I laughed out loud to see a non-issue continued over on the excellent Australian Gymnastics Blog: Thoughts on Gymbloggery:
”Blogs” and other new media vs “old media” (AP, magazines, national sports media, etc.) … at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam.
Do you find them more or less useful than official reporting sources?
Do you find them more or less credible than official reporting sources?
Do you think they should be allowed to have media accreditation at big events? …
Fact is the line is so blurred now it’s difficult to tell the difference. FIG and USAG were legitimate 24/7 sources of useful news in Rotterdam, same as the blogs. Better, at times.
International Gymnast magazine was excellent on Facebook. Just about as good as THE ALL AROUND blog. (Happily we were spared IG publisher Paul Ziert‘s “ALERTS” this time, though he was there. Paul is only right about 50% of the time in my opinion. A quality source of misinformation.)
Stick It Media actually knows what’s going on.
The biggest difference between new media and old is that new media paid their own way to Rotterdam. And worked twice as many hours as old media. Those who are getting paid treat it as a job, not a passion.
In the middle row is Anne Phillips, founder of Gymnastike.org.
Like every other night, she was always the last to leave the arena. Some nights we were locked into the Ahoy, improvising escape routes.
Anne, Blythe (Gymnastics Examiner) and Brigid (Couch Gymnast) worked by far the most hours and produced more content than anyone else there.
There is no issue.
If you don’t want to read free blogs, don’t.
Wait to watch it on TV. Or read about it on Inside Gymnastics a month or two later.
I feel there are still far too few sources of information. We need a WAG Judging blog. A Beam choreography blog. A Floor Music blog.
If you have a special expertise, please jump in.
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