Mobile Journalism: Tips For Sports Reporting
In this article in Journalism UK mobile journalist Daniel Muñoz provides some insights into his work covering sports events. During his career, Muñoz has covered some big events including Premiership and Champions League football, Wimbledon and the London Olympics. But he’s now director of communications for a tennis academy in Barcelona, which involves shooting interviews and action with his smartphone.
On thing to note is that Muñoz uses a Sony Xperia Z5, which is very much a budget smartphone. Here’s an example of his work:
“Mobile journalism is perfect if you want to capture [sport]. It gives you speed to be ready to go in five minutes, to catch good sound and images. This approach is the same as I did all those years ago [for EFE].” Daniel Muñoz
Other kit includes:
When spending more time on the edit, he uses Adobe Premiere Pro. Talking about the 2 microphones: “Røde is ideal for informal situations and can help the interviewee feel less nervous, whereas the iRig prompts the interviewee to speak more formally and give off a more corporate look”.
“At the academy, there are many different members of the public. There are players, coaches, parents, media and partners. You need to adapt to those situations,” said Muñoz. “If you use a smartphone and your attitude is still very professional, they will respect you and answer you properly.”
Muñoz says that while the smartphone helps to relax the subject, it’s important to maintain a professional attitude in mobile journalism.
Tips for Sport Interviews
Muñoz gives some advice for shooting interviews, many of which can be used whatever camera you are using.
- interview sportspeople when at their most passionate. ie: right after a match or training session.
- be sensitive to the possibility they could be down after a defeat
- due to mic cable restrictions, the subject may only be at arm’s length – make sure they don’t step out of shot
- if the subject talks to camera it’s more like a press conference
- if the subject talk to the interviewer it’s more like a conversation
- use background (gym, tennis court, pitch etc) but be aware of background noise.
- too much background activity can be distracting for viewer
- if there’s too much noise/activity, move somewhere quieter
- make sure to capture B-roll and establishing shots. eg: interviewee in action
- never zoom as you will lose quality. You often can’t get close ups so choose a different shot
- get low, crouching shots using a mobile gimbal
“Often I shoot behind the coach, when they feed the ball and doing drills. Sometimes, I go behind the player to show what the training is, the motions, how tired they are, how they move.” Daniel Muñoz
Ultimately, says Muñoz, it’s important to capture the human stories. This includes other figures around the sportsperson as well as those attending games or events. “Have a big picture of the history you want to share, if it’s one player who will participate in one big event.”
Smartphone videos instead of written articles
Daniel Muñoz says that 15 years ago, being a solo journalist often meant your only option was a written article. However, smartphones have now places a powerful video making tool into journalists’ hands. And his use of the Xperia Z5 shows it doesn’t have to be the latest $1000+ iPhone.
Now that people are finding most of their news online, they are looking more and more for visual stories. Social media is central to how sports fans find news. The result is an increasing need for something visual.
“You can do little interviews and small shots to add extra value, to engage with your audiences.” Daniel Muñoz
Breaking in to Sports Journalism
If you are an aspiring journalist hoping to get a break into sports journalism, you might be wondering how? Back in 2013, broadcaster Gabby Logan shared her some tips. Top of the list was “have a passion for your subject”, which of course still stands. Sharing news about a subject you are only half interested in will soon become a chore and will show in your storytelling.
Second on the list is “Write match reports for fun and practise writing”. But, bearing in mind the words of Muñoz (and others), would mobile journalism now be a better route?
Arseblog
As an Arsenal FC fan, I have been following a fan blog called Arseblog for many years. At the start, he was just writing about Arsenal in his spare time. His website grew and grew and his blog is now his job.
In Arseblog’s case, he doesn’t need to “break in” because he has made his own space on the internet where he now earns a very decent living. He certainly couldn’t have succeeded without being a huge Arsenal fan. He also has a blog post every single day of the year, for however many years it is now (history on the blog goes back to February 2002).
Can you imagine writing an article about the thing you love every day for approaching 18 years?
That aside, if you were starting in 2002, advice for aspiring sports journalists might be to start your own blog, like Arseblog. But this is 2020. Do blogs still work?
The answer is yes
I’ve been writing 6 posts a week for MoMo now for about 15 months and the traffic to the website has increased every month. But could we be reaching even more people if we made videos instead (or as well as)?
Probably. But, thing is, the average citizen with a smartphone now expects video content. And they are habitual social media users. So I would definitely recommend any aspiring journalist to think of themselves as media content producers. This means being proficient solo writer-broadcasters, which will give you a big advantage over a journalist who only writes.
One of our key MoMo posts is the Beginner’s Guide to Smartphone Filmmaking. This is our “cornerstone” article, around which many of our other articles orbit. Recently, I made an accompanying video for YouTube, with the two linking to each other. I used the text from the blog as a kind of script for the voice over.
The video now gets about 150-200 views per day. But, more importantly, the two formats enhance each other. Because, some people prefer to read, while some prefer to watch a video. Or the viewer/reader might not be in a situation where they can watch a video.
But the point is, they have more chance of finding the article/video as it appears in 2 formats. The written article has more detail, so a viewer might watch the video then come to the article later for more depth. The video, on the other hand, is easier to digest for the truly beginner smartphone filmmaker.
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