week 8: “sport and the media” introduction key characteristics of the sport media power...

Week 8: “Sport and the media”

Introduction

Key characteristics of the sport media

Power relations and the sport media

Sports media texts: images, narratives and the ‘construction of sports’

Sports media consumers: media effects

Sports media producers: media professionals

Conclusion

Introduction

• Media are important in influencing how we see the world: “the media don’t tell us what to think, but they greatly influence what we think about.

• The media provide information, interpretation and entertainment – entertainment goals are likely to have a higher priority than the others within commercial media Media producers encode info and we interpret/decode it. They

decide what camera shots they want us to see.


• Print media (old media form)– this includes newspapers, magazines and fanzines, books catalogues, event programs and trading cards: words and images printed on paper and available to many readers.


• Electronic media – this includes radio, TV, film, video games, the internet and online publications: words commentary and images we receive in audio and video forms

• The real world itself is influence by the artificial

• The collapse between artificial, superficial, and the real. (the matrix plays with this idea)


• What we get to see (or not) is influenced by a range of actors from producers, editors and program directors to sponsors, owners and government regulations. Coakley identifies 5 goals that such actors use in deciding how media products are made (p.404):


1.Making profits-will it sell?

2.Shaping values – is it moral

3.Providing a public service – is it for the common good?

4.Building their own reputations – how does this make us look?

5.Expressing themselves in technical, artistic or personal ways – is it good?

These goals may sometimes be in conflict with each other•Power begins to shape these processes. People usually emphasize images and messages consistent with the dominant ideologies in society as a whole. Thus the media serve the interests of those who have power and wealth in society

Sport and the Media: symbiotic relationships

• The dependency of sport on media • When sports exist just for the participants there is

little need for media • When sports become commercial entertainment

there is an increased need for media dissemination and therefore increased dependency on the media

• Sports require both coverage and news • Sports “discourse” dominates sport compared to

other cultural forms


• The media provide huge resources for sports and enable them to reach worldwide audiences: 715.1 millino people watched the Italy vs. France men’s soccer world cup final in 06’ It was one of the most viewed events in tv history

• Television companies are thus willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to secure “exclusive” rights to sports events: Fox paid 4.3 billion or 712.5 million a year until 2011 to get

exclusive rights to cover NFL games


• To accommodate the commercial interests of television sports have changed the way they are organized, packaged and presented:

• The schedules and starting times for many sport events have been altered to fit television’s programming needs “Game times are subject to change throughout the season. Time

changes are usually a result of rescheduling to accommodate TV schedules and for make-up games due to rain-outs.”


• The dependency of the media on sport Most forms of the media; - film, books, and the

internet are not dependent on sport (these can survive without sports)

• But TV and Newspapers are: now newspapers devote 25% of their content to sport


• Sports have also become a major part of the programming schedules for most television networks

• The high viewing figures can therefore translate into higher premiums on advertising space – a 30 second slot during the 2008 Superbowl cost $2.7 million

• Cable and satellite networks in particular have used sport to gain access to markets

Sports media texts: images, narratives and the “construction of sports”

• The media do not simply relay reality to us, unmediated as it happens – even though this is what is often claimed - but rather we are re-presented with an edited version of what has taken place which we, the audience, then attempt to “decode”

• This is what is referred to within media studies as the encoding/decoding model of how signs and media texts work

• Semiology is the process of reading these signals


• Signification refers to the way signs work within a given culture

• There are two orders of signification

1. Denotation:

2. Connotation:


• Myth

• Texts can be “open” or “closed”

• An open text requires a number of readings to be made simultaneously for its full “richness” to be appreciated

• A closed text has only one preferred meaning


• Three main types of decoding readings or texts. These correspond to the reader's response not to the structure of the text

• i) dominant-hegemonic

• ii) negotiated reading

• iii) oppositional reading


• Success themes

• US sports programming tends to emphasize hard work, domination, obedience to authority and the “big play”

• Competitive rivalries are played up and competitive success becomes the master narrative for coverage


• Gender and sexuality themes• coverage of women sports is not a high priority, except for

tennis, golf, and Olympics

• Coverage given tends to be on sports that reinforce traditional notions of femininity

• Men’s events remain unremarked by gender whereas women’s events are gendered – the soccer world cup vs. the womens world cup.


• Race and ethnicity themes• The focus on a selected number of sports gives a distorted

picture of black “domination” of sports

• While black athletes have a high profile on the field of play this is less so in the commentary boxes, sports newsrooms and media executive offices

Sports media consumers: media effects

• Audience research and fan behavior

• There is inconclusive evidence about the effects of watching sport and actual physical activity

• While coverage has increased since the 70’s, so has the rates of obesity and inactivity – this does not imply causation

• Similarly there is little evidence to suggest that coverage of sport on television affects spectator rates in any uniform way (there may be a short term increase in activity after major sporting events….tennis after Wimbledon)

Sports media producers: media professionals

• Tensions between journalists and athletes grounded in differences between background and salary

• Within the news media there are sometimes tensions between those looking for “exclusives” and those reporting the sports

Conclusion

• Sports and the media have a complex, symbiotic relationship

• This mutual dependency has grown over the past 50 years, especially as companies have sought to sponsor events and teams and advertise games

• Not all aspects of the media are equally dependent on sport and not all sports depend on the media

• Sports centrality to public discourse is linked to its central place within the mass media – disproportionate to the actual numbers who play sport

Conclusion

• Not all aspects of the media are equally dependent on sport and not all sports depend on the media

• Sports centrality to public discourse is linked to its central place within the mass media – disproportionate to the actual numbers who play sport. Sports are increasingly a central part of “celebrity culture”

week 8: “sport and the media” introduction key characteristics of the sport media power...

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