The chills, the joy, the passion, the deception, the stress… so many emotions we feel in sport. Sports journalists have a lot to do with it. Although they have the same job from the outside, relaying the emotion is not the same when you give your voice to radio, your image to TV or your pen to the written word.
From the most loyal supporters to those who love the ambiance of international competitions, it’s not always possible to experience the event live and in real time. Fortunately for fans, sports journalists exist. When we think of them, radio or tv commentators come first. They shout, speak softly, pause for long periods, speed up their speech rate and, thanks to this, manage to convey the emotion and mood of the moment.
A special kind of writting
The written word is a completely different matter. In the newspapers, the article appears the day after the sporting event. The journalists have to use their tricks to keep readers.
I’ve always favored the short sentences, a nervous style of writing with a choppy rhythm to the story of matches. We don’t just give a result, but also about what was at stake behind a victory or defeat. We can also choose to use a key moment in the sporting event as the tagline for the article.
Medjaline Mhiri, editor in chief of the magazine “Les sportives” and member of the association of “Femmes journalistes de sport”.
The freedom to analyze and shake up chronology is all the more possible on paper. But even if the written word allows more detail and explanation in match reports than on TV or radio, the fact remains that emotion remains natural. Nothing is prepared for the sports journalist: “Words are not planned before. Journalism also has an instinct part; we write what we feel in the moment to catch people in our emotions. What I’m looking for is to be accessible for everyone, for those who master sport and for those who don’t.”
Live writting
Other editorial teams, such as Le Monde, have decided to maximize the spontaneity of emotion. In 2009 they created a live platform, on which news briefs are published continuously to cover sporting events. Gabriel Richalot, head of Le Monde’s sports department, answered our questions, to find out how emotions are transmitted through these pieces of writing.
Laura Petit et Alexandra Rey