Can You Spot the Difference? How Barstool Sports is Rewriting the Rules of Journalism
Submission Type
Event
Faculty Advisor
Joanne Diaz
Expected Graduation Date
2018
Location
Room E101, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Start Date
4-21-2018 11:00 AM
End Date
4-21-2018 12:00 PM
Disciplines
Education
Abstract
All written publications have the same goal: gain and maintain readers. Without daily readers, bills do not get paid. From the ivory towers of the Boston Globe all the way to the grungy offices of Barstool Sports, cash is still king. While conventional journalism is being called into question by new online blogs, Barstool Sports is creating and stealing large shares of the market with techniques that Boston Globe columnists Dan Shaughnessy and Bob Ryan have used for the past thirty years. Writing as a fan and utilizing popular culture is not new. Barstool is pushing the limits farther with every article. My study focuses on how The Boston Globe and Barstool Sports cover key championship events from 2015 to 2018. In doing so, I will show how and why Barstool Sports' use of shticks, clichés, and ‘bro culture’, has come to re-shape readers' expectations of what constitutes sports journalism in the digital age.
Can You Spot the Difference? How Barstool Sports is Rewriting the Rules of Journalism
Room E101, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
All written publications have the same goal: gain and maintain readers. Without daily readers, bills do not get paid. From the ivory towers of the Boston Globe all the way to the grungy offices of Barstool Sports, cash is still king. While conventional journalism is being called into question by new online blogs, Barstool Sports is creating and stealing large shares of the market with techniques that Boston Globe columnists Dan Shaughnessy and Bob Ryan have used for the past thirty years. Writing as a fan and utilizing popular culture is not new. Barstool is pushing the limits farther with every article. My study focuses on how The Boston Globe and Barstool Sports cover key championship events from 2015 to 2018. In doing so, I will show how and why Barstool Sports' use of shticks, clichés, and ‘bro culture’, has come to re-shape readers' expectations of what constitutes sports journalism in the digital age.