By: Theresa Christine Etim
What occurred this past Wednesday was nothing slight of an in depth glimpse of sports journalism when a St. Bonaventure Masterclass was held with Buffalo Bills reporter Ryan Talbot as its guest on June 14.
Led by Sports Journalism Professor Brian Moritz, the master class touched on many topics and also included Q&A’s led by the students sprinkled throughout the presentation. Moritz set the tone for the in depth conversation for Talbot, who is the Bills’ Syaracuse.com team contributor, by asking him for a quick run down of what his daily life consists of.
“Right now, I’m a Buffalo Bills, beat reporter for Syracuse.com and newyorkupstate.com, both through advanced media,” he said.
“In addition to the writing responsibilities of being a upbeat reporter, we also do a podcast that’s really taken off over the last few years.”
Moritz also asked for a rundown of current events, such as the Bills’ Mini Camp Week. While Talbot was able to give a fair recollection of his time there, he maintained that secrecy surrounding the camp was required.
“So the NFL and the Bills specifically, they have a lot of specific rules you must follow,” he said. “You can report that at a certain time you can take photos and videos and certain sessions, and then there’s parts where you just cannot report anything. I’m not allowed to say who’s lining up with the first team on the offensive line. For instance, you’re not allowed to talk about how they’re lined up and how they’re using certain players. It’s very tight-lipped there.”
James Peacock, a master’s journalism student at St. Bonaventure, then wondered at what point could certain information be revealed. When asked, Talbot revealed that while the rules on this are strict, they can also be a bit tricky, and said there were different rules for fans as opposed to reporters.
He recalled taking notes on what he was allowed to say and shared he noticed that fans attending the camps could tweet just about whatever they wanted.
“So we’re standing there on the track, and we’re taking notes for what we can report after the fact; we still can’t say who’s starting where and all this stuff,” he said. “But if you’re a fan sitting in the bleachers, you can be on your phone tweeting things out instantaneously, saying, ‘Hey, here’s the starting offensive line.’ There’s definitely things that don’t make sense to us from our perspective, the media’s perspective. But it’s the team rules. You have to follow it to a T and if you don’t follow it to a T, you can lose your credentials. You can lose your press spot, so you need to follow those rules.”
He also gave an example, citing the suspension of Bills team reporter Chris Brown when he disclosed unallowed information.
Talbot also shared that not only are there rules to adhere to, but there’s time commitments to adhere to as well, when asked by Julia Rowland, another student.
“There’s radio spots where they’re giving you days notice, hours notice, and you have to put aside about 20 to 25 minutes for a radio [spot],” he said. “Then, I’m doing a podcast our own podcast two or three times a week, and that’s anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half per appearance that’s guest appearances on other podcasts. But you’re always traveling, so there’s perks to that.”
According to talbot, a position like his assures him travels with the team. The camp was used as an example, as he and other members of the press were given dorms at the college where the camp was held. A bigger scaled example was an upcoming one. The Bills will be going to London, which will require Talbot to go to London as well. He and a work colegue are currently trying to plan to visit shooting locations of the famous show Ted Lasso while there.
But overall, Talbot ensures to the students that the most important part about being a blogger, is that you have to be unique and continually skilled. And while podcasts have changed the game for reporting, you still have to be a great writer at the end of the day.
“You’re going to see a story that everyone is writing, but yours has to be unique,” he said. “Learn SEO and not clickbait. Learn how to make someone curious. There are a lot of perks to podcasting [like engagement]. But there’s other stories to cover that we try to hit up in the written form app, and our talking points come from what we choose to write about. So I still think that writing is very important.”
Talbot’s work can be read on Syracuse.com and newyorkupstate.com.
