Sticking with the same theme as my PR Event Analysis post, I’m going to look at the differences between how traditional media (newspapers) and online media (websites) covered the Amir Khan fight.
The fight was scheduled to take place at around 4.30am GMT due to the time difference between here and where the fight was taking place, Las Vegas. This already made it a disadvantage for the media in the UK to be able to cover the story of the fight. As we all know, Amir Khan lost after a devastating 6th round knock out to Alvarez but newspapers would not have been able to get the story out until Monday due to the fight being scheduled to be on so late in the UK. This meant that the online media had to take advantage of this and make sure they covered all angles of the story.
Websites such as Sky Sports will have had immediate reaction after the fight, with a quick summary of what happened whilst they gather more news. Sky probably isn’t the best example due to it being a rival of Box Nation so lets look at the BBC. The BBC covered the story with not only articles involving a summary of the fight, but with photos too and interviews with relevant people in the boxing world. As the traditional media were not able to release the newspaper version of the story until Monday, they used their websites to put out live blogs of the fight for people to read if they couldn’t watch the fight. Various Twitter pages also live-tweeted the event to keep people updated.
The big advantage for the online media, other than being able to cover the story first, is the media they can show on their websites. Where newspapers are unable to show videos and more than a small selection of photos, online media can have photo galleries containing a huge selection of photos from the night and can also include videos from the event. This makes the online media much more engaging for the reader meaning someone who is a fan of boxing would have a preference to getting their news from online media. Someone who is not as big of a fan, who only watches big fights would prefer newspapers as the big sport story would only be boxing if it was a massive fight.
Online media has so many advantages over traditional media especially in today’s world where we can get a news story for free at the click of a button. This is also an area where online media is supreme as people who are in a rush to work in the mornings might not have time to get a paper, so they can just look at their phones for the latest news. You would think that the people who prefer traditional media are those that have been brought up without todays technology and those people who don’t have a massive interest in certain things but still like to be in the know. This is why newspapers have moved online, to make sure they stay competitive as more and more people are getting their news from online websites.
12 Rounds UK 