Olympic Games Sociology

An aspect of sociology is to systematically study group life and how it affects individuals and how individuals are affected by group life. This correlates with the idea of the Olympic games, where many athletes from different cultures come together every four years and compete in various sporting competitions while representing their country. As one could guess, this event brings out a strong sense nationalism throughout the duration of it’s seventeen days, however, it also stirs controversy. Sociologists look at the Olympic games through the lenses of those who have different perspectives on the world and society such as the Feminist Perspective, Post-Modern Perspective, and the Conflict Perspective. Feminists explore the Olympic games in

Kendall, E. Murray, R. Linden, Page 29.) In a way, the Olympic games is a form of global communication itself since they are being broadcasted to the world, and provides information as to which nations are leading in certain sports. In addition to the games being covered by media outlets from across the globe, they are also a way for the athletes from unfamiliar ethnic and racial backgrounds to connect through sports despite the cultural and language barriers. The Olympic Games bring countries together and create a sense of nationalism for those countries involved. The Olympics and its worldwide coverage can bring out positive effects on the population, although with social media platforms people have been proven to be hateful towards athletes. For example, one might tweet something negative towards an athlete because they won over the athlete they were cheering for. Social media is a debatable subject as it is a great way for athletes to connect with fans and other athletes, but negative consequences such as cyberbullying the athletes can arise from the use of social media. Another Post Modernist may believe that the Olympics receive an excessive amount of media coverage and are promoted through the use of advertisements as a marketing scheme for money. The views on television and sale of merchandise contributes to the net worth of the multinational organization. They may think that the money could be used towards more important uses than sporting events. The majority of the countries who send athletes to participate in the Olympics have political, economic, and environmental issues and a more important investment would be to work towards solving those matters rather than spending a fortune on sending a select few athletes to the