Why do the tabloids hate motorsport?
Discussion
After the death of the young cricket player yesterday, it is front page news and was all over the radio yesterday after it happened. Yet the loss of co-driver Gareth Roberts on Saturday during the Targa Florio rally got, as far as i could tell, no coverage. Certainly not front page news!
I am led to understand from overhearing conversations regarding the death of the cricketer that he more than likely took his own life yesterday, still this makes front page news!? No it doesn’t make it any sadder a loss to family and friends of the guy if this is indeed the fact.
After hearing of Gareth’s passing early Saturday i heard nothing about it on the news/radio and apart from online it hasn’t been covered at all. And some online reports are pathetic examples of reporting!
Take this Mail online article for example, one of the very few tabloids covering it as far as i can see - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160250/Ga... – its poorly written to the point that they felt they had to write something, but because they couldn’t be arsed they just filled it with quotes from people. and to compare the 207 S2000 with the Civic they have pictured as “ a car similar to this when the tragedy occurred” is like comparing an Audi R15 with a Robin Reliant. The Pug is a from the ground up built Rally car, the civic is converted to stage spec which is quite a difference.
Why is motorsport coverage restricted to just boring old F1 garbage?
How much coverage did Le Mans get in the tabloids this weekend? The British round of the MotoGP? And whatever BTCC round there is?
It comes as something when not even a fatality of a British driver in a top level motorsport gets covered.
Without Motorsport News putting out a paper every week, motorsport reporting in the UK would be nothing!
I am led to understand from overhearing conversations regarding the death of the cricketer that he more than likely took his own life yesterday, still this makes front page news!? No it doesn’t make it any sadder a loss to family and friends of the guy if this is indeed the fact.
After hearing of Gareth’s passing early Saturday i heard nothing about it on the news/radio and apart from online it hasn’t been covered at all. And some online reports are pathetic examples of reporting!
Take this Mail online article for example, one of the very few tabloids covering it as far as i can see - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160250/Ga... – its poorly written to the point that they felt they had to write something, but because they couldn’t be arsed they just filled it with quotes from people. and to compare the 207 S2000 with the Civic they have pictured as “ a car similar to this when the tragedy occurred” is like comparing an Audi R15 with a Robin Reliant. The Pug is a from the ground up built Rally car, the civic is converted to stage spec which is quite a difference.
Why is motorsport coverage restricted to just boring old F1 garbage?
How much coverage did Le Mans get in the tabloids this weekend? The British round of the MotoGP? And whatever BTCC round there is?
It comes as something when not even a fatality of a British driver in a top level motorsport gets covered.
Without Motorsport News putting out a paper every week, motorsport reporting in the UK would be nothing!
I know what you mean - the thing is that it's just not as popular as kickball etc so they don't feel the need to devote the column inches to it. Of course it becomes something of a viscious cycle since people can't get interested in something they never hear about.
Also slightly OT but at least that wail article about the co-driver was better than the garbage they put out about Lee Richardson's death where they felt the need to put pictures up of him lying crumpled on the track - b
ds!
Also slightly OT but at least that wail article about the co-driver was better than the garbage they put out about Lee Richardson's death where they felt the need to put pictures up of him lying crumpled on the track - b
ds!Gareth's death has been widely reported here in South Wales. There was a piece on the BBC Wales television news and website and articles about him in the local papers.
The Daily Mail and Sun are crappy rags who habitually get most of the facts wrong when they report anything to do with cars. There was a story about a woman driving a Ford Focus in the Mail last week and it referred to a Vauxhall Corsa all the way through the article.
The Daily Mail and Sun are crappy rags who habitually get most of the facts wrong when they report anything to do with cars. There was a story about a woman driving a Ford Focus in the Mail last week and it referred to a Vauxhall Corsa all the way through the article.
Because rallying isn't a top level motorsport, doesn't have many fans in the UK, and the I suspect your average tabloid buyer wouldn't give a stuff about 90% of motorsports, The people that do care about this stuff generally won't get their news from tabloids even if they were to cover it, so it's really not in their interest to give it much mention. The circumstances surrounding the death of a cricketer however, almost begs them to give it more coverage.
Tabloids have a very finite amount of space to fill, so the stuff that isn't populated by scandal and adverts, is populated by stuff that the bulk of their readership do care about, or rather, have an appetite for. Rallying isn't one of these things, neither is MotoGP nor many other motorsports. What colour undercrackers the latest manufactured pop sensation flashes when stepping out of a car, or who's shagging who sells papers. Beardy people in the woods doesn't, unless it relates to more sinister activity
Formula 1 gets a few column inches because it's so heavily marketed, has a massive commercial side to it, the glitz and glamour, and thus more people know of it's existence. It's a massive, expensive spectacle regardless of how boring you think it is. It's teaming with rich people doing rich people things, wearing rich people clothes and jewellery.
Rallying for the large part is a few dozen people with a thermos of bovril, watching spectacular cars do spectacular things, wearing outdoor clothing and wooly hats. Given they can't get a million people to watch it on telly despite the cars being spectacular, how many people do you expect a tabloid to reach? The excitement you can get by watching it, even if it's on telly, doesn't translate when it's a couple of photos and some flowery prose.
Dan Wheldon's death was given quite a lot of media exposure in the UK despite - I suspect - very few people actually knowing who he was. Whether it got much mention in the tabloid press I've no idea as I don't read them, but the news channels and broadsheets certainly covered it.
Cricket news reaches a much higher portion of their readership than motorsports. The loss of a guy who inevitably would have made it to the national team at some stage, in strange circumstances it would seem, warrants the coverage in the editors opinion. It's not hard to see why an editor might think it's more in the national interest than a rally driver few people will have heard of. It doesn't mean the cricketer is more important, it's purely a numbers game.
Tabloids have a very finite amount of space to fill, so the stuff that isn't populated by scandal and adverts, is populated by stuff that the bulk of their readership do care about, or rather, have an appetite for. Rallying isn't one of these things, neither is MotoGP nor many other motorsports. What colour undercrackers the latest manufactured pop sensation flashes when stepping out of a car, or who's shagging who sells papers. Beardy people in the woods doesn't, unless it relates to more sinister activity
Formula 1 gets a few column inches because it's so heavily marketed, has a massive commercial side to it, the glitz and glamour, and thus more people know of it's existence. It's a massive, expensive spectacle regardless of how boring you think it is. It's teaming with rich people doing rich people things, wearing rich people clothes and jewellery.
Rallying for the large part is a few dozen people with a thermos of bovril, watching spectacular cars do spectacular things, wearing outdoor clothing and wooly hats. Given they can't get a million people to watch it on telly despite the cars being spectacular, how many people do you expect a tabloid to reach? The excitement you can get by watching it, even if it's on telly, doesn't translate when it's a couple of photos and some flowery prose.
Dan Wheldon's death was given quite a lot of media exposure in the UK despite - I suspect - very few people actually knowing who he was. Whether it got much mention in the tabloid press I've no idea as I don't read them, but the news channels and broadsheets certainly covered it.
Cricket news reaches a much higher portion of their readership than motorsports. The loss of a guy who inevitably would have made it to the national team at some stage, in strange circumstances it would seem, warrants the coverage in the editors opinion. It's not hard to see why an editor might think it's more in the national interest than a rally driver few people will have heard of. It doesn't mean the cricketer is more important, it's purely a numbers game.
Edited by Stu R on Tuesday 19th June 12:14
Daily mail? Paragon of journalism? Up holder of the silent majority?
Or rating obsessed morons who will do / say anything?
http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/
Click the link and try not to laugh....
Or rating obsessed morons who will do / say anything?
http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/
Click the link and try not to laugh....
FamilyDub said:
You'll need to shout louder, that's all the newspaper links people ever seem to post around PH.
The DM is a poisonous rag, full of hatred-inciting nonsense... and Liz Jones.
I think the reason is Mail links are posted most is that they do get more of a reaction from everyone The DM is a poisonous rag, full of hatred-inciting nonsense... and Liz Jones.
FamilyDub said:
The Crack Fox said:
Please, no more Daily Mail links.
You'll need to shout louder, that's all the newspaper links people ever seem to post around PH.The DM is a poisonous rag, full of hatred-inciting nonsense... and Liz Jones.
EDLT said:
FamilyDub said:
The Crack Fox said:
Please, no more Daily Mail links.
You'll need to shout louder, that's all the newspaper links people ever seem to post around PH.The DM is a poisonous rag, full of hatred-inciting nonsense... and Liz Jones.
The Crack Fox said:
Please, no more Daily Mail links.
sorry it was the only tabloid link, appart form the Sun that was online. i never read the mail, or rarely any paper tbh.PW said:
The Sun sponsors Strakka Racing, and have done a few articles on the team's efforts.
thats one of the only reasons i imagine they even bothered to put anything about the event in.they too reported it online and after 5 small paragraphs about the incident even shoehorned in the fact they were sponsoring the front running Skoda's.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/motorsp...
i'll agree i have used the word Hate erroneously for this thread, should have gone with something like, What does the tabloids/media have against Motorsports?
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