It has emerged that athletes will be able to keep blogs for the first time ever at the Beijing Olympics, coming up later in the year.
Rebecca Beisler in Melbourne’s mX reports that “experts have labelled the move an attempt to modernise the games and reach Gen Y. It has also raised speculation that athletes may use the blogs to make political comment. The International Olympic Committee has said blogging is a ‘legitimate form of personal expression’ but athletes must follow strict rules.”
It seems that the IOC has decided that athletes cannot talk about other athletes, cannot post audio or video clips of Olympic events and cannot disclose any confidential information. Clearly the IOC is trying to protect its brand here, particularly with the lucrative broadcasting revenue it receives from selling the rights to the games, which could be diluted if athletes were to post their own personal audio or video from the Games. However, while the athletes might be relatively easy for the IOC to control, it will be interesting to see what measures they put in place to stop citizen journalists and other creators of user-generated content who are attending the games from creating and distributing content. Whether they end up collecting all camera phones and digital cameras off people as they enter the stadium will be interesting to see.
Getting back to the article in mX, Australian athletes won’t have their blogs censored by Australian Olympic officials but they have been warned to watch what they say because anything could be used as a direct quote in the media. This is sound advice, as the blogs could change the way journalists do their jobs at the games. Instead of having to interview athletes to get their opinions on different issues, journalists could simply read through the athlete blogs and collate the information they need. As blogging and other forms of user-generated content take off, this could be a preview to the sort of role journalists will play in the future.
