Sharmistha Gooptu in Manchester
This morning as I watch the team warm up at Old Trafford from my place at the media centre, I’m pondering if a section of the public on social media in India gives any credence to this profession of sports journalism – to people who travel in their professional capacity and follow the cricket team on a long tour like the ongoing Indian tour of England or when India travel to Australia.
There are armchair critics and naysayers by the million now who call out journalists pretty much everyday. For example, our colleague Rohan Chowdhury, who happened to analyse the fickleness of fans when it came to Shubman Gill. ‘Paid PR’ is a term that gets thrown around very casually. Now there is ‘Paid PR’ and there’s journalism, and calling out fans or fan behaviour especially if it’s toxic does not make journalism ‘Paid PR’.
Yesterday, a group of drunk fans invaded the post-match English live show being done from in front of the stadium, and those on the show were forced to stop taking questions from our viewers online and to engage with them – they wished to quiz the expert on the show on his cricketing knowledge! They stalled the show for some minutes and had they not been put in place by a smattering of cricket funda, they would not have allowed the show to carry on. Not only that, they engaged in a moment of public indecency behind those hosting the show, and were captured on camera doing so.
When fans and a certain part of the public sitting back home throw around labels and jargon like ‘Paid PR’, do they even understand these or, for that matter, any dynamics of sports coverage? Of spending the day in the media centre, of hanging onto every ball, of understanding the technicalities, and then of doing four shows followed by written pieces every day. That is what a young journalist like Gargi Raut does, and yet what she gets often are hate comments, questioning her ability.
I have named only two of our journalists here. Journalism is a long learning process like in any other serious profession. It doesn’t hinge on one loss or one win of the team, or between moving from hate to ecstasy. It stands on experience and acumen, on hard work and balanced judgement. It stands on the difference between being an enthusiastic fan and a professional.
Fans are often the heart of our coverage at RevSportz – they are as much a part of the game. However, it must be understood that fandom and reportage are two different planks of understanding this game. And to call out reportage, one needs more than just a bad day at the office. Or feeling some people have a better deal in life only because they happen to be covering a cricket tournament overseas!
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