ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by posing a fundamental question about sports media: what elevates certain facts about sport into sports news? In some instances – many instances – non-journalists are making decisions about what constitutes sports news. The type of sports journalism that focuses solely on the daily flow of build-ups to big games, post-match debate and a sprinkling of big-name interviews has been referred to as the “sportainment” model, according to which sports reporting is viewed as effectively being just a branch of entertainment. The decisions about what to include as sports news are based on real-time viewer figures, and generating positive audience figures is done through high levels of activity and engagement with supporters through social media. In an analysis examining the Twitter feeds of 15 major football media outlets between 2010 and 2017, J. Cable and G. Mottershead carried out a thorough analysis of clickbait in the UK sports media.
