In a move that was very short-lived, the Ohio State Buckeyes football staff attempted banning the use of Twitter during team press conferences.
Reportedly aimed to aid reporters in listening to the answers being provided rather than relyaing mid-reply, it is also one that is drawing the ire of reporters who will now be a step behind those listening to the press conferences live at home who have the ability to share news, limiting the on-location benefits of those credentialed. The Orlando Sentinel has since reported that the rule has been lifted.
Per Jason Lloyd from the Akron Beacon-Journal, the ban of live dissemination is common practice for teams during closed practices; not being a public venue, teams are well within their rights to make such a request. In the public setting, however, the tides change.
“Like it or not,” writes Lloyd, ”social media and the Internet have created 24-hour news cycles.
“Twitter isn’t going away. It surpassed 500 million registered users this year and the numbers continue to increase. Schools can either embrace it or shun it. Southern California made its decision to embrace it by including players’ Twitter handles on their depth chart. Ohio State has gone the other direction.”
Major League Baseball recently added a “no cell phone” policy to their media rulebook, prohibiting media members from tweeting during press conferences and player/manager addresses in the dugout or clubhouse. Since the news of this rule became public, drawing additional scrutiny from individuals who would have otherwise been indifferent to the Ohio State program, it appeared that said decision would be short-lived. The Buckeyes claim that they were unaware of the public airing of the press conferences and no longer will prohibit reporters from live tweeting.
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