What Is Modern Sport?

Conflict Theory was "influenced by Karl Marx's socioeconomic view of the elite exploiting the masses." (Parillo 12). The conflict perspective focuses on the inequalities that create racial and ethnic tensions between groups. In contrast to the fundamentalist's emphasis on stability, conflict theorists maintain, "Racism has much to do with maintaining power and controlling resources." Society is seen as being continually involved in struggles and disagreements as diverse groups struggle over limited resources. The system is hierarchical and characterized by social inequality. Conflict theorists argue that the rich and powerful force social order on the poor and weak and that existing social patterns benefit some people while depriving others. "Conflict theorists

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

Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups (social classes) within society have differing amounts of material and non-material resources (the wealthy vs. the poor) and that the more powerful groups use their power in order to exploit groups with less power.[citation needed]

Conflict theory is the second major school of thought in sociology. It is a macro-level type of approach to understand social interactions in social life, just like functionalism. A difference in conflict theory is that our society is viewed as always being in a constant struggle, unlike functionalism which theorizes that our society is stable. Conflict theory is a paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change, and emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change. Some sociologists may believe that if these tensions, stresses, and struggles never existed in our society people may be more driven to achieve greatness in education, or simply more motivated to set higher goals. Just like functionalism, the conflict theory viewed society on a macro sociological level, but the individual person in our society are having their lives shaped by the economy, control and power. The conflict perspective's main idea is that there are opposing interests

more than sell the product. The athlete actually becomes a ‘human brand’ in his or her own right.”

The teams that have a timeless brand are usually the most successful. “The sports industry has one simple objective: to provide consumers with the experience of playing, watching, hearing or reading about sport games/ events” (Hardy, 1999, p.

Sociology is the study of the social worlds that people create, maintain and change through their relationships with each other. Sports in American society have a major impact on these social worlds and culture throughout the past century. Sports have an impact on social interaction, social structure and the shared ways of life and shared understandings that people develop as they live together. Compared to other forms of physical activities, sports are defined as “well established, officially governed competitive physical activities in which participants are motivated by internal and external rewards.” A critical sociological look into an individual’s development through sport is defined as a Sportography. Darion Scott, born and raised in Compton, California showed me through an interview of his sports history, how sports influenced his life in a positive way and provided a window into his culture and society.

In the past two decades, professional sports have skyrocketed to the top of the world’s cultural hierarchy. In an age where online streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu are leeching viewers from conventional television networks, professional sports have witnessed almost unprecedented growth. According to a 2011 study by A.T. Kearney, the sports industry is growing faster than overall GDP in developed countries such as America (Collington, Sultan, and Santander,“The Sports Market”), and the 2015 Super Bowl was the most watched television broadcast in American history (Pallotta, “Super Bowl XLIX posts the largest audience in TV history”). As the amount of money and attention poured into this booming industry grows, the influence of its

The conflict theory views society as composed of different groups and interested in completing for power and resources (Barkan, 2005). The origins of the conflict theory can be traced back to the work of Karl Marx. Mr. Marx explained in his research that individuals and groups within civilization have differing amounts of materials and non-material resources and that the most powerful groups use their power in order to weary groups with less power (Barkan, 2005).

This article continues to explain that once a sports marketer creates a product and advertises it on a small scale, “Sports marketers get ahead by gradually representing bigger, more important and more prestigious sports teams, companies, associations, and athletes.” In other words, sports marketers need to have a plan of action to promote their product on a larger scale over time. Also, sports marketers spend much of their planning on the aspect of promotion. Mihai verifies that the category of promotion serves to prove that the product is desirable through advertising, sales, sponsorship and public relations. If a sports marketer follows these planning steps, his/her work will lead to a successful product with a large margin of profit.

Conflict theory allows us to see the conflict between social life and capitalism. Marx saw the power struggle between classes and felt that it is wrong to ignore inequality. One of the biggest inequalities between the two classes was the alienation of the workers (Morrison, 2006). Only one class, the wealthy gains the full benefit of the labor. An example of this is a worker who builds something that they will never be able to afford. Because of this the worker loses control of their production. This is what conflict theory is, the power struggle between two

Sports have always been one of the major factors of the society and economy. Back in Ancient Greece, the homeland of the Olympic games, the Greeks believed that a healthy body was very important and sports played an important part of the society. Nowadays, the sport industry has grown to a direct and indirect economic impact of the countries, with organizations and sport events that have fans and supporters from all over the planet that are willing to spend a great amount of money in order to show their support for their favorite team, player or club. That happens because sports entertain people by watching their favorite sport teams play in some of the sports mega-events.

The period of 1865 to 1950 was critical to the formation of “Modern” sport that is recognized today. In an article by Allen Guttmann titled From Ritual to Record: the nature of modern sport, Guttmann outlines seven characteristics that played a central role in the development of sports. These concepts were created as a sociological history of sports and took into place both American and European competitions. Guttmann’s notions of secularism, rationalization, bureaucracy and quantification, among others, all advanced the culture of sports; yet the most important of the stated characteristics is equality.

Sports' marketing is a comparatively new field and dimension within the broad concept of marketing. It is continuously evolving and changing today as society combats the free market to decide the legal and ethical limitations of business today. It is significant to note that this discipline within marketing is not clearly defined. Sports today use corporate sponsorships and television money in order to contend and pay for top quality athletes. Those companies use teams, leagues, colleges, and individuals to make a distinction between their products in a very aggressive business environment. What makes up sports marketing to one person could be considered selling out to another. The business world keeps pushing to find a competitive advantage and the sports world has in general welcomed the money offered (Weikel, n.d.).

The focus of this theory is based on the idea that society consists of patterns of interdependencies among individuals and group sports are exciting activities that alleviate boredom and that manages aggression. Research focuses on developing knowledge that presents valid pictures of reality. “Culture, Civilization and the Sociology of Sport”, centers around discussions of work that the author (Dunning, 1992) and a number of colleagues at the University of Leicester conducted on sports in relation to what their late Norbert Elias (1939) called the theory of the 'Civilizing process". It begins by outlining some of the basic assumptions of the figurational approach from (Mennell, 1989) which this work is