How Sports Media Covers During the Covid-19: Sport Communication
Pandemic The pandemic has changed work patterns. There have been many new challenges. Like what? Monthly discussions held by the UII Communications Nadim try to raise it and find answers to these questions. Starting from changing online media strategies, and looking for various strategies and content tricks to win over readers, even amidst the Coronavirus siege.
This time, Nadim’s discussion invited a resource person named Muhammad Diast Reyhan Rafif to become a discussion partner for students at UII Communications. Diast is an alumnus of the 2017 batch of UII Communication Studies. His final research in his thesis examined Editorial Management in Reporting on the Cancellation of the National Football League Competition. Several media are used as research objects. Among them are detik.com, and okezone.com. Bolasport.com, Jawapos.com.
According to Diast, several online media are quite responsive and creative in dealing with reporting amid a pandemic. “Detik.com, for example, raised the human interest side during the pandemic. Regarding salary uncertainty amidst competition uncertainty, also player activities during the pandemic, including news of league I and league 2 uncertainties,” said Diast revealing one of his research results on Tuesday, 15 February 2022.
Another second, another dotcom media, and the rest. Bolasport, said Diast, provides football travel content, in the form of a timeline or memorable moments. That timeline is tracked year by year. Apart from that, bolasport also covers supporter activities during the pandemic. Even though it seems ordinary, you can see creative efforts meandering amidst the lack of events that could be sources of writing due to the cancellation of the National Football League competition.
Different Srategies from different medias
It’s no different, Okezone from the MNC group media has another strategy. “Okezone.com has soccertainment. It is a rubric that reports on player activities when the leagues haven’t started, for example, player support, federation support, health support when a player or coach is exposed to corona,” said Diast, who also served as Chair of the Communication Editor’s Journalism Club. this. According to Diast, this rubric talks a lot about international football because it still attracts a lot of interest from readers.
If Legal publishes a lot of international sports news because it is liked by many readers, Jawapos focuses more on national sports news. For example, the news raised is about the activities of coaching players outside the field. Or also the theme of the player transfer market because there are many players abroad. This includes not forgetting to also cover PSSI’s steps to run the league.
Ifa Zulkurnaini, the moderator of the discussion, also asked if there was further research that could be done in the context of sports journalism. Narayana, UII Communication Lecturer, who was also present as a participant in the discussion said that there was still something that could be researched about sports journalism. Not only what Diast did, in football, but other research could also be carried out on how other sports journalism media cover amid a pandemic, especially for sports other than football. “Football can still go on, but what about basketball, badminton, and others? How can sports journalists and the media cover and survive during a pandemic? Maybe that’s what can be continued,” said Nara trying to argue in the middle of the discussion.
