| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
| Cody's Writing Philosophy Three pieces of food for thought from a high school sports writer. |
I use the Nike-Kiss method: “Just Do It,” and “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”
The Nike-Kiss method does not really exist as a form of writing, but basically in a nutshell
it's no-thrills writing. Readers should be informed, and that's it. All without influence: no
influence from readers, no influence from subjects, and no influence from higher-ups. At
Northern Illinois Sports Beat, I have no higher-ups, and I tell my writers to write however
they want to. I don't tell my contributors how to write, what to write, and what to focus on,
or tell them to ask specific questions.
Newspapers aren't doing as well as they were a decade ago, and they are trying to find
ways to survive – by stating newspaper company survival, and the need to bring in more
money, is more important than journalism ethic and morality. This is called “wearing the
business cap.”
We don't have any “business caps” at Northern Illinois Sports Beat. We don't need to
worry about such things. The people that write for me already know that I won't attempt to
influence their writings in any way. Our writers aren't pressured to come up with something
award-winning, as if awards are a meter determining how good a journalist is. Trust in one
another is what creates great writers and great articles, not a bunch of demands.
Here's how I personally do it:
The news come to me. Then I interpret the news in a way that is easy to read. I also
dislike using a whole lot of quotations in my stories. Quotes first came to be in high school
sports stories sparingly. Then over time they became more commonplace, and sometimes
more than half a story is composed of quotations. Rather than a supplement, it quickly
became a norm. If styles worked back then, surely it can work now.
My ambition as a high school sports writer is not to be like those great writers in literature
history. I don't intend to make readers think - I'll just tell you flat out. This thinking concept
takes too long, and most readers don't like that.
Because I don't like using quotations, I don't tend to ask complex questions to people. My
feeling is that concentration on a particular item does not make for the end result in a
game. Sometimes these items are meant to pad athlete star power. It takes the steps
leading to, and the action following to make that happens in between important. There's
more to the game than the turning point. Sometimes the preceding and the proceeding is
more important.
So go ahead and call me “old school” There was nothing wrong with high school sports
reporting in the past, so there should be nothing wrong with it now; but there is pressure
from today's journalists.
We live in an age where everything is about politics and money. With money, there is
competition. With competition, there is notoriety. With notoriety, there is the worry about
self-interest. Journalists are so caught up in trying to be the best, help provide the best
coverage, and fending off “dot com's” because they represent what they believe is the
last true bastion of journalism: print.
I don't write articles to try to be the best writer. I don't write articles to try to achieve
organizational accolades. I'm proud to say that I, and my staff, write with a noon-next-day
deadline for Northern Illinois Sports Beat articles. We may not be the first, but we strive to
be the most thorough. Of course, we try to combine the two in the best way possible.
I feel that to be a comfortable journalist, you have to do your work worry-free and just stick
to basics. Once the worries pile up, the stress piles up and the well-being of journalists
begins to take a turn for the worse. One of the ways to be a comfortable journalist is to
present yourself in a positive manner – professional, yes – but acting like you, your
career, your employment status and your reputation come first doesn't build a good
relationship between interviewers and interviewee when you try to get a quote.
In short, my job is not to sell newspapers. If I want to do that, I'll be a paperboy.
Two other important points I'd like to stress:
It's all about teamwork! With the exception of the Freshman-Sophomore State Wrestling
series, events presented are efforts of the team. It has been preached over time that
teamwork can make differences. The game-winning basket or RBI is a result of working as
a team to produce the situation. I feel that focusing on on an individual game-related
accomplishment solely sells papers and pads individual athlete star power. Like I
mentioned before, my job is not to sell, then I would be a salesperson. In my experience
with interviewing, I often get a response to questions that fall along the line of “... as a
team ...” If that is what the subjects believe – and I agree with it – then by way of what is
presented to me, that is how I will write.
Two other important points I'd like to stress:
1) It's all about teamwork! With the exception of the Freshman-Sophomore State
Wrestling series, events presented are efforts of the team. It has been preached over
time that teamwork can make differences. The game-winning basket or RBI is a result of
working as a team to produce the situation. I feel that focusing on on an individual game-
related accomplishment solely sells papers. Like I mentioned before, my job is not to sell,
then I would be a salesperson. In my experience with interviewing, I often get a response
to questions that fall along the line of "... as a team ...". If that is what the
subjects believe, then by way of what is presented to me, that is how I will write.
2) There's a fine line between kids and young adults. We have become more protective of
our children in recent years. Punishments and discipline are not as severe as they used
to be. There are so many uncertainties today that we will often help guide our youth. The
ever-changing world is making it difficult to become responsible. When a football player
throws a real high number of interceptions that lead to scores, he is responsible for the
team's loss. Of course we have to mention it in the story, and if it was the chief factor,
then it's a big deal. If it seems like throwing kids under the bus, then look at it with such
taken out – is it still an accurate account of the game? Our priority is to give an accurate
account of the game, with no influences in the form of backlash.
---
I take great pride in what I do. At the same time, I still have to put a story together and
have it ready for view at a certain time. That's just like any other sports journalist. Most
sports journalists work for a newspaper. They are faced with enormous pressures just by
being on a sports staff because they have less time to write than other journalists in the
news department. The advent of online publications, like Northern Illinois Sports Beat,
allows writers to put together stories in more time, in order to get the story out soon
before the plates are pressed, the printers shut off, the delivery drivers pick up their
loads, and the paper lands on your doorstep. In online journalism, it takes very little time
to finish writing a story and post it online, where it is viewable in a matter of minutes.
More and more newspapers are now emphasizing up-to-the-minute coverage on their
websites. So, the print people (referred to as “old media”) is catching up to the online
people (“new media”). Speed has now become the goal for today's sports journalists.
Up until World War II, most newspapers came out once a week. If something happened on
a Thursday with a Wednesday publishing date, the story is laying on the editor's desk for
days, and it was possible to take days to write the story just before publication. While the
clock went “tick-tock,” it was possible to see crumpled up balls of paper in and alongside a
trash can as stories were being re-worked and improved upon. With the arrival of the daily
newspaper, the lingering was now shortened to a couple of hours at the most. That's less
time to put a story together. Now reporters have laptops with them, trying to be the first to
get the story out and to have something out.
Sometimes, time can prevent the writer from writing certain things. One doesn't really get
a full story, but just by taking time with the story and getting all of the information written,
and put out in a timely manner, can prove effective. Sure, but all print journalists have to
do is find a effective way to combine thoroughness and speed together. So the online
journalist has to make them look like meatball writers.
Take the sitcom M*A*S*H for example: Injured soldiers of the Korean War were sent to
these mobile army surgical hospitals for treatment. However, for great care, they were
sent to actual hospitals like Tokyo General, where the character Major Charles Emerson
Winchester III came from before being transferred to the front lines. Winchester was noted
for being a slow surgeon, and was berated by Colonel Potter because of it. However,
Winchester was used to performing the best care for his patients.
---
Although online journalism is beginning to trump the print newspapers, it is imperative that
online journalists like myself maintain positive relationships with the print journalists. We
shouldn't act like we are the new guys, and shoving people aside. When national sports
columnist Jay Mariotti left the Chicago Sun-Times in 2009, he said that newspapers will
not survive. Mariotti said that the Internet was the new leader, and he was going to look
for an Internet home. Roger Ebert, whose headquarters is the Sun-Times, fired back with
the cry that newspapers indeed will survive.
I, too, think newspapers will survive. They are creating ways in order to make them
survive, such as transition from a paper form to an electronic form while keeping the same
resourcces. While they are doing this, they are making themselves more of a magazine
format. Those magazines are still standing, aren't they? The print industry also has a
crucial advantage, as they are an industry that employs people. If online journalism was in
the act of weeding out the newspapers, they would in turn be showing journalists the door.
I believe this is a horrible way of making their move. These are people's lives they are
ruining. Online journalists should find ways to ensure that their print counterparts will
succeed and survive.
That is why I write as if I am a supplement to newspapers. I'll let print journalists do their
thing first. That's why I ask questions last in an interview. Newspapers will give you the
summary, I'll give you ... the REST of the story, as Paul Harvey puts it. We need to work
together.
The Nike-Kiss method does not really exist as a form of writing, but basically in a nutshell
it's no-thrills writing. Readers should be informed, and that's it. All without influence: no
influence from readers, no influence from subjects, and no influence from higher-ups. At
Northern Illinois Sports Beat, I have no higher-ups, and I tell my writers to write however
they want to. I don't tell my contributors how to write, what to write, and what to focus on,
or tell them to ask specific questions.
Newspapers aren't doing as well as they were a decade ago, and they are trying to find
ways to survive – by stating newspaper company survival, and the need to bring in more
money, is more important than journalism ethic and morality. This is called “wearing the
business cap.”
We don't have any “business caps” at Northern Illinois Sports Beat. We don't need to
worry about such things. The people that write for me already know that I won't attempt to
influence their writings in any way. Our writers aren't pressured to come up with something
award-winning, as if awards are a meter determining how good a journalist is. Trust in one
another is what creates great writers and great articles, not a bunch of demands.
Here's how I personally do it:
The news come to me. Then I interpret the news in a way that is easy to read. I also
dislike using a whole lot of quotations in my stories. Quotes first came to be in high school
sports stories sparingly. Then over time they became more commonplace, and sometimes
more than half a story is composed of quotations. Rather than a supplement, it quickly
became a norm. If styles worked back then, surely it can work now.
My ambition as a high school sports writer is not to be like those great writers in literature
history. I don't intend to make readers think - I'll just tell you flat out. This thinking concept
takes too long, and most readers don't like that.
Because I don't like using quotations, I don't tend to ask complex questions to people. My
feeling is that concentration on a particular item does not make for the end result in a
game. Sometimes these items are meant to pad athlete star power. It takes the steps
leading to, and the action following to make that happens in between important. There's
more to the game than the turning point. Sometimes the preceding and the proceeding is
more important.
So go ahead and call me “old school” There was nothing wrong with high school sports
reporting in the past, so there should be nothing wrong with it now; but there is pressure
from today's journalists.
We live in an age where everything is about politics and money. With money, there is
competition. With competition, there is notoriety. With notoriety, there is the worry about
self-interest. Journalists are so caught up in trying to be the best, help provide the best
coverage, and fending off “dot com's” because they represent what they believe is the
last true bastion of journalism: print.
I don't write articles to try to be the best writer. I don't write articles to try to achieve
organizational accolades. I'm proud to say that I, and my staff, write with a noon-next-day
deadline for Northern Illinois Sports Beat articles. We may not be the first, but we strive to
be the most thorough. Of course, we try to combine the two in the best way possible.
I feel that to be a comfortable journalist, you have to do your work worry-free and just stick
to basics. Once the worries pile up, the stress piles up and the well-being of journalists
begins to take a turn for the worse. One of the ways to be a comfortable journalist is to
present yourself in a positive manner – professional, yes – but acting like you, your
career, your employment status and your reputation come first doesn't build a good
relationship between interviewers and interviewee when you try to get a quote.
In short, my job is not to sell newspapers. If I want to do that, I'll be a paperboy.
Two other important points I'd like to stress:
It's all about teamwork! With the exception of the Freshman-Sophomore State Wrestling
series, events presented are efforts of the team. It has been preached over time that
teamwork can make differences. The game-winning basket or RBI is a result of working as
a team to produce the situation. I feel that focusing on on an individual game-related
accomplishment solely sells papers and pads individual athlete star power. Like I
mentioned before, my job is not to sell, then I would be a salesperson. In my experience
with interviewing, I often get a response to questions that fall along the line of “... as a
team ...” If that is what the subjects believe – and I agree with it – then by way of what is
presented to me, that is how I will write.
Two other important points I'd like to stress:
1) It's all about teamwork! With the exception of the Freshman-Sophomore State
Wrestling series, events presented are efforts of the team. It has been preached over
time that teamwork can make differences. The game-winning basket or RBI is a result of
working as a team to produce the situation. I feel that focusing on on an individual game-
related accomplishment solely sells papers. Like I mentioned before, my job is not to sell,
then I would be a salesperson. In my experience with interviewing, I often get a response
to questions that fall along the line of "... as a team ...". If that is what the
subjects believe, then by way of what is presented to me, that is how I will write.
2) There's a fine line between kids and young adults. We have become more protective of
our children in recent years. Punishments and discipline are not as severe as they used
to be. There are so many uncertainties today that we will often help guide our youth. The
ever-changing world is making it difficult to become responsible. When a football player
throws a real high number of interceptions that lead to scores, he is responsible for the
team's loss. Of course we have to mention it in the story, and if it was the chief factor,
then it's a big deal. If it seems like throwing kids under the bus, then look at it with such
taken out – is it still an accurate account of the game? Our priority is to give an accurate
account of the game, with no influences in the form of backlash.
---
I take great pride in what I do. At the same time, I still have to put a story together and
have it ready for view at a certain time. That's just like any other sports journalist. Most
sports journalists work for a newspaper. They are faced with enormous pressures just by
being on a sports staff because they have less time to write than other journalists in the
news department. The advent of online publications, like Northern Illinois Sports Beat,
allows writers to put together stories in more time, in order to get the story out soon
before the plates are pressed, the printers shut off, the delivery drivers pick up their
loads, and the paper lands on your doorstep. In online journalism, it takes very little time
to finish writing a story and post it online, where it is viewable in a matter of minutes.
More and more newspapers are now emphasizing up-to-the-minute coverage on their
websites. So, the print people (referred to as “old media”) is catching up to the online
people (“new media”). Speed has now become the goal for today's sports journalists.
Up until World War II, most newspapers came out once a week. If something happened on
a Thursday with a Wednesday publishing date, the story is laying on the editor's desk for
days, and it was possible to take days to write the story just before publication. While the
clock went “tick-tock,” it was possible to see crumpled up balls of paper in and alongside a
trash can as stories were being re-worked and improved upon. With the arrival of the daily
newspaper, the lingering was now shortened to a couple of hours at the most. That's less
time to put a story together. Now reporters have laptops with them, trying to be the first to
get the story out and to have something out.
Sometimes, time can prevent the writer from writing certain things. One doesn't really get
a full story, but just by taking time with the story and getting all of the information written,
and put out in a timely manner, can prove effective. Sure, but all print journalists have to
do is find a effective way to combine thoroughness and speed together. So the online
journalist has to make them look like meatball writers.
Take the sitcom M*A*S*H for example: Injured soldiers of the Korean War were sent to
these mobile army surgical hospitals for treatment. However, for great care, they were
sent to actual hospitals like Tokyo General, where the character Major Charles Emerson
Winchester III came from before being transferred to the front lines. Winchester was noted
for being a slow surgeon, and was berated by Colonel Potter because of it. However,
Winchester was used to performing the best care for his patients.
---
Although online journalism is beginning to trump the print newspapers, it is imperative that
online journalists like myself maintain positive relationships with the print journalists. We
shouldn't act like we are the new guys, and shoving people aside. When national sports
columnist Jay Mariotti left the Chicago Sun-Times in 2009, he said that newspapers will
not survive. Mariotti said that the Internet was the new leader, and he was going to look
for an Internet home. Roger Ebert, whose headquarters is the Sun-Times, fired back with
the cry that newspapers indeed will survive.
I, too, think newspapers will survive. They are creating ways in order to make them
survive, such as transition from a paper form to an electronic form while keeping the same
resourcces. While they are doing this, they are making themselves more of a magazine
format. Those magazines are still standing, aren't they? The print industry also has a
crucial advantage, as they are an industry that employs people. If online journalism was in
the act of weeding out the newspapers, they would in turn be showing journalists the door.
I believe this is a horrible way of making their move. These are people's lives they are
ruining. Online journalists should find ways to ensure that their print counterparts will
succeed and survive.
That is why I write as if I am a supplement to newspapers. I'll let print journalists do their
thing first. That's why I ask questions last in an interview. Newspapers will give you the
summary, I'll give you ... the REST of the story, as Paul Harvey puts it. We need to work
together.
C o d y' s
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