Introduction
I Knew He played professional football for England and is now a sports commentator for the network. He is remembered as one of the best attackers to ever play for England. Since the late 1990s, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter, he has been the face of the BBC’s flagship football program Match of the Day. Lineker also anchors the BBC’s coverage of major international soccer competitions, including the FIFA World Cup. Apart from BT Sport, he has contributed to NBC Sports Network, UEFA Champions League coverage on Al Jazeera Sports, and coverage of the Dutch Eredivisie on Eredivisie Live. This paper will examine sports journalist Gary Lineker to demonstrate the understanding of and the career with the cultural, historical, and social backdrop of sports journalism, the limitations and restrictions specialized journalists operate under, and the unique journalistic skills and approaches needed for distinct specialisms.
Professional football commentator and sports analyst Gary Lineker is well-known in the media. He replaced Des Lynam as the prominent anchorman and host of Match of the Day on BBC after he retired from professional football and began working as a football pundit for BBC Radio 5 Live (PlanetSport, 2022). The BBC’s golf coverage and Grandstand both had him as a host. Lineker was not just a TV personality but also a columnist for newspapers like The Sunday Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday. After leaving these two roles, Lineker took on additional hosting gigs and honed his hosting skills. Al Jazeera Sport, which airs across the Middle East, hired him as an anchor for their English-language football coverage in 2010. In 2012, he departed from the network based in Qatar. In 2022, Gary Lineker was presented with the Vázquez Montalbán award for sports journalism by Barcelona, as reported on their official website (www.fcbarcelona.com, 2022).
After making 80 appearances for his country and scoring 48 goals, Gary called it quits from international football to focus on a career in the media. After starting on Radio 5 as a football commentator, Gary was hired by the BBC to replace Des Lynam as their primary football presenter. He went on to host shows including “Match of the Day” and “They Think It’s All Over.” Gary is a golf enthusiast with a handicap of four. After Steve Rider left the BBC, Gary took over presenting gold and has since covered the Masters and the Open Championship. His media career has taken off, and he is now a fixture on the NBC Sports Network, where he reports on Premier League football and broadcasts segments of the American adaptation of “Match of the Day.” He has also made guest appearances on programs that are not linked to sports, such as “Hell’s Kitchen.”
When he was younger, he was a multi-talented athlete who dabbled in football and cricket. His early success in the league came with his hometown club, Leicester City, which he joined after graduating high school. Following his time with Leicester City, he spent a year at Everton. After a respectable showing for the English national side at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, he was signed by the Spanish club Barcelona, where he spent the next three seasons. After he left Barcelona, he also played for the English team Tottenham Hotspur, where he contributed to the London-based club’s FA Cup victory. After retiring from professional athletics, he transitioned into the media and is now well-known as a sports commentator. According to (Antony, 2017), when Lineker first started as a rather sluggish commentator in 1995, he got some pointers from Des Lynam, who anchored Match of the Day. After retiring from football, he made an awkward impression as someone too eager to please.
On the other hand, Lineker saw Lynam’s ability to put others at ease, even the viewers at home. In retrospect, Lineker reflected, “I used to probe deeply into the why and how of all the minor things he did.” Lineker admired Lynam even when they were both on the field. A few of his teammates gave him the nickname “Junior Des” after he observed the media closely during the 1990 World Cup. And in 1999, after being mentored for four years, he took over for his teacher. Lineker’s ascent to the pinnacle of Saturday night television is so assured that his second career is in danger of overshadowing his first. One reason for this is that, with the help of Twitter as an armchair megaphone, Lineker is starting to abandon the typical athlete’s tendency to steer clear of partisan conflict. Football is an easy game.,” is a famous saying attributed to Gray (Abizaid and Li 2020). If you put twenty-two men in a circle and have them chase a ball for ninety minutes, the Germans will inevitably come out on top.
Gary Lineker presents Match of the Day every week, while the show’s usual pundits, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, offer their thoughts on the weekend’s football action. Since Lineker is speaking on behalf of the casual viewer and Shearer and Wright are the experts, they are the ones who answer the questions. On the other hand, Lineker is undoubtedly not an amateur. Gary Lineker’s passion for crisps is almost as well-known as his outstanding football career. The program’s target audience consists primarily of football-obsessed sports enthusiasts. Since 1994, the Leicester native has portrayed Walkers crisps, the city’s most popular snack, and he has been regularly spotted enjoying a bag of the crisps. Although Gary has been in well over 150 commercials throughout this period, he has never publicly said which one is his favorite (Bedford, 2022). In the commercial, Gary enjoys a snack while sitting in the stands at a football game; behind him, a familiar figure watches enviously. This fan is none other than Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne. While retaining his focus on the game, Lineker successfully avoids Gazza’s grip. When a goal is scored, everyone stands up in celebration, and that’s when Gazza makes his move and stuffs his hand into the package.
Currently, Lineker is employed by BBC Radio 5 Live, which primarily transmits news, sports debates, interviews, and phone-ins and features a 24-hour, rolling news channel. Broadcasting nearly all major sporting events held in the UK or featuring British contestants, it is the primary BBC radio station covering sports in the country. When he’s on air, he’s part of a 24/7 sports news program on BBC Sports. The term “24-hour news cycle” refers to the nonstop coverage of breaking news that has become commonplace in our fast-paced society. Media outlets are under more pressure than ever to give the most exciting presentation of the current information to attract and retain viewers and advertisers due to the proliferation of news sources over the past several decades (Perreault and Bell, 2022). Numerous competitors aim to be the first to give the news to their respective audiences on television, radio, online, and mobile app news media. The cycle is complete when the media covers an event and then covers the public and other groups’ reactions to those stories. Despite its importance to healthy information ecosystems, local news must be solved. According to studies, the decline of local news has far-reaching detrimental effects on communities. This chapter presents a longitudinal analysis of local news in the New York Times and its distribution on Twitter, providing a case study exploration of the local news crisis. The steady decline in production, lower sharing rates after the “blossom” algorithm was introduced, and reduced engagement after Twitter switched to algorithmic timelines all point to a restricted flow of local news (Matsiola et al., 2022). Finally, we examine our findings as proof of a multifaceted and complicated local news crisis and outline potential sites of action.
Journalistic coverage of sports has been around for quite some time, serving as a conduit for news, analysis, and commentary to many readers. Like other types of media, it has had to change with the times to remain relevant, but it has done so successfully and is now widely consumed in print, television, and online (Nölleke et al., 2017). There is a common misconception that sports reporting is just “the toy department,” where reporters waste time instead of digging for serious stories. Because of this, its journalists are criticized and accused of being in the pocket of their sources. These critiques need to consider the importance of this niche market in light of the abundance of sports-related material created by various media outlets, the enormous number of journalists engaged in providing sports news, and the ability of sports to attract readers and viewers. Journalists in the sports industry cover a wide range of topics while writing about games and teams. Sports journalists, per (www.youtube.com, 2022), draft game data, conduct interviews with coaches and players, and provide game commentary. You’re also active in radio, TV, the web, and traditional print media. News outlets are hiring sports journalists to report on sporting events.
In conclusion, networking with prominent sports figures, athletes, and relevant stakeholders is essential to a sports journalist’s job. He also comes up with novel concepts for upcoming publications or talks. Remember that sportswriter often juggles several assignments at once. This calls for a more flexible work schedule. For instance, a sports writer may have to wake up early or stay up late to conduct an interview with an athlete or cover a game.
List of References
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