Sports and Journalism in Pakistan
English Essay on "Sports and Journalism in Pakistan"
The Olympic discipline aside, there are so many sporting events around the world that defies description and definition. Some admittedly are very localized, some regional and some though not on the Olympic calendar, national enough to be international. And unknown to many diehard sportsman, the ‘admission’ of the sport to such worldwide arena’s as the Olympics, the Asiads and the other regional and inter-continental contests depend on the ‘exposure’ granted to those sports. Exposure takes many forms. Some of it is guaranteed through the official patronage, some through communication from the government to the related world bodies. Yet all this is secondary and dependent on the most important factor — the print media. It is the exposition of the particular national game in such emphatic words and writings that the powers that take note of that particular game.
This draws a pertinent reference to the print media; for any news so carried in the dailies, the weeklies and even the monthlies does make an impact, strong enough to draw the attention of the national bodies and through them of the international bodies. years ago them the media was restricted to the print only and shortly thereafter to the ‘voice reporting,’ meaning thereby, the radio, special reference and attention was paid to the written and the spoken contents.educationsight.blogspot.com The impact of the sport on the society, vis-à-vis, the character building, is noted and highlighted. Defamatory impressions are avoided, hero worship encouraged and all those events and all those sins of omission and commission that border on and cause a degree of moral turpitude are left unreported. The sport is projected, and herein comes and lies the role of the media men.
The early media men and this definition include the reporters and writers of the other species, the females, had to overcome a lot of difficulties; and these related to on-the-job reporting to the transmission of the report to the office. Our luxury of today is due to their earlier efforts and the subsequent technological developments. Yet the modern luxury that helps us to communicate better and more efficient currently would have been all worthless but for those rules laid down and the principles to be followed regarding sports reporting. The knowledge of the game was the one most essential, followed by the players’ background. Then come other things like the weather, the atmosphere, the emotions of the players involved and the backing of the crowd. Depending on the sport, comparisons were made to the relative strengths of the teams, and the individuals were ever there was a one-to-one contest. Field games had a different mode of reporting than the indoor competitions while racquets games formed a different set of communication.
But all this required human sources. And though initially with the geographical distance inconsequently, it was possible for one person to cover the sports and reports -- the need for more than one reporter and a specialized one at that, arose. The fan mail started and the print media now had to be careful about sport personalities and the era of hero worship began. While the word of mouth helped create these heroes in the early days, the writings and lately the ‘pictorial’ projections, made people at large aware of the deeds of all those who brought honour and glory to themselves and their countries-through sweat arid at times through blood too.
With the honour of the sports being closely and emotionally linked with the glory of the country, a certain degree of sports specially emerged. And along with it came the recognition of the writer, as the one with knowledge and impartiality to influence the selection of the teams and to censure the performance of the players or the competitors. This indirectly added to the stature of the paper the writer for. And as long as the writer was honest in his or her appraisal, a healthy traditional was being formed and followed. But like all other human institutions, the writer’s power to influence got to his head, and the resultant deviation, though still reporting the sports happenings, added the unsavoury chapter of black-mail. The writer, became a tool of his own knowledge and greed forced him to be a pawn in the hands of: the sports organisers and the establishment. The spirit that promoted the sport gave way to lust that eroded the finer human points principles and fair plays. Such reporting affected both the sport and the sporting cast; the participants in various disciplines. Many a sportsman’s career was harmed, due no fault of his but through biased reporting since the writer had ‘pawned’ his conscience with the other party. Such writing did promote an undeserving hero every now and then and on other occasions ‘killed’ both the sport and its electrifying personality.
Such a trend permeated the Pakistani media too. Since in 1947 there were only four English dailies and an equal number of vernacular papers, the ‘bad’ points of sports, journalism had not made inroads into the snort reporting. But such a healthy trend remained but for a few years. It was in the wings all the time and when the national sports like cricket and hockey brought honour and glory to the nation, the sports-writes, realising the power of the pen, set about creating heroes and demeaning the ones that were the real heroes. Controversies were raised when one exited; finer points of a good player were deliberately undermined, this allowing the second-rate ‘favourite’ to merit selection. And since the state of our sports reporting these days. We do not have sports reporters, we have persons who through an excess to the print media, force their opinions in such a way as to undermine the selection of the meritorious and this harm both the sport and the sportsmen.
There are insidious implications so fervently referred to by our sports reporters in their writings, about the players and the game and they luck finer points of the game. But since they have a ‘job’ in a particular paper, weekly or a monthly, they feel ‘obligated’ to report on all the sporting activities taking place more so those sporting disciplines that take up the status of international contests. One would tend to still bear with them and their reporting if their ‘wording or language’ was discernible. But unfortunately, the dearth of sporting knowledge is mostly backed by that unfathomable command of the language that reading it gives one the ulcers: Those reporting for the vernacular dailies still do a possible job, their ignorance of the games’ rules and points notwithstanding -- yet the ones associated with the English daily, with few exceptions are one that add to the heart-burning. Yet such are the superimposed ethics of reporting that a fellow journalism however, truthful he may be, cannot pin-point their undeserving status.
Currently in Pakistan we have a ‘mushroom’ growth of newspapers and reporters. Since the acceptance and are debility of the newspaper or any other periodical reflects the credibility of our reporter the breed and creed of the reporter or reporters must be acceptable. But sports Lakes but 1\10 and some places 1\16 page of the paper, not much importance is given to its reporting the bosses concerned rnore about the other ‘spicy’ and alarming reports. It is thus, the bosses indifferences, and partly their lack of sports interests and knowledge, that allows such reporters to survive, at the cost of the game and their reputation. One would still accept these reporting, however clothed in the finery of the language, if the corresponding sports terminology in incorrect. And it is mostly this unawareness of rules and terminology of the sport reported that is the biggest prevailing ‘malaise’ in sports journalism.
Such misreporting or misrepresentation of the sporting event is taken very lightly by the editors and other relevant authorities -- for they are mostly if not only, concerned with the reporting of that event. Any omission found in the rival paper is not taken lightly and this encourages the sports reporter to ‘file-in’ his report without actually being on the spot and being completely ignorant of the game. And since most of the reporters of the daily papers have neither the motivation nor the access to all the sporting arena, they mutually agree to a meeting point, compare their notes and file it ... their emphasis is only on the number of sports reported rather than on the quality of reporting -- the language notwithstanding.
Such dishonesty not only discredits the sport, but also maligns the genuine reporters or the writers. The desire to be of the elite, takes these kinds of reporters to fields they had never seen. The attempt to be as good as the genuine reporter backfires more often than not and the resultant post-mortem adds to their discomfort besides the contorted long-face. Yet such shame-faced these reporters become over a period of time, that no ridicule disheartens them from perusing this ignoble habit. But where lies the blame? Should one take the dishonest or errant reporter to task or apportion the blame wholly on the boss, the editor. Since the policies of the paper are determined by the editor or his designed junior, some blame has to be accepted by him. Yet the main culprit should be the reporter, who though having the access to polish up his terminology and acquaint himself with the finer points of the game, neglects to do so. And in, order to make up the numbers and the frequency of reporting, files reports that do more harm to the sporting discipline reported.
The remedy exists but again its implementation depends on the editors and it is very simple, so simple that the same principle is being followed in the paper already. That is the nomination of the reporter to a particular beat. If this can be done so in the sports section too, But then this would mean having a number of sports reporters, each responsible for one or two particular sports. This is very healthy trend, it is so followed by all the premier.
This draws a pertinent reference to the print media; for any news so carried in the dailies, the weeklies and even the monthlies does make an impact, strong enough to draw the attention of the national bodies and through them of the international bodies. years ago them the media was restricted to the print only and shortly thereafter to the ‘voice reporting,’ meaning thereby, the radio, special reference and attention was paid to the written and the spoken contents.educationsight.blogspot.com The impact of the sport on the society, vis-à-vis, the character building, is noted and highlighted. Defamatory impressions are avoided, hero worship encouraged and all those events and all those sins of omission and commission that border on and cause a degree of moral turpitude are left unreported. The sport is projected, and herein comes and lies the role of the media men.
The early media men and this definition include the reporters and writers of the other species, the females, had to overcome a lot of difficulties; and these related to on-the-job reporting to the transmission of the report to the office. Our luxury of today is due to their earlier efforts and the subsequent technological developments. Yet the modern luxury that helps us to communicate better and more efficient currently would have been all worthless but for those rules laid down and the principles to be followed regarding sports reporting. The knowledge of the game was the one most essential, followed by the players’ background. Then come other things like the weather, the atmosphere, the emotions of the players involved and the backing of the crowd. Depending on the sport, comparisons were made to the relative strengths of the teams, and the individuals were ever there was a one-to-one contest. Field games had a different mode of reporting than the indoor competitions while racquets games formed a different set of communication.
But all this required human sources. And though initially with the geographical distance inconsequently, it was possible for one person to cover the sports and reports -- the need for more than one reporter and a specialized one at that, arose. The fan mail started and the print media now had to be careful about sport personalities and the era of hero worship began. While the word of mouth helped create these heroes in the early days, the writings and lately the ‘pictorial’ projections, made people at large aware of the deeds of all those who brought honour and glory to themselves and their countries-through sweat arid at times through blood too.
With the honour of the sports being closely and emotionally linked with the glory of the country, a certain degree of sports specially emerged. And along with it came the recognition of the writer, as the one with knowledge and impartiality to influence the selection of the teams and to censure the performance of the players or the competitors. This indirectly added to the stature of the paper the writer for. And as long as the writer was honest in his or her appraisal, a healthy traditional was being formed and followed. But like all other human institutions, the writer’s power to influence got to his head, and the resultant deviation, though still reporting the sports happenings, added the unsavoury chapter of black-mail. The writer, became a tool of his own knowledge and greed forced him to be a pawn in the hands of: the sports organisers and the establishment. The spirit that promoted the sport gave way to lust that eroded the finer human points principles and fair plays. Such reporting affected both the sport and the sporting cast; the participants in various disciplines. Many a sportsman’s career was harmed, due no fault of his but through biased reporting since the writer had ‘pawned’ his conscience with the other party. Such writing did promote an undeserving hero every now and then and on other occasions ‘killed’ both the sport and its electrifying personality.
Such a trend permeated the Pakistani media too. Since in 1947 there were only four English dailies and an equal number of vernacular papers, the ‘bad’ points of sports, journalism had not made inroads into the snort reporting. But such a healthy trend remained but for a few years. It was in the wings all the time and when the national sports like cricket and hockey brought honour and glory to the nation, the sports-writes, realising the power of the pen, set about creating heroes and demeaning the ones that were the real heroes. Controversies were raised when one exited; finer points of a good player were deliberately undermined, this allowing the second-rate ‘favourite’ to merit selection. And since the state of our sports reporting these days. We do not have sports reporters, we have persons who through an excess to the print media, force their opinions in such a way as to undermine the selection of the meritorious and this harm both the sport and the sportsmen.
There are insidious implications so fervently referred to by our sports reporters in their writings, about the players and the game and they luck finer points of the game. But since they have a ‘job’ in a particular paper, weekly or a monthly, they feel ‘obligated’ to report on all the sporting activities taking place more so those sporting disciplines that take up the status of international contests. One would tend to still bear with them and their reporting if their ‘wording or language’ was discernible. But unfortunately, the dearth of sporting knowledge is mostly backed by that unfathomable command of the language that reading it gives one the ulcers: Those reporting for the vernacular dailies still do a possible job, their ignorance of the games’ rules and points notwithstanding -- yet the ones associated with the English daily, with few exceptions are one that add to the heart-burning. Yet such are the superimposed ethics of reporting that a fellow journalism however, truthful he may be, cannot pin-point their undeserving status.
Currently in Pakistan we have a ‘mushroom’ growth of newspapers and reporters. Since the acceptance and are debility of the newspaper or any other periodical reflects the credibility of our reporter the breed and creed of the reporter or reporters must be acceptable. But sports Lakes but 1\10 and some places 1\16 page of the paper, not much importance is given to its reporting the bosses concerned rnore about the other ‘spicy’ and alarming reports. It is thus, the bosses indifferences, and partly their lack of sports interests and knowledge, that allows such reporters to survive, at the cost of the game and their reputation. One would still accept these reporting, however clothed in the finery of the language, if the corresponding sports terminology in incorrect. And it is mostly this unawareness of rules and terminology of the sport reported that is the biggest prevailing ‘malaise’ in sports journalism.
Such misreporting or misrepresentation of the sporting event is taken very lightly by the editors and other relevant authorities -- for they are mostly if not only, concerned with the reporting of that event. Any omission found in the rival paper is not taken lightly and this encourages the sports reporter to ‘file-in’ his report without actually being on the spot and being completely ignorant of the game. And since most of the reporters of the daily papers have neither the motivation nor the access to all the sporting arena, they mutually agree to a meeting point, compare their notes and file it ... their emphasis is only on the number of sports reported rather than on the quality of reporting -- the language notwithstanding.
Such dishonesty not only discredits the sport, but also maligns the genuine reporters or the writers. The desire to be of the elite, takes these kinds of reporters to fields they had never seen. The attempt to be as good as the genuine reporter backfires more often than not and the resultant post-mortem adds to their discomfort besides the contorted long-face. Yet such shame-faced these reporters become over a period of time, that no ridicule disheartens them from perusing this ignoble habit. But where lies the blame? Should one take the dishonest or errant reporter to task or apportion the blame wholly on the boss, the editor. Since the policies of the paper are determined by the editor or his designed junior, some blame has to be accepted by him. Yet the main culprit should be the reporter, who though having the access to polish up his terminology and acquaint himself with the finer points of the game, neglects to do so. And in, order to make up the numbers and the frequency of reporting, files reports that do more harm to the sporting discipline reported.
The remedy exists but again its implementation depends on the editors and it is very simple, so simple that the same principle is being followed in the paper already. That is the nomination of the reporter to a particular beat. If this can be done so in the sports section too, But then this would mean having a number of sports reporters, each responsible for one or two particular sports. This is very healthy trend, it is so followed by all the premier.
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