Herbert Lowe Authors Column on His Los Angeles Times Summer Sports Fellowship Experience

Herbert Lowe, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Journalism senior lecturer, is the author of “What a journalism Educator Learned During a Summer at the Los Angeles Times” published on poynter.org on Sept. 11.

Lowe spent seven weeks as a visiting academic fellow in the Times Sports Department. While there, he earned seven bylines from the 2023 men’s U.S. Open golf championship and other sporting events. He also witnessed how one of the nation’s leading sports departments has updated its print section to remain relevant to its leaders.

“I saw how newsrooms operate today, all to better help my students navigate their course assignments and readiness for internships and the industry; increased my readiness in the realm of thought leadership with respect to, yes, journalism and media, but also within race, sports and culture; and broadened the pool of industry and academic experts who could be class speakers and touch points,” writes Lowe.

Lowe returned with some key takeaways from the fellowship. They include pay attention to pageviews to make sure content is relevant and interesting; choose the strongest pieces that will connect with readers; don’t ignore the importance of game or “flash” stories that relay the outcome of the game or match within 10 minutes of the end; write stores with lots of voices and perspectives; listicles or lists of what-to-do or where-to-go are still popular; opinion writers do not have to take a side; and it’s very important to let your editor know if something happens while you are on assignment.

“In any case, I also hope my fellowship inspires other journalism colleges and faculty to offer and pursue similar renewal opportunities within newsrooms,” writes Lowe.” I’m certainly recharged and ready for another successful academic year. Imagining my colleagues elsewhere would be as well.”

Posted: September 11, 2023
Category: College News, Student News
Tagged as: Herbert Lowe, Journalism, Los Angeles Times Sports Department Fellowship, Sports Communication