Thursday
The 2013 NCAA Tournament started Thursday, but readers would not know that if they visited CBS News' website. There were no articles, pictures or videos relating to March Madness on the homepage. I searched the other pages and had no luck finding any reference to the tournament on them either.
Naturally, I went to their sports page next. This redirected me to CBSSports.com and, of course, news about the tournament flooded its website. Much like what CBS News does for large events, CBS Sports dedicated a page solely to NCAA Tournament coverage. Readers could keep updated on their brackets, view experts' picks, and partake in interactive polls. CBS Sports even linked to the NCAA website where viewers can watch and replay games. Journalists analyzed each game throughout the day with articles and videos. CBS highlighted top moments from the Southern University and Gonzaga matchup. Reactions from Vander Blue and Buzz Williams were compiled after the showdown between Marquette University and Davidson. They also provided a clip of the last-second layup Blue made to give Marquette the win.
Friday
CBS News did show signs of possible March Madness coverage on its website early Friday morning. The media outlet posted an article about the first NCAA Tournament win for Harvard's basketball program. Another article recapped Florida Gulf Coast University's upset win over Georgetown. This story, however, was taken from the Associated Press. It is one of the few articles I have seen on CBS' website from them.
Coverage was much of the same Friday as it was Thursday on CBS Sports. They also wrote about the stunning win by Harvard. Their article was different from CBS News' and included a highlight reel and YouTube video showing the teams arrival back to their hotel after the game, greeted by fans and the school band. Visitors to the sight were still able to view their brackets as well as those from experts. The link to watch or replay games on NCAA was there as well. Besides these features and the articles analyzing each game, no new content or interactive features were available to readers.
Saturday and Sunday
CBS News and CBS Sports did not change their coverage over the weekend. Nothing crossed CBS News Saturday and CBS Sports kept with their basic article and video coverage. On Sunday, another Associated Press article recapped Gonzaga's loss. The article also briefly highlighted every game on Saturday as well.
Overall, I was disappointed CBS News did not cover the NCAA Tournament more thoroughly on its website. They only had three articles about March Madness since I began covering it on Thursday. Two of the articles were not even written by someone at CBS, instead they were from the Associated Press. CBS News left all the coverage to CBS Sports. Although they did an extensive job covering the tournament, part of me was left wanting more. CBS Sports had the typical articles, highlight reels, and post-game reaction – that was it. There were two polls on the website. One asked which number one seeded team was going to lose first. Once one of them did lose, CBS Sports changed the question. They also did provide readers with an online bracket and picks from the experts. However, what I wanted to see were picture galleries and combined highlight reels of all the best moments in the tournament so far. That would have kept me interested in CBS Sports' website for longer than I was.
The 2013 NCAA Tournament started Thursday, but readers would not know that if they visited CBS News' website. There were no articles, pictures or videos relating to March Madness on the homepage. I searched the other pages and had no luck finding any reference to the tournament on them either.
Naturally, I went to their sports page next. This redirected me to CBSSports.com and, of course, news about the tournament flooded its website. Much like what CBS News does for large events, CBS Sports dedicated a page solely to NCAA Tournament coverage. Readers could keep updated on their brackets, view experts' picks, and partake in interactive polls. CBS Sports even linked to the NCAA website where viewers can watch and replay games. Journalists analyzed each game throughout the day with articles and videos. CBS highlighted top moments from the Southern University and Gonzaga matchup. Reactions from Vander Blue and Buzz Williams were compiled after the showdown between Marquette University and Davidson. They also provided a clip of the last-second layup Blue made to give Marquette the win.
Friday
CBS News did show signs of possible March Madness coverage on its website early Friday morning. The media outlet posted an article about the first NCAA Tournament win for Harvard's basketball program. Another article recapped Florida Gulf Coast University's upset win over Georgetown. This story, however, was taken from the Associated Press. It is one of the few articles I have seen on CBS' website from them.
Coverage was much of the same Friday as it was Thursday on CBS Sports. They also wrote about the stunning win by Harvard. Their article was different from CBS News' and included a highlight reel and YouTube video showing the teams arrival back to their hotel after the game, greeted by fans and the school band. Visitors to the sight were still able to view their brackets as well as those from experts. The link to watch or replay games on NCAA was there as well. Besides these features and the articles analyzing each game, no new content or interactive features were available to readers.
Saturday and Sunday
CBS News and CBS Sports did not change their coverage over the weekend. Nothing crossed CBS News Saturday and CBS Sports kept with their basic article and video coverage. On Sunday, another Associated Press article recapped Gonzaga's loss. The article also briefly highlighted every game on Saturday as well.
Overall, I was disappointed CBS News did not cover the NCAA Tournament more thoroughly on its website. They only had three articles about March Madness since I began covering it on Thursday. Two of the articles were not even written by someone at CBS, instead they were from the Associated Press. CBS News left all the coverage to CBS Sports. Although they did an extensive job covering the tournament, part of me was left wanting more. CBS Sports had the typical articles, highlight reels, and post-game reaction – that was it. There were two polls on the website. One asked which number one seeded team was going to lose first. Once one of them did lose, CBS Sports changed the question. They also did provide readers with an online bracket and picks from the experts. However, what I wanted to see were picture galleries and combined highlight reels of all the best moments in the tournament so far. That would have kept me interested in CBS Sports' website for longer than I was.