Analysis of a Journalist

Journalist Kyle Sockwell

This week, I chose to analyze Kyle Sockwell. Sockwell is a sports journalist with a focus in swimming. He is based in Austin, Texas and he often travels for his work. I chose to follow him because this week was the Women's NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships in Washington, and he had a lot of activity over his social media pages. He consistently posts on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to analyze races, swimmers, showcase his travels with the sport, and connect with athletes. Sockwell is one of a kind. Swimming is a pretty boring sport but somehow, he manages to make it fun. 

Sockwell's talent is making videos that are humorous and informative. This brings your attention to the video and entices you to watch it and follow his page. He makes content that is specifically related to current swimmers, retired swimmers, and lovers of the sport in general. He responds to comments, interacts with Direct Messages, and often posts responses to his main page in video form. When something big happened this week, which was frequent, Sockwell was posting about it across his pages. He finished the week of Women's NCAA with a YouTube video highlighting the key races, performances, and stories from the week and also began a discussion about how to save NCAA swimming due to the high frequency of athletes entering the transfer portal. His perspective is unique because he swam in college, so he understands the frequency of training, athlete turnover, and offers outside the box thinking on ways to bring attention to the sport. His commentary is live tweeted, accompanied by screenshots of an app that tracks swimmers or even funny pictures from the meets he attends. While posting commentary tweets and video commentation, he also travelled to Fischers, Indiana to meet swimmers at a club swimming meet. Sockwell definitely has a lot on his plate but he seems to manage it very well. 

Sockwell's interesting take on journalism is a fantastic way to get his name out there. He commentates conference swim meets, posts live commentary on social media, and meets with athletes, coaches, and high level officials of the sport to discuss the wide range of ways to make the sport better. He is respected and well-known in the swimming community because of his love for the sport. His videos show insight to the races and provides background of each swimmer he discusses, giving viewers an inside view on that athletes life, strengths, and weaknesses. He connects high level athletes to people who look up to them, while also noting how absolutely astonishing their performances are. This is a fantastic way for the sport to gain traction in the social media age. The only downfall of this, though, is that swimming itself is a dying sport and Sockwell seems to be the only one who is attempting to revive it. He tours dual meets attempting to break facility attendance records and documents his time there, but all of this is falling on deaf ears to people who don't have enough knowledge on swimming itself. In a world that only cares about big ticket college sports, this journalism tactic must evolve to gain viewership from outside perspectives. 

Sockwell has a fantastic take on sports journalism by accommodating to different platforms but also remaining a trusted member of the swimming community. Offering advice to those in need, or a laugh when life seems a bit too serious.