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In the media management system, each team's media will choose a few players to focus on, and to cover in a particular way. A general manager can respond to this coverage in some situations, and the coverage has various effects on the player. Additionally, the GM's relationship with his team's media is tracked, changing mainly via interaction with the media in response to their treatment of his players.
Coverage Level represents the total amount of news coverage the team gets from all sources, on a 1-9 scale: 1 would be mostly nonexistent coverage (small market teams in low-level leagues) and 9 would be intense coverage like the most-follwed NHL teams. This rating will determine how many players a team's media coverage can focus on.
Base Media Attitude represents the typical tone of the coverage, with named levels from 1 to 5: 1-Cheerleader, 2-Positive, 3-Neutral, 4-Negative, 5-Antagonistic. (Note that this doesn't mean that all coverage will match this tone, it's an average.) The distribution won't be even; the most common settings will probably be 2-3, with 1 and 4 a little less frequent and 5 reserved for situations like Montreal.
The two will combine to determine how many of the team's players the media focuses on, and what it tends to say about them. A team that's doing well and has a high coverage level that tends to be positive will probably get a lot of good coverage for its players, increasing their happiness, popularity, and willingness to re-sign with the team; and a struggling team with off-ice problems and a large, hostile media will get lots of negative coverage that alienates and upsets the players.
The current media focused-players and their coverage types will be listed on the Team Home screen. Those will change as the game progresses; certain events (particularly off-ice incidents, wins, and losses) can move media coverage in one direction or another, or shift it to other players. The media may also lose interest in a player and choose to focus on someone else.
As general manager, you will occasionally receive a request to comment on the media's coverage of a player, particularly if it is negative. If you choose to agree with the media's complaints, you may upset your player. If you argue against the media's narrative, you risk harming yoour own relationship with the media, which might jeopardize your job.
