Q&A: Jeff Dickerson of ESPNChicago.com

Jeff Dickerson has been a Chicago Bears beat reporter for ESPN since 2004 with a Bears blog at ESPNChicago.com since April. He also hosts a weeknight Chicago radio show on ESPN 1000 and handles Bears coverage for ABC-7 on television. He has lived in the Chicagoland area his whole life and currently resides in Vernon Hills.

In our interview, Jeff comments on what it’s like to be a sports journalist in a huge Chicago market, discusses how he uses the internet (and tweets!) in his work, and gives a little insight into this perplexing Bears season.

SK: Chicago is a huge sports market and the Bears are arguably the biggest in the city. How did you become the Bears beat reporter at ESPN and how demanding is that job during the NFL season?

JD: You know, I actually got really lucky. I began by being a producer out of college, and I would go to Bears home games and work the locker room and try to book guests for the shows that I was producing. Then I started moving more towards the on-air side and volunteered to be the second reporter at Bears home games.

I did that for a couple of years, and in 2004 we had an opening to be a Bears guy. I wasn’t really ever officially given the job – I guess I just kept showing up. They probably felt sorry for me that I was always there and just decided to make me the Bears guy. So I’ve been the Bears beat reporter since 2004 and it is a very demanding job. You’ve got 53 guys on a team, all the coaches and all the front office people, so it is a lot to keep a handle on.

Football is my favorite sport, so I think this is one of the most enjoyable things you can do in this profession because you’re so close to the game and so close to the players that you learn a lot and see things a lot differently. Hopefully it’s a job I can hold on to for a long time to come.

SK: What’s a typical day like for you during Bears season? Are you at Halas Hall covering the Bears every day?

JD: I’m usually at Halas Hall about three days a week. I do a TV show on Fridays for ABC so I have to go into the city to tape that. I also host radio shows on Monday and Tuesday night at the station so I have to be in the city at night for those shows.

I usually work seven days a week during the season with travel days, which are pretty hectic because I have to travel with the team when they’re on the road. It’s a busy week, but it’s tough to put an hour amount on it. I just feel like at the end of the day I earn the contract I have.

SK: With new technology changing the world of journalism, traditional journalists find themselves needing to develop new skill sets. When did you begin using the internet in your work, and how has the web changed the way you report?

JD: Now that I started writing for the website back in April when we debuted ESPNChicago.com, I’m constantly on the internet. And you’re right, you have to adapt with the times. I wasn’t really a trained writer – my degree from Illinois was in broadcast journalism.

When they came to me with an offer to be one of the first writers for the website, I had to take it. So if you don’t adapt in this business, you’re in an awful lot of trouble. I use the internet every day for preparation because it is invaluable with trying to keep tabs on what everyone else is reporting.

SK: I’ve noticed that you’ve been using Twitter a lot, which has become the latest craze. How has Twitter and other social media changed what journalists do and what you do specifically?

JD: I think Twitter is great, especially during training camp because you can give people cool updates and it is tough for people to get out to camp in Bourbonnais. Practices are closed during the season, but you can still use it during the season to get news out quicker.

I’ve started doing a good job of linking on the Twitter account to every story I write for the website. It’s not only a good way to let people see what you’re writing but a way to promote the website as well. I try not to take it too seriously and I try to have some fun with it and make some jokes from time to time.

-photo courtesy of Jeff Dickerson at http://twitter.com/ESPNChiBears

Mashups Make Finding Information Even Easier

The internet has made finding information a nearly instantaneous process. Mashups - or websites that combine data from other sites into their own unique database – have made finding specific data even easier. An SOA Magazine article by John Crupi and Chris Warner gives a more detailed explanation on mashups.

These websites can be excellent tools for journalists, enabling them to find information immediately that may have taken hours or days to find before the emergence of the mashup. Using the site thisweknow.org, for example, journalists have access to government data about any community at their fingertips, ranging from the unemployment rate to the number of bills introduced in the area by members of Congress. Never before has that information been accessible from the same location.

Some mashups, like govpulse.us/, even provide information that was not easily accessible to the public prior to the creation of the site. Here, journalists are able to search for any notifications or proposals the government has made in the last fifteen years. The fact that this type of information is readily available will save journalists a lot of headache.

Many of the mashups we have discussed in class allow you to search for data by specific location, giving you accurate information on a variety of subjects. In addition to making the search for global and national stories or statistics easier, it creates an excellent source for hyperlocal news stories or statistics.

Everyblock.com lets you choose a city and search for information pertaining to a certain neighborhood or city block. By typing my address in the search engine, the results produced news, real estate listings, crimes, lost and found postings, and business reviews all very close to my location, all of which are potentially useful items for a journalist.

Some mashups do not go hyperlocal and instead focus on statistics based on city, state or country. Statemaster.com, for example, is a database full of statistics regarding only U.S. states from sources such as the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau. Another great mashup to check out is Politifact.com, which tracks whether or not Barack Obama is keeping or breaking the promises he made to get elected.

Some mashups are created and run by journalism outlets, and some are created and run by web developers, database companies, or other private companies. Politifact.com and Everyblock.com, for example, are run by the St. Petersburg Times and MSNBC.com, respectively. The other sites mentioned above are run by web developers, private companies, or combinations of the two.

Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I was unaware that mashups existed. Recently, however, I’ve found myself using them more and more often. As an aspiring journalist, they are definitely helpful resources for me.

Recent Muggings in Lincoln Park Linked

Between the dates of July 30 and August 3, several men were mugged and beaten in north side neighborhoods of Chicago. Of the seven attacks, four are believed to be linked, while the police are investigating the other attacks. The victims tend to be in their early to mid twenties, walking home in the early morning hours, when they are attacked by a group of four or more men of the same age and savagely beaten. Two of the victims were hospitalized. The map displays the locations and brief descriptions of the individual attacks. The red flags indicate muggings the police believe are related, and the green flags indicate muggings that are still being investigated.

FLYPmedia.com experience differs from typical media sites

While internet journalism is constantly changing as new ideas and technologies appear – blogs, stories with audio and video, social media, etc. – FLYPmedia.com has found a revolutionary way to combine quality text, audio, video, graphics and design into an online multimedia experience.

FLYPmedia.com is an online magazine with the slogan “more than a magazine” appearing on the homepage. The slogan rings true – it is basically a magazine on steroids.

Most media web sites today have a homepage cluttered headlines, stories, polls and links. There is usually a separate section for video, discussions, or blogs that are difficult to find without searching the site. On washingtonpost.com, for example, it’s difficult to find a blog or a video at first glance.

FLYP’s homepage, when initially opened, is very easy to navigate. A few articles and blogs are laid out beneath their respective topics, and from there you are able to dig deeper depending on what interests you. Another multimedia site, Mediastorm.com, uses a similar format to display narratives for the reader.

While traditional media sites contain stories with the occasional audio or video linked to them, FLYP combines it all into one experience. It is actually set up and looks like a magazine, flipping pages and all. Music or sounds may play during an article (with the easy option to mute). Audio, video, and graphics appear on almost every page.

Because other sites, like yahoo.com, contain links all over the page and even within articles, people tend to scan them more than read them. With FLYP, however, the combination of text, audio, visual and graphics causes you to become immersed in the story and forget to browse.

Jim Gaines, former editor of Time, Newsweek, People, and Life magazines, saw this as the future of online journalism. He recently answered some questions in an interview with Andrew Nusca of smartplanet.com.

I don’t know whether FLYP’s format will catch on and revolutionize online journalism, but I do know that for now it is a unique and welcome getaway from the rest of the web.