Yet another thread about local media (new theory)

GopherHomer

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Here is my new theory about why a majority of our local media members seem to take sadistic glee in the Gophers' failures. Agree/disagree?

Being a market with four major league franchises that, within the Big 10, competes mainly with markets that consider their college teams the number one priority, do you think that our media members are attempting to claim superiority over these other writers by looking down their noses at our college football team? In doing this, they are trying to show that they are "professional" sports writers and not some intern following around a bunch of college kids. If the Gophers ever experienced real success and captured the attention of the population as a whole, they would then have to debase themselves to level of these other small-town hick writers. This may be lodged in their subconscious, or not true at all...but I found it to be an interesting thought. If the Gophers were to, say, win the Big 10 title (I know...I know) less established journalists like Doogie would suddenly have the upper-hand over the old guard. (not attempting to rip Doogie at all...it's just that he currently does not carry the same weight as, let's say, Reusse (in more ways than one)).
 

The Chicago Tribune website has stories everywhere about media day, and the Strib and PP sites have almost nothing. Chicago will never be accused of being a college market, so I think our papers are just bad.
 

I totally agree. Me and a buddy were just talking about this recently! Some of the Twin Cities writers have little mans syndrome to start with, being that they work here and not somewhere like Chicago or NYC. They know that they will never rise to the top of their profession, but still somehow feel that college sports are beneath them.
 

this is a story from the Chicago Tribune

If you look closely, they have two additional stories linked kind of a forward and back.
One about Ferenz looking forward to playing Nebraska again. The other Mike Mayock has been added to NBC coverage of Notre Dame.


http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/08/loaded-schedule-puts-spotlight-on-minnesota.html

In all honesty, Chicago boasts Alumni from all over, and especially Big 10 Schools and Notre Dame.

And in full disclosure, The Annual Big Ten Kick Off Luncheon was originally a Tribune sponsored event. It brought the coaches and media to Chicago. At the time it was reporters like Cooper Rollow, and Bill Jauss at The Daily news and a former player on the 1949 Northwestern team got it rolling.
 

Perhaps it just me. I'm excited for the first practice, can't wait for the first game, can't wait for many things. I couldn't get excited however about media day. Perhaps our local reporters felt the same way as me. Coaches are going to blow smoke, they have to be a little careful in what they say, the day really isn't real. Having said that, I do wish the local reporters would be more positive. They tend to be mean, down grading of someone (regardless of the sport) or whatever whenever they can. Apparently that is part of the job description for our local guys when you have so many sports to cover here in the Twin Cities.
 


I guess if I wanted to be argumentative, I would say that Chicago is the exception because they are large enough to be both large and small market. But, on the other hand, they are a good example that disproves my theory. I still maintain, though, that our media views themselves as being "above" college sports. I agree that our coverage is poor and I think Chicago helps prove that. I'm just trying to answer 'why' our media is the way it is, and I stand by my theory. Again, I am not arguing...I would agree with what has been said about Chicago. I just think it further proves just how out of touch our media is.
 

I don't think it is a conspiracy. It's just that the local writers think this is normal. People tend to think that what they are used to is the way things are supposed to be. We've had a media which has been so hostile to the Gophers for so long that people in the media - both new writers and those who hire the writers - think this is normal.

So you get it fed from both ends. If you're a new writer, you're going to write the way the older writers do. And in this market, that means dumping on the Gophers. And those that hire and fire think it is normal too. This market is a very weird bubble. There isn't actually a market for dumping on the Gophers; the actual number of Gopher haters is very, very small. It's just a matter of that we get what we are told we can have.
 

I guess if I wanted to be argumentative, I would say that Chicago is the exception because they are large enough to be both large and small market. But, on the other hand, they are a good example that disproves my theory. I still maintain, though, that our media views themselves as being "above" college sports. I agree that our coverage is poor and I think Chicago helps prove that. I'm just trying to answer 'why' our media is the way it is, and I stand by my theory. Again, I am not arguing...I would agree with what has been said about Chicago. I just think it further proves just how out of touch our media is.

It's probably more to do with success level then level of competition.

I know you were talking Big Ten but expand that thought a little. SF Bay papers, Miami and Dallas papers give very prominent coverage to Stanford/Cal, the Hurricanes and the Longhorns even with their strong coverage of the NFL teams; arguably better coverage then their MLB and/or NBA teams. Orlando covers college ball then better then the pros, and not just UCF variety. The Denver papers gave a lot of coverage to the Buffalos when things were going well, not so much lately. The same holds true with the Detroit papers. Heck over the full year, Michigan and MSU get more coverage now then the pathetic Lions do.

(Yeah, I read way to many online newspapers www.newsvoyager.com)

The Gopher basketball teams got GREAT coverage during their winning years. Who knows what kind of coverage the Gopher Footballers would have gotten if they held onto that damn lead against Michigan and then came out of the gate with more enthusiasm the next week against MSU.

But they didn't. :horse::horse::horse:
 




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