Had a discussion on another thread with our moderator, and he presented the opinion that the posters of this board were not media.

This is a modern day question- what role does the internet have? And is this board media?

The traditional opinion- and you saw it on HBO recently when a print journalist laid into the publisher of deadspin.com- is that it is not.

But I am not of that opinion. And I think this board may be the most influential one in college sports.

Part of that is that it is ETSU. The Tennessee Volunteers have numerous boards, so Volstothewall or whatever will not have the universal opinion of the Vols fans. One board's fans may be critical, the others may be supportive. It evens out.

Furthermore, since every large newspaper and broadcast outlet in the state covers UT, there simply is so much media that the pie will be divided in such a way that a message board for UT cannot have, at the current time, the influence of what we will have.

There are very few message boards that can say they've had coaches, traditional media, and administrative staff post along with fans. The fact that we have had this legitimizes us in a way other boards are not.

Frankly, if you want to know who the basketball team is recruiting- we're the place you turn to. The dead board broke the decision to drop football.

Message boards in general have changed the way sports are covered- that's undeniable. Sports talk shows have become, over the past 10 years, less caller driven and more driven by guests and multiple hosts.

It is my opinion this is because on a message board a comment lasts, instead of being lost in the air, you don't have to wait on the line for 30 minutes or beat the busy signals to get through, and there isn't the fear of being cut off if your point disagrees with the host.

Additionally, a poster can get into a give and take with many others here, instead of just a host. Message boards have reduced the number of callers, hence they have had to adjust.

Sports Illustrated articles regularly quote message boards. Our local talk show hosts comment on what we write.

And we have raised points on here that previously were never brought up by local traditional media; frustration with the fact the largest team sports entity of the area was often overlooked for high school sports or the largest team sports entity of Knoxville, for instance.

While I agree that the general poster does not have media training and nobody is paid to post on this board, and that a poster can be less responsible on here than he could in a traditional media outlet (which has required me to withstand numerous false personal attacks), the flip side is the numerous posters of this board simply will have more eyes and ears than a single reporter will. Yes, it is easy to levy falsehoods and irresponsibility when your name is "ETSURooter" than if you were to put a byline by your words, but over the years "Oh, that couldn't be true- it was just put up by some yahoo on a message board" has been replaced with "You'd better check that out."

Furthermore, we are not influenced by sponsorship dollars.

And it's not as if newspapers or TV stations are never wrong. I distinctly remember a former WJHL weekend sports anchor reporting that O.J. Simpson was questioned by police on the murder of his wife but he wasn't a suspect.

The fact he couldn't believe O.J. was a suspect is often mirrored by fans who can't believe their team is in the wrong here.

Personally, I think message boards keep traditional media on their toes. We don't have the discipline, but we do have the passion, and passion simply cannot be ignored in sports.

From that passion comes a source of information and opinion never thought possible before.

A couple of weeks ago Bob Costas made the comment on his radio show that if Thomas Payne was alive today, he'd be an internet commentator.

So in conclusion, I think we are the media.

We are the new media.

Go ahead and apply for a credential to cover A-Sun events then at ETSU, with your media outlet as the Buccaneer Nation messageboard.

Do we need such recognition to be "media?"

According to the credential request forms you do. Go ahead, please, by all means, apply for it.

Trust me, ETSU recognizes this board as media.

Whether they choose to give them free passes is another matter.

Apply through the A-Sun then to cover them. Go above ETSU. Better yet, RodShaw, you apply. You, MotherDucker, and maybe PFKATD should as well.

Love- come on.

That's not the only criteria that defines what is or is not media.

I used to write for a magazine called Casino News Illustrated or something like that. I forget exactly what it was called. But I would write baseball articles for them.

Anyway, I once asked the Baltimore Orioles for a credential through this publication because I wanted to ask a player on the team about something I was writing. The O's were real nice- said they checked me out with the Pirates and that I was legit- but they also said that they couldn't do it because of the gambling angle to the magazine.

Which I thought was understandable.

Still, you could not deny that this magazine WAS media.

But by the standard you're trying to give to me- it wasn't.

These were legitimate articles on baseball and sold on newsstands all over the country.

You're telling me that isn't media?

It was in print, and it was sold. This is a free messageboard where any slackjawed yocal can say anything that they want to say.

Slackjawed yokels make up 99 percent of the population of East Tennessee.

Read what I wrote about this in my first post and get back to me.

I was listening to a talk show today- hosted by a former co-worker- and there was some discussion of this very topic- blogs and the internet vs. traditional media.

Credentials was one part. Number two was training. The third was the natural respect a traditional media outlet has.

Here's what I say-

A- I won't deny credentials play a part, but I don't necessarily like that because it goes hand in hand with the team legitimizing its coverage.

Bud Ford at Tennessee is notorious for slighting radio stations- even those on his own network- when it comes to credentials.

Well, a radio station is traditional media. And why shouldn't Bill Meade get credentialed?

Also, those on here can go to the games. While we won't get post-game access, we are talking about x number of pairs of eyes as compared to just one.

Also, as shady as "I was talking to so and so in class and he told me . . ." can be, it also might be the nugget of information that breaks beyond the traditional cliches that come out of postgame press conferences.

B- One of the reasons I think this board is legitimate and has success is that some of us who post have media training- a highly unusual circumstance.

In many ways, that makes this a talk show, with traditional media leading the great unwashed.

C- Respect has to be earned. I would read "MondesisHouse.com" for the latest opinion of Pittsburgh sports before I would read anyone else on the scene- traditional media or otherwise. As time goes by, more people will accept deadspin.com right alongside Mike Lupica as well.

The only thing you could possibly say that this WASN'T media was that you do get wild and unflattering rumors without truth.

That's not solely regulated to message boards and blogs, however.

Perhaps the only line seperating us and the traditional media is that we do tend to get more wild rumors on here- about the team and our own personal character.

But that might be the true nature of the two media forums.

We feed the traditional media information- be it the failed WETB format switch or football is going to be dropped or even the frustration fans have with the direction ETSU sports are headed.

So yeah, I think this is media. And maybe all those slings and arrows and information previously only heard by men wearing rain coats with their collars up is healthy in the long run, because it causes us to consider our information with a critical ear.
If we're the lead, so be it.