Sports: The Good, the Bad and the Media
Sports play an integral role in many lives. Though, how the media decides to cover them is equally important. Stories can be portrayed under a disapproving or affirming light. People form their own opinions after seeing how the media characterizes athletes and sports teams. This pertains to the way people in the society think. Including sports, look at the songs nowadays, the movies, and even the cartoons children watch influences the way people view the world. Negativity swarms but not positivity. The sports media continues to be consumed by harsh or corrupt findings. While the truth should always remain the most important goal, journalists should not concentrate on only one aspect. Much like the news
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The poll questioned whether one would be more inclined to read a positive or negative sports story. The options included a story about Tom Brady being arrested or NFL Players raising thousands of dollars for charity. (Vincent, 2018) More than 50 people responded. The results indicated that more people are inclined to click on a negative story. Though the margins were not large. The total percentage averaged around 60 – 40. While this study is adjacent to many others, the alternative number is what’s most surprising. The numbers were expected to be further apart. Yes, this poll stands as evidence for those who crave negativity, but the opposite is equally important. The 40% proves that. This can be compared to the difference between different movie genres the public prefers to see. All sorts of movies are made each year. Entertainment ratings would decrease if all movies had a similar disappointing ending. How is sports media any different? Through the media’s lens, positive, optimistic news is frowned upon. These results verify that sports coverage is lacking content for more of its audience than anticipated. Rankings and dollar signs might be blinding the sports media, but negative bias affects viewers in ways many aren’t aware …show more content…
Stafford (2014) states that journalists are drawn to reporting bad news because sudden disaster is more compelling than slow improvements. To confirm his findings, researchers set up an experiment using a deception tactic. According to Stafford (2014), university participants were asked to come to the lab for "a study of eye tracking" where they first asked to select some stories about politics to read from a news website. However, it did not matter what they read. They were then questioned on what kind of political news they would like to read. (Stafford, 2014) The results of the experiment were somewhat discouraging. Stafford (2014) stated that participants often chose stories with a negative tone but when asked, on average they said that the media was too focused on negative stories. This study then lead to the phrase “negative bias” being shown by both the media and the population. The psychologists' term for negative bias stands as our collective hunger to hear, and remember bad news. (Stafford, 2014) Perhaps continual bad news could be an indication that people need to change what they’re doing to avoid danger and how or where they consume the mainstream headlines. Stafford (2014) concluded that when it comes to our own lives, most of us believe we're better than average, and that, we expect things to be all right in the end. (Stafford, 2014) Conceivably this
In The Influencing Machine, Gladstone argues that the media focuses on putting out news that remotely threatens viewers. In the text she states, “emphasizing bad news is good business…world [seems] more dangerous…actually is.” It is good business considering that it keeps the audience on their toes and makes them think about what is going on. When you visit news sites or look at news stations
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
Although, in recent years it is seen that consumers are less likely to subscribe to newspapers and/or watch the daily news. This is due to the fact that they are typically bias in their opinions, and are seen to lack the whole story when presented. Rise in polarization in the media is due to a new found competition between news networks, which was not present sixty years ago. Wilson says, “the news we get is not only more omnipresent, it is also more competitive and hence often more adversarial”. The media outlets are fighting for views, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get them. Which leads to them configuring the stories to what people want to here. Thus making their viewer ratings higher. It is known that certain news stations get more views depending on the political party. “Those who watch CNN are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans; the reverse is emphatically true of Fox”. The media has more outlets to reach their viewers to maximize the effectiveness of their biased
It is not uncommon to hear people complaining about what they hear on the news. Everyone knows it and the media themselves knows it as well. Some of the most renowned journalists have even covered the the media’s issues in detail. Biased news outlets have flooded everyday news. We find that journalism’s greatest problems lie in the media’s inability for unbiased reporting, the tendency to use the ignorance of their audience to create a story, and their struggles to maintain relevance.
To deepen our understanding of the cultural values embedded in sports and to explore current values and power structures regarding men and women, it is necessary to investigate the effect that the media may possibly have in influencing beliefs about gender-appropriate sport behavior. The media is a powerful factor which influences our beliefs, attitudes, and the values we have of ourselves and others as well as the world surrounding us. It seems that the televised coverage of athletics continues to reinforce the ongoing division between males and females, and to reproduce traditional expectations regarding femininity and masculinity.
Should the sports media focus more on the positive aspects of athletes, rather than the
In sporting activity participation and televised sports, there is a noticeable difference between male and female interest and involvement. In the article Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media Michael A. Messner discusses the issues that involve all aspects of sports strictly being a man’s affair. Messner expresses ideas that men are not only the forefront of sports participation, but sports media as well. A point is made in the article about the leaders in sports being those who are the most aggressive. This point is the reasoning behind why men are the superior figures in sports. The aggressiveness of men causes there to be more interest into male sporting activity which makes men a dominant figure in sports.
The record distrust in the media, based on a survey conducted Sept. 6-9, 2012, also means that negativity toward the media is at an all-time high when election happens. This reflects the continuation of a pattern in which negativity increases every election year compared with the year prior. The current gap between negative
The media and technology have impacted a huge part on the way people view sports. Technology hasn’t only transformed the way of interacting with sports from the past ten to fifteen years. Not only has techn...
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
Television is a vital source from which most Americans receive information. News and media delegates on television have abused theirs powers over society through the airing of appealing news shows that misinform the public. Through literary research and experimentation, it has been proven that people's perception of reality has been altered by the information they receive from such programs. Manipulation, misinterpretation, word arrangement, picture placement and timing are all factors and tricks that play a major role in the case. Research, experimentation, and actual media coverage has pinpointed actual methods used for deceptive advertising. Television influences society in many ways. People are easily swayed to accept a belief that they may not normally have unless expressed on television, since many people think that everything they hear on television is true. This, however, is not always the case. It has been observed that over the past twenty to thirty years, normal social behavior, even actual life roles of men and women and media, regulatory policies have all been altered (Browne 1998). Media has changed with time, along with quality and respectability. Many Americans receive and accept false information that is merely used as an attention grabber that better the show's ratings and popularity. Many magazines and Journal reviews have periodically discussed the "muckraking" that many tabloid shows rely on to draw in their viewers. This involves sensationalizing a story to make it more interesting, therefore increasing the interest of the audience. "Along the way, all sorts of scandalous substance and goofy tricks appear, but not much mystery in the logic," (Garnson 1997). People often know that these shows aim to deceive them, but still accept the information as truth. Many times, people have strong opinions on certain topics. Yet, when they are exposed to the other side of the argument, they may be likely to agree with the opposite view. As Leon Festinger said, "If I chose to do it (or say it), I must believe in it," (Myers 1997). This is an example of Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, which pertains to acting contrary to our beliefs. Television influences many people to change their original beliefs. It has the viewers think that the majority of other people hold the contrary idea. Once these views are presented, people have the option to hol...
The Importance of Sports to Mass Communication Understanding mass communication without attention to sport coverage is practically impossible. Through the mass media, millions and even billions of viewers, listeners and readers are brought into the experience of a great sports performance. The emotional power of sports performance, enchanted by slow-motion video and musical sound track, can take you to breath away or bring tears to your eyes. There are a lot of massive spectacles like the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA play-offs, the Olympic Games, and the College Football Games. Each of these sports activities takes in many millions of dollars from television revenues and dominates national sports news for days or weeks.
Nowadays the media have transformed its main mission of reporting news that actually happened in an accurate and objective way into covering stirring and controversial issues as news stories due to capitalistic motives. Moreover, today’s media took the motto “If it bleeds it leads” as a criteria to report any story. The aim of following this motto was to achieve high viewership rates and as a result gain more advertisers which will ultimately increase the profits. However, this motto changed the media from reporting facts into reporting sensational-fearful news. Thus, this paper will demonstrate the effects of sensational news, and how the media plays on the cultivation theory using sensationalism to increase viewers.
The movie Invictus brings up several key points about the media in everyday life. One of the most prominent points brought up in the film is that sports have the power to bring people together and unite them with a common goal. Sports are an enormous part of the media and cultures all over the world. Whether it be the Super-bowl, World Cup, or Olympics, millions of people continue to unite and cheer for the teams they support. The reason in which sports often unites people is that it gives people something in common with one another. No matter what race, age, or gender, people of all types enjoy watching and supporting sports teams which is why it is such a powerful means to unite people.
Sports are apart of human society, for centuries it has been difficult to conceive of any human civilization consisting entirely of work, education, relationships, and entertainment alone. The media plays a major role in the way society views sports today. As time has evolved sports have become apart of the American culture. The does not only influence the sport at hand but it also affects the way that societies sees the athletes. Most believe that since athletes are paid outrageous amounts of money they are considered to be role models to younger generations. The way that the athlete lives his or her life heavily influences the way the media will portray them.