Twitter: Good or bad for sport?
TO TWEET or not to tweet – that is the question.
Hundreds of professional sportsmen and women use the social networking website Twitter each and every day, pouring out their philosophies and thoughts about sport, the world and its wife.
It is also widely used by amateur sportsmen and women,
while various media organisations use the site as a useful tool for
communicating with readers and garnering content ideas.
But in recent months, several high-profile professional sportsmen have fallen foul of the standards expected of them, landing huge fines and reprimands from their clubs and governing bodies.
This has led to some organisations and personalities criticising the increasing impact of social media, while some rules and regulations have been introduced for some sporting stars.
This includes team officials at Team GB Hockey, who have moved to prevent players from tweeting four hours before and two hours after a game at this summer's Olympics.
The hockey team officials claim that Twitter causes a distraction, although Team GB chef de mission Sir Clive Woodward is happy to leave it up to individual sports to decide how the use of Twitter is managed.
The International Olympic Committee, meanwhile, has said it actively encourages athletes to post, blog or tweet their experiences through social media, but it has strict rules about it, restricting athletes to a first-person, diary-type format during the Olympic Games.
But East Grinstead Hockey Club's first team manager, Matt Jones, said he felt the move by Team GB Hockey was a sensible one.
He said: "A lot of time, effort and resource is invested in preparing for a major tournament.
"One of the key factors is your strategy and I can see why management wouldn't want players talking about team selections, formations or strategy prior to a game.
"I think it is a sensible step, particularly before a game and I think players know better than anyone else that they need to be focused on the game, rather than social media."
Likewise, Jones said he could understand the management not wanting players to tweet soon after a game.
He said: "I think after a game you have a different agenda to look out for.
"Emotions are often running high, positively and negatively, and you don't want that spilling out of control.
Many of East Grinstead's hockey players are in the GB squad and several are on Twitter, but Jones said he had no problem with them tweeting, providing they were sensible about it.
"Players are very mature and intelligent," he said.
"They understand the subtleties of good and bad social media commentary.
"Like with anything the odd comment can get taken out of proportion and it can spoil it for others.
"But we are all adults and we treat each other with respect and responsibility and East Grinstead's players understand implicitly the dos and don'ts of social media."
He concluded: "We don't want to be all controlling – there is far too much of it in life these days.
"It is important to have some flexibility and not sterilise everything that we come into contact with."
Source: http://www.thisissussex.co.uk/Twitter-Good-bad-sport/story-15456441-detail/story.html
Hundreds of professional sportsmen and women use the social networking website Twitter each and every day, pouring out their philosophies and thoughts about sport, the world and its wife.
-
Managing TWEETS: Matt Jones claims it is a sensible move by Team GB Hockey to ban players using Twitter before and after games in the Olympics
But in recent months, several high-profile professional sportsmen have fallen foul of the standards expected of them, landing huge fines and reprimands from their clubs and governing bodies.
This has led to some organisations and personalities criticising the increasing impact of social media, while some rules and regulations have been introduced for some sporting stars.
This includes team officials at Team GB Hockey, who have moved to prevent players from tweeting four hours before and two hours after a game at this summer's Olympics.
The hockey team officials claim that Twitter causes a distraction, although Team GB chef de mission Sir Clive Woodward is happy to leave it up to individual sports to decide how the use of Twitter is managed.
The International Olympic Committee, meanwhile, has said it actively encourages athletes to post, blog or tweet their experiences through social media, but it has strict rules about it, restricting athletes to a first-person, diary-type format during the Olympic Games.
But East Grinstead Hockey Club's first team manager, Matt Jones, said he felt the move by Team GB Hockey was a sensible one.
He said: "A lot of time, effort and resource is invested in preparing for a major tournament.
"One of the key factors is your strategy and I can see why management wouldn't want players talking about team selections, formations or strategy prior to a game.
"I think it is a sensible step, particularly before a game and I think players know better than anyone else that they need to be focused on the game, rather than social media."
Likewise, Jones said he could understand the management not wanting players to tweet soon after a game.
He said: "I think after a game you have a different agenda to look out for.
"Emotions are often running high, positively and negatively, and you don't want that spilling out of control.
Many of East Grinstead's hockey players are in the GB squad and several are on Twitter, but Jones said he had no problem with them tweeting, providing they were sensible about it.
"Players are very mature and intelligent," he said.
"They understand the subtleties of good and bad social media commentary.
"Like with anything the odd comment can get taken out of proportion and it can spoil it for others.
"But we are all adults and we treat each other with respect and responsibility and East Grinstead's players understand implicitly the dos and don'ts of social media."
He concluded: "We don't want to be all controlling – there is far too much of it in life these days.
"It is important to have some flexibility and not sterilise everything that we come into contact with."
Source: http://www.thisissussex.co.uk/Twitter-Good-bad-sport/story-15456441-detail/story.html
I found this article very interesting. I think Twitter is good for sport, but only if it's used in the right way. Since athletes are always in the public eye, they must be careful what they say on social networking sites of course. But it must be monitored and restricted if the person using the social network says something out of line. Common sense must prevail.
ReplyDelete