An investigation into the attitudes of professional athletes toward sports journalists

The purpose of the study was to determine whether major league professional athletes believe sports journalists convey accurate views of athletes' performance in competition and their professional careers and personal lifestyles to media audiences, and to determine how athletes regard journalists' relationships with club management. An attempt was made to identify factors contributing to any inaccurate views which might be indicated by athletes.

A mail questionnaire survey of a proportional stratified sample of professional baseball, basketball, football, and hockey players was conducted, followed by a personal interview with a professional athlete. Responses were obtained from 25.2 percent of the sample of 652 athletes.

A majority of athletes was found to give qualified approval of the job sports journalists do in describing athletes' performance in competition, but a larger majority of athletes was found to believe sports journalists do a poor job of describing their professional careers and personal lifestyles away from competition to media audiences. Athletes were found to believe that sports journalists give preferred treatment to club management and to believe that journalists' relationships with club management are detrimental to the athletes.

Athletes were found to believe sports journalists generally possess an inadequate knowledge of the game and display a lack of creativity, poor questioning, and inattentiveness. Athletes were found to believe reporters, especially those working in the print media, are excessively negative. Athletes also were found to believe reporters are excessively interested in muckraking, do not understand or appreciate athletes as people, and misquote athletes badly. Inaccuracy, favoritism, and the timing of interviews were found to be among athletes' other complaints about sports journalists.