The Ravens version of a “selfie”
Where do you get your Ravens news?
As we move into an increasingly digital world, most people no longer have a single source for their information. The majority of my web traffic spawns from social media. For instance, if the Baltimore Sun tweets an interesting quote from John Harbaugh, I’ll read their article. If CSNBaltimore.com posts a video on their Facebook page of Ray Rice talking about his injury issues, I’ll watch and direct my attention to their content.
Clicks from social media are part of the reason that I found myself visiting RussellStreetReport.com daily. It’s powerful stuff and it puts the #RSR team on the same playing field as the big boys in town.
In recent years, sports franchises have decided to enter the mix and publish news about themselves. They’re using Twitter to give fans updates and direct traffic back to themselves. Could you imagine WBAL covering a story about WBAL? That’s basically the equivalent of what the reporters on BaltimoreRavens.com are doing. These guys are literally on the team’s payroll.
So why would anyone think they can get a fair and impartial opinion from the team’s official website?
You can’t blame these franchises for trying this approach. People are already visiting a team’s website for the schedule and roster, you might as well keep their eyeballs with some news.
From a public relations standpoint it makes perfect sense for teams to cover themselves. These franchises have found another way to control the message. Controversial stories can be monitored and the team can be promoted through their news content.
The Ravens official website is updated with about four news items per day and at least one feature. The daily “Late For Work” column features the most widespread and open opinions of the Ravens, but that’s because most of the thoughts are links to other local reporter’s work. Other news pieces on the website tend to be less pointed. Interestingly, the Ravens feature a disclaimer in the sidebar of each of their columns.
The opinions, analysis and/or speculation expressed on BaltimoreRavens.com represent those of individual authors, and unless quoted or clearly labeled as such, do not represent the opinions or policies of the Baltimore Ravens’ organization, front office staff, coaches and executives. Authors’ views are formulated independently from any inside knowledge and/or conversations with Ravens officials, including the coaches and scouts, unless otherwise noted.
It’s nice to say, but I can’t believe that much “speculation” would be reported on without “inside knowledge and/or conversations with Ravens officials.” In fact that would be impossible.
The staff writers on BaltimoreRavens.com travel with the team, stay in the team’s hotel (often sharing rooms with other employees) and work in an office 365 days a year with (you guessed it) the team. They all have “inside knowledge” compared to the access the Ravens’ media partners are given.
I was interested to see how other NFL franchises cover themselves, so I examined the other three teams in the AFC North.
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers website:
1. Looks like it was designed by a high school student who just learned HTML and
2. Surprisingly doesn’t feature as much insightful content as I expected.
Sure, they posted eight pieces on Thursday, but three were community related and one was an interview transcript. I found that news pieces followed a similar formula to BaltimoreRavens.com, very straightforward with quotes from players and coaches and no opinions from the writer.
Cincinnati Bengals
Over on Bengals.com the design was much better, but content was at a minimum. On Thursday two news stories were posted and, much like the Ravens and Steelers, the pieces were very straight forward — almost press release style.
Cleveland Browns
In addition to their dry coverage of the Browns, the team also posts a “Daily Wrap” which is essentially a recap of a radio show with Vic Carucci and Nathan Zeguna. The post features a quote from both hosts and their guests.
None of the other three teams posted disclaimers and I found the Ravens coverage to be more comprehensive compared to their other AFC North foes. It’s important for the Ravens to control their message. Their fan base is large, but they are landlocked – geographically surrounded by the Redskins, Eagles and Steelers.
Outside Baltimore, the Ravens still have this bad boy image from the days of their stellar defenses. Many outsiders still view the Ravens and their fans as a lighter version of the Raiders and the Black Hole. Now imagine trying to grow a hated/feared fan base and marketing to the empty states to the south.
Despite all this information, I still frequently find myself visiting BaltimoreRavens.com as it typically is updated with useful information and presented in a well-designed format on both the desktop and mobile devices. However, I can’t advise forming an opinion based on the content written on any team’s website.
The bottom line is to not believe everything you read and to understand what motivates this “self coverage”. To borrow from football vernacular, it’s akin to a “Cover Me” defense.
Read it, absorb the content on one site, and then again on another.
Listen to the different voices and understand the message that the teams may be trying to send.
Most importantly, form your own opinion.
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