It always seems better to be able to ‘watch’ sports news

For the sake of trying something different, I tried searching Korean websites for journalistic videos. One thing I kept in mind in my search was that the journalistic piece should have some merit for being a video-type one. That is why I chose a sports news piece.

Website URL : http://news.naver.com/vod/vod.nhn?office_id=214&article_id=0000082974&section_id=107

This video (a clip from the nine o’clock NewsDesk, an evening news program by one of Korea’s largest nationwide networks MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Company), is titled “The Olympic Heroes Do it Again.” The news story (1:43) is about Korea’s National Athletic Games which is going on right now and Korean olympians who won medals in the Beijing games participating in it. The medalists, including Park Taehwan (swimming) and Jang Miran (weightlifting) were victorious in the domestic games, overcoming their rivals by huge margins.

I think one thing this video story lacks is coverage on some other Olympians who faced strong opponents that struggled. It looked almost as if it was a PR video, one that advertises the two Olympic medalists. There are such athletes who triumphed in the Beijing games but were on the wrong end of an upset from other talented domestic competition. Perhaps this could be whole another story, but for some people who are only able to catch this news video, it might have been more diverse to add about 20 seconds and add that aspect to the story.

If this story was a “text-only story,” I think it might not even have caught the attention of may news spectators, especially because it’s about sports. One great thing about visual coverage of sports is that it is always more exciting and gives you a sense of actually being there. Also, through video and familiar scenes (for example, Park swimming past the leader to finish first) reminiscence of these figures and their accomplishments could be duplicated, thus making it a story with more impact. I think that’s why we have more analysis and projections in the text version of a sports story.