Monday morning proved very fruitful as the streets of Sydney were swept with aspiring investigative Journalists. Different groups hit the concrete sourcing the average opinion on things from sport, aspirations, all the way to elements of personal life. In what was an extremely eye-opening experience, our questions were validated by some very insightful hypothesis’ of the helpful yet, sometimes stern, civilians of Sydney. In our first endevour into the open world of Journalism, the art of reporting began to flow smoothly as the day carried on.
Joining together a formidable group; Joe, Fadi and myself began in the relatively quiet (by Sydney’s standards) strip known as Macquarie Street.
While there were quite a few who non-chalantly declined as they continued with their busy lives, every Sydneysider who agreed to get behind the camera helped immensely. Two interviewee’s from the older generation (John – an English sports blogger and cricket tragic, and Dave – a mature golfer) provided some very insightful and equitable thoughts on their sport of choice. When expressing his ideology on the recent Ashes series, John said “I’ve always thought you’re (Australia) a stronger side than the critics back in England would’ve said. Basically I think you played very poorly in England and you upped your game considerably…I have always felt you’re a better side than people give you credit for.” When prompted on the issue of sports stars potentially being over-paid, John replied “I wouldn’t have said so. Basically as far as I’ve seen from Australian sides in the past, there’s a lot more than money, there’s a lot of pride at stake. For Australia it’s a way of getting back at your mother country, and there’s only one thing that Australia can get back at England on and that’s cricket…I don’t think money enters into it, I think that half of those players would play for nothing.”
Dave, an avid golfer, provided his insight in to not only the game, but also offered a different perspective on the primarily assumed fact that some sports stars are paid too much “It’s certainly not justified but the fans are prepared to pay it. It’s not the football players themselves it’s the fact that they attract a lot of people to go and watch their sports. More people want to watch, they’re prepared to pay more to watch the best. It’s reality.”
However, the most powerful perception came from Sarah, a British nurse, who when asked if sports people of our generation are over-paid, said “I’m a nurse, so if they get paid more than me I think that’s ridiculous. It’s the same as teachers, firefighters, police officers, if they get paid more than people who are helping the country, maybe it’s a little bit ridiculous”
Within this experiment we were able to source some truly surprising perceptions on issues of today, opening up a whole other dimension of perspectives regarding current controversies in sport, and the art of sport itself.
Sam Alexander
S.J.A 