/athletics

[[ *MY OTHER CHANNELS* ]]
*BRODIE BRAZIL AVIATION* ✈️ http://brodie.bz/Aviation
*HOME STUDIO PRO* 🎥 http://brodie.bz/HomeStudio

📸 *Instagram* ➡️ http://brodie.bz/IG
🐦 *X /Twitter* ➡️ http://brodie.bz/X
👍 *Facebook* ➡️ http://brodie.bz/FB

*Support this channel* 🎉 https://brodie.bz/PayPal

#socialmedia #media #youtube

26 comments

  1. Interesting video. I think it comes down to with whom one chooses to listen or watch. The internet has opened up to all kinds of content and more importantly gives us the opportunity to respond including negatively to what is being presented. 🤔🤔

  3. Content creator is more like sports radio, some research but opinions. Sports journalism just feel lots different. Like espn get mcfee or mlb teaming up with jomboy media, thou you could say those shows on espn some were sports journalism but some acted like sports radio.

  6. Content creator is more like sports radio, some research but opinions. Sports journalism just feel lots different. Like espn get mcfee or mlb teaming up with jomboy media, thou you could say those shows on espn some were sports journalism but some acted like sports radio. I like how your isn’t scripted…. There is even YouTubers that’s not sports where it sounds too scripted

  7. As you said, Brodie, we're in a time period where people have to continuously reinvent themselves with increasingly short timelines. We see it with a lot of modern content creators as they evolve from one topic to another related topic. Heck, you did it yourself. You went from "The Oakland A's Guy" to "The Stadium Guy" to "The Team Ownership Situation Guy" in the space of less than 2 years. They're all related so you didn't have to go all that far down the rabbit hole to evolve, but you still did it.

    We're starting to see a bit of that evolution in sports broadcasts, particularly regional broadcasts. Watch a Jays home game on Rogers Sportsnet and in addition to the game itself, you'll see a woman named Emily Agard talking about the latest food in the concourse or whatever giveaway is upcoming or the games at Junior Jays Sundays for the kids. She's creating content within the broadcast just based on what's at the SkyDome. It fills what might otherwise be dead air time or time where a commentator might talk about some random game 50 years ago and turns it into both a sales pitch and something of potential interest to people.

  8. It’s just a sign of the times. My son only watch tv when it’s sports with me. Usually only through streaming and still complains about commercials. Otherwise he streams or YouTube…

  9. In the monoculture media, sports reporters were "beat" writers. They traveled with the team, they earned the confidence of the players, coaches. They sifted out the most interesting elements of a game and presented said information to their audience in a compelling, informative manner. In the digital era, we are inundated by information sans knowledge. Pre and post-game press conferences are pablum – players / coaches give stock answers to stock questions. Intrusive commercial content detracts from the experience of watching sports. Excellence in reporting has been replaced by "good enough." The term "content creators" was conjured to lessen the importance of journalists – hence they can be paid less and even replaced by AI. When you do more with less, the result is less.

  12. A couple of things 1) With the internet, you can get information on every team, no matter where you are. If you live in New York but your favorite teams are elsewhere, you don't need SportsCenter at 7PM to get info on your team. You also have Twitter, where people can get raw information from many places at once 2) The problem with legacy media now is you have too many Stephen A Smith types who just have hot takes for clicks. You don't have things like the old Sports Reporters with Dick Schaap/Bob Ryan/Mitch Albom/Bill Conlin etc. So people who want real analysis aren't getting it on ESPN. I am not from Oakland. I found you here and listen to you every day because you give sober well-reasoned analysis. I feel like I learn something on every video not a headache.

  15. As an NYC/ metro area person we have some of the best regional sports coverage with SNY, MSG and even the crappy YES network but your channel is the only one that I’ve clicked the little bell icon for new video notifications, even though the majority of your content has no direct effect to any of my teams. Your videos are top notch and I’m happy the algorithm led me to it, plus being an ATC I also follow your aviation channel.

  16. Whereas I do very much like the controlled placement of ads (or, in my case, paying to not have ads), I prefer news over stories. Working in interviews with very knowledgeable experts (e.g., a well-known pitcher on a baseball channel) is good, but as a scientist I want facts much more than a 15-minute video on someone’s opinion. Not all content creators are the later. Indeed, this channel provides way more factual information than fluff/opinion. The sports channels that just have a panel talking about each of their opinions… no thanks.

  17. My beef with "legacy media" is that they have always struck me as only maybe a hair's-breadth difference to the Robert Duvall character in The Natural, i.e., a self-proclaimed "gatekeeper" who basically expects the subject of his reporting to kiss the ring, and expects that he can tell the public what they should think (the sports reporter being not all that different from "straight news").

  18. I’d love to hear your thoughts on MLB directly investing into Jomboy Media! I think this is proof that, verbatim, you were and are 1000% correct! Sounds like it’ll be mutually beneficial as Jomboy Media will garner more rights and permissions as well!

  19. Yup. Look at Pat McAfee. Channels like Urinating Tree and such. They are entertainment with no fact checking. But McAfee makes a lot of $$$ and clickbait.

    But I know that Pat will say something offensive enough to himself fired.

  21. Love this. I think the big change is content creators have developed a freedom of following more topics/teams/sports versus being locked into required big teams/regions for rating purposes. Traditional relies on old metrics where content creators are used to an ever adapting algorithm.

  22. Replaced, yes. Surpassed, no. Every nudnik under the sun has access to a camera in their pocket via their phones so we can all upload videos to YouToob willy-nilly, easy as pie. Should we, though? NO! I'm sure no one wants to listen to me blather on about how I think Ohtani is the new Babe Ruth and I hope the Dodgers win every trophy for the next decade plus. It's not an interesting take. Having said that, you and I both know there are channels on YouToob with that very take AND they have a good amount of followers.

    It's the wild west and I think we all loved that thought 15 years ago when this was all still new, but I really hate it now. I love hearing intelligent, well-informed people talk about the things they know and do. I don't even have to agree with you. I just like well-informed people discussing their takes that know their shit AND do this whole "content creation" thing well. Unfortunately, this medium has jettisoned SO many fantastic reporters, not to mention the dying off of legacy media outlets. That leaves us with this platform and remarkably great AND lame channels.

    I found this place in the middle of the pandemic because I was curious about what the hell all the talk was with the A's. I respect your takes, Brodie. You're coming from a legacy media background but managed to make a swift and smooth transition to this platform. I appreciate the work you've done and do. We're a similar age. I always talk about guys our age as having been born into a SUPER strange media landscape. I'm in music and born in 1979. I started out with my dad's records…then tapes…then CDs…then MP3s…back to vinyl… It's crazy and has been FAST. That's akin to your time in "old school" TV and now this, experience in both, not sure if you have a preference (and you don't have to; both are great in their own right).

    Real talk, tho…

    I've had a hair across my ass with the "bloggers" for YEARS and have always managed to side with old school journalists and TV guys. They just have more credibility to me. Even with the new "content creators" (I hate that phrase BTW…it's used in my guitar world and – to be kind – they're mostly cringey at best)…I still like the old school thing. I'm here, though. You're both to me so keep on keepin' on. This IS the future for better or worse. I just hope the rest in this game can up their respective games because there are too many that are getting eyes that do NOT deserve eyes.

  23. Same is happening in Weather. A former TV Weatherman now does Weather on Youtube has over 2 Million subscribers, has an AI bot 24/7 nightlight channel with almost 1 million more subscribers brings in 7 figures of revenue and runs a non profit for Tornado, Hurricane, and Flood victims and many TV meteorologists are putting content on their own Youtube channels to have a landing place in case they get laid off

  24. I love that content creators are not tied to a rigid clock. Decades of journalism courses, and no one figured out that it was better for the viewer to watch a topic fully develop rather than stop in the middle, switch to a tampon ad, and then come back to a different topic 🤦🏼‍♂️

  26. Points to consider:
    1. Cable cutting culture.
    2. Content creators have more personality, don't have to adhere to big broadcast corporations. Can be more spontaneous, even with sports humor/jokes/memes.
    3. Podcasts level the playing field. Low hurdle to start, even players having popular podcasts. Why listen to a reporter when you can hear it directly from players?

Leave a Reply