This paper focuses on the relationship between sports´ journalists ans athletes, as well as exploring the opinions od athletes on the journalists´ reporting. The study reveals how Slovenian athletes rate and experience the work of the media. We used the online survey template 1ka. Fifty-two athletes responded; they are all current members/representatives of national teams. From these, 45 (86%) are from team sports and 7 (14%) from individual sports. 16 (31%) of the selection are from youth sports and the remaining 36 (69%) are professionals. 39 (75%) of the athletes in the survey have been doing sport for over fifteen years.
The first part of paper desribes sports´ journalism theory. We also briefly discuss press ethics. In the second, empirical part, the results of the anonymous survey are presented, on the basis of which we discover athletes´ opinions on the reporting of the media. 24 (46%) of all the athletes in the survey follow the media every day, the rest from time to time. According to the survey, they find the work of reporters as not so, very and extremely challenging. Most (40 or 77%) consider the reporting efforts as honest and factual, while 32 (62%) interpret the critique of sports´ journalists as negative. On the basis of being familiar with the difficulty of the subject matter and of the responses, we can conclude that the state of reporting is adequate and that athletes find it mostly apt. There are no major problems that we could find. For a more concrete study we would require a larger test group and further research, which should incorporate not only athletes but also journalists alike.
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