Covering Sports for the DI

This week I would like to talk about how the Daily Illini covers sports.

Two of the earliest rules we learn as journalists is to always be objective and representative. Being objective is not that hard. You just got to put your biases to the side and write the story. As long as you clearly represent both sides of the issue, without a bias, you are being objective.

As far as being representative, this is where it gets tricky. It is the job of a paper/reporter to represent their entire society. In the old days, this came up because papers were not representing the minorities (with a race and political aspect). Well, minorities go for sports as well.

I would like to know why the DI does not cover the low key sports more often. Where are the cross country stories? Where are the wrestling stories? Where are the soccer stories? I realize that none of these sports make as much money as the football or basketball teams, but doesn't the paper owe it to them to be representative? Isn't it the paper's job to cover them at least half as much, if not an equal, to that of football and basketball teams?

This is my call out to the editors, and I know we have some in class, to try to come up with more sport stories other than football and basketball.

Since the DI is free, people won't stop reading it if it doesn't have all football and basketball stories. The DI has an obligation to all athletes of the University, not just the ones who we all know. That is the definition of being representative.