The sports industry has been around since the 19th century and since then has always been dependent upon sport communication. Sport communications is a powerful activity because it has the ability to influence public opinion. “Sport communication is defined as process by which people in sport, in a sport setting, or through a sport endeavor share symbols as they create meaning through interaction,” (Laucella, Miloch, & Pedersen p.10). In other words, as long as athletes keep playing their sports, they are usually considered role models. Their daily examples cannot only affect the engagement into sports, but also social and individual behavior of people. At the same time, the debate about different gender, racial, and national groups engaged in sports is very important because it defines what topics are present in the public opinion and which are discussed. Unfortunately, in today’s news sport communication is still maintaining status quo relative to the different minority groups and violence in sports. Firstly, the coverage and portrayal of minorities in sport communication continues to recreate the underrepresentation of those groups in the public circle. For many years, sport organizations have been dealing with matters related to minorities in the areas of not hiring enough of them. For example, “until the mid-1970’s, African Americans received very limited coverage in sport media,” (Laucella, Miloch, & Pedersen p. 317). That is to say, that the small coverage of the
Shaun Powell's book, “Souled Out? How Blacks Are Winning and Losing in Sports” scrutinizes the paradoxes of African-American success in sports. Perturbed predominantly with the erroneous perceived accomplishment of equality through sports across the world, Powell offers his work as a portrayal of the evolution of African-american athletes over time and compares past struggles with modern day issues. Powell discusses how African American’s are both winning and losing in sports, but ultimately emphasizes the negative aspects of the on-going crisis. Powell, a well-known journalist, reviews and discusses how education, professional activism, media, and community relate and affect African-Americans in sports, therefore persuasively conveying his argument.
One interesting view by Douglas Hartmann in his journal article entitled “Rethinking The Relationships Between Sports And Race In American Culture: Golden Ghettos And Contested Terrain” said that racial issues in sport is; borrowing Stuart Hall (1981) words- “a contested racial terrain” (qtd. in Hartmann 241). The “contested racial terrain” is defined as “a social site where racial images, ideologies, and inequalities are constructed, transformed, and constantly struggled over” (Hartmann 230). In other words, sports have become a medium where the definition and limitation of racism created. This also means that the definition of racial issues will constantly change over time. Hartmann view is interesting seeing that he believes that the context of racism in sports are actually broader than we actually think. He did not agree with the simple view of because racial discrimination happens in our society, thus racial discrimination also happens in sports (Hartmann 242). He further delves into two interesting problems in stereotyping and biasing.
It is no doubt that African-Americans make up a majority of the population when it comes to globally known sports such as basketball and football. We often ignore that there is still racism present in games, just because there are minorities within the atmosphere. Sports as mentioned by Harrison, “is upheld as a meritocratic social arena in which other disadvantages groups can excel.” However, I argue that other disadvantaged groups find it tough, sometimes impossible, to excel in individual sports when they are constantly looked down upon or not welcomed in a sport where there’s white domination.
Like many Americans we watch sports on any day of the week football,basketball,tennis,soccer,hockey and golf and we root and shout for our favorite team. But what really stands out to me in sports is there are a dominate number of minorities playing professional football and basketball which is not a problem what people have to understand that most minorities in professional sports come from a long childhood of violence drugs,bad neighborhoods and tough living situations and as an African American living in poverty growing up its our goal is to play a professional sport and earn a huge salary playing the game we always wanted for a living.
In recent history it has been evident that some of the most popularize sports in America have been dominated and overran by African American and other minority athletes. In turn when the coaching and management positions in sports are analyzed and broken down, the number of minority coaches and managers in sport are almost non-existent and have been since those sports organization became established.
The topic of race in sport, particularly African Americans in sport, has long been a controversial yet, widely discussed matter. Human and social issues are never easy subjects to discuss or debate, and racial differences tend to provoke very strong reactions. To begin, we will explore those whom claim that black athletes excel in sports as a result of their biological make up. Of all players in the NBA, more than 75% of them are black; of all players in the WNBA, more than 70% of them are black; of all players in the NFL, more than 65% of them are black (Hoenig, 2014). Evidently, black athletes make up a vast majority of these sports in the United States. Athletes must be of elite caliber to have the ability to play at this level, so this
Basketball, football, and hockey are considered the most popular sports in America as of today. However, sports in the early 1950s were not as popular as they are now. According to “An Exercise in Subtleties and the Transmission of Racism: An Analysis of Sports Illustrated Covers” by Eric Primm, Summer DuBois, and Robert M. Regoli, they stated that American love their sport and that “each year they would spend billions of dollars on sports-related items and activities.” The media help promote the popularity of the sports in America. Consequently, sports media “plays a key role in perpetuating the types of racial stereotypes about minority athletes in sports” (Ismond, 115). The thesis of this writing project is with some racial stereotype reinforcement
Sports are played and viewed on the television by individuals from every social class, however, the general population is mostly accountable for the tremendous popularity of sports. People from all over the world watch popular social events, such as the
Gender classification is a predominant topic within today’s sports and is most broadly understood through the portrayals of sports media. Through overt and covert ways, sports media has continued to promote a masculine representation of sports (Millington & Wilson, 2010; Messener, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993). By understanding the way in which sports media portrays sports, one can recognize how masculinity has dominated the world of sports. With the aid of two unique studies of sports media, this paper will critique the way in which media has effected the gendered depiction of sports.
I would like to discuss the issue of race and ethnicity in sports. We will also explore the bigger questions. How much does race and ethnicity matter in the sports world? Are certain races dominant in certain sports? Is there a difference in how we treat players based on race and ethnicity? Does it matter? I would like to answer some of these questions and gain a better understanding of how much of a part they play.
For this assignment, we were asked to interview a Uconn alum about their job in sports communication, I was assigned to Steve Lewis. Steve Lewis is a sports publicity assistant at Yale University. During his time at Uconn Steve worked as a summer intern for the former, New Britain Rock Cats baseball club, which included game day duties and customer service. After graduation from Uconn in 2014, Steve was hired at Yale working with sports publicity focusing mostly on baseball and women’s basketball. When we spoke on the phone and discussed his job responsibilities and his thoughts on being in the sport communication world. In fact, Steve informed me that just this week he is coming back to work at Uconn to be an athletic communications assistant.
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.
Black Female athletes’ representation reflect the dominant populations culture and language. For example how female athletes use platforms such as the magazine version of ESPN to represent themselves in a different light than on the network
Sports of old were merely competitive activities rooted in heroism and romanticism. Sports activities today, however, have no such innocence or simplicity. Currently in America, the activities that make up our sports culture is not only the competitive events themselves but the processes and issues that underlie and surround them. Entwined in our sports culture is the giant business of mass broadcasting. Indeed, sports and the media go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like Mickey and Minnie, Darth Vader and Luke. They are intertwined and depend on each other to continue to grow. Sports media includes television, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, films, and, now, most importantly, social media devices provided by the
For the past years the media has had a big effect on society. Many people rely on the media for news or sports coverage but they don’t realize that the media may influence people’s beliefs or way of behaving. The media covers sports in order to provide information to the fans but they also can create fake news to spark controversy in sports. The world of sports is largely affected by the media as they are a big topic to talk about throughout all kinds of media. Although the media can provide information of sports to fans, it can also create positive and negative conditions for the athletes. The media’s portrayal of sports creates rivalries between teams and players which increases competitiveness, damages professional relationships, and