Learning to shoot with an Olympic Gold Medallist

Jonty

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/10475531/Learning-to-shoot-with-an-Olympic-gold-medallist.html

Why can't our press write something like this?

Witcher

RTE had some coverage of Derek Burnett before London 2012.

If he'd won a gold medal he would have gotten more attention just as Peter Wilson has, I'm sure Britain has shooters that weren't in the medals and didn't get attention.

Derek did well in the ISSF World Cup but that's kind of a niche event, the Olympics has broader public appeal and people will get behind winners even if they don't have any real interest in the sport.

Look at Annalise Murphy, when she was doing well all of a sudden people were talking about Laser Radial class when they'd never even heard of it before.

BillyBoy13

Not trying to be funny, but maybe you should be asking have any of our high profile shooters invited a journalist out for a few shots? And not why don't journalists write anything good about us.

There's no point in me or you inviting a journalist out as they wont care and the readers definitely wouldn't care.

Cass

It's a good video and a good write up.

It's also good to see the reporter acting sensibly. Too many times you see a reporter trying to act the mick or not listening to basic safety instruction. In the video the reporter never went near the trigger until the gun was mounted. I've seen people not interested become very involved once they get a taste. The adrenaline rush, the buzz, and then the competitive nature sets in. Something the sport needs more.

Thing is unless it's the absolute top of the sport we have no chance of getting such coverage here. During the Creedmoor (a sport & competition older than the GAA) not one media source would take up the offer to cover it. A few years ago when all the returning shooters from Germany came back with am excess of 20+ medals they got little to no coverage, but instead were overshadowed by some long distance runner that came 4th in a heat. IOW nothing.

Witcher

Some of the local papers do write ups on local successes. I know the Wicklow People has had a number of articles on the Irish gallery rifle team because lads from Hilltop were involved.

Jonty

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

Not trying to be funny, but maybe you should be asking have any of our high profile shooters invited a journalist out for a few shots? And not why don't journalists write anything good about us.

There's no point in me or you inviting a journalist out as they wont care and the readers definitely wouldn't care.

You are correct there.

I think the important thing to note is that the calibre of journalist has to be taken into account too, so that anything written is the actual truth.

BattleCorp

The shooting organisations should do as much as possible to get journalists to cover target shooting or at least come out and have a look at it so that they know what they are talking about.

It might stop asshats like Mr. G. Hook stating on air that he doesn't know anybody with guns because he doesn't hang around with criminals. :mad:

I think we should go above and beyond to show the likes of Hook that we aren't trying to be Rambo running around with AK47's.

cookimonster

You only have to look at the scheduling for the TV coverage of the Olympics the most popular sports have prime time slots anything else is in the wee hours.

Popularity is now the deciding factor hence the inclusion of the more modern sports, if it can sell prime-time slots its in.........

Jonty

It's tough to watch clay pigeon shooting on TV.

Ladies biathlon is different. They would make good ambassadors for the sport.:D

It wasn't me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8KdH69bm9g

This was done in 2007, at a time when ISSF shooting was, in terms of standards, conspicuously less healthy than it is now. It's certainly possible to do it again, and hopefully better, with less cheese, but it requires drive and engagement on a level bordering on professional. Constantly chasing publicity is a really tough game. In the university clubs, we've made great strides with campus media, but that is sadly confined to the college readership. We've done newspaper stuff on niche sports, we've gotten results and information published countless times, and we've done film stuff for college media, doing our best to showcase the sport. Obviously, we have neither the means nor the agenda to represent every facet of the sport, from hunting to gallery rifle to pistol, but we could make a decent stab of showing people ISSF rifle events, and we definitely got members out of doing it. It's certainly harder in the real world, but it can be done, too.