Skateboarding has reached an all time high in popularity, and now it’s receiving more attention and coverage than it ever has before. With all the new interest in skating, there are a lot more mainstream news outlets covering it, as well as sources outside the mainstream, but still not as much as traditional sports. I wanted to use this post in order to show some examples of how skateboarding has been covered by different types of media, from news articles to YouTube videos.
The first story I want to share, is a news article by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a newspaper focused on serving the millions of citizens in the Brooklyn area, and describes how the company Vans built a new indoor skatepark in Brooklyn. This is pretty typical for a news article about skateboarding, but because there isn’t an abundance of crucial information about the topic, most people won’t consider it, “news,” or the story is just not written in a news format. I’d say most of the written articles you find about skateboarding are usually an exposition piece, or some type of interview. This style of writing never really updating the public about a topic of concern in the skating industry. This is slowly changing as skateboarding is entering the Olympics, and journalists and the public get more interested in the influence of skateboarding across the globe. I would absolutely consider this article a news piece since it seems to describe a, “Who, what, when, where, and why,” situation while providing the people of Brooklyn with information on the addition to their neighborhood, as well as alert the skaters of the area that there’s a new place to check out when the weather gets frigid. The story sticks to the facts of the situation and shows no bias towards an opinion, it just lays out a short history of the Vans company and Brooklyn while providing quotes and detailed information from some professional skaters that were invited to the park, as well as Vans’ senior marketing manager. I found this source to be credible because not only has the original Brooklyn Eagle been around since 1841, but it also has four Pulitzer Prizes and merged with its competition in 1996, so the focus of the paper is strictly on bringing news to the people of Brooklyn. I also researched the writer of the article, Scott Enman, and found his twitter, verifying that he is a real person and took a look at some of his other work. Unfortunately, Scott is not verified, meaning the account can be easily faked, but from the tweets I saw, he was only posting links to stories from the Brooklyn Eagle, promoting articles he had written. He is also labeled as a Senior Reporter, which also gives him some credibility since he’s been with the paper long enough and provided quality work in order to move his way up to senior reporter. The last way I verified that this story was true and accurate, was by watching a YouTube video from another source showing the same event, and just as I thought, everything Scott described was right!
This is another news article about skateboarding, published by The New York Times, that actually focuses on the idea that skateboarding in the Olympics have set no age limit on who can represent their country, and so little girls from all over the world have new aspirations of becoming Olympic competitors. The article focuses a little more on the U.S. skater, Kendra Long, but overall explains what the Women’s Skating events will involve, mentions multiple other women skaters who have been killing it in the industry, and shares a perspective on what it’s like to be a young athlete inspired to make it to the Olympics. I found this article to be considered news because even though it focused on the work and efforts of Kendra, the overall story helped educate the reader on a current event that could change countries all over the world. It reported facts on what the Women’s Olympic skating events will involve, who some of the prospects are for the upcoming Olympics, and why this introduction of skateboarding in the Olympics is reshaping Women’s skateboarding as a whole. I also found this source to be credible since it was coming from The New York Times, and even though outlets can make mistakes, they are usually pretty accurate most of the time. The reporter of the story, Scott Cacciola, also has multiple work published in The NY Times, and is also verified on his twitter account which links many of the same works you find on the NY Times website. Scott uses many in-text links which lead to further knowledge on the topic he was referencing, such as a link to Kendra’s Instagram page, which also make him more credible since you can verify in the moment. The last bit of credibility that I noticed, was that all of the names mentioned in the article linked to real skaters, who were all in the running to be on the Olympic team. Unfortunately Kendra didn’t make it, but the 14 year old has a lot of time to practice.
This piece of media is from a YouTube channel called Thrasher magazine, which is obviously a YouTube channel created by the skateboarding magazine, Thrasher. This is a short show hosted every week by skateboarder Gary Rodgers, and basically breaks down what he considers to be some of the most important news and events that happened in skateboarding recently. I find this reporting to be more opinion based, since Gary is basically acting like an aggregate for news, and only choosing what he finds to be the most valuable information for the short amount of time he has to speak. It doesn’t necessarily answer the questions of who, what, where, when, and why, but it does give the viewer a heads up of what information or news they should further research on. I find Skateline to be extremely credible because it’s a show made by skater for skaters. It’s run by two credible skate companies, Thrasher magazine and Metro Skateboarding, and also hosted by someone who has been in the industry and doing the show since 2012.
The last article I’m sharing with you is what I consider an analytical piece by the skateboarding magazine, Jenkem. This article reviews professional skateboarder Mark Suciu’s newest video part, “Verso,” and how the video is actual something of a poetic masterpiece rather than a normal skate part. I found this article to be analytical because the author breaks down specific parts from the video, and provides evidence of how the tricks represent an ABBA format. It’s not really an article providing any news, and even though he shares opinions, most of the article is analyzing Mark, his efforts put into his video part, and the deeper meaning behind the sequences of tricks he lands. Jenkem magazine is another source that is created by skaters for skaters, so this already leads me to believe that they’re credible. I also know someone who personally works for the company, which also builds my trust in the company. As for the article, I can tell that the author is involved in skating by the jargon he is using when discussing Mark’s part. If you’re not familiar with skating, then some of the language he uses will be confusing and it might be a little hard to follow. The author also provides numerous in-text links to credible sources he used as evidence that his ideas are correct. Overall, I think this article was written really well, and is an accurate analyzation of Mark’s part and cites credible sources to further support his ideas.
There are numerous ways that skateboarding is represented in the media, but from the articles and other examples provided above, you can see that it is geared toward a niche audience. As skating is introduced into the Olympics and becomes more popular around the world, hopefully the media coverage will grow as well, but as for now you can click the links I provided above, explore different articles, and learn more about skating from reliable sources.
