Tertiary and Continuing Sports Journalism

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CarnthePies

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Jul 16, 2005
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Launceston, Tasmania
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Could someone suggest a University with a decent sports journalism course? Anywhere in Australia?

This is for next year, as I'll be considered a mature age student and have more of a shot of getting in.
 
RMIT is essentially the best in Australia.

But don't restrict yourself to sports journalism. Most journalists who cover sport are absolute douchebags: smart casual arseholes who can barely hold a Sherrin half-right. If you want to chase your dreams, be prepared to wait a long time for consistently decent pay to come in. And be prepared to work at a pub or in retail for five or six years.

Basically, sports journalism is actually kind of lame, unless you have some humour and intrigue in there: something absolutely lacking for Aussie rules, but prevalent in soccer (When Saturday Comes, Four Four Two UK). And definitely don't do a specific sports journalism course...
 

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I reckon sports journalism isn't too hard to crack into if you're dedicated enough. Kind of goes without saying but you have to love writing about sports and be passionate about it. Experience is worth more than a degree in most cases so volunteer to do some unpaid writing and that sort of stuff as it might help get your foot in the door.
 
I just completed a journalism course at Latrobe, only to find out they were intorducing a sports journalism degree this year, which in hindsight i may have done, with journalism electives. worth a look, was a good course in many ways but yeah i discovered that my passion was with multimedia and broadcasting after it was all over. Now i am working a bit with Gearhouse Broadcast ect for 7 and Fox sports, all freelance but there is plenty of work and love that hourly rate $:D
 
Silent Alarm said:
RMIT is essentially the best in Australia.

But don't restrict yourself to sports journalism. Most journalists who cover sport are absolute douchebags: smart casual arseholes who can barely hold a Sherrin half-right. If you want to chase your dreams, be prepared to wait a long time for consistently decent pay to come in. And be prepared to work at a pub or in retail for five or six years.

Basically, sports journalism is actually kind of lame, unless you have some humour and intrigue in there: something absolutely lacking for Aussie rules, but prevalent in soccer (When Saturday Comes, Four Four Two UK). And definitely don't do a specific sports journalism course...
Click to expand...
Yeah, unless you're an exception writer, really knowledgeable about a certain sport or you have inside knowledge of a sport, I'd imagine sports journalism wouldn't be too great. You definitely need something quirky about your writing these days. It's a huge reason why Bill Simmons is now making millions of dollars a year working on ESPN and Grantland after writing his biased sports columns full of anecdotes and pop culture references. He writes as a fan and people love it.
 
Probably an old thread to be commenting on...

But given how the journalism sector is going these days, it's the last field I'd be getting into! Especially being so specific as to do sports journalism.

I'm not going to say I know a massive amount of journalists - but I know a couple. None of them did journalism degrees. Two of them went to a local rag straight out of Year 12 as a cadet. Both worked their way through this and ended up becoming sports journalists on television. (Both are female, one of them is very good looking)

The other journo that I know did an Arts degree with majors in English and History. They were heavily involved in the student newspaper, had a good background in photography, and managed to get a job as a journalist with another local rag. This person is now the deputy editor of that same newspaper.

Given where the media/journalism sector is at the moment, I think if I wanted to be a sports journalist - well, I'd just be a sports journalist! Write articles, work as a freelancer - send your articles off to various news agencies, and if they're good someone will pay you for them. If you do this enough, eventually the might hire you. If no one picks up your articles, put them on The Roar.

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You asked specifically about Sports Journalism courses - I know someone who did it for about 5 minutes at University of Canberra. UC is quite dedicated to being a 'practical' uni. It front ends its degrees with practical stuff, as opposed to many other unis that will front end with all the theoretical stuff before you actually get into writing.

The most appealing thing about the UC course (according to this guy) was that in late 2nd year or early 3rd year, there would be opportunities for study abroad opportunities in Europe or the US. For a sports journalism degree, I couldn't imagine anything better than getting a more global view of sport, especially if you were in America in around October. NFL, NBA, hockey, their college equivalents.

If I were 15 years younger and wanting to get into sports journalism, I'd be looking closely at UC.
 
Try freelancing...that seems to be where a lot of the work is, or even blogging could get you started.

I'm currently studying Journalism at Curtin Uni - most of the males there are hoping to get in to sports writing. I'm impressed with their talent and hope they make it!
 
nobbyiscool said:
...Given where the media/journalism sector is at the moment, I think if I wanted to be a sports journalist - well, I'd just be a sports journalist! Write articles, work as a freelancer - send your articles off to various news agencies, and if they're good someone will pay you for them. If you do this enough, eventually the might hire you. If no one picks up your articles, put them on The Roar.
Click to expand...

Looked this up (The Roar) and it seems a decent platform to publish work/articles. Have a few Qs...

Anyone know much about turn-around times?
Any delays when wanting to publish?
I imagine they have editors to briefly browse these articles for approval?
Any other considerations/tips?

Thanks in advance
 
Colin D'Cops said:
Looked this up (The Roar) and it seems a decent platform to publish work/articles. Have a few Qs...

Anyone know much about turn-around times?
Any delays when wanting to publish?
I imagine they have editors to briefly browse these articles for approval?
Any other considerations/tips?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Yeah mate, I write for The Roar.

They'd have some editors but plenty of spelling mistakes/grammar errors get through so it's probably only a quick check.

I'm probably in a similar boat to you so any questions just flick me through a PM.
 
Why would you limit yourself to sports journalism? Why not just do a normal Journalism course and take electives in sports journalism?

In a shrinking industry I would think limiting your prospects wouldn't be a smart move
 
Colin D'Cops said:
Looked this up (The Roar) and it seems a decent platform to publish work/articles. Have a few Qs...

Anyone know much about turn-around times?
Any delays when wanting to publish?
I imagine they have editors to briefly browse these articles for approval?
Any other considerations/tips?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I've only written a few articles for them. I'm not an aspiring writer, so only add a piece when I think I have something not yet covered and can be bothered. There is no real incentive in my case, so output is very low (maybe 3-4 articles a year).

Anything long is likely to be broken up by them. If you write something lengthy that you feel must be one article, advise them that you do not want it broken.

Turnaround time is usually a few days. You can request that it be done quicker, but need a reason and I am guessing the regular, known, contributors stand a better chance than new and occasional writers.

Being something of a typo king, I do know their editing is not always crash hot. I believe it is not the full time job of most of them, if indeed it is for any.

The fact that I have had stuff published on there shows their standards are not great.

They do have a stable of writers on the major sports, but things contributed by the rest of us usually get an airing. The article may be published days after submission, and after a regular has already published something similar. If you have a different angle on something, or do a non-mainstream piece, you are more likely to be first on the site to write about it and therefore appear original.
 

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Cheers Howard. :thumbsu:

Not an aspiring writer either, just looks a good place to air some thoughts and opinions. If my work is recognised, bonus!
 
Sterge10 said:
Why would you limit yourself to sports journalism? Why not just do a normal Journalism course and take electives in sports journalism?

In a shrinking industry I would think limiting your prospects wouldn't be a smart move
Click to expand...
The degree at Curtin doesn't actually have a specific sports element to it, although a lot of students have stated it's their desire to go in that direction. We have been encouraged to go the freelance route which seems to be sensible in this climate.
 
FreoGirl said:
The degree at Curtin doesn't actually have a specific sports element to it, although a lot of students have stated it's their desire to go in that direction. We have been encouraged to go the freelance route which seems to be sensible in this climate.
Click to expand...

Yeah it just baffles me that people take up such a limited scope degree like the sports journo degree offered by La Trobe.

A good friend of mine is a sports writer for the leader papers and he is extremely critical of sports journalism degrees, if you want to write about sports that's fine but don't limit yourself
 
Sterge10 said:
Yeah it just baffles me that people take up such a limited scope degree like the sports journo degree offered by La Trobe.

A good friend of mine is a sports writer for the leader papers and he is extremely critical of sports journalism degrees, if you want to write about sports that's fine but don't limit yourself
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It sounds more like a marketing ploy to suck in certain students.
 
Bump. Currently studying business at uni, mainly because of better job prospects and I don't find it all that bad (some of the maths stuff sucks though).

Always have an itch still there to write, and I've always been good at it. Can see it being absolutely ridiculous to transfer out of business though to do journalism, particularly effectively being 1.5 years in.

Would sports journalism be something ludicrously hard to get into without a journalism degree?
 
My company employees lots of ex-journalists, they are all in communication roles, responding to twitter/facebook and writing media releases. Journalism isn't the career you want. Have a mate that was a journo at the Fin Review. He ended up moving into a comm's role at a financial institution, way better money and job security.

Best advice i've heard for budding journo's is to do a degree in the field you're interested in writing about, for example a business degree if want to write about business, it's much easier to learn how to write than to learn the technical aspects of the field you are supposed to be a journalist about.
 
nobbyiscool said:
Probably an old thread to be commenting on...

But given how the journalism sector is going these days, it's the last field I'd be getting into! Especially being so specific as to do sports journalism.

I'm not going to say I know a massive amount of journalists - but I know a couple. None of them did journalism degrees. Two of them went to a local rag straight out of Year 12 as a cadet. Both worked their way through this and ended up becoming sports journalists on television. (Both are female, one of them is very good looking)

The other journo that I know did an Arts degree with majors in English and History. They were heavily involved in the student newspaper, had a good background in photography, and managed to get a job as a journalist with another local rag. This person is now the deputy editor of that same newspaper.

Given where the media/journalism sector is at the moment, I think if I wanted to be a sports journalist - well, I'd just be a sports journalist! Write articles, work as a freelancer - send your articles off to various news agencies, and if they're good someone will pay you for them. If you do this enough, eventually the might hire you. If no one picks up your articles, put them on The Roar.

------

You asked specifically about Sports Journalism courses - I know someone who did it for about 5 minutes at University of Canberra. UC is quite dedicated to being a 'practical' uni. It front ends its degrees with practical stuff, as opposed to many other unis that will front end with all the theoretical stuff before you actually get into writing.

The most appealing thing about the UC course (according to this guy) was that in late 2nd year or early 3rd year, there would be opportunities for study abroad opportunities in Europe or the US. For a sports journalism degree, I couldn't imagine anything better than getting a more global view of sport, especially if you were in America in around October. NFL, NBA, hockey, their college equivalents.

If I were 15 years younger and wanting to get into sports journalism, I'd be looking closely at UC.
Click to expand...


(Both are female, one of them is good-looking).

So, I assume the OTHER female you were referring to is Caroline Wilson?
 
Happy Mastenator said:
Best advice i've heard for budding journo's is to do a degree in the field you're interested in writing about, for example a business degree if want to write about business, it's much easier to learn how to write than to learn the technical aspects of the field you are supposed to be a journalist about.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right to me. I think a lot of people, especially most aspiring writers/journalists, have an inflated sense of their own writing abilities.

Your local footy league or even local paper would probably welcome you filling up some space in their publications for them (on a voluntary basis). It's an easy way to get published (as well as potential small radio spots when you write for the footy league) and if you're not much chop, it probably won't go any further than that. If you are talented and dedicated, it could progress further and you can hone your skills with things like production and media training.

If you travel that path, don't expect to be paid any time soon. You could also try the university route, progress to a graduate program and ultimately land in a media relations/marketing/communications/stakeholder relations role, but I imagine it would be pretty competitive to get into a good graduate program.
 
This was something I was really interested when I was younger but a few things really put me off.

1. I think this is ultra competitive and you would be invisible and busting your ass a long time before you got a break and started earning consistent, decent money and opportunities with high profile sports.

2. The fact that this countries "successful" journalists and high media profiles are rumour bullshit spinning muppets like Barret, slobs like Robbo, or s**t bloke boys club ex-players like Lyon and Carey, really made me lose respect for the industry and the role. Basically I didn't want to have to resort to spinning rubbish or making exaggerated hyperbole in order to get readers/viewers.
 
juss said:
This was something I was really interested when I was younger but a few things really put me off.

1. I think this is ultra competitive and you would be invisible and busting your ass a long time before you got a break and started earning consistent, decent money and opportunities with high profile sports.

2. The fact that this countries "successful" journalists and high media profiles are rumour bullshit spinning muppets like Barret, slobs like Robbo, or s**t bloke boys club ex-players like Lyon and Carey, really made me lose respect for the industry and the role. Basically I didn't want to have to resort to spinning rubbish or making exaggerated hyperbole in order to get readers/viewers.
Click to expand...
Point 2 is why every campaigner i know who likes sport, a punt and went to uni wants to be a Sports Journo.

We've pumped these bastards up as their own stars. People who wanted to be sport stars now want a job where they can hang around sports stars
 
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