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Sport and the Media Essay examples

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Sport and the Media

The growth of television as a significant cultural form during the 1960s put the relationship between sport and the media on the public agenda. In late 1969, the US magazine Sports Illustrated drew attention to the ways in which television was transforming sport. In effect, sport in the television age was a 'whole new game'. The growing economic and cultural significance of television for sport gradually became a pertinent issue in countries around the world.Clearly sport and television had developed a degree of interdependence. They belonged together 'like ham and eggs'. In the view of some, television had 'made' sport

Newsweek expressed concern, in 1967, over the extent …show more content…

Media organizations exist within legal frameworks that determine their scope. In the United Kingdom, the BBC is a public corporation, and the ITV system is overseen by a public body, the Independent Television Commission. Both are charged with a statutory responsibility to provide a broad range of material, which includes sport coverage. The introduction of Channel 4 in 1982, with its statutory obligation to be alternative and innovative, had an impact on the range of sports covered In the USA free market forces are not subject to as much restriction, but there are still laws, rules and regulations that impact upon sport coverage

The press in both countries are subject to less restriction from government. Sport coverage in the British tabloid press is dominated by a very small range of sports, with football typically providing more than half of the content. While some sport events, such as the Olympic games and the soccer World Cup, win huge audiences, the audience for much television sport is not, by television's standards, large. Part of the appeal of sport for television producers is its cheapness. It can fill hours of the schedule at relatively low cost. A substantial amount of television sport, lacking major audience

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