Online Video Content's Impact on the Supportive Relationship Between Sport Organization and Sports Journalist: A Case Study of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club and the Local Television Sports Journalists Who Cover Them

Abstract

Widespread acceptance of the Internet has created an opportunity for sport organizations to become their own online video content creator and publisher. This avenue allows sport organizations to utilize the two-way symmetrical model of public relations (Grunig & Hunt, 1984, p. 15) to participate in a “true” back-and-forth dialogue with their fans that informs current and future content production. However, this new opportunity circumvents the traditional mass media pathways, which may also have the consequence of creating competition between sport organizations and sports journalists. To explore this under-represented research area, this study employed a multimethod design to gain better understanding and answer this study’s lone research question: What impact has the increase in online self-published video content had on the supportive working relationship between sport organizations and the local television sports journalists who cover them on a regular basis? Using the case study of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club and television sports journalists from the Minneapolis/St. Paul media market, this study identified competition between sport organization and sports journalists, and that competition’s apparent impact on the working relationship between the two parties. This study also finds that local television sports journalists’ denial of competition is a form of boundary-work (Gieryn, 1983) in response to this evolving working relationship.