Michael Rosenberg, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, came to Detroit Mercy’s campus on Nov. 12 for a Q&A hosted by the Communication Studies department.
Rosenberg Discussed how journalism is meant to be able to get to know the person you are interviewing, to be able to really dissect the person and present the raw, human form to the readers.
The Rosenberg Q&A left a lasting impression and gave an insight into the developing profession of a journalist and his journey to finding what works and what doesn’t in his career.
Dr. David Cassilo, who organized the event, said, “Q&A’s like this are so important because it allows the opportunity for students to connect and network.”
Sports media and all of journalism has drastically changed since the introduction of social media. Everything is faster paced, and stories are released in an instant. Cassilo mentioned that “In the past 15 years people have more of an appetite for shorter, quicker things.”
Rosenberg often writes profile stories, which is longer content. When he writes a profile story, he is trying to figure out exactly who the person is.
He said, “By the end of a really good profile you should feel like you know the person.”
Rosenberg specifically mentioned a profile story that he had done on Matthew Stafford. He had written an article about him near the end of his time in Detroit and had found that “the most interesting part of an athlete’s career is 3⁄4 of the way through their career because they have more experience and knowledge.”
Rosenberg was able to see how Stafford progressed throughout his career, as he has also written for the Detroit Free Press.
Rosenberg mentioned that breaking through that wall with athletes is often challenging. Athletes hear all of the different things that the media says about them so it’s harder to earn their trust.
Rosenberg also discussed his time covering the WNBA and the evolution of the league. He noted that some of the recent media-related problems are because “it doesn’t have the baseline from the 70s and 80s media access.” Rosenberg said that the WNBA is relatively new to coverage like it received this past season.
