Opinions on horse sports in the news

[Erehwemos]

Hello everyone, I am new here so I hope this is in the right place.

I would like to get some opinions on how you feel horse sports are represented in the national newspapers.

Do you think there is a preoccupation with celebrities (eg. Madonna, Jordan)? Should there be more of an emphasis on established famous riders (eg. John Whitaker, William Fox Pitt), instead of on famous people who wish to become horse riders? Do the likes of Jordan demean and trivialize the sport?

Is there too much emphasis on royalty? Does the way in which all tabloid horse stories seem to be linked to Zara Phillips mean that more people feel that the sport is too elitist, too 'posh'?

Do you feel that the tabloids often 'get it wrong' in terms of how they discuss horse sports; does the way they word things make you cringe?

Do you simply wish for more national coverage? Do you think too many important equestrian stories are ignored by the newspapers, and left for the likes of more focussed publications (eg. H&H) to pick up and report on?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[shoeey]

Forgive me but sounds like you may be a journalist working for a rival magazine!?

 

[Erehwemos]

[ QUOTE ]
Forgive me but sounds like you may be a journalist working for a rival magazine!?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, am certainly not a journalist!

I am not so much interested in what people think of what is in H&H and HORSE magazine - I am focussing more upon the newspapers. I hope this was clear in my first post!

 

[gloster_image]

Personally I feel the emphasis on celebs such as madonna and jordan riding does certainly taint the sport for me. Especially jordan - to me shes just making the sport look trashy (especially after being turned away from cartier!). Never really thought about ZP coverage making it seem elitist - i guess it could? Gets people talking though!

I wish there were better reports in the newspapers for the sport other than the racing reports but I don't see how that will ever change!

 

[BBH]

If you didn't know the horse world you would think the only ' sport' involving horses was racing, I was reading yesterday that 6m people went to a race track last year, so there obviously isn't a shortage of people liking horses I think its up to the other disciplines to make themselves more appealing.

It is definitely a shame the media doesn't play a part in showcasing the other disciplines in a positive light, unless it involves a marital breakup, tacky pants or court cases they don't give them any coverage at all.

 

[Fantasy_World]

I wish there were better reports in the newspapers for the sport other than the racing reports but I don't see how that will ever change!

Lol I wish my local rag saw it the same way. They were not really that bothered about racing and were only interested in reports from one track, hence the reason I am not working for them to this day as they didn't think the racing coverage warranted even a part time position. I was freelance btw.
To be fair the Horse and Hound does have very good reporting on a wide range of horse sports.
The newspapers won't ever really increase their coverage unless it involves the Olympics, royals, celebrities or other big events.
The main reason other horse sports are not given good coverage in papers though compared to horse racing is betting!
The betting turnover in this country is huge. I probably knew it at one time as I did my thesis on gambling at uni, a massive 10,000 word plus article. Took me a wee while to research as I had no email or internet then, just a phone and fax machine lol.
But anyway sorry, digressing....... yes betting is the major reason that horse racing is so prominent in the newspaper pages.
For the majority of people that don't have access to the internet or pick their selections standing in a bookies then the daily tabloid is their first port of call. Results, form and analysis is what most of the punters want to see. The racing stories that you see accompanying all this are just fillers really. I would argue to say that most punters would not give a tuppence about a story unless it gave them information that would affect their future betting activities.
In all the time I have been betting ( since 10) and since 1989, actively standing in a betting shop I have rarely seen punters reading even the Racing Post from cover to cover. The majority just want to read information that may help them find winners. Most of them could not careless what so and so was wearing at Royal Ascot for example.
The tabloids are pretty much the same in their coverage. It is largely based around the betting fraternity. Football and rugby are different though since they are both considered the nation's sports ( football mainly), although both involve gambling but not on the same scale as horse racing.
To be fair though to a vast majority of the general public many horse sports do seem elitist and many would feel excluded by this. Even though we have always had characters in the showjumping world and other events there is still a modicum of snobbery within some horse activities.
Most of the general public cannot identify with the people who partake in such events and as such feel excluded so would not necessarily be interested in reading about them.
Newspapers have to produce content that will interest their readers and help to sell newspapers.
To be honest I am actually glad of the celebrity link between horse events nowadays. People like Madonna and Jordan are popular figures and as such their glamorous and infamous lifestyles may court controversy but at the same time they add further public interest to horse sports that very much need it. Sadly horse sports don't all have the luxury of funding via a strong betting turnover and so if famous celebrities can help to draw in an otherwise excluded crowd and get the sport into the newspapers it can only be a good thing surely.
Of course it would be nice to read of every day folk reaching the highest accolades in any given horse event in the daily papers but I think we all know this will never happen.
If celebrities can help to boost the attention and coverage to the sport then it is certainly for the better, especially during a time when most people are watching their pennies.
Caz

 

[Kate260881]

Aren't there only two horse sport? Racing and showjumping?

Love or loath the likes of Jordan but at least a lot of people now know that there is the sport called dressage. And Zara has introduced the word eventing into more people's vocabularly. At the end of the day there isn't going to be more coverage till more people are interested in these sports and at the moment the way to get people interested is using the celebrities.