Indiana University

National Sports Journalism Center

Based at IUPUI with programs at IU Bloomington SPORTSJOURNALISM.org

Our Programs

Isaac Neff
Photo by James Brosher
The NSJC’s mission includes giving students opportunities to work as interns and with media professionals to expand their journalism experiences.
The highest priority of the National Sports Journalism Center is to provide a high-quality education in sports media for our undergraduate and graduate students.

Here’s how:
  • In fall 2009, the center is offering four undergraduate sports journalism courses on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis, three of which also are available to students on the Bloomington campus via videoconference.
  • We’re working on building a full sequence of undergraduate sports media courses for fall 2010, which will help prepare students for careers in online, print, broadcasting and public relations.
  • We expect to begin offering three graduate-level sports journalism courses on the IUPUI campus in January 2010. We’re working on a sports sequence for a graduate journalism degree on the Indianapolis campus. We hope to begin offering that concentration in fall 2010.
  • In addition to the academic courses, the center has launched a speaker series that features prominent national sports journalists, athletes, academics and administrators discussing the major sports media issues of the day. The events also will be aired nationally on the Big Ten Network and Indiana public television.
  • With this Web site, the NSJC also has built the nation’s most comprehensive forum for breaking news in sports media and discussion of the major issues facing the industry.
  • The center also is a national resource for training of current sports media professionals in this rapidly changing environment. The NSJC, working with other professional organizations and universities, will offer seminars on topics of interest to professional sports journalists.
  • Finally, the center is developing a special summer program for inner city students who are interested in pursuing careers in sports journalism. The center expects to launch this summer institute in Indianapolis in the Summer 2010.

Learn more:
  • Contact us for more information about courses and programs, or schedule a visit: 
    • NSJC Director Tim Franklin
      Indiana University
      School of Journalism
      535 W. Michigan Street
      Indianapolis, IN 46202
      IUPUI phone: (317) 278-5335
      IU Bloomington phone: (812) 855-2949


about us

Center News

Master’s of Arts Degree in Sports Journalism approved by Indiana Commission of Higher Education

Mar 12, 2010 | 12:20 p.m.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Commission of Higher Education on Friday approved what is believed to be the nation’s first master’s degree in sports journalism. The Master of Arts Degree in Sports Journalism will be a 30-credit hour program housed at the Indiana University School of Journalism at IUPUI. It is scheduled to begin in the Fall 2010 semester. The new sports journalism degree was approved unanimously by the Indiana University Board of Trustees in December. “I’m grateful that the commission has cleared the way for IU to be the nation’s groundbreaker in offering a master’s degree in sports journalism,” said Tim Franklin, director of the National Sports Journalism Center and the Louis A. Weil, Jr. chair.

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H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger discusses Vanity Fair article, the “true” Tiger Woods

Mar 11, 2010 | 1:13 a.m.

A man stands at the final hole of a golf course, a green jacket resting snuggly over his shoulders. He is asked a question. Being a family man, he responds that his family is the most important thing to him. But under the jacket lies the truth, the real image, the sex addict – the true Tiger Woods. H.G. ‘Buzz’ Bissinger never spoke with Woods before writing his piece in February’s Vanity Fair on the fall of the world’s greatest athlete. In fact, Bissinger never talked with Woods in his life. But, he knew the image that he saw and the deception that lay beneath it.

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Resources

Our Voices

Eric Deggans
on Sports Broadcasting
Eric Deggans

Focus on off-field goings on places more pressure on star athletes — and on those who cover them

Mar 9, 2010

Years ago, former Meet the Press host Marvin Kalb started one of his many books confessing about the biggest story he never covered. While working as a CBS News correspondent in 1963, Kalb had the misfortune to walk into a private elevator at the same time as a shapely young lady under escort by Secret Service agents, presumably for a – ahem – private meeting with then-President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. One hammerlocked takedown and fifty years later, Kalb never discovered who the woman was – surprised only by his immediate and almost reflexive decision not to do any more reporting on the matter.

Jason Fry
on Sports New Media
Jason Fry

The Case of the Missing Scoop

Mar 8, 2010

In the digital world, sportswriters don’t have to wait for the next day’s paper to break news. They can take a half-hour to write a blog post or a story for the Web, a minute to help an editor craft a headline, or a few seconds to share the news with their Twitter followers. And sports fans learn information not just by visiting news organizations’ Web sites, but by receiving emails, tweets and status updates written by their fellow fans. News has never spread more quickly or in so many different ways. But the ability to break news so quickly has robbed that news of much of its competitive value. Scoops were once jealously guarded with an eye on tomorrow’s newsstand – the goal was a day on which you had a story your competitors didn’t, and a second day on which your competitors had to acknowledge through gritted teeth that you’d had it first. But that game is disappearing because of the Web. Web publishing reduced the life expectancy of most scoops to hours. Twitter has now reduced it to minutes.

Dave Kindred
on Sports Writing
Dave Kindred

More than an act of seduction . . . a promise of what’s to come

Mar 5, 2010

Great leads don’t let you out of the house. “Death is delivered pink.” First four words of a story written by Seth Wickersham for ESPN The Magazine. Had me at pink. Cancel my appointments, Ms. Thistlebottom. Gotta read Wickersham.

The Buzz

Mar 9, 2010Erin Andrews “won’t be there to console Tim Tebow” on draft day

"As we know, ESPN’s Erin Andrews will be part of this year’s Dancing With The Stars and, according to ESPN, her appearance on the show [...]

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Mar 8, 2010Wall Street Journal beefing up sports coverage with beat writers?

"We hear that the WSJ is on a quest to beef up its sports coverage, and that will include hiring beat writers for the Mets, [...]

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