Grant Paulsen visit
Image via CrunchBase
Grant Paulsen visited our Comm 371 class today to talk about how social media (mostly Twitter) has impacted the media and sports media specifically.
The most important thing I took away from Grant’s visit was that it’s more important to be accurate than first when it comes to reporting news, especially when first starting out.
To build up credibility when first starting out, you can’t afford to be inaccurate because if you are, you lose a lot of credibility and it’s hard to build that credibility back up. For example, Adam Schefter is probably the most trusted source when it comes to NFL news. He’s not always first at breaking news, but he is the most trusted NFL source because he has built up his credibility because he’s almost never wrong.
Another important point is to not burn bridges. No matter who your work for, when you eventually have to split ways, do it amicably because at some point you will see them again and you could be working for them again or they could be working for you.
Grant also mentioned that it’s important to carve out a niche when working in sports media. If you do the same thing as everyone else, you won’t distinguish yourself from all the other reporters.
Grant said that working in sports media is fun; it’s the best job he could ever ask for. But it requires a lot of effort to make it. He said young people have an advantage in working in this field, because most likely they have less obligations than someone that’s older, which allows them to make a name for themselves by being the first one in and the last one out.