“Sports do not build character… they reveal it

Bierbach The Negative Effects of Media on Sports I. Media and Sports Introduction A. John Wooden Quote B. The tendencies of the media 1 THESIS: The media must take significant strides towards reforming the way they portray sports to change the current system of altering the ideals of athletes and diminishing the prestige of modern sports. II. History of media in sports III. Publication of shameful actions A. Celebrations B. Commercials C. XFL IV. Multimedia A. Cable Networks B. League and team-owned channels C. Video Games D. Fantasy sports V. College and amateur athletics A. Teenage phenoms B. False views of success C. Antitrust Law D. BCS bowls VI. Sex and media Bierbach A. Promotional Advertisements B. Female reporters C. Overemphasis of unrelated topics VII. Sexist opinions of the media A. women’s soccer B. women’s sports study VIII. Racism in Media A. Tony Romo and Michael Irvin B. Rush Limbaugh C. Stereotypical messages IX. Athlete Portrayals A. Book Publications B. Shameful events C. Disregard of good events D. Media’s twist of stories X. Media in sports conclusion A. Restate thesis B. Restate Main Points C. Relate back to Wooden’s quote 2 Bierbach “Sports do not build character… they reveal it.” (John Wooden) These words of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden describe modern athletics to perfection. Throughout history, sports have transformed from merely trivial contests into showcases of athletes’ unrelenting desire, competitiveness, and overall character learned from the game. 3 Millions of fans are also entertained and taught lessons through the actions of the players and the coverage of the game. As long as there have been organized sports there has been some kind of media coverage of the events. However, the media does anything but glorify the character of athletes or the accomplishments in the sporting world. The press has a tendency to strip away all the hard earned achievements, integrity, and good of the game, leaving nothing but an empty shell of what used to be. A near incredible social triumph ends in a discomforting social collapse thanks to the faults of the modern reporters, journalists, and other correspondents. The media must take significant strides towards reforming the way they portray sports to change the current system of altering the ideals of athletes and diminishing the prestige of modern sports. Although sports and competitive gaming have been around since the yore of human history, not since recently has there been a significant push towards advancement of sports coverage. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the United States’ economy was booming; Americans were making more money, working fewer hours, and enjoying more leisure time which prompted an increasing amount of people to devote their spare time to the observation of sports. With more fans in the stands and followers nearly everywhere else, a new type of media emerged to keep sports enthusiasts informed. The sports press brought information to the average sports aficionado through the newspaper, radio, and newly invented television, which people now had the money to purchase. More devotees meant more sports knowledge circulating throughout the country, eventually sparking the development of a new class of commentators, Bierbach 4 writers, and analysts that critiqued every sport within the nation. Sports developed into one of the United States’ universal concerns for the people of the nation, but in a positive way. Sports gave people something to relate to and provided an opportunity for them to unite with other followers and engage in a supportive experience for their team. Teams like the Green Bay Packers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Dallas Cowboys emerged with a vast fan-base, stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans. Media made this fan-base possible by broadcasting the successes of certain teams as well as certain sports (football was the most popular) all across the nation. As time went on however, faults began to emerge within the sports media, negatively affecting the ever-growing sports popularity and pride. During the transition into the new millennium, a number of factors including new technology, sports personalities, and originality of new fans, led to the media destruction of modern sports. The media changed professional and amateur athletics into businesses rather than into moralistic entertainment while disgracefully exploiting higher education and individuals in the sporting world. The press has also produced a new set of ideals and attitudes in the fans and players of popular sports (Torr 49).What began in the transition to the new millennium is now an ever-occurring phenomenon that plagues the wide world of sports. While it is true that the media occasionally broadcasts stories of unlikely successes and cordial charity, it consistently publicizes the most shameful and less copious actions of certain athletes and leagues. One of the most prolific examples derives from the National Football League, which has a substantial problem with regulating touchdown celebrations and dances. Rather than help control the problem, the media feels the need to emphasize the celebrations more so than the actual plays. Athletes have engaged in line dances, dice rolling, fake photo shoots, air guitar playing, and many other imprudent dances and actions. The most notable occasions (thanks to the media) include: Joe Horn removing a cell phone from the base of a field Bierbach goal post upon scoring a touchdown and pretending to talk on it, and Terrell Owens removing a Sharpie marker from his sock and autographing a football for a nearby fan. Possibly the most publicized player in the league however, Chad Johnson, has performed CPR on the football, 5 invented many dances and even played golf using the pylon as a club to hit the football (Wilner). The media now uses these celebrations as one of their main selling points for broadcasts of the NFL. Sports talk shows give out awards like “Best Celebration” and “Most Unique Player” to players with the most outrageous touchdown celebrations, making light of the issue. They also use celebrations as focal points in commercials, such as Chad Johnson’s commercial for ESPN in which he tries to think of more ways to celebrate. It is obvious that the media exacerbates the celebrations, eventually making them bigger than the game itself. If the media was not there to glorify athletes and such antics, athletes would be less likely to engage in them, because they would no longer receive the attention that initiated their behavior. Another sports ignominy came when Vince McMahon, founder of the World Wrestling Federation, introduced his entirely media-based league to the world. The XFL or Extreme Football League used sex and incredible amounts of violence to improve ratings. Unlike the NFL, the XFL had no fair-catches, no extrapoint kicks, and virtually no rules whatsoever combined with immense violence and “none-tooshy” cheerleaders. The XFL often had gimmicks such as a cheerleader running a scripted segment with a sexual connotation, or players stitching ridiculous nicknames on the backs of their jerseys (Fendrich). The violence and sex associated with the XFL to improve ratings destroyed the prestige of football and ultimately hurt the reputation of the entire football community, the NFL included. The media’s nonchalant strategy of improving ratings by exploiting the few decadent actions in sports resulted in a disintegrating of former ideals within Bierbach players and fans alike. However, the media’s improving ratings led to an advancement of technology which also proved to play a negative role in the world of sports. 6 As technology continues to improve in the United States, new forms of media publication emerge, which negatively affect sports and their fans. Cable networks have become increasingly more common in the average American home, making cable television a more dominant force in the media. Networks like ESPN have become more demanding of the shows they are able to broadcast. ESPN recently demonstrated the fact by buying the rights to Monday Night Football from the local television network ABC (Steinberg D1). With cable networks buying the rights to broadcast sporting events, people who cannot afford the extra cost are denied the opportunity to watch the sports they know and love. This avowal can also be seen in the scores of league and team-owned channels arising throughout the nation. The NBA (National Basketball Association) and NFL both have their own twenty-four hour TV channels, and the MLB (Major League Baseball) also has plans to launch its own network. These channels are only broadcasted on extensive cable or satellite networks (Steinberg D1). Other technological feats that have emerged in the twenty-first century are fantasy sports and the sports video game market. Sports video games make up twenty percent of the three billion dollar video game market and are kids’ new way of learning about players, teams, and the rules of athletics. EA Sports, the largest of the sports video game companies, created a football monopoly by buying the rights to make all NFL related video games from the NFL itself (Steinberg D1). These extremely expensive video games have replaced the longstanding, venerable past of the baseball card in younger generations. However, the high prices make it hard for some to partake in the age-old tradition of passing of sports knowledge. Fantasy sports is the newest form of gambling in the sporting world, allowing fans at home to “draft” their favorite players onto a team, compile points based on the athletes’ Bierbach performances, and compete for cash prizes. The flaw of the system however, is that it does not restrict its membership to fans alone; professional athletes are also able to participate. This flaw creates the possibility of cheating due to the athlete’s ability to alter the game and statistics. An athlete such as Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers admitted to the playing of fantasy sports, but has not reportedly cheated. The cheating that likely occurs lowers the standards and pride of professional sports. The new advancements in the multimedia field have played a negative role in the sporting world, limiting sports to the affluent and creating a possibility for 7 athletes to cheat. Similar to the way the media affects professional sports, amateur athletics have been impacted as well. Collegiate and amateur athletics are negatively influenced by the false portrayals and unequal representations of sports teams and athletes. “Lured by the promise of big paydays, seduced by the media coverage paid to phenoms and supplemented by specialized instruction and additional games, young people are on the fast track to the big time like never before,” (Reed). Sports journalist Tom Reed’s statement is correct in every aspect except the piece that declares “young people are on the fast track” to success. In all actuality, only 1.3% of men’s basketball players, 2% of football players, and 10.5% of baseball players in college make the jump to professional sports; the numbers are just as low getting into college athletics in the first place (Price 253). The media gives today’s youth unrealistic views on how easy it is to turn professional in any sport by excessively publicizing athletes like LeBron James, Aree Song, Michelle Wie, and Freddy Adu that enjoy rare success in their respective sports at such young ages (Reed). Younger generations are unable to realize the work and skill it requires to become a professional athlete, causing them to ignore much needed practice and studies in case their sports dreams fall through. Furthermore, when athletes bypass college to play professional sports, not Bierbach only are they not receiving an education, but they are depriving the world of the most 8 competitive sports, college sports. Collegiate sports are another source of media problems. Until 1984, there was an antitrust law in place to regulate which universities received media attention for their football teams and equally divided the telecasts and revenue collected among lesser known schools. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unfair to colleges that deserved more revenue because of their athletic superiority and therefore nullified the law (Price 257). With the antitrust law now gone, lesser known schools are denied much needed media attention that helps them recruit players and gain revenue. This situation makes it harder to compete at the level of other big universities. More recently, lack of media coverage has denied successful football teams entry into the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Only two mid-major teams (The University of Utah and Boise State University) have ever received an invitation to play in the BCS (Barnhouse). With lack of media attention anything less than playing an undefeated season is considered insufficient and even then the smaller teams have a difficult time getting in because people never see them play. Conferences like the WAC and Mountain West are among the many deprived of playing in BCS games (Barnhouse). Deficient media coverage and inaccurate portrayals of young athletes detract from the truths of sports in youth and amateur athletics. The media also creates distractions through sex in relation to sports. Over the years, the media has increasingly used sex in order to promote its broadcasts, diminishing the deserved respect for sports. In the Monday Night Football introduction in 2005, Nicolette Sheridan, the popular TV character from ABC’s Desperate Housewives, confronted Terrell Owens (wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles) in the locker room before the game. In the locker room, she seduced him wearing nothing but a towel, luring him to stay with her instead of playing with his teammates. She released her only clothing, revealing her upper back Bierbach 9 to the audience, and Owens exclaimed, “Oh hell, the team’s going to have to win without me,” as Sheridan jumped into his arms (Caesar B1). In this instance, media’s utilization of sex as a selling point and the already controversial athlete Terrell Owens undermined the prestige of the NFL. It portrayed the NFL as a league for adults only, not for the whole family which was its originally designed purpose. Another way that the media has used sex to sell sports is the hiring of unqualified, good-looking women to help broadcast sports. Jillian Barberie was hired as the weatherwoman on Fox NFL Sunday and every week she shows up in boots, a short skirt and a low cut top, showing off her skimpy fashions to the viewers. When ABC hired “glamour girl” Lisa Guerrero, various arguments ensued on the basis that it was only for her beauty and not her skill, with which ABC appeared to agree and fired her following one season (Caesar B1). The media uses unnecessary sex appeal by hiring incompetent, but attractive women, sacrificing talent needed to broadcast sporting events. Sports lose some of their eminence when people do not respect the way they are commentated. Finally, in some cases, the media consider stories involving athletes and sex deemed more important than stories of incredible achievement. The Today Show reporter, Katie Couric, interviewed Brandi Chastain of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team after her game-winning goal to beat the Chinese Women’s Soccer Team in the World Cup. In the interview she asked Chastain about unrelated subjects like why she posed nude in GEAR Magazine and why she tore off her shirt to celebrate the goal (Barnes 22). The magnificent victory of the women’s soccer team was, in essence, stolen from them because of Couric’s decision to overemphasize a player’s actions over the achievement of the team. The media often draws away from the importance and celebration of games by bringing up unrelated information to make athletes have a more negative appearance. The media’s portrayal of sex and sports diminishes the prestige that each league has worked so hard to achieve over the last century. Like Bierbach 10 the media’s usage of women to render sex in sports, they also relay sexist opinions of sports throughout the nation. Through the media, fans at home are relayed the message that women’s sports are unimportant and inferior to men’s, although they can be just as competitive and entertaining. Because of the media’s harsh rationale, they gave the women’s soccer team virtually no media attention in the Women’s World Cup, denying the world the chance to experience the true thrill of women’s soccer and young girls the opportunity to dream of one time being on the team. Also, during one of the penalty kicks of the game, an ABC announcer commented that women goal keepers were not as athletic as men to stop well-placed kicks, implying that they could not do things that men could do (Barnes 23). The significance of the game was simply tossed aside because the media does not have an appreciation for women’s sports. To prove the media’s faux pas, Michael Messner of the University of Southern California and Margaret Duncan of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee led a six-week study of men’s and women’s sports commentary and analyzed the results. They found numerous sexist faults of the media such as: commentators often pointing to a woman making an error rather than a man, almost no interviews with female athletes or coaches, twelve times as many men’s stories than women’s, inferior production quality in women’s games, considerably shorter women’s pregame and halftime shows, consistently mentioned gender, and consistent disrespect towards women over the course of the six weeks (Winegar 1A). Duncan and Messner’s findings proved that the productions of women’s sports make them seem inferior to men’s. ESPN’s Sportscenter devoted merely 2.9% of news to women’s sports compared to the 97.1% of men’s coverage (Torr 76). The lack of media coverage for women’s sports and the sexism expressed within the broadcasts shows the lack of media respect for women athletes who exert as much physical work as the Bierbach 11 men. Like the bigotry shown towards women, the media also conveys a racial message to its audiences. Commentators, broadcasters, and reporters of the media transmit racial stereotypes throughout the nation that negatively affect athletes of different races and all sports. Over the years, numerous figures in the media have made racist statements about professional athletes. ESPN analyst Michael Irvin commented on Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo’s recent success when he said, “Somewhere there are some brothers… (Maybe) his great, great, great, great Grandma ran over in the hood or something went down.” He then went on to say that having “slave blood” in the body was a way to become a great athlete (qtd. in Whitley 1). Another ESPN analyst, Rush Limbaugh, made a racial comment when he asserted that Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because people were “desirous” of a black quarterback to succeed in the NFL (Harry). Commentators and analysts in the media like Michael Irvin and Rush Limbaugh portray the sporting world in a racially stereotypical way that degrades the games and its players alike. Other media figures like Jason Whitlock, Harold Reynolds, Steve Lyons, David Whitley, Jimmy Snyder, and Tom Jackson have also been criticized and in some cases fired for prejudiced comments about sports figures and colleagues (McCarthy C2). As time has progressed, the media has imposed a number of different stereotypes in the world of sports through broadcasting them to their audiences. For example the media commonly portrays blacks as problematic athletes who can run fast, jump high, and who have trouble with basic speech, whereas whites are portrayed as unskilled nerds that can only succeed in hockey and curling. Through the media, fans are given an inaccurate depiction of differently colored athletes because of the many stereotypes the media creates. The media also portrays athletes in negative fashions without regard to their skin color. Bierbach 12 The media publicizes the wrong athletes and actions that provide a faulty portrayal of sports to the nation. Athletes like Pete Rose, Jose Canseco, Dennis Rodman, Bill Romanowski, John Daly, Terrell Owens, and O.J. Simpson proved that even if they “lie, cheat, do drugs, drink too much, disgrace their profession, make fools of themselves, lose their jobs, divorce their spouses, and stand trial for murder” they can still make millions of dollars through the media. Each one of these athletes has published a book, as wrong as it may seem. Terrell Owens even published a children’s book teaching kids how to share (though he obviously has not read it) (Downey). The media coverage and glorification that these players receive clearly disregards the behavior problems that they have had, which negatively affects the prestige of their respective sports. The media has also glorified events such as: “Mike Tyson biting off the ear of Evander Holyfield, Latrell Sprewell choking Coach P.J. Carlesimo, Roberto Alomar spitting in an umpire’s face, Dennis Rodman kicking a spectator in the groin, and O.J. Simpson trying on the bloody glove” (Torr 173). It is bad enough that the media relentlessly covers these embarrassing subjects, but they then use them as selling points to gain ratings and viewers. The media covers these stories rather than stories of good deeds and accomplishments such as the New Orleans Saints helping New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina or Jesse Owens spectacular Olympic triumph over Nazi Germany. The media would rather cover an athlete like Terrell Owens who has demanded trades, criticized teammates, been kicked off his team, gotten into arguments with his coaches, and attempted suicide rather than an athlete like Donald Driver that has donated incalculable amounts of money to charities and does community service whenever he has time to spare. The media has also been known to manipulate comments that athletes say to make them look deceitful in the eyes of the public. New York Giants defensive end, Michael Strahan, called out ESPN reporter, Kelly Naqi, for questioning him on the comments he made Bierbach 13 about wide receiver Plaxico Burress quitting on a play. Strahan responded to the reporter by explaining that he talked to Burress about it, but Naqi insisted that he was calling Burress out. Strahan then went on about how the media only writes negative stories to sell newspapers saying, “The only thing that bothers me is that you mislead people outside of this locker room when you guys spend more time with us than we damn near spend with ourselves sometimes, and that’s a shame,” (qtd. in Associated Press). The media’s twisting of words makes even the best-behaved athletes seem problematic, which in turn makes all of sports look bad. The false interpretations and portrayals of athletes by the media lead the public to think that sports are immature games in which nothing is accomplished. The media of the age must be reformed because of the negative way they impact sports, altering the morals and principles of athletes and reducing the stature of athletics. The media consistently accentuates the less common, unethical actions of players and leagues that discourage fan support for sports. The new multimedia advancements of the twenty-first century have instituted a new type of gambling and more expensive television networks, prompting ingame cheating and discouraging purchases of new technology to follow age-old sports. Extensive media coverage of teenage phenoms has fooled younger generations into thinking that it’s easy to turn professional in sports, and little media coverage for lesser known schools hurts their chances of BCS bowls and recruiting. In addition, the media’s use of sex to sell sports diminishes the reputation sports have worked so hard to achieve in the nation. Sexist opinions relayed through the media affect women’s sports across the nation and discourage fans from partaking in the support of women’s athletics. Racist stereotypes broadcasted through commentator, analysts, and journalists affect individual athletes as well as their sports and fans negatively. Finally, the media inaccurately distinguishes ethical athletes from immoral athletes Bierbach 14 causing a depreciation of respect for all sports. John Wooden’s statement aforementioned would have been an even more accurate depiction of modern sports if he would have ended with a statement saying, “Sports reveal character… then the media strips it away.” Bierbach 15 Works Cited Barnes, Fred. “Sometimes a Game is Just a Game.” Weekly Standard. 26 July 1999. 30 Nov. 2006. . Barnhouse, Wendell. “BCS Powers Would Shrink from the Playoff System.” Fort Worth StarTelegram. 2006. 4 Dec. 2006. . Caesar, Dan. “Selling Sex and Sports.” St. Louis Post. 21 Nov. 2004. 27 Nov. 2006. . Downey, Mike. “Some Athletes are Booked with Bad Behavior.” Chicago Tribune. 2006. 28 Nov. 2006. . Fendrich, Howard. “XFL’s Short Rise, Rapid Fall.” Associated Press. 13 May 2001. 30 Nov. 2006. . Henry, Chris. “ESPN Deserved What it Got with Limbaugh.” Orlando Setinel. 2004. 4 Dec. 2006. . McCarthy, Michael. “Irvin Latest Analyst to Enter Hot Water.” USA Today. 27 Nov. 2006. 30 Nov. 2006. . Price, Tom. “Reforming Big-Time College Sports.” CQ Researcher 14:11 (19 March 2004): 249-272. Reed, Tom. “Doesn’t Age Matter? Young Stars Shine in Sports.” Knight Rider Newspapers. 6 April 2004. 28 Nov. 2006. . “Sports Quotes”. . 3 Dec. 2006. Steinberg, Dan. “Pro Sports: Saving the Game-Welcome to a Mad, Mad, Multimedia World.” Philadelphia Inquirer. 18 Oct. 2005. 30 Nov. 2006. . Bierbach 16 “Strahan Goes off About Reports on Burress Comments.” Associated Press. 30 Nov. 2006. 30 Nov. 2006. . Torr, James. Professional Sports: Examining Pop Culture. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Wilner, Barry. “NFL Adopts Penalty for Celebrations.” Associated Press. 1 April 2004. 27 Nov. 2006. . Winegar, Karlin. “Study: TV Coverage of Female Athletes is Better but not Equal.” Star Tribune. 24 July 1994. 29 November 2006. . Whitley, David. “Seems Like ESPN has Irvin’s Back/ Where’s the Uproar over Radio Fumble?”. Houston Chronicle. 26 Nov. 2006. 29, Nov. 2006. .