Abstract
The 2020 Coronavirus outbreak has undoubtedly reshaped our lives and our routines. What started as a minor concern turned out as a global pandemic that forced the entire world to take strict countermeasures such as complete or partial lockdowns. Among the several industries that have suffered collapsing outcomes, sport is an area for which a complete restart proved to be extremely difficult, since the possible risk of contagion is high. In particular, team sports need strict protocols to be implemented: in this framework, football plays a paramount role as global entertainer, but most of all as an industry that generates an incredible turnover. In this sense, sport journalism is another category that paid the costs of this situation because of the lack of live, on-the-pitch events that trigger the interest of most fans worldwide. Notwithstanding this deadlock, football offers food for thought even in case matches are not played. This is a trend that has been growing for some years, as the narration of football-related stories enhanced the ways through which football can be described and represented. In this framework, storytelling became a new genre to spark a new interest in elite fanbases that are eager to read such contents; at now, non-mainstream sport journalism could still survive any closedowns. This contribution analyses the way through which some Italian online websites specialised in football stories and faced the first lockdown with their narration of football from different perspectives, favouring quality contents and strengthening the relationship with their fans.
Presenters
Francesco MeledandriTeaching Professor, Department of Humanities (LeLiA - Lettere, Lingue, Arti), University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus—Sport and Society in Crisis
KEYWORDS
Sports Narration; Football; Sports Journalism; Storytelling; Quality contents; Independent Journalism
