Inside Mail- Reporting sport in the era of scandal

2013 has been a landmark year for Australian sport – unfortunately, not for the right reasons. In a year in which Manchester United has visited our shores, with back-to-back Ashes Test series and a captivating British and Irish Lions tour, the on-field spectacle has been overshadowed by off-field scandals. Stories about major drug investigations, corruption inquiries, racism and the ubiquity of gambling have dominated the blogs, the airwaves, the Twitter feeds and the front and back pages. Has Australian sport become dirtier, or have sports journos become better at hunting down scandal? How has social media changed how sport is reported? With the AFL and NRL hiring journalists and setting up their own media teams, how can we ensure we are getting the “real” story? In partnership with the State Library of New South Wales, we are delighted to bring you this fascinating and entertaining conversation between some of Australia’s brightest sports journalists discussing the craft of sports reporting. Your moderator for this discussion is ABC Grandstand’s Amanda Shalala and the panellists are Steve Mascord, sports reporter for Fairfax and Rugby League Week; Malcolm Conn, Walkley Award-winning head cricket writer for News Corp Australia; and Alex Brown, national head of sport at News Corp Australia & Fox Sports.