How the Worst Team in Baseball alerted me to Networked Journalism in a Sports Context

To be honest, I was struggling for inspiration when writing this blog.

You see, my mind is fixed on the best underdog story in the world of sport right now – how loveable losers turned winners the Tampa Bay Rays have gone from 'Worst to First' and have reached Baseball's World Series, which starts in just a few hours time as I write this.

But, whilst Googling America's pastime when I should have been researching for my blog, I managed to stumble across a stateside sports website which I feel is an interesting case study.

The Bleacher Report website has proven that citizen journalism, rather than being looked upon with distain and suspicion, can actually be embraced and used as a soundboard for networked journalism by the professionals.

From looking into its background, I discovered that the Bleacher Report is not just another user generated content news website, which are beginning to become ten-a-penny on the net.

This site is notable because, as of June this year, it struck up a partnership with the Fox Sports on MSN website, one of the most widely known American sports websites and indeed the online home of the US TV broadcaster that is airing the World Series.

Understandably, people are focusing on the Bleacher Report and how the fledgling site has come from nowhere to be in a position to provide content for a major organisation, and are looking upon this deal as a victory for citizen journalism.

However, what I want to know is what's in it for Fox Sports?

As Kristen Nicole notes in her blog article about this which I've linked to above, one of Fox Sports' main rivals – ESPN – had started to introduce user-generated content onto their already strong website. FoxSports.com felt they were falling behind.

By forming an alliance with a large network of sports bloggers, not only could Fox Sports improve their standing amongst this user base, and directly take content from them, they are in the position to use the Bleacher Report as a smorgasbord of opinion to dip into when they see fit.

Not only will Bleacher Report users be pleased to see their articles uploaded onto the Fox Sports website, with no much being done to differentiate them from those written by professional journalists or by former Major Leaguers and other sports stars, but due to the notoriety of what is happening it will attract further users into the community.

And all of these people will be giving their feedback about what their fellow users on the site are blogging about, on whichever stories that are getting them talking.

This information can be analysed by Fox Sports webmasters, helping them to better understand which specific topics within the myriad of American sports are raising interest online amongst a certain breed of their consumers.

This, in turn, gives them a good indicator as to which issues may be worth giving more or less prominence to on their website.It's still early days yet, and it is probably too early to tell how successful the Bleacher Report-Fox Sports partnership will be, but it will be an interesting one to keep an eye on.

Who knows, if it works out maybe other noted sports/media websites will follow suit?

Oh, and C'mon the Rays!