This example nicely illustrates the divide between traditional and new media, and what I think their future roles will be: new media allows the public to connect directly with their favourites athletes (or politicians, movie stars, corporate CEOs, etc.), diminishing traditional media’s long-held ability to “break” the news. Traditional media can, however, adapt to the changing landscape by offering opinion, commentary and expert analysis - in this case, analyzing Modano’s career, sharing insider anecdotes and giving the public and unbiased look as his playing statistics.
I would certainly not be going out on a limb to predict much more of this in the sports world, thanks in large part to people like Shaq, who made it cool for athletes to communicate directly with fans via social media.
