POSTED: February 22nd 2011
ViewPoint
Media, internet and spreading the Olympic message . . . or not, as the case may be
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communication
LONDON: So far, in media operations terms, the score in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games bidding race is 1-1. PyeongChang has promised an Olympic breakthrough with full free internet provision while Annecy insists it will charge the media for access.
This may not matter much to the lay sports fan but it is a major issue in the media world.
The press has no vote in Durban on July 6, of course, though several members of the International Olympic Committee – such as the FIFA world football president Sepp Blatter – are card-carrying members of the international sports media association, AIPS.
But it remains a mystery why anyone in the Olympic movement can remain blind to the fact that internet-charging can only restrict the spread of the gospel and the ideals about which journalists on the beat regularly hear such high-falutin’ talk.
Or is it only talk?
It is not, to be frank, the major first-world media organisations which are affected or whose countries need an Olympic-awakening; it is media outlets from the developing world who are intimidated by even minimal costs into staying home . . . just the journalists which the IOC, surely, needs to encourage most of all.
Quite why Annecy – struggling for bid credibility let alone to be competitive – cannot see the value of pursuing every possible avenue to bring media opinion onside remains utterly incomprehensible.
Certainly the Koreans ‘get it.’
Games spectrum
Young Il Chun, media operations adviser to the bid, said here: “The media is the spectrum through which the world views the 2018 Games. This is the key to helping communicate our New Horizons vision to the world. We will focus on providing everything the media needs to do its job to the highest standard.”
Unlike Vancouver last year, for example, which imposed not only internet-charging but minimum-stay hotel demands, the Koreans will free the internet and accept any-day media accommodation bookings.
Young said: “There will be free wireless internet throughout the entire premises of the MPC and the media villages. Our Olympic News Service will set new standards for speed and accuracy and will include access through smart phone.”
At the concluding press conference, just to check, I put the issue again to bid chairman and ceo Cho Yang-ho. His response was both public, unequivocal and conclusive: "We have promised to provide internet access for free and we will keep that promise."
So, 1-1. Now it is down to Munich, at the start of March, to break the deadlock . . . for media good or ill.
** Keir Radnedge is chairman of the football commission of AIPS
Keywords · media · internet · 2018 Winter Olympics · PyeongChang · Annecy
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