Comparing Television and Internet Sports News Essay -- Comparison Comp

Comparing Television and Website News Television news is one of the best ways for people to know what is going on in the world today. With the momentum the World Wide Web has gained with in the last 6 years many television news station have also add a website to their media coverage. ESPN is no different; the station still has Sports Center where all the viewers can keep up with their favorite sport, but ESPN also has the website www.msn.espn.go.com where the viewer can get the same or even more information than in the television broadcast. Which is better? Why would a person choose one form of media over the other? It is not that one form is better than the other, it depends what the person wants to get out of that medium. The channel ESPN gives the viewer exactly what they expect, a quick overview of what happened in the sports world today. The announcers joke around to make the viewer feel like there is a human interaction that is taking place, the announcers also makes it feel like more of an entertainment program then a news program. The highlights that are shown are about the big events in sports like the Angels winning their first World Series. Other smaller sports almost go unnoticed. ESPN also likes to give the viewer a little bit of knowledge about the players of a particular game. Most of these interviews or stories are extremely short and really a viewer gains no real amount of knowledge. The viewer must sit back and hear what the producers of the show want them to hear. There is not a choice of whether the viewer watches highlights of baseball or gets the story about Sarah Hughes and how she injured her leg muscle. The website www.msn.espn.go.com gives viewers another look at a lot of the s ame stories as the ... ...rial in the way that they do. There are many reasons why people use the media or different medium to view the same media. Those reasons are the uses and gratification model provided by McQuail, Blumler, and Brown. People want to get a fulfillment after watching a show or in this case a sports broadcast. They wanted to achieve something like making sure there team is doing well or all the players are healthy. In case of ESPN there are two ways to view this information. The viewer can either watch the broadcast and be entertained by the broadcasters and see the plays. Or the viewer can take the more direct route by going to www.msn.espn.go.com and getting the exact same information only with more detailed. Either way the viewer is accomplishing something it could be bonding with a child, conversing with co-workers, or just being aware of the sports world around them.