A week ago, the AFL media landscape was full of quick, nasty reactions to Geelong’s qualifying final loss to Richmond. Some of them were mine.
Chris Scott’s finals record is rubbish! Were Geelong right to give him a contract extension? He got lucky being in the right time and place with the 2011 flag.
If you had your ears open I’ll bet you heard all three sometime last week.
Here we are a week later and we’ve all decided we like Chris Scott again. Playing Patrick Dangerfield forward – bloody risky, but what a brilliant move! The Cats are surely in the premiership race again, almost to the minute exactly seven days after being ruled out of it.
In the pre-internet age, most people spent a relatively small amount of their day consuming news – reading a paper in the morning, watching TV news at night. That’s it.
Now, computers and smartphones bombard us with information almost constantly. It might sound like I’m complaining – I’m not. I wake up and check my alerts, I fall asleep seeing if anyone is up late tweeting anything funny. I know I should read a chapter of my book instead but I’m not good at being an adult.
The point is that the length of time between a news story happening and you hearing about it is becoming shorter and shorter as we spend more and more time connected to technology.
That’s why speed is now a selling point – in the past, we might have picked a particular media outlet for the quality of their coverage, now we’ll probably click on a story from just about anywhere if it’s something we haven’t seen before.
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No part of this sounds that bad so far – quicker generally is better when it comes to getting news, so long as ethics aren’t left behind for the virtue of speed and, while there are definitely some low points out there, most of the time they aren’t.
However, media is no longer just about pure news (as if it ever was!) because if it were, the newspaper would be a tenth its size and TV news might well be called off altogether two or three nights a week.
There’s always been some element of research, analysis and opinion in news coverage – an ideal world would see the boundaries between these clearly delineated so as to rid ourselves of bias, but we don’t live in one.
When news was reported about once a day, there was a decent chunk of time to make sure this was done properly – do some genuine research, come to a reasoned opinion, float it by someone else just to sense-check it. Whether or not it was always done right, there was certainly time to do so.
Frankly, from the perspective of working in the modern media, that sounds outlandish and ridiculous. If breaking news happens while I’m at my desk there’s a one-sentence-long story published within a minute. Within the next 15, I’ll build it out into a full article, more often than not featuring the long and short of my opinion.
As The Roar’s weekend editor, my role probably has more focus on covering live events than anyone else on the team, because the weekend of course is when most sports news happens.
That’s why this Saturday night you’ll find me with my finger on the button, ready to click publish on the first version of a match report for the Richmond versus Greater Western Sydney preliminary final. Don’t worry, it’ll be worth my while – I’ll be watching the site’s analytics light up right after.
During the home-and-away season, it’s the same story with my weekly AFL quick takes. Last year I called them AFL talking points, but I changed the name this year to be more honest – it’s my take, and it’s quick.
The entire article, sometimes of 2000 words or more, is usually written in about an hour on a Sunday afternoon. I want it to go live the second the round ends and your Sunday evening begins, because it gets as much traffic in the two or three hours before you go to bed as it will all day on Monday.
Opinion is subject to the need for speed just as much as news is, because once you’ve read one pundit saying that Geelong losing to Richmond means Chris Scott is a bad coach, you’re much less likely to click on the next one you see.
(Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
The race is on to be the first in with the hottest take. No time for research, no time for sense-checking. If it happened on Monday and you talk about it on Thursday, the world has moved on.
The quality, understandably, takes a hit. The less time you spend genuinely researching and crafting an opinion, the less likely it is to be a good one, and all of us who put forward our view on the game have a storied history of times we were wrong.
Titus O’Reilly said it best – if footy pundits were surgeons, we’d have all been sacked for our horrendously low success rates a long time ago.
Personally, that doesn’t bother me. Of course I get it wrong! If you’re right 52 per cent of the time, you’re wrong 48 per cent of the time… and I’m not even right that often.
I love what an unpredictable game AFL is, and I love it when I predict something wrong, because it means I’ve been surprised again.
All of us who put our opinion forward on the game professionally could stand to take ourselves a bit less seriously. It really is just a game after all, and you’re losing if you find yourself getting into a ruckus with randos on Twitter. Come on Kane Cornes (and everyone else), you’re better than that.
Fans complain, not unjustly, about the reactive media and rampant hot takes. But it’s just like when hot cross buns go on sale in January – everyone agrees that’s utterly ridiculous, but mate, they wouldn’t bake them if people weren’t buying.
I’m not saying hot takes are good – but I am saying you’re not a bad person for reading them, and I’m not a bad person for writing them. We’re talking about subject matter that is just a bit of fun, and if my point of view turns out to be wildly wrong, the sun will still rise tomorrow. Other topics might be a bit different.
The truth is, there’s nothing I enjoy more than being the first cab off the rank here on The Roar when there’s a big piece of AFL news. Even if it’s my day off, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing to get the story up – it’s a rush, man!
Telling you what’s new, and what I make of it, and if I have the time left in the day jumping in for a bit of banter and debate in the comments section – I can’t get enough of it. I’m just a fan with a keyboard, one lucky enough to make a living talking footy.
Maybe it’s a bit mad, and maybe it’s a bit unhealthy. Maybe I’m more than a bit of both.
But I’ll never tire of it. I hope you never do either.
Peeko
Guest
Interesting insight
Philby
Guest
Sadly, this encapsulates modern journalism - being click bait is the imperative, and accuracy is all but irrelevant.
Glenn Mitchell
Expert
I think the strength of The Roar is it caters for all tastes. There are various ways of telling a story or exploring an issue and this website has the ability to allow those different styles to be presented. The reader has a choice as to which type of column or writer suits their needs. Given the success of The Roar it is clear that there is space on such a website for various styles of column - from those that provide instant comment to the more measured, contemplative pieces. If everything on this website was formulaic in its structure and tenor it would be the poorer. Some folk will always prefer takeaway to fine dining and vice versa. The Roar has found a way to cater for all tastes. Hence, we should celebrate the fact that it is a website where all are equal - fans, readers and authors - and as such it provides a wide choice for those who wish to consume, and add to, its content. Long may it provide such universal offerings.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Yes. And, that's great, but I think you'll find most people accessing the blogs are doing it on a phone
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Wait, with that first paragraph, are you referring to accessing the forum through smartphones still? Because whilst it's a bad format, I've never had slow wait times or anything like that when accessing live blogs on my phone. I also never experience the ads anymore - adblocker does its job very well on my laptop.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I have noticed issues with incredibly slow typing (which is just awful because the predictive text feature starts throwing in its own words), lack of refresh and ability to see new comments, and also incredibly slow and long load times The banner ads also had a lot of issues, they were crashing the IE explorer browser (don't laugh, lots of people try to access the site during work I'm sure). All in all it's a budget operation that if it wants to make a serious push into live blogs will need to invest in a much better proprietary format that allows for pictures and video clips to be posted too, not just text and not in such a difficult, clunky format. Take a look around Zac, Zolton & Conversant Media. You're being left behind.
Joe B
Guest
It is bl00dy frustrating! Anyone else experience a type of flicker/refresh on Roar website accessed via smartphone? I am on samsung galaxy, android, and this is the only site that does this.
Tommo
Guest
I'm after news. Fact. Not the modern news that is opinion pieces from Journos.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Yes! As someone who's had to switch to my phone once or twice during live-blogging, it's actually infuriating.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Great comment
dontknowmuchaboutfootball
Guest
I agree that the strength of The Roar is in its considered pieces, and especially in Ryan's columns. I disagree, though, that the engagement of people with the site has to do with immediacy in the sense of "live" or "breaking" or shortly thereafter. Consider the discussion comments posted in response to Josh's Quick Takes columns, or when Cam writes something about the MRP. In these cases, the discussion carries on for 3, 4, 5 even 6 or 7 days afterwards. It's not the currency of the piece that people respond to; I'd say it's more to do with the fact that it's easy for people to have an opinion, either because the presentation of the issue invites a polar and — especially — moral response (right, wrong, good, bad), or because it reproduces all the cliches and narratives that get repeated again and again (Freo's dour style; Geelong's home ground advantage; etc., etc.), and which everyone knows and can therefore respond to without having to think. It's not just the platform, but also the style of those kinds of articles which provide the occasion "for all and sundry to argue the toss about it". I don't think there's a "problem" with the rapid hot insta-take style of online media. Happy for all sorts to make up the world I live in. But the idea that it informs anyone — even the breaking news stuff — is laughable. The really informative piece is the one that people don't respond to with such speed and volume — precisely because it goes beyond what its readers already believe they know about the topic, and so forces them to think about it before even having any idea of what their response might be.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
There is a bit of room for speed but always much respect for the well constructed and poignant piece that raises key issues. theroar constantly reinforces my faith in humanity, intelligence and the value of information and reading.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
^^^ I will add though: the layout isn't terrible, it's F@#5ing atrocious!
Paul D
Roar Guru
Since we’re talking about editorial standards and the site, I’d just add the same criticism I’ve always made, which is that the live blog format on a mobile phone is god awful. Doesn’t load comments, slow load – and then it shows you all your comments first, followed by all the bloggers comments, then at the very bottom crowd comments. Why not just show all comments, in order – show the latest 20 or something regardless of who wrote them, and a button if you want to view more. The layout is terrible and it was clearly designed by someone who’s never wanted to type out a quick comment during a game. Fix the format for your live blogs and you might get more traffic
Ruairidh MacDonald
Roar Rookie
I'd generally agree, but I kind of disagree when you say journos and the media should take their job a bit more lightly. It is just a game for us, but it's a livelihood for the people we/your are ripping into; the players and coaches. The media pressure on them can easily become overwhelming and chaotic, and would only be worse if commenters think they can blithely peel off near abuse and then laugh it off with "it's just a game". I guess there's a bit of responsibility there for the media to not say whatever the hell they want, disregarding the effect.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
I'm with you Ryan, I think the strength of The Roar resides with its considered opinion pieces in both columns, across all sports. And the ability for all and sundry to argue the toss about it. But no question, many people engage with the site because they want to consume while an event is happening live, or immediately it finishes, or immediately important news breaks out. In this respect there is so much 'me too' information out there on pretty ordinary general news sites that has no depth or love attached to it, so I get why Josh is excited by the opportunity to do things faster and better than anyone else. Cheers Josh, great insight.
Aransan
Guest
Something will always fill a vacuum.
Geoff Schaefer
Guest
Whilst I appreciate the immediacy of online news, as an older person I do get frustrated by the volume of copy cat reporting and nothing stories just to get likes or comments, without any real accountability in actual facts. How many million words were written about Dustin Martin and Josh Kelly which were simple ill informed guesses? And due to the number of people contributing to the sporting cyberspace, the speculation often gets wilder with people trying read a story between the lines which is not even there...
Aransan
Guest
Thanks for explaining the modern madness. Most of us are too young to remember when we had time to contemplate and were in praise of idleness. The modern technology is allowing us to cut our time up into small pieces and forces our brains to develop accordingly. What will replace the era of great thinkers?
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
I'm also impressed by how quickly he can get the match reports up after the live-blogs! He's reaaaaaly efficient!