Why Don’t Equestrians Want To Do Interviews?

I was at a party a couple nights ago that was attended by journalists and broadcasters.  Many of them had been involved with coverage of this year’s Olympic Games. “Why don’t equestrians want to do interviews?”, I was asked three times during the evening. I was as stumped for an answer as they were by whatever circumstances had prompted them to ask the question.

 

This question came from people who cover athletes in all sports. They are people with years of experience doing so. So that means they have a good measuring stick against which to judge  equestrians.

 

The fact that this question would come up repeatedly in one evening should concern the equestrian community greatly. Such a reputation should be unacceptable to any sport’s leadership.

 

Not wanting to do interviews reduces visibility and, hence, reduces interest from sponsors. But, the questions that accompany this reputation are serious and can cause future problems. Any skilled journalist will ask themselves, “Do these people have something to hide?”  Then, of course, they will start looking for what that “something” might be. 

 

The other question it raises, in equestrian sport, that it might not raise in another, is the question of elitism. “Are these people just so rich and snobby that they feel they don’t need the benefits that come with media coverage and don’t care about their fans?”  That will make the media, in general, lose interest fast.

 

So you might argue that it was only three journalists that raised the question. But it was all in one evening in a room full of quality, experienced journalists. 

 

“Be accessible” is near the top of my list of media tips for anyone.

Show or Tournament?

Words create pictures and images. Sometimes words that mean one thing to one group of people means something entirely different to the general population.

Just like the word “equestrian” has multiple meanings, as illustrated in my last post, many other common show jumping terms do not create an accurate picture in a listener’s or reader’s mind. 

Show jumping is an Olympic sport. It is a professional sport. Though some of the uninitiated don’t think so, show jumping riders are athletes. Why then would Olympic-calibre and/or professional competition be called a “show”?

Riders start out, usually as children, competing at horse shows. In times gone by, most of these included competitions in which horses were judged only for their appearance. The latter is what a member of the general public would likely picture when they hear the words “horse show”. They would picture something similar to a dog show. However, no other Olympic sport or professional sport uses the world “show” to describe their competitions. Afterall, they are competitions, not shows. If these riders are athletes, why are they deemed to be “showing the horse”.

Unfortunately, when they reach the Olympic level, it is still common for riders to use the terminology with which they grew up. Hence, they call their competitions “shows”. Even worse, from a marketing standpoint, many competitions have official names that include the words “horse show”.

This is just another example of terminology that does not depict the sport to be what it truly is. As a result it can be confusing to the media and the general public.

Media relations is partly image-making. Terminology is a big part of that. 

Does Speaking “Insider” Language Make You Smarter Than Your Fans?

 I was planning a post about a conversation I had recently with a colleague. Today, I was given an additional reason to write this post. My colleague felt a television show about horses would have to be “dumbed down” to appeal to the general public. I’ve encountered this concept a lot in my professional experience with equestrian sport. The general idea, among the “insiders”, seems to be that you have to be one of them to do a proper job of telling their stories, producing sports television about them, or marketing the sport. But how many people, whose specialty is riding or training horses, also excel at writing, television production or marketing? 

Today a thread started running on an internet forum for the equestrian community. It is about a former television commentator who covered equestrian sport. Some of the posts seem to adhere to this same concept. I’m not going to comment on the particular commentator. However, the impression some had was that the commentator could have been good, but she had to talk down to the ordinary viewer, who is not involved with equestrian sport.technicalities of the sport, explained in the lingo of the sport, will only turn away potential fans, journalists, readers and viewers.

 

Language and terminology is one of the greatest barriers that equestrian sport and some other niche market sports face in attracting fans from the general public. It is also a huge barrier in media relations. It is something that will come up often in the tips on this blog.

 

The truth is, the general public likes stories that are interesting. And nothing is interesting to them if they don’t understand the language. A well-crafted story will be interesting to both people who know the sport and those who don’t. Using words by their literal meaning, instead of the insider slang of the sport, is one of the top ways to make yourself and the sport more attractive to the public, the media and sponsors. Human interest stories about almost any subject draw attention. The technicalities of the sport, explained in the lingo of the sport, will only turn away potential fans, journalists, readers and viewers. Those technicalities can be stated in plain English and in language that is common to other sports. That will attract and hold interest until, one day, the slang of the sport may be as well understood as the slang of mass-market sports already is.