Spanish sports journalists' assessment of the state of the profession in the current digital context

Abstract

Sports journalism is one of the major drivers of news in Spain. The need to adapt to new digital formats requires professionals to continually review their skills and communication methods. The objective of this study is to gain firsthand insight, through 15 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Spanish sports journalists with extensive experience, into their assessment of the state of their profession in aspects related to their skills, their coexistence in the same space as content creators, their relationship with their audience, and how a two-way model that isn't always constructive affects them. The results conclude that our subject of study is aware of the complexity that social media entails in affirming a multidisciplinary professional profile; it asserts the importance of informative quality; it does not seek to copy and mimic content creators, from whom it differs and places itself on a distant plane. The sports journalists interviewed value audience participation when it makes a constructive contribution, and while there is no prevailing position on how negative criticism, hatred, and insults, present in the dynamics of their work, affect them, they do not feel conditioned and communicate without seeking the continued satisfaction of viewers, prioritizing the quality of the news piece and its veracity over more quantitative data such as clicks, likes, or views.