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Toy department within the toy department? Online sports journalists and professional legitimacy

This study explores the professional legitimacy of online sports journalists as an emergent group within the occupation in the United Kingdom. Two typologies of sports journalists working for national news organisations are identified (traditional and online) and semi-structured interviews conducted with both groups. Drawing on concepts from the sociology of professions, the study applies three sub-definitions of professionalism – normative, cognitive and evaluative – to online sports journalism. The findings indicate that online sports journalists both see themselves and are seen as professionally illegitimate in all three sub-definitions despite a reputation for digital innovation. Sports journalists consider their professional jurisdiction to be defined by traditional norms, values and practices while refusing to accommodate newer, digitally native approaches. Traditional sports journalists enhance their legitimacy by positioning online colleagues as a ‘toy department within a toy department’, similar to how news journalists disparage the sports desk to elevate their own professional claims.