Periodismo Deportivo en los Ciberdeportes: la Figura del Caster en los Videojuegos Como Disciplina Deportiva

Abstract

Sports journalism has been relevant in the coverage of disciplines such as soccer, basketball and tennis, which over the years have managed to attract a significant number of spectators worldwide. As a result of the diversification of these fields and thanks to the positioning of the digital world in the media, there have emerged sports disciplines specific to these scenarios that challenge journalistic coverage. That is why this research seeks to analyze this role within the world of e-sports, through the figures who exercise it today; the casters. To achieve this, two of the most prominent disciplines in both fields were taken as a reference: soccer and the video game Valorant. In order to compare the functions performed by journalists in each of these modalities, interviews were conducted with organizers, players, hostesses, commentators, analysts and sports journalists. In addition, information was gathered from research material dating the trajectory of the first competitions and the rise of eSports as a sport. Field work was essential for the direct collection of the data in question, focusing on points of analysis related to: the distribution of space in the events (virtual and on-site), interaction with the public, narrative styles, broadcasting channels and development of the competition. In view of the fact that e-sports converge in spaces mediated by technology, we took into account what was exposed by Carlos Scolari in his book Hipermediaciones, where digitalization, interactivity and multimedia are considered as communicative processes that establish the new media narratives.