One of my journalism professors recently asked me this question: "What is the first website you look at when you go online each morning?"
Without hesitation, I answered, "The Miami Herald's UM sports page."
So, today, when brainstorming for an online journalism topic to blog about, I thought why not discuss that very site. It incorporates a countless number of elements of multimedia and is a perfect example of how sports coverage has changed (and forced newspapers to change) with the popularity of the internet.
The Herald's UM Sports page was the motivation and influence behind my coverage of American Legion baseball for The Observer-Dispatch this past summer. The site - spearheaded by UM beat writer Manny Navarro - incorporates text articles with photographs, audio and video interviews, video features, narrated photograph slide shows, and its own blog dedicated to UM's most popular sports.
Want to watch football coach Randy Shannon's post-game press conference? You can bet Manny will have it posted on the site. Want to see photographs from UM's most recent football or basketball game with narration describing the game? It'll be on the site. How about a simple game story or a feature piece on a UM athlete? It's there. The current sport season's scheudle and individual stats are even posted on the UM Sports page.
And that's not even getting into Manny's blog...
Anything and everything that won't fit into the newspaper or on the site's homepage shows up on the blog complete with detailed analysis. The blog also offers readers a more laid back and conversational approach that is often welcome when discussing such topics as football, basketball or baseball. Manny's UM blog, called "Eye on the U" provides the audience with yet another avenue (outside of the print edition of the paper and the website) to deliver information to readers.
Put simply, The Herald's UM Sports page is an exemplary model of fine online journalism.
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