BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The top IOC press official has observed that the ways in which mass media cover sports are evolving rapidly in a lecture delivered at Beijing Foreign Studies University on Wednesday.
"The entire media landscape has changed," said Anthony Edgar, head of Media Operation for the IOC.
The presentation was titled "The Future of Media at Sports Events in a Digital World: A Digital Snapshot of Olympic Games."
Edgar reviewed the changes that the sports media has experienced in recent years and gave some advice on how to change the way to cover sports.
Thanks to the development of internet technology and smart phones, the media environment changed rapidly through these years, he noted.
Edgar showed the audience two pictures to illustrate his point. One was taken when London was elected as the host city of 2012 Olympic Games, and the other was taken when London was hosting the Games.
"In the first picture, no smart phones, no Ipads. The Iphone didn't exist, but seven years later, everyone had completely changed the way they work," said Edgar.
"From Vancouver 2010 to Sochi 2014, within that period of time, digital has overtaken traditional mediums as the primary platform," Edgar added.
"That's within 4-year cycle, not 40 years. One Olympics Cycle of 4 years is how quickly things are changing right now," he continued.
Edgar said that we are living through the biggest revolution in media since the introduction of television, and the way journalists cover sports also has to be changed accordingly.
"News Agencies are now questioning why are we continuing to write stories talking about who won, when everyone knows who won, so we need to change how we cover sport," Edgar urged.
