Today media becomes an inseparable part of sports. Media and sports create a symbiosis that provides us news and views of the world of sports. Sport provides the headlines, stories, research topics and gossips to the media while media acts as a platform to promote sports. The role of the media officer of a sports body is crucial in this process of interaction. The objective of this article is to analyze briefly the responsibilities of the media officer of a sports body to utilize the platform effectively.
A sports body either sets up a Department or appoints an individual to carry out the media activities. Sometimes, the head of the administration takes the responsibility to plan and implement the media initiatives. This depends on the size, structure, financial conditions of the sports body and the popularity of that discipline of sports. However, there are few common functions that all the media officers have to execute in order to promote sports through media.
The media officer is the person who provides information to the media about the activities of the organization and its environment. He needs to maintain a system to collect information on a regular basis. For example, he should keep abreast information on the youth developmental activities, marketing initiatives, competitions, players, teams, performance so that these details could be provided to the media on the right time. Thus, it is the responsibility of the media officer to locate the source of information, to find the information and to serve it to the media in appropriate manner to generate interest.
The media officer has to play a crucial role during the time of scandals, rumours, controversies and criticisms. Under these circumstances, he has to turn down these unwanted incidents factually and shortly.
It is the responsibility of the media officer to maintain a comprehensive database of the journalist and the photographs of competitions, teams, players, officials, key personnel etc. Apart from the working details, the database should also contain the date of birth, anniversaries of the journalists to initiate Public Relations activities with them.
There are various communication tools available to the media officer to communicate with the media. Press release is perhaps the quickest form of communication. A press release is issued on a specific topic, such as performance, records and achievements, transfer, commercial tie-up, suspension, punishment, obituary etc. The advantage of this cost- effective mode of communication is that it can be sent quickly to the press through e-mail and fax. Newsletter is another cost- effective medium the frequency of which can be decided by the organization depending upon its activities. It should serve the purpose of providing facts on various issues like the results of various competitions, decisions made by various committees, important addresses etc. Illustrated information about the activities of the organization along with the views of the experts could be provided by publishing magazines which are less frequent, but more detailed.
A media office has to execute diversified activities, ranging from issuing press release to organizing press conference. The media officer plays an instrumental role in connecting people with the organization through media. Thus, his role is crucial in creating a favourable image of the organization.
