Because of the huge interest in sports, the media has expanded their coverage of all sports over the last several years. There are countless magazines, websites, newspapers, and podcasts that revolve around sports in general, and many of them specialize in a single aspect of a single sport, in many cases. Regardless of what your favorite sport is, odds are you can find out more about it than you ever thought possible thanks to the broad reach of the media.
How to Use the Media to Your Advantage
You might never have thought of this, but the media is biased, and not everyone or everything will give you the information exactly as you are looking for it. In other words, some media outlets are more useful than others to you. For example, looking to a sports gossip site for information on fantasy outlooks will not be nearly as useful as you’d want it to be. For these, you want a sports stats site (or another form of communication) that focuses on future projections. You want something that can take what has happened, decipher it, and then apply it to what could happen in the future.
So, in order to get the most out of the news, you need to have an idea of what you are using the news for. Are you just following sports for entertainment? What do you like about sports, then? Are you a fan of a specific team? If so, find an outlet that follows them. There is more access to regional news coverage than ever before, and a quick search can find a number of different sites or other outlets dedicated solely to covering your favorite team. So, if you’re a Buffalo Bills fan, but you live in Los Angeles, a few clicks can get you right to a huge number of sites that are dedicated to keeping tabs on what’s going on with the Bills. It’s like this for every team, both professional and collegiate. The bigger teams will obviously present more choices for you.
Or, maybe you are interested in betting on football. If this is the case, you will need to delve a bit deeper. You will want more statistics in your news feeds, more in depth analysis of what future matchups are likely to bring, and you will want all of these things presented in a voice that explains tough concepts to you with ease.
The same goes for fantasy sports. You want stats, analysis of those stats, and plenty of articles that help you learn how to apply the interpretation of stats and events into how best to play within the daily fantasy leagues of your choosing. This can seem overwhelming, but you will find that the more you look, the easier it becomes. You just have to keep focused on what it is you’re looking for; it can be very easy to become paralyzed by the sheer volume of data out there. The popular term for this is “paralysis by analysis.”
Beyond the Media
Many journalists have access to information that wouldn’t be known otherwise. Locker room interviews can often develop into friendships away from the stadium, and this can bring about a level of understanding that goes beyond the normal. For example, in Jane Leavy’s book on Mickey Mantle, The Last Boy, she says that the former Major League Baseball star and Hall of Famer had revealed much information to her about his personal life that no one else had known before. Some of it was good, some was not so good, but it was all true and honest, and it reveals a lot about his time with the Yankees, including the story behind all of the time he spent injured. Things like this can happen with any athlete, including current ones, and having that knowledge on our side can open up an understanding that we never had before. This is a huge benefit of the modern media, and it is something that we should look for if it will help us with what we are looking for from the media.
Sometimes these examples of in depth knowledge help us, sometimes they don’t. Knowing that Josh Hamilton was struggling with addiction issues would have helped you as a fantasy manager because you would know that he was a high risk/high reward type player. Knowing that LeBron James wanted to leave the Miami Heat to go back to the Cavs would have helped you to formulate a better futures bet on the NBA postseason. The more helpful things you know, the better you can enjoy your sports and profit off of them, too.