SSU members’ SDL Knowledge

In the interview, CHANG asserted that to become a sports journalist, “You need to be a sports lover. You need to be able to see the professional side of the game, and explain it to the audience. Therefore, upgrading your knowledge is crucial.” But what types of knowledge are important for SSU journalists to pave their way to expertise? And how did they organize the knowledge? In this section, the researcher discusses the

findings for RQ4.

To begin with, knowing the rules of different sports is a basic requirement for sports journalists to write news reports. CHANG:

I tried to understand different sports, not just the rules, but also the essence of these sports. Take athletes, for example; the audience may only notice who is faster. But for

me, I would like to understand why those athletes are faster than others, and what are the factors that influence their performance? I think it is better if you can include explanations for sports rules in your articles.

HSU further mentioned:

You have to be sure that you truly love sports. What I mean is more than just

knowing one or two athletes, but knowing everything about sports to become a sports journalist. You need to know the rules, the athletes, and the culture of the sport. Don’t limit your knowledge to only a single sport. Having additional knowledge about different sports may present an interesting opportunity for you. You don’t need to be a journalism graduate to become a journalist. But you need to accumulate experience and knowledge about sports for you to fulfill your job.

In addition, interviewees mentioned that to become professional journalists, having strong language ability is a plus. SSU suggests that members work to improve their foreign language ability, including but not limited to English proficiency. CHANG: “You might need to conduct an English interview sometime in the future. Possessing such an ability will help you to better fulfill your work requirements.”

Speaking of English ability, LIN shared her experience. LIN had a part time job writing and translating international sports news, which later became her profession after she graduated. Her experience working in the news industry turned out to be very

different from what she had learned in SSU. English-language sports news refers to many special terms, so now she needs to do lots of research and copy all the new terminology into her notebook. LIN:

I was a slow writer when I first got the job. English sports news uses many special terms. Even though I majored in English, I still spent a lot of time checking words in the dictionary. Also, my knowledge about foreign athletes is very limited, so it took

me a long time to get to know their names and faces. I subscribed to English-language sports magazines and read more English sports news to supplement this area of my knowledge. I also took notes on new information I did not know, and compiled it into my databank.

CHIA also collects different data and information for her personal learning. CHIA:

I always prepared information before interviews. And after each interview, I wrote down my reflections and what I learned from each mission. To improve, I also read news articles from foreign websites like ESPN to increase my knowledge of English sports terms and enhance my English news writing skills.

SSU also pointed out that attending inspiring events can be key transitions for students to improve. From the impressive events they encountered, SSU journalists have learned to react to different challenges and find ways to improve their skills and abilities.

Events provide student journalists with the opportunity they need to modify their way of doing things.

For example, HSU and YEH were shocked by the fast pace of the news industry, and realized that their knowledge of sports was not enough to fulfill their journalism work.

Therefore, internships, work experiences, and key events offered an incentive that encourages them to improve their knowledge about sports. HSU:

I remember my experience working at the company Videoland. Because of the heavy workload, I realized that my knowledge of sports was not enough. So I started to watch more sports games and read more news reports related to different sports. As a sports journalist, one needs to possess abundant sports knowledge to fulfill the job requirements. And also, from interviews, I found that to write a good news report, you not only need to understand the game, but you also have to know the culture of the sport and the athletes of the sports. A person who contains all this knowledge can

be viewed as a professional sports journalist.

YEH:

From my experience, I discovered that if you are interested in sports journalism, it is better to experience some other fields in the sports industry, like sports advertising, or volunteering at a sports event. All the knowledge about the sports industry is

interrelated. Understanding more areas in the sports industry can help journalists to write better news.

LUO and YU also gained experience with conducting interviews in English, which encouraged them to improve their English ability. LUO:

My goal is to become an international sports journalist, so I have been enhancing my English ability since I entered university. I attended international sports events for tennis and table tennis, where I interviewed athletes in English. This has encouraged me to improve my English ability to better communicate with international athletes.

YU also attended several grand sports events. These experiences have helped him to improve the content of his news articles. YU:

There are two events that influenced me the most. One is the Asian University Men’s basketball game. The other is the intercollegiate sports games event. For the

basketball game, reporters only needed to focus on one sport, but because the athletes came from several different countries, we needed to communicate with them in English to write feature stories. As for the intercollegiate games, I had to cover several different types of sports within the course of a few days. I not only needed to understand the sport, but I also needed to do research about past records and potential rising athletes. The two events were very different, but both of them increased the depth and breadth of my story-writing ability.

Furthermore, SSU also mentions that the point in time in which learning takes place

may also influence the amount of knowledge students can absorb. YU shared his experience of learning in SSU:

The first year when I attended SSU’s training course, I could only understand 75% of the content. But after I had more interview experiences, I was able to understand 85%

or 90% of the content during the training courses in my second year. From my

experience, I’ve noticed that everything is worth learning. Even if you are assigned to buy a lunchbox for your manager, you may get to know their hobbies, preferences, or some other interesting piece of information. Never be afraid to ask questions. No one is an innate expert. You have to read, learn, and do a lot of preparation before the games in order to ask deep questions. These experiences may transform into rich nutrients that allow you to move on and grow.

The concept of a learning curve over time also relates to YU’s performance as a south division team leader. YU was assigned to this position in his second year of SSU. He believes that his training in graduate school has helped him to make decisions. YU:

As a team leader, my role is not only that of a journalist. I need to make decisions, assign missions and give advice to team members. If I hadn’t had this job earlier, I don’t think I would be able to perform as well. It is because of the training I have received both in graduate school and in SSU that I can accomplish the work set out for me.