For this post I’ll be looking at a few recent articles about women’s hockey and explaining why the coverage is news or an opinion or analysis piece. I will also be pointing out any inconsistencies I see or any confusing coverage.
News Articles
Let’s start with this article from Forbes about the “Dream Gap Tour” being put on by the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association.
Writer and Publication
The writer is Carol Schram, she is listed as a contributor for Forbes. Forbes notes that “Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.” Carol writes pretty regularly for Forbes, mostly about tennis and hockey. This article is listed under Forbes ‘Sports Money’ section, which is noted as “the business of sports is all part of the game.” Forbes is a large and well-known publication. They are mostly known for news and opinions about business and finance, but also have articles about lifestyle topics like travel, food, and style.
Facts Provided
This article provides facts about the tour, including players that are participating, the locations of the games, and the sponsors. The article also discusses how the games will be played in a tournament style and that other activities will also be happening during the event.
Direct Quotes
Direct quotes from players Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield as well as from Billie Jean King (who’s organization is supporting the tour) are provided.
Sources and Links
There are links in the article that direct back to sources of information, as well as social media posts about the event. The author also links back to one of her articles to give some background information about the reasoning behind the tournament.
Opinion and/or Analysis
I don’t see any heavy opinions in here, but the article does dive into the reason behind the tournament, which is that the players have been on strike with the NWHL because they feel the league isn’t a true professional hockey league. The author also goes into the history of Billie Jean King’s involvement in women’s sports and how she is influencing the current movement for women’s hockey. The article is written in a way that does imply that the writer is on the side of the player’s fight for living wages and a true professional sports league. The quotes and social media selections for the article do lead to this implication. The author never outright gives her opinion in the article however.
My Thoughts
Overall, I think this article definitely qualifies as a news story with some thoughtful analysis in it. I don’t see any outright baseless opinions, and the article is not formatted in a way that makes it seem not credible. The author is also established and credible, and the publication is well known. While there is some bias there, the author does a good job of backing up their article with facts and sources.
The next article I’m going to look at is from The Hockey News about the new streaming deal between the NWHL and Twitch.
Writer and Publication
The author of this article is Jared Clinton and he is a staff writer at The Hockey News. He has worked for The Hockey News since 2014 and has written numerous articles for the site. The Hockey News is also a well established publication and is known for news articles as well as opinion and analysis articles. They also provide statistics, video, and podcasts all related to hockey.
Facts Provided
The article provides details about the streaming deal and some background information about what Twitch is. There are also details about previous NWHL broadcasting formats and events.
Direct Quotes
There are quotes from NWHL officials about the deal and what it means for the league.
Sources and Links
The author does not provide any links in the article. They do note who provided the quotes, but there this is no other source information.
Opinion and/or Analysis
The author does provide quite a bit of opinion and analysis in the article. He discusses a lot of the background information about how the new deal is historic and a first of its kind. He also clearly shows his bias and opinion openly about how he thinks this will change women’s hockey. He also states that the previous broadcasts have not been great and he hopes they will improve because of this deal.
My Thoughts
While this article is formatted as news, it’s clear that there are just as many opinions as facts. The author could have provided links and sources in order to make this seem more like a news story. The headline and content didn’t really correlate that and this article was heavy on opinion. I don’t think that the opinion here takes away from this being a news story necessarily though, and a lot of information about the new deal and background information about the way women’s hockey has been broadcast was presented.
Opinion/Analysis Articles
SB Nation – “How the Canadian Women’s Hockey League fell apart”
This article is about the recent folding of the CWHL, how it happened, and the it’s affect on women’s hockey and the people who worked for the organization.
Writer and Publication
The author is Michelle Jay and she is the manager of the SB Nation site The Ice Garden, which is focused on women’s hockey. Michelle writes about women’s hockey frequently on the site. SB Nation is a sports blogging network for various sports leagues and teams and is owned by Vox Media.
Facts Provided
The author provides a lot of facts and details about league operations as well as background into changes that occurred with the league in the past years. There are also financial details provided throughout the article.
Direct Quotes
The article has numerous direct quotes from league general managers, investors, players, and league representatives.
Sources and Links
There are many links and sources cited in the article. It’s clear there was a lot of research done for this article. There is also a lot of information provided from people close to the league and many people who had an understanding of the inner-workings of it. The author also provides links to other news sources as well as press releases and documentation.
Opinion and/or Analysis
The author’s main goal of this article is to analyze why the CWHL ceased operations. There is also a lot of information provided with links and sources as back-up. There is not a overwhelming amount of opinion in the article, which adds a lot to its quality as an analysis piece. The article is very thorough and creates a well-rounded look at the scenario. There are also a lot of quotes and direct experiences from people that adds to the overall credibility and detail of the article.
My Thoughts
This is definitely one of the best articles I’ve read about women’s hockey in a while. The site is dedicated to reporting on women’s hockey and it’s clear the author is an authority on the topic. The article was very compelling and gave a clear understanding of the situation. Even for someone who isn’t an expert, this article was very good at offering facts and analysis. There is some bias and opinion in here, but it doesn’t take away anything from the article and in fact added some persuasive power to it.
The Ice Garden – “The best single season performances in NWHL history”
This article is about assessing game performance using the author’s own calculations and tracking.
Writer and Publication
The author of this article is Mike Murphy and the publication is The Ice Garden, an SB Nation blog about women’s hockey. Mike Murphy contributes regularly to this site and writes news and opinion articles for it. Mike also tracks and offers analysis of players based on statistics and his own formulas. The Ice Garden is a blog that is relatively new but offers extensive coverage of women’s hockey.
Facts Provided
The author offers plenty of statistics and information about player performance. He gets his player information from the NWHL’s official website.
Direct Quotes
There are no direct quotes in the article.
Sources and Links
There are no links in the article, but the author has listed the places that the data has been sourced from.
Opinion and/or Analysis
The article is data heavy, but the majority of it is analysis and opinion based on that data. The author starts the article by describing why they think their way of analyzing players is the best and why it is important. They spend the rest of the article going into detail about what the statistics say about the player’s performances and giving their opinion about why that means they were the best players.
My Thoughts
This is definitely the most opinion based of the four articles I’ve looked at. The author gave a good argument for why their data analysis is superior, but it’s hard to trust it based on this small sample size. There is a lot of data involved and if someone didn’t have a basic understanding of that the article is somewhat overwhelming. There are also a lot of assumptions based on the author’s own formulas for evaluating player performance. I thought that the article was very thorough and researched, but obviously a lot of the conclusions are contingent on the author’s own data.
.jpg){kind=link}