The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: News

FINK

Students who spend more time with their noses in the sports section than in textbooks may be moving to the top of the class.

The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is proposing the development of a sports writing program, marrying the University's outstanding athletic program with the nationally-recognized journalism school.

"The student demand is huge," said Conrad Fink, a Grady journalism professor who proposed the program. "If this thing gets going it would be amazingly attractive."

The program will teach students how to cover sports for a range of mediums, including television, newspapers and the Internet.

Fink said sports writing classes taught in the past were enormously popular, and he thinks the program will capitalize on that popularity.

Dink NeSmith ­­- the president of Community Newspapers, which oversees 29 newspapers across the Southeast - said he believes this program is important for the University.

"I think it's a wonderful idea. I wonder why we haven't thought of it before now," NeSmith said in a phone interview Wednesday. "It's just one more opportunity to train people for the job market."

Like Pennsylvania State University, a Big 10 Conference school with a successful sports writing program, NeSmith said the University has all it needs to start a program of its own.

"The SEC is a national power. The University of Georgia is predominant nationally, as is our sports information program - so all of it ties together," he said.

Fink said several prominent sports figures have expressed interest in the program, including alumnus Mark Schlabach, a commentator for ESPN.

Despite the support, Fink said he expects the program to take some time before getting off the ground.

"In the beginning, it would be a certificate program," he said, acknowledging the program may need to gain momentum before translating to job-market value.

In the long run, Fink said the program could be highly attractive to University students' potential employers.

"It's an important business for a lot of people," he said. "You have to know the game before you write about it."

Fink said sports reporting, rather than coverage of areas such as foreign affairs, sometimes requires a higher level of specialized knowledge.

"You're working with a profoundly higher level of reader understanding," he said.

The sports section has traditionally been one of the largest draws for newspapers, he said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while recently cutting back in areas such as business, has left the sports section relatively untouched.

NeSmith said he saw several possible job opportunities for graduates of the new program. He said media outlets are often looking for sports journalists, "and then you have sports information specialists with colleges across the land, and you've got professional and minor league sports programs that need professionals."

"High school sports especially are very popular and readers can't get enough," NeSmith said. "Sports is news. Sports are a part of the glue that holds the community spirit together."

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