From the very beginning, media and sports have been partners in the journey of sports from a recreational enterprise to a multi-billion-dollar business sector. As sports have become a bigger business in the last few decades, interacting with media members has become a necessary component of working within a public relations department at a professional sports team.

Love them, or hate them, you will need members to effectively do your job.

Whether from the long-tenured newspaper or the fresh-faced blogger, media requests will be a major priority of your daily responsibilities of a sports communicator. The sooner you can find understand this component, the more qualified of a candidate you will be when searching for your next sports public relations job.

Media can be a difficult field to navigate. Working in sports will require you to potentially answer very difficult questions on subjects one may not be comfortable with. Crisis communication and public relations come with the par when working in this type of sector. A recommendation I would propose would be to speak with a sports communication professional that you may know personally or have reached out to in some capacity. You should be willing to ask how they handle their interactions with media personnel and what is scenario they wish they would have handled better.

Media interactions can be quite a positive experience, too. At times you may be discussing a potential story idea with a local journalist that would be beneficial to both the journalist and the organization or team that you work for. Those can create a win-win situation for both parties and help your positioning in the company.

Media members may also be coming to for questions or quotes from a specific party or an organization’s statement regarding a rumor that is being discussed in the public. At times, the better your relationship with journalists reporting on your sports organization, the better the overall situation can be. It’s a push-and-pull relationship.

Without their reporting and constant information, many in the community may not be hearing about initiatives you may be undertaking in the community or how well you your organization is doing in their respective sport or business sector. Media has been the biggest driver in the reason why sports has become as big as it has.

As more people have gained more information and access to sports, the more they can emotionally invest in the on-field product or the brand you represent. They can help garner eyeballs your organization may not have been able to earn. At times, you will learn to be thankful for the media and at times you will be frustrated with a certain action.

However, without them, your role may not be an actual position. The sooner you can understand how media and journalists affect the daily actions of your work, the sooner you can set yourself up for success in this business.