How Sport Has Become Over-dependent on the Media - Research Paper Example

 Sports and Media Media representation in sports Researchers prove that mass media functions as the nervous system of the current social life. Nowadays sports business has become the relevant force in modern journalism practicing unparalleled influence over the media market. The media gives the sport coverage to a vast audience. Though a large number of people fail to experience the sports events directly, they are facilitated with the mass media which brings the live programmes with a running commentary. When reporting media events popular mass Medias follow their own language and style which is tinctured and highly fascinating especially for the youth. Professionalism of sports events paved the way for the outstanding influence of media on sports. Emergence of professionalism among sports and games inspired a large number of people to provide financial support for both players and particular teams. The cultural importance of sports and games are used by the commercial mass media as a principal means of capital accretion and they enhanced their profit. Professionalism in sports and media influence Professional approach to sports requires popularity and economic benefits. As a result of the new approach, the advertisements of various products and institutions have contributed much to the media programs which brings in sports events and games. Television channels and magazines offer a huge amount for the preparation of arrangements for their fans without considering the travel expense and admission fees. Another factor which promotes professionalism is that of Technology that helps the media to record sports events and telecast these programmes when needed. Both media and sports are interrelated. Sports events require media coverage and in the same way media demands sports programs for recognition and mercantile benefits. Joseph A Maguire remarks; “Social, political, and economic interests have acquired an influence in sport via the media, particularly television” (Maguire, A. Joseph, 2002 P.126). The evolution and current state of the sport-media relationship Analyzing the history of sports and games one can find the great influence that media has on sport and has unquestionably changed its stature in recent centuries. The people who watch sports events through the television have the opportunity to see their sports stars several times and unknowingly they are attached to their mannerisms. Multinational companies and marketing agencies utilize the viewer’s weaknesses maximum and taste success. Professionalism promotes the selling and branding of games and sports stars depend on the effectiveness of media for their popularity. The sports media relationship has a longer and composite history, which started at the end of the eighteenth century and it developed through nineteenth century. In the initial time nations like Great Britain and America have marked their status in commercialized media sport correlation (Nicholson, Matthew, 2007 p. 19). The healthy relationship between media and sport is the significant commercial relation for both industries at the opening of the twenty first century. At the end of the twentieth century Media has changed some sport events and games from a professional detection in to a commercialized industry. The commercial opportunities of gambling offered a great financial support to visual Medias, especially magazines and news papers which focused on sports events like horse racing and boxing. News paper industry has developed and generated its popularity and income through an innovative way of designing the content which give more emphasis on exploiting sports and games. One can see a gradual widening of the space allotted for sports in a number of established newspapers. The development of media - sports relation reaches the zenith when commercialization of team sports became very popular in western countries. For an easy understanding one can divide it into three stages. As the result of emerging television as a popular entertainment media the idea of professional team sports became very common. The second stage is noted for the deregulated professionalism. The establishment of free agencies and organizations of players affect the internal regulatory mechanisms and a number of sports items became less restrictive. The third and final stage marked with absolute commercialism and one can see that from the ending time of 1970s major sports events wrapped with the hands of commercialism (Slack, Trevor, 2004). Sports teams and managements receive multinational companies and organizations as over the world have followed some kind of business alignment or configuration for the successive marketing of their products. Most of them have the services of special advertising agencies. In the world of sports and games, maximum advertisement, sponsoring, marketing of various sports events and games, and promotion are elementary tool for making great profits both economically and culturally Olympic Games and other international sports events are most popular events and majority of people in the world watched. Advertising agencies have prepared detailed map of various places and they have also practiced some marketing techniques for their financial profit. At present majority of professional athletes and sports team are represented by their own agents or attorneys, who settle salaries, various compensation programs, and other financial configurations. Wide networking system is common in the field of sports marketing and broadcasting. Corporate clients, communication Medias, advertising agencies, sports right holders, facilities management and athletes are all interact in a desired manner to gain the best personal outcomes for themselves. All these own aims and objectives. Organization and content of media-sports Media organizations and sponsors buy and sell sport events and games a lot as they do any other news items or entertainment product. The sports or cultural organizations indirectly promotes particular product to broadcast the media organizations, who reconstruct and decorate the product (particular sports event or news) as to attract the audiences that the advertising agencies wish to reach. It is clear that the way in which visual media broad cast sports events is different from the print media. Today sports and sports organizations have practiced their norms and regulations in buying and selling sports and games through media organizations. In this changed form both media and sports organizations follows the deinstitutionalized form of sport and that become dominant among the public. The presence of a nominal and unified ideology can be seen in the content of the meditated sports. When one think of a specific sporting event generally refer to the nucleus of the product as the competition itself as this is the major cause people spend their money and time to attend sports events. The time of broadcasting sports events, the core might be connected with other factors such as advertising agencies, communication Medias, sports right holders, and the individual consumer. The content of these products is based on competition and it offers a winner and a loser. The exponents of meditated sports and sport right holders concentrate the idea that viewers at sporting events can be pleased with their experience. Here sports marketers give more emphasis on the past performances of their team. Media ownership and control in sports marketing Analyzing news paper reports and the reports of other visual medias one can easily find that media ownership of sport teams are best implicated as response to the ambiguity in the professional team sports business happening from both the internal energetic of the industry and the external environmental confusion initially caused by scientific change. Sports marketers give over importance to sporting experience media explores it’s over influence on sports events. For example analyzing the list of one day international cricket matches, tennis one can see that sport right holders often lose their control. As a result of this media ownership became an issue in sports marketing. Countervailing forces or challenges to the current alliance between sport and the media. There are some countervailing forces or challenges to the current alliance between sport and the media. Media-sports relation is expected to undergo new transitions over the next decade. New opportunities of broadcasting make challenges to the existing configuration between media and sports. Emerging of interactive technologies like internet and digital television are paved the way for new media habits. Digital television and sports websites gives broadcast sports events, give details about sports events, feedbacks and evaluations. Websites decorated with updated results and players information. Analysing the different stages of the development of sports it is evident that sports has been subjected for various changes and their presentation in media also changed notably. From the ancient games like chariot races and gladiator fights, it has transformed and tended to be more professional and commercial. The same professional and commercial aspects are leading the present media to a more profit based economy. Moreover, in the current era, sports articulate spectacles of race and nationalism, celebrity and star power, and transgression and scandal, elevating its icons to godlike status, an then sometimes bringing them down in to the depths of scandal and disgrace (Douglas, 2003). Commercialisation of sports is one of the challenging factors of sports media relation. Sports Violence and Media Violence in sports has been assumed greater importance during the past years. Analyzing the different sports, one can find many as involving violence. Many historical studies provide evidences for violence caused by competitive games. The big truth is that the responsibility of causing violence in sports is not shrunken to the participants but the crowded audience especially the excited fans also play a vital role in it. However the main source is the contestants itself. A number of sports such as wrestling, boxing are intrinsically violent. There is substantial chance of violence in the case of field games Like football and hockey as there is the possibility of belligerent squabbles between the contestants because of their over enthusiasm and vigour. The same spirit spreads into the blood of the viewers when it is brought through the media. In mediated sports the role of violence is much greater as it increases the entertainment value. So, one can understand that the media play a significant role in spreading violence among the people who are associated with media. The televised competitions have an extra influence on the audience because it is associated with the commentary. It is exclusively of the visual media that enables the spectators to enjoy the live sports events without their presence. However together with the live information from the field the commentary brings in a degree of emotionality by emphasizing certain features of the ground performance including the elements of violence. It is to be noted that sports containing violence can excite the audience but it cannot reduce the aggressive feelings that are accompanied with. So, one should be cautious about the fact that over exposure of media violence will definitely have a negative impact on the spectators other than that of entertainment (Raney, A. Arthur &Bryant,Jennings, 2006). Commercial connections of Media and Sports It is crystal clear that media and sports have commercial connections which are beneficial for both. Different studies have identified the role of media in transforming sports from an amateur pursuit to a hyper-commercialised industry. At the same time media helped sports much in getting great massive support and advertising revenues. The dominance of television in the media coverage of sports has often been lead the false illusion that sport media relationship began in the middle of the twentieth century But one can see the sport media relationship has a longer more complex, which began at the end of the eighteenth century, flourishing in the nineteenth century with the sports magazine industry in Great Britain and United states (Nicholson, 2007). Along with the news reports of horse racing and boxing, the commercial possibilities of gambling exerted a notable influence in the development of these magazines. Popular magazines of that time attempted to popularise different spots items and it is identifiable with the present non-popularity of the cricket in America where baseball obtaining the dominance. Throughout the 1830’s and 1840’ the news paper industry generated its income through the combination of advertising space and circulation. It is the commercialisation of sports as a form of entertainment that promoted both sales and advertisement. In 1833 Joseph Pulitzer made an overall change in media circulation after he bought the American metropolitan daily news paper, New York World. He approached it with a more sensational view point by arranging the paper on a new format and style, sold advertising space on the basis of circulation and was the first to use catchy headlines that can attract the attention of the readers (Nicholson, 2007 p.20). One can identify other media, like radio as assuming greater roles in the commercialisation of sports. Nicholson (2007) makes it clear by referring to British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) which started sport broadcast on radio throughout the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s. It began to broadcast games like cricket, football with trained commentators that caused for its popularity. To conclude, one can infer that for the commercialisation of sports, media has a vital role and the same also proved beneficial for media economically. It is professionalism that gave way to the influence of media on sports and now these two can be regarded as interdependable. It is through the media many new products get attention of the customers and; sports is the best telecasting programme to attach the advertisements with. Not only the products and goods but the sports stars also depend on the media considerably for their embossment among the public. However the sports related violence is undoubtedly a stigma on the media. Its impact is wide spreading as it reaches to many a people and further there is the chance of copying the violent actions by the spectators in their real life situations. Day by day the media – sports alliance is getting much stronger. Even though there are certain minor Countervailing forces and challenges to the current alliance between sport and the media one can be optimistic that the coalition will not end abruptly. Works Cited: Nicholson, Matthew. Sport and the media: managing the nexus. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Maguire, A. Joseph, Sport worlds: a sociological perspective. Human Kinetics, 2002. Nicholson, Matthew. Sport and the media: managing the nexus . Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Slack, Trevor. The commercialisation of sport . Routledge, 2004 Kellner, Douglas. Media spectacle, Page 94 . Routledge, 2003 Raney, A. Arthur &Bryant,Jennings , Handbook of sports and media . Routledge, 2006, Read More