My sports media consumption diet consists of four primary sources, one traditional and three using new technologies and apps developed in the last ten to fifteen years. The first source of my sports media comes from the conventional means of watching the sport on television. While I used to have cable, I now stream through YouTube TV, which allows me to watch games anytime on the go. The main sports I watch through this median are Formula 1 and the NFL.
YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram are the three other sources of my sports media diet. I watch match highlights for Paris Saint Germain and Borussia Dortmund on YouTube, film studies on quarterbacks, and videos that involve Jon Bois and SBNation/Secret Base sports statistics. Twitter I use for sports memes and analyses, I follow Joe Goodberry and a couple of other accounts who go in-depth on the Bengals, and I use the app to see what people around the world are saying on race day for Formula 1. Instagram I primarily use to see Formula 1 content, as their Instagram account is the primary source I rely on for my Formula 1 updates.
The most significant change to my sports diet in the last five years has been using Instagram for sports-related content. I have been a Formula 1 fan for almost a decade now. If you had told me when I first got into the sport that their usage of new-age media would have revolutionized the sport’s popularity and, in some ways, the sporting world, I would have laughed you out of the room. Their Instagram has gone from a near-nonexistent platform to a booming account with well over 20 million followers in under five years. Due to content through Netflix and embracing the idea of appealing to a younger audience, the sport’s commercial appeal and popularity among key age demographics have skyrocketed.
Within the next five years, more sports will take the approach to embrace all aspects of new age media that Formula 1 has. If I could change anything in the sports communication landscape, it would be not dramatizing events in behind-the-scenes shows. Instead, Formula 1 drivers’ words and clips are taken out of context for the show, damaging the athlete’s image and mincing their words.