Maxwell Smerka, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter

Berry is now officially offering all communication majors the option of a sports communication concentration.

With the continual advancement of technology making sports easier to view, there is an increasing need for sports journalists.

 “Many people believe journalism is dead,” Bob Frank, chair of the communication department, said. “Newspapers may be decaying, but journalism is flourishing.”

Sports communication will help prepare students for a variety of different career paths such as sports writing, broadcast news, statistics and becoming agents for athletes.

Elizabeth  Walker, Staff Photojournalism Thomas Lake speaks about his career as a sports journalist.

The sports communication concentration will have the same core communication classes to make sure each student will have a strong base in the field to help them be prepared when seeking a job.

Sports journalism has been making a comeback recently, as more investigative and long-form storytelling pieces are being written and then consumed by readers.

On Nov. 19, Thomas Lake, one of the youngest senior writers for Sports Illustrated, came to speak at Berry. At only age 33 he has made a name for himself in the sports journalism industry by specializing in writing long narrative pieces about compelling sports events. His speech acted as an official introduction of the sports communication concentration.

He spoke about his career path and his writing process.

“Become innocent,” Lake said. “Just for a moment, so the story is new, like a good book being opened for the first time.”

The media has followed trends to produce shorter and more direct works in attempts to assimilate to the quick pace of our lives. Lake’s work goes against this trend.

Frank said he believes the increasing popularity of investigative and long-form narrative sports journalism is because  “the story conveys the values we support such as hard work and commitment.”

Checking who won or lost a game can be done in a matter of seconds with mobile devices, but a simple score does not give the same excitement or heartbreak as watching the ups and downs of the contest.

Lake gave his writing advice to students.

“Learn to be good reporters and practice writing everyday,” he said. “If you can write one good sentence, then five, then 10 and then a piece of work begins to come together.”

Writing is at the heart of sports journalism and sports communication as a whole, and this is the reason why Frank believes Berry will be able to attract students to the concentration and then help them blossom.

Senior communications major Blake Childers said he would have been interested in the concentration as a freshman. He has learned what he can about the field through other means.

Childers is the Viking Fusion sports producer and was an audiovisual intern for the Rome Braves baseball team.

Childers’ concentration is visual communication. He appreciates visual communication but has expressed an interest in sports communication.

“I can’t officially do both, but (I) would have declared one and taken classes as well in the other,” Childers said.

The sports communication concentration fills an important niche in the communication department, and it is finally here for students who have a passion for sports and writing.