Career prospects of sports journalism

I am pursuing my graduation in journalism and am also a sports person. I have immense passion for several games. I would like to take up sports journalism. Can you please guide me to its career prospects, and how to go about it. Does it requires an additional qualification?
-R Pavitra, Safilguda

Sports journalism is an essential element of any news media organisation and as the name suggests, it is basically a sports reporting career. Media, ie television, radio, magazines and the internet have become an integral part of one’s life and sports fans turn to these for the latest updates and news in sports. It definitely would be exciting for a sports crazy individual to pursue a career dealing with sports reporting as it involves going to sport games, sporting events, and venues, meeting with players and then reporting all this back to a sports crazy audience.

To join sports journalism, a bachelor's degree in journalism or communications is usually required. Try to do campus and community internships at radio stations, television stations, newspapers or magazines. You can start with blog writing on your favorite game, team or any particular sport. This can help you build up portfolios of self-published clips and if any sports organisation finds your blog interesting then you stand a chance to work with them.

After your graduation, you can do a certification or diploma in sports journalism and this will prepare you for a sports reporting career with an added up gradation of your writing skills, mainly sports related. International School of Media and Entertainment Studies (ISOMES)- Noida offers Sports Journalism. The duration of the course is six months; it’s a full time certification course and is affiliated to Missouri School of Journalism, USA. For more details please, visit

http://www.shiksha.com/getListingDetail/115971/course/course-Sports-Journalism--college-International-School-Of-Media-And-Entertainment-Studies-Isomes.

Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, affiliated to University of Delhi, offers a three-month, full time, certification course in sports marketing and web journalism. Institute for Media Studies and Information Technology offers a diploma in sports broadcasting and management which is a one year and part time course. Delhi University offers a certificate in science & sports journalism; Algappa University offers a certificate course in sports journalism; Sheffield Hallam University in UK offers a MA in sports journalism for students with any background and who have the flair for sports and have sound knowledge of sports. Do go through the course. They also need 6.5 in IELTS.

This career demands a lot of hard work and initiative which is of course rewarded with getting box seats at games, meeting internationals sports stars, getting lot of exposure while travelling from one country to another, getting to know the people who train Olympic athletes and fame appreciations from the readers and fans.
All the best!!!

Shehre Banu