Should Media Delay Olympic Coverage to Aid Viewers?

by Julian Spivey

​I’ve been having a problem over the first week of the 2024 Paris Olympics that I’m sure many people can identify with, especially those who work full-time jobs during the day.

Spoilers.

Time zone differences have always been a problem for people who want to watch the Olympics, but in today’s world of 24/7 access to the Internet, news, and social media, it’s harder than ever to avoid spoilers for Olympic events before you’ve had the chance to see them.

The Games are only halfway through, and I’ve already known the results of many of the most significant events before sitting down in the evening to watch what I’ve recorded on YouTube or catch up on via Peacock from earlier in the day.

The days of being able to go into the evening telecast of whatever network is broadcasting the Olympics without being spoiled are over. Back then, you had two ways of finding results: watching the evening broadcast or waiting for the next day’s newspaper. Now the results are all over the Internet the moment the events end. There are some plusses, though, if you have the ability to you can see any and every Olympic event live.

I completely understand this is a first-world problem of the highest order. If I could just shut my phone off for the day, there would be no problems. But how many of us, especially with our shortened attention spans – much of which have been caused by our phones and the Internet/social media – can bring ourselves to do that?

So, the question is … in this modern world of direct-to-audience media, should publications, websites, etc., cater to their audience by time-delaying their coverage of Olympic events?

In theory, it would be great. We’ve been doing it on our social media feeds for this website, but that’s more out of necessity. We cannot see many of these events live because this isn’t our full-time gig. When the Olympics are held in Los Angeles in 2028, you can bet we’ll be timelier with our coverage.

The answer is no. The media shouldn’t delay its coverage because some of us haven’t had the chance to tune into these events live.

One of the central tenets of journalism is that it be timely. That used to mean getting it out in the newspaper the next day. Later, it meant making the nightly or evening news. Once the Internet was created, that meant once the event ended.

The Internet has led to a lot of bad journalism. Sometimes, publications/websites/journalists try to get the story out so fast that they make mistakes or are just plain sloppy.

However, delaying content would be unethical.

As sports fans, we must be more vigilant about avoiding these spoilers. It’s entirely on us, and that’s how it should be.