Discuss about the Media and Sports Organization.
Many people all around the world often take sports as a profession. The media has a key role to play in promoting such sportsman (Levermore & Moore, 2015). Moreover, if a sportsman is a newcomer or a sports organization is a newly formed one, then the support of the media is inevitable (Shank & Lyberger, 2014). However, with the increase of the interference of the media on the sports organization, the effects on the athletes are often adverse (Bennett, 2014). It has been seen that the strong influence that the media has on the sports organizations often results in detrimental effects on the interest of the athletes (Martin, Ewing & Gould, 2014). This assignment provides a strong argument for the notion that the powers, that the media has on the sports organizations are detrimental to the interest of the athletes.
It is true, that media is powerful and has a significant role to play in the lives of a sportsman as well as on the sports organizations. The role of media is important in promoting the sports organizations as well as the athletes. The media highlights the achievement of the sportsman and makes him/her famous overnight (Harris et al., 2015). Without the promotional activities of the media, the success of many sports organizations or athletes would remain unrecognized. It is essential that the success story of a sportsman is published and promoted, in order to highlight his achievements, along with acting as a motivation of other potential sportsman (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014). The media indeed has the power to glorify the success of an athlete and ensure that he becomes a role model for other, aspiring to reach the heights of success.
However, it has often been seen that the media interferes more than the power given to the media, to interfere in the lives of the sportsman as well as in the sports organizations (Levermore & Moore, 2015). The media personnel often considers themselves in a decision making position for an athlete or a sports organization (Bennett, 2014). This is a misconception. The role of media is to ensure that the decisions being made by a sports organization is promoted and published to the people all over the world, in order to spread the information. However, the media and the media personnel, often tend to cross the boundary of their interference, thus resulting in detrimental effects on the athletes (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014).
For a good performance of an athlete, it is essential that she/he is in a good and peaceful mental condition. It has been proven that the athletic performance is significantly dependent on the mental state of the sportsman, along with the skills that he/she has acquired (Ganesan, Sridhar, & Ahmed, 2015). Anxiety and mental disturbances, acts as a distraction and hence deteriorates the performances of the athlete. Mental peace is essential for the power of concentration of an athlete (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014). With the power of concentration, the athlete is able to focus on the sports event, ignoring the physical pain that he might be going through. However, the interference of the media results in adverse effects on the sportsman (Harris et al., 2015). It is true that the role of the media is essential for the promotion of a sports organization as well as the athletes, yet interference, more than the scope of the media is harmful (Martin, Ewing & Gould, 2014).
Each sports organization has a specific way of working, with a strong governing body and able board members. The decision making power is retained by the board members and they ensure that the most appropriate decision that is best for the athletes are taken by the board members (Crompton, 2015). However, it has often been seen that the critical decisions such as the training sessions, or the dress code, or the selection of the final team for a national on international sports event is often influenced by the media (Levermore & Moore, 2015). The media, out of the scope of interference, influences the decisions of the media (Bennett, 2014). If the off-screen relation between a sportsman and influential media personnel is positive and friendly, the media ensures that he is chosen in the team that will play a national or international match (Ganesan, Sridhar, & Ahmed, 2015). However, the preparation and skills of the person might not be up to the mark to play a national on international match (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014). Thus, it often happens that an eligible athlete is often replaced by an un-deserving candidate, due to the influence of media on the sports organization and the decision making process of the board of management (Kwak, Kwon & Lim, 2015). The detrimental effects that are seen as a result of this partiality includes lack of motivation of the deserving sportsman, along with the decline in the standard and skills that are required to play a national-level or international game (Harris et al., 2015). With the selection of the undeserving candidate, the deserving candidates fall a prey of the negative effects of the media and thus hampers the career of the athlete (Martin, Ewing & Gould, 2014). Since, media is powerful hence; the career of the athlete, whose relation with media is not good, might be hampered, even if they have the adequate skills of becoming successful (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014).
One of the examples that the world of sports had witnessed is the case of Miki Ando, a two-time Japanese national staking champion, in 2004 junior world championship (Snyder et al., 2015). She became the first female skater to successfully complete quadruple jump in competition (Levermore & Moore, 2015). She soon became a new face in the media as her success was of grand stature. She became a topic of gossip in the Japanese media and magazines (Crompton, 2015). However, the success of Miki Ando was soon over-shadowed by the attire she wore in the national games (Martin, Ewing & Gould, 2014). Thus, the positive media coverage was soon turned into negative criticism, thus hampering the performance of the young athlete, in the upcoming games (Kwak, Kwon & Lim, 2015). The media coverage was so influential and had such a negative effect on the athlete, that the Japanese Skating Federation (JSF) send a formal written request to the media that they should refrain from coverage of the young athlete (Ganesan, Sridhar, & Ahmed, 2015). Moreover, this negative publicity of the media about the dress she wore over-shadowed her performances and had detrimental effects on her career and preparation of upcoming sports events (Bennett, 2014). Thus, the detrimental effect on the athlete hampered the career and performances (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014). After the 2006 Torino Olympics, Ando failed to perform well (Martin, Ewing & Gould, 2014). She was given the 8th position in the women figure skating and the 15th position in the freestyle competition. Many of the experts are of the opinion that this performance was because of the criticism, that the young professional faced, along with the negative publicity of the media (Ganesan, Sridhar, & Ahmed, 2015).
However, JSF is not the only sports organizations who are concerned with the negative effects of media in the Olympics. The Canadian Olympic Committee (2006) , was also another sports organization, concerned with the negative effects of the media (Grohs, Reisinger & Woisetschläger, 2015). This highlighted the facts that the media has indeed overstepped and interfered in the contexts that are solely the decisions of the sports organizations and the athletes (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014). However, the media personnel are of the opinion that they are focussed on highlighting the good performances of the athletes, and does not interfere in the decision making process of the sports organizations (Crompton, 2015). Moreover, they also highlighted the facts that they have never interfered in the areas that are concerned with the sports organizations (Levermore & Moore, 2015). However, the reality is somewhat different from that mentioned by the media personnel (Harris et al., 2015). Another concern that is seen in the athletes is the prediction that the media makes, about the winning or losing of a particular athlete. One example that is seen in this context is described below (Kwak, Kwon & Lim, 2015). After the first gold medal was won by China in 2004, in the Olympic Games, an unexpected won made the media forecast for the win in the future games. The Chinese newspaper, started prediction that their athletes would win the gold medals in the upcoming games (Grohs, Reisinger & Woisetschläger, 2015). However, this had an adverse effect on the mental peace of the athletes, as it created an additional pressure on the them, to fulfil the expectations of the nation (Momaya, Fawal & Estes, 2015). However, unlike the predications, the Chinese athletes did not even make it up to the award stand, thus failing to fulfil the expectations of the nation (Kwak, Kwon & Lim, 2015). Following this event, the Chinese media were of the opinion that the athletes themselves were over-hyped with the winning if the gold medal and their over-confidence doomed the chances of winning the gold in the future games (Snyder et al., 2015). Thus, the media created an immense pressure on the athletes and blamed them for unable to take up the pressures.
Following these incidents, the role of the media was questioned. Since the media should be dedicated to promote and support the athletes’ and ensure that, they are successful in the upcoming games (Grohs, Reisinger & Woisetschläger, 2015). However, the role that media plays is creating immense pressure on the athletes’, along with accusing them unnecessarily. The role of media also includes the social media (Kwak, Kwon & Lim, 2015). The social media should be a catalyst for the assurance of the high performances of the athletes’ and should not act in a way that makes it difficult for the sportsman to achieve success (Prayag et al., 2013). Moreover, teams in a group sports is common (Crompton, 2015). Each team has various supporters. However, the aggressive portrayal of the media creates rivalry among the teams. Moreover, the media promotes aggression among the supporters of the teams, thus creating pressure on the sportsmen (Ganesan, Sridhar, & Ahmed, 2015). Thus, along with an additional pressure created, the media also encourages on/off field display of those aggression (Levermore & Moore, 2015). Thus, instead of supporting the athletes’, the interference of the media makes things adverse for the athletes, having detrimental effects on the career (Snyder et al., 2015).
Another dilemma that is created due to the interference of the media on the athletes’, is on the spot decision making (Grohs, Reisinger & Woisetschläger, 2015). It is often difficult for the athlete to decide on whether to correct the play as instructed by the coach, or ensure that the image in the media is preserved. It is ethical to ensure that the athlete follows the instructions that are being mentioned by the coach (Doyle, Pentecost & Funk, 2014). However, since the athletes’ fear that their media image might be hampered, they focus on retaining their image as a celebrity, rather than an athlete. Thus, the quality of the play is degraded. For example, in basketball matches it is often seen that the defender often moves out of the way instead of jumping to defend the basket being made (Crompton, 2015). Defending the ball would have been the ethical way of playing and following the true sportsman spirit (Ganesan, Sridhar, & Ahmed, 2015). However, the basketball players often give priority to their media image, thus hampering the quality and ethical norms of play.
Along with on-field pressure, the media also impose off-field pressure. This includes the negative publicity of the athlete and critics in the various media, thus affecting the career of the athlete. Moreover, the aggressions displayed by the fans are often triggered by the negative publicity of the media (Harris et al., 2015). This also has a detrimental effect of the career of the athletes and they fear that their career might be doomed, due to the negative publicity of the media. Thus, the powers of media on the sports organizations have a detrimental effect on the athletes.
References
Bennett III, R. A. (2014). Sports Fans 2.0: How Fans Are Using Social Media to Get Closer to the Game by David M. Sutera. Journal of Sport History, 41(2), 369-370.
Crompton, J. L. (2015). Potential negative outcomes from sports sponsorship. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 16(3), 20-34.
Doyle, J. P., Pentecost, R. D., & Funk, D. C. (2014). The effect of familiarity on associated sponsor and event brand attitudes following negative celebrity endorser publicity. Sport Management Review, 17(3), 310-323.
Ganesan, P., Sridhar, M., & Ahmed, K. (2015). Effect Of Negative Publicity And Fans Response On Affinity, Trust And Loyalty–An Experimental Study Related To Ipl-T20 Cricket Team. Global Management Review, 10(1).
Grohs, R., Reisinger, H., & Woisetschläger, D. M. (2015). Attenuation of negative sponsorship effects in the context of rival sports teams’ fans. European Journal of Marketing, 49(11/12), 1880-1901.
Harris, A., Gundersen, H., Mørk-Andreassen, P., Thun, E., Bjorvatn, B., & Pallesen, S. (2015). Restricted use of electronic media, sleep, performance, and mood in high school athletes—a randomized trial. Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, 1(4), 314-321.
Kwak, D. H., Kwon, Y., & Lim, C. (2015). Licensing a sports brand: effects of team brand cue, identification, and performance priming on multidimensional values and purchase intentions. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(3), 198-210.
Levermore, R., & Moore, N. (2015). The need to apply new theories to “Sport CSR”. Corporate Governance, 15(2), 249-253.
Martin, E. M., Ewing, M. E., & Gould, D. (2014). Social agents’ influence on self-perceived good and bad behavior of American youth involved in sport: Developmental level, gender, and competitive level effects. The Sport Psychologist, 28(2), 111-123.
Mathewson, K. (2017). A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Representation Of Student-Athletes In Visual Media (Doctoral dissertation, Appalachian State University).
Momaya, A., Fawal, M., & Estes, R. (2015). Performance-enhancing substances in sports: a review of the literature. Sports Medicine, 45(4), 517-531.
Prayag, G., Hosany, S., Nunkoo, R., & Alders, T. (2013). London residents’ support for the 2012 Olympic Games: The mediating effect of overall attitude. Tourism Management, 36, 629-640.
Shank, M. D., & Lyberger, M. R. (2014). Sports marketing: A strategic perspective. Routledge.
Snyder, P., Matsumoto, A. M., Fricker, P., & Martin, K. A. (2015). Use of androgens and other hormones by athletes.
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