The BBC could fill a gap in its coverage of minority sports by asking readers to submit their own match reports. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, credited as a leading light in user-generated content, was engaged in consultancy at the corporation last year and has now revealed some of the ideas discussed.
“Sometimes they are criticised for focusing only on major sports,” he told The Times. “They don’t carry coverage of every sport and every local club around the country – they don’t have enough money, it’s impossible.
“So what they’re saying is, ‘wouldn’t it be interesting if we had a model where we could cover the major sports with our traditional people and enrich the whole experience by bringing in people to allow other sporting communities to report on themselves?'”
BBC Sport currently reproduces message board comments in many match reports and news stories for mainstream sports and has supplemented its slimline badminton section with headlines syndicated from the sport’s governing body.
More news from journalism.co.uk:
BBC releases TV news footage online
Public could help BBC to index archive
BBC News drops comment moderation
Pete Clifton, head of BBC News Interactive