Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Nick Tolhurst
Is the “Media” out to get us? – No, it’s even worse than that.
Explaining how the media got so negative and what it means for Arsenal.
For many Arsenal fans perhaps the most disappointing development of the last few years has been the increasingly negative media on arsenal related issues. Every defeat (or even narrow win), missed signing or injury seems to invite a deluge of “woe is Arsenal” headlines, while reporting on Arsène has gone from generally favourable articles of the “exotic”, “genius” and “professor” ilk to encompass the now obligatory terms of “stubborn”, “despairing” and “embattled”.
For the more paranoid amongst us, (and let’s face it following any football team with all the regular debatable refereeing decisions and sudden changes of fortune is quite conducive to paranoia), there’s enough evidence out there to give one pause for thought as to the motives and agenda of sports journalists. Are the media really out “to get us?” I would argue no – but in actual fact it’s much worse than that.
To explain why this is so, you have to look at the nature of modern journalism and developments in public relations. The biggest development in journalism over the last decade has been the rapid decline of print media and the rise, and increasing sophisticated tools, of online journalism.
For many, online versions of the Telegraph, Mail or Sun are just that – versions of the print newspaper. In fact the opposite is the case. Print newspapers are old fashioned objects which cover, with sizeable delays, news which has already been discussed in far greater detail and greater volume online.
The Daily Mail, for example, is not a “newspaper” but one of the most viewed online news sources in the world with an accompanying print newspaper for a small minority mostly in Britain. Why should this make such a difference? The reason is the sophisticated tools and instant nature of online newspapers. The Telegraph, for example, has serious journalists on business and global warming and most journalists who write on these issues have a comment or blog page. While a newspaper can’t know which articles people read of the paper they can and do monitor intensely exactly how many readers “click” on any and every page online.
The reason of course is to maximise the amount of exposure to adverts. Each journalist is informed regularly on how much “traffic” they generate – if they don’t generate “enough” they will lose their comment page. So back to the Telegraph online, articles that the economy will collapse next Tuesday or that global warming is one big swindle always attract far more attention (and visits) than more considered articles. In the same way sports journalism is now largely online and thus “disaster” or “euphoria” articles inevitably garner more attention and thus more money and those journalists who write them will drive out the others.
With football it’s even worse though as there is no need for any real “news content” as anybody with an ipod ap or computer will receive instant updates on scores, injuries and transfers faster through twitter etc. than any journalist can deliver. The only way journalists can “add value” is by commenting. Newspapers have thus stopped reporting news and now basically provide comment which must be excitable enough (either negative or positive) to maximise visits (and referrals and “retweets” etc.).
Arsenal have benefited in the past from this sometimes as when our youth teams thrash a decent team in the Carling Cup then the media has sometimes gone overboard on some of the young players. In the main though for a team like Arsenal being sustainable, bringing through young players, playing regularly in the Champions League is simply not a euphoric achievement enough to generate high “click counts”.
If you can’t do euphoria it has be disaster for example “New Stadium will Bankrupt the club!”, “Henry leaving – it’s the end!”, “Cesc leaving! – it’s the end of Wenger’s youth plan!” and of course the annual regular “Arsenal won’t qualify for Europe!” In addition to this, journalists now have to write far more to fill up the online version than they ever did before for print. Consider your average football hack will have to know a bit about every PL team, a bit about the championship plus know something on international football, la Liga and Serie A at a minimum.
If you do the maths the average hack will probably not spend more than an hour or so a week on any one team – that’s about enough to cover the weekly highlights and read a couple of his fellow journalists’ articles on the team. To expect well researched considered journalism from this is asking the impossible. This explains why so many “professional” journalists make elementary mistakes when reporting.
There is not much Arsenal can do about this, but they can do something about the second major development in business – public relations – which has increasingly become about using others to communicate your “narrative”. Harry Redknapp is a good example. The story is largely that he’s a cheeky chap, “Salt of the Earth” guy who has brought success to every club he’s been at no matter their size and that’s he’s the next England manager in waiting. There is some truth in this but there’s also another plausible narrative that he’s a personally dodgy character who after buying up large amounts of players on expensive long-term contracts leaves every club he’s at with high debts and expensive ageing players just in time for him to get another chance at another club.
Why does the first narrative predominate? Largely because Harry cultivates the press, is good for a quote, “spins” the news and ruthlessly plays off “friendly” hacks against “unfriendly” ones. Fergie at Manchester United goes even further. Write a negative report or ask a difficult question and you won’t be invited again. Everyone knows this, problem solved, even if it’s the BBC. Anyone who doesn’t believe me listen to Henry Winter next time Manchester Utd are going through a sticky patch! Of course you can’t win over every football hack but cultivate enough with access, advance tips and info regarding transfers etc. and you can get your “story” out – you also send out a message to other journalists regarding unfair or extreme negative reporting.
The unique thing about Arsenal is the degree to which even “pro Arsenal” journalists such as Amy Lawrence seem to have no problem heavily criticising Arsenal. A good strategy would be to get journalists who like Arsenal’s philosophy such as Patrick Barclay onside through better access even to confidential information. I don’t want to criticise the board too much but it does seem to me that even quite small Premier League clubs are ahead of Arsenal on this. The Wolves chairman for example regularly appears on football podcasts why not Ivan Gazidis? Such actions are not just about the message they can also very cheaply help spread goodwill towards the club.
Lastly, and people may feel I’m pushing the point here a bit too far away from football, it occurred to me during the recent riots that the “Arsenal story” is really worth telling. How about interviews and photo-ops with Wenger accompanied by Wilshere, Gibbs and Frimpong in Wood Green, Tottenham or Clapham on (Arsenal’s strategy of) backing English Youth (rather than – whisper it quietly – City’s mercenaries)? Also “a quiet word” in a few journalists’ ears about the “Arsenal Way” that is, that perhaps if the UK was run like Arsenal – low debt, sustainable, investment in infrastructure, emphasis on youth training and non-exorbitant wages at the top then maybe, just maybe, Britain wouldn’t be in such a mess. Now that might not only change perceptions it could make for a few interesting articles not only on Arsenal but on Man City and Chelsea as well….
Nick Tolhurst
The writer is a Germany & Mexico based Arsenal fan and author of numerous articles & books, including most recently “Responsible Business” (Wiley 2010). You can follow him on Twitter @nicktolhurst
————
Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here
——————————————–
Untold Media Watch
Untold Media Review: the Telegraph
The index of past articles now appears in our Media Index