For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed over the game of cricket. This began with playing in the backyard at home and watching on TV, and over the years has developed into spending time as a junior coach and committee member. My interests do not stop at cricket in Australia, I have many interests in historic and current events within the game all over the world.
My other interest is writing, and at a young age these two passions were connected by those around me, and so grew my hopes of becoming a sports journalist.
My intake of media related to cricket comes from a variety of sources, starting out as major international websites such as ESPNcricinfo and Cricbuzz, however I have come to enjoy more specific, independent content from journalists I have come to admire, and read many newsletters through Substack to get their thoughts directly.
Substack describes itself as an “online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters” that “allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers”.
This brings me to my niche of looking at Substack as a platform, and how cricket writers are able to harness it and interact with their readers. Some of my favourite cricket writers, such as Jarrod Kimber, C.S Chiwanza, Neil Manthorp and Machel Hewitt use the platform to connect directly with readers, and how this influences their content. All of these writers use Substack in combination with other mediums, such as podcasting, Youtube and Twitter, and as an aspiring writer I wish to examine Substack’s role in their online presence and persona, with an eye to potentially using it myself in the future.
While I am not new to reading about the sport, I will have to consider my role as an ethnographic researcher in this process, and be sure to follow the skills outlined by John Creswell that we recently discussed as a class. These include reflexivity, my ability to be self-conscious and aware of any bias and being careful to take a step back and ensure my writing, especially when cricket-focused, is understandable to all, and flexibility, taking in all feedback and being willing to change direction if need be.
I will also be looking to the studies of Dr. Nisaratana Sangasubana from Nova Southeastern University, who includes validity as an important trait, stating that ethnographic studies “should have pragmatic validity and transferability which is the degree to which the study results and conclusions have relevance beyond the study itself.” (Sangasubana, 2011).
My goal will be to look at the usefulness of Substack for online cricket writers who use a range of media forms to present their work, and hope that it is valid and usable for other aspiring cricket writers, as well as interesting and helpful online analysis for general readers.
References
Sangasubana, N. (2011). The Qualitative Report How to Conduct Ethnographic Research. [online] Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=tqr.
Russ Haylock Sportswriting 