Media, What Have You Done to Sports?

I feel slightly uncomfortable presenting this paper today. This is the second time I have attended this conference and feel it is one of the best offered. I am an outsider, as it were, an academic surrounded by journalists who earn their keep by reporting sport to the world. And I am going to talk about problems I see in sports media. My point of reference is American sport and sport media, but I submit that we are the model that many in the world are striving to imitate. It is not inconceivable for similar problems to be identified in the media of any country.

I like sport. I have been a part of sport for a long time. I am troubled, however, by what I see happening in sport and how it is handled by the media. I am a former college athlete. I have coached at all levels from 6-year olds through college. I am a registered track and field official who has officiated at state, regional, national, and international championship meets. I enjoy watching competitions on television and in person, and I am a long-time Chicago Cubs fan. I have had the chance to read my name in the sports pages of newspapers and enjoyed the perceived prestige that goes with that. I have been involved with organized athletics in some form since 1954. Now I am an academic who studies and teaches sport. When I study sport I have found it to a vast and fascinating subject. However, I have found that as I study sport I frequently become frustrated and disappointed in what I discover, and in the contradictions that seem to occur regularly.

As a fan, as well as in my study of sport, I read the sport pages and popular journals, I listen to sports programs on the radio, I watch sports programs on TV, and I am becoming more aware of sports options on the Internet. These are the windows that most people use to access sports. Even though many people attend the competitions, more experience them only through the media. We use this medium to experience sports vicariously. It is a powerful attraction. Television, in particular, has been instrumental in bringing sports to people throughout the globe. The Internet is fast assuming a major role as well. Both have also led the way in changing sport into a media production rather than a game. Because it is such a powerful way to experience sports, it has created some tension and an interesting scenario for the media, and perhaps made its focus less clear.

I would like to consider four points that I see providing contradictions in sport media: (1) what is the definition of sport; (2) the role of coercion in sport journalism; (3) ethical issues facing sport journalists; and (4) the role of media in altering the form of sport.

Mass media has two principle roles (1) news gathering and processing, and (2) entertainment. In addition, media content, in this case sport, can be used to advertise innumerable goods whose mass production demands an equivalent level of mass consumption. (Rowe 1999) Publicly funded media have the additional responsibility of fostering national culture, a sense of belonging to the nation which brings its various citizens together across the barriers of locality, class, age, race, ethnicity, gender, and so on. We must recognize that sport has become a powerful expression of culture throughout the world. One only has to look at the Olympics or the World Cup to confirm the national role sports plays in countries around the globe. In fact, some may even argue that sport has become the culture of the United States. And Noll has suggested that European sport is becoming more like Americas, especially where teams are becoming brands rather than sources of local identity. (Andrews 1998) But this trinity of news, entertainment, and culture creates an environment that is vulnerable to conflict.

Part of the conflict is the ambiguity of just what constitutes sport? How is it defined in ones culture? How do philosophers and sociologists define sport? How do athletes and coaches define sport? Most agree that it is a competition between two individuals or teams of individuals that is governed by rules and where the outcome is to win. Higgs offered three different definitions of sport in his book:

1.Sport is a form of adiphora, or things indifferent, a theological concept that would mean that sports have no effect on cultural values and deserve little attention.

2.Sports belong to what sports commentator Howard Cosell called the Toy Department of Life, not really a serious part of our lives, but nevertheless with a value worth holding on to.

3.Sports, as poet Robert Frost proclaimed, lies near the soul of culture, displaying and even proving all we hold dear.(Higgs 1995)

How about a practical definition. Rupert Murdoch believes that sport absolutely overpowers all other programming as an incentive for viewers to subscribe to cable and satellite TV. He told his shareholders in a 1996 message: We intend to . . . use sports as a battering ram and a lead-offering in all our pay-television operations. (Andrews 1998) Successful stations can raise their advertising rates if they broadcast a network program that attracts a bigger audience. Most sporting events may not make money in themselves for the networks, and only the NFLs Super Bowl and baseballs World Series do this consistently. But the point is that once viewers have switched on to one channel, they are less likely to switch to another. As Murdoch has said, sport is TVs best loss-leader. (Andrews 1998) He is also currently learning about the high cost of bidding for broadcast rights.

But how does the sports media define sport? I sometimes fear that media tries to define sport by the content of its pages or programming. That is to say, sport is what is covered in the media. I will allude to this later, but this often becomes gender biased and driven by the demands of the perceived audience. If there is no audience for your news and programming, then advertisers will not look favorably at you, and then issue of revenue streams enters the picture. But it is important to recognize that sports media tend to define sports by the content of their pages or programs rather than by some more comprehensive definition. And it is very important to remember that big time media sport is big money.

It has been suggested by Wenner that for the pubic media to fail to produce copious quantities of information and entertainment would imply the unthinkable that the nation is not dutifully served or, worse, that during breaks in transmission it does not exist! All media public or private have to deal with the question of a public. While it is too simplistic to reduce all media relations simply to one group, that is, the audience accepting or rejecting the product of another, such as, journalists, film-makers, pop musicians, television directors, and so on, there is no doubt that, ultimately, audiences are crucial to the success of media enterprises. (Wenner 1998) This need for an audience has lead to interesting competitions among the various forms of the media, and within subgroups of the media. It has created sports specific media that produces programming 24 hours per day, seven days per week, which finds itself trying to find more and more creative options to lure and hold an audience. Media has to walk a fine line and be careful not to create apathy in its audiences with its in-depth, behind-the-curtain, full-access looks at all levels of players, coaches, teams, and games in its effort to fill pages and time.

An example of what is becoming a more common phenomenon is the Fox Sports Television Network show, The Best Damned Sports Show, Period. As pointed out in a New York Post article by Mushnick, this show should probably be renamed The Worst Damn Sports Show, Exclamation Point. (Mushnick 2002) Mushnick contends that the regular co-hosts/panelists on the show, that include several former professional athletes, are really grown men who are still adolescents. The mission of these adults is to entertain through mean-spirited putdowns, sexual innuendo, insipid trash-talk, and swarmy chit-chat. Sports issues of the day serve both as a catalyst and a mere prop. The show succeeds in its aim, which is between the sewer and below the belt.

This show has become, in large part by default, the showcase program for the Fox Sports Network. Repeated throughout the week and around the clock, it continuously demonstrates the depths to which TV folks not just sports TV folks will stoop to attract a young male audience. What is perhaps more disturbing is the lack of moral response to this situation by the media especially when compared to the quick media responses to the moral wrong doings of athletes. This begs two questions: first, should the media establish and enforce standards or guidelines for programming, and secondly, and probably more importantly, just what are the ethical and moral obligations of the sports media?

This also suggests that the media is vulnerable to coercion, just as athletes are. Coercion in sports refers to the subtle but very strong pressure put on athletes in their desire to compete. The choice for an athlete is to play during the game or be a substitute on the bench with limited playing time. All athletes strive to be one of the players, and the more elite the level of performance, the smaller the differences between the players. This means that they accept hard training and long hours of preparation. They work as hard or harder in the off-season to prepare as they do during the season to play. This means that they may do things that they normally would not do in other situations. For example, if the coach suggests that the athlete needs to gain strength and bulk, the athlete may resort to performance enhancing drugs. The consequence of not gaining strength and bulk is to not play, to be a substitute, a second stringer. The athlete may be forced to do unethical actions, such as cheating or committing violent acts, in order to play. They are coerced into committing these acts if they want to play.

Media is faced with coercion too. It is important to fill all the pages with words and all the airtime with programming. What is the reason shows like The Best Damn Sports Program, Period are conceived and produced? Is it because it is insightful? Is it a concern that if you do not do this the competition will? It is crucial that you create and maintain a loyal audience, because if you do not broadcast popular shows and major events, someone else will. Advertisers respond to options that best support their needs.

There are two good recent examples of coercion in sport media. At the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, there were over 12,000 journalists attending and only 10,500 athletes. (Blain, Boyle et al. 1993) Is this a question of redundancy or thorough coverage? Did media feel coerced to cover the Games? Was their role in the globalized media potentially jeopardized? This past summer, Minneapolis hosted the 84th PGA Championships. This major golf event attracted worldwide attention. The major daily newspaper in the twin city of St. Paul, the Pioneer Press, published a 30-page supplement on opening day covering the event. Not to be outdone, the major daily newspaper from Minneapolis, The Star Tribune, published a 56-page supplement covering the tournament on the opening day, and they assigned 26 staff persons to cover the event. The local CBS affiliate radio station did all of its daily program broadcasting live from the golf course for an entire week. One needs to ask, just how much news does one event generate? How many people and hours are necessary to cover this news? These newspapers and this radio station, all large and well-known media outlets, seemed to fear that if they did not cover the event someone else would and they would loose face. I submit they were coerced into that level of coverage.

Over a year prior to that PGA event, Cox wrote an op-ed piece criticizing the Minneapolis Star Tribune because of its extensive coverage of the NCAA Regional College basketball games held in Minneapolis. (Cox 2001) Cox begins by remembering when the local newspaper was the primary source of information to the community. It delivered news, analysis and opinion that helped citizens make informed personal and political choices. It supported our democratic system of government. He goes on to state that the bloated coverage of this basketball tournament was representative of how sports coverage has routinely come to dominate this particular paper. He further laments that where else can you find British football league standings and updates from the waiver wire and not find any results of the Minneapolis City Council votes. The paper even hired an ice hockey beat reporter before a City Hall reporter. Sports provide a diversion from the rigors of life. They have been described as the toy department of life. But when the editor of this Minneapolis paper claimed the paper would go out of business if it did not provide its readers with a fun, useful, and interesting product he says a lot about how this particular paper views its audience.

Perhaps Phillips stated it best as he questioned the justification for the extensive publication and broadcasting of sport. He says that there is a sense in which the media has yet to find wholly and adequate means of covering sport. Where does sport fit in? Is it news, leisure or entertainment? How often should it be given the front page or the peak-time television slot? Does it warrant such attention? Why broadcast live sport and not, say, live theater? (Phillips 1998)

Sports writers have what many consider to be an ideal job. They get to see and write about the things they like. They get good seats at games and are able to talk with celebrities on a regular basis. However, it is also been noted that sports editors are more likely to excuse sloppy writing than editors of other sections in the papers do. Sports writers do not seem to be motivated to advance, except for the few that become sports editors, and sports writers and their editors do not become editors of newspapers. (Wenner 1998) Maybe it doesnt get any better than being a sports writer. They write about public events with results that are public knowledge. Their challenge is to make the audience want to read more about these public events.

The media that deals with sport has to face another problem the morals, or lack of morals that have become more inherent in sport. Sport at all levels has been racked by one moral controversy after another. It is almost a truism that socialization into sports nowadays has much to do with becoming adept at breaking and bending rules, not to mention other forms of cheating and violence, as it does with the furtherance of athletic excellence. (Morgan 2002) The media is still trying to come to grips with how it should deal with this issue. It wants to report on the heroes of sport, and by extension, of the culture. But it also seems to be fascinated by the anti-heroes of sport, those whose public and private lives are full of problems.

I would like to give a few examples of my concerns. Lets start with the arrest of NBA star Allen Iverson last summer. The episode involved possible charges of domestic violence against Iverson. In this case he allegedly threw his wife out of the house and onto the lawn, naked, in the middle of the night after an argument. Two days later he apparently forced his way into a cousins apartment, brandishing a pistol, while looking for his wife. The police were called several hours later and Iverson was arrested and charged. Several things happened with this case. First, the media descended on Iversons house in a horde. They created a media circus and camped outside waiting for some glimpse of the NBA star or perhaps some tiny bit of information that would result in a story.

The intense publicity made Iversons home a tourist attraction in Philadelphia. The media made a cartoon of the Iverson story creating a summer serial about a rich familys domestic disharmony. The Iversons served up slices to an insatiable media. The feeding frenzy by the media produced a story that pre-judged Iverson based on previous bits of information that could be dug up. Regardless of the outcome of the legal case, Iverson, and actually by extension, the NBA became ridiculous. The suggestion was that professional athletes were out-of-control and that the NBA did not really care if they were involved in socially unacceptable behavior as long as they were productive as athletes. The stories condemned Iverson for this alleged act before any trial was held. Charges were dropped against Iverson later in the summer.

This case also suggests that sports writers may consider themselves the nations moral guardians. Most of the high-minded columnists presumed Iversons guilt, based in part on his previous weapons charge, but also because sportwriting and broadcasting is, as Rushing states, incapable of acknowledging shades of gray. You are either a great man (based on athletic performance) or a great Satan (based on a personal episode), but you can never be a bit of both. That would suggest that superstars are complex and perhaps human, and I'm not sure we want to consider these stars and heroes as human like us. (Rushin 2002) We want them to heroic something we cannot be ourselves. It has been suggested that sports in general, and sports media, in particular, are more concerned with doing rather than being. It is easier to write about some ones accomplishments rather than their character.

The results of competitions are clear. But often performance on the court, field, rink, and so forth can excuse inappropriate behavior off the field. We have come to expect this inappropriate behavior in athletes, so the question is not why, but rather when. Our main concern, and the apparent concern of the sports media, is to be able to watch the best possible athletes perform in competition. What the athletes do outside the games usually doesnt affect game performance, so what is the big deal? Charles Barkley, former star player in the NBA, was once quoted as saying, I was hired to play basketball, not to be a role model. Perhaps he speaks for too many of us.

A second example in American sport illustrates how media works to create news and audiences. The Super Bowl of the NFL has become a mega event that is built up over approximately six weeks of play-offs. It has become the event with the $40,000/second commercials that are often more entertaining than the game. But more importantly, the Super Bowl has become a daylong event. The Fox Television Network schedule is heavily promoted in day that features some five hours of pregame programming to hype what is typically a three hour long game where the ball is actually in play for only a few minutes. (Wenner 1998) The networks try to design an event that will attract a vast audience, and consequently advertisers.

This is a phenomenon that I believe is becoming more wide spread in sports programming throughout the world. We are becoming very used to watching and listening to well-tanned commentators with straight white teeth and constant smiles explain ALL, and I emphasize ALL the intricacies of the game. Often these commentators are former players or coaches themselves, and therefore considered to be legitimate experts. After all, they have been in the middle of these games before, and they have trained and competed and won and lost games and are the ones best able to deliver the insight necessary to better help the audience better appreciate what they will, or have just seen. Networks seem to feel obligated to include former players and coaches on their broadcast crews, regardless if any of them can ask intelligent questions. Often they seem to be more intent on entertaining than informing.

To further illustrate lets look at how television produces sports events. American television, in particular, has developed a very sophisticated system of broadcasting competitions. Early sports production utilized the equipment and techniques that were designed for studios. Games are played in a variety of venues, often in terrible weather conditions, and in a range of lighting conditions and made for inconsistent production. The results of the game are uncertain but the production quality of the game need not be uncertain. So the task of TV was to make the experience very appealing to the viewers. As Goldlust points out, spectators who buy a ticket to attend a game become a more captive audience. They are able to watch all the action even if some seats are not as good as others. TV audiences, on the other hand, are more fickle. They can change the channel or even worse, not watch anything at all. The challenge is to make them watch. And this is where the entertainment part of sport media is most significant.

Typically this is done with a commentary team comprised of an anchor with one or more expert commentators and several roving specialists. Each member of the team has an assigned specific job. Some describe the action; others make assessments or evaluations on strategy, tactics, or technical aspects of the game. Some comment on extra-game aspects relating to the crowd, the venue, and the atmosphere of the occasion. They can also carry out interviews with coaches, managers, players, and even celebrities and ordinary spectators. They update us on injuries during the game.

This commentary team is enhanced with all the technical advances that now give us, in addition to the footage of the actual game, instant replay, reverse angle views, stop action, and spontaneous or pre-arranged live coverage of non-action events of the game. International sound is created by placing microphones around the playing field and around the venue itself. The sources are balanced and mixed together to provide the home viewer with the same sense of the sounds and noises experienced by the spectator in the stadium.(Goldlust 1987) In fact, new sports venues are now built with very sophisticated media production facilities.

And the pre- and post-game commentary, plus the commentary during the game are intended to help the viewer. But what television does here is create an experience that is different than actually attending the game itself, and the networks hope it is one that is more appealing. When I attend a game I watch and may talk about what is happening with friends. But at home when I watch alone or with friends, I am constantly bombarded with more information than I or any one else need. All the video options, especially replays and close-up shots provide the TV viewer with a situation that is assumed to be superior to actually watching the game in person. This is how they try to make sure that the viewer does not change the channels, or worse yet, turn off the television.

The print media is involved here too. The lead-up to big games is filled with speculation and conjecture on the outcome. Match-ups between players or teams or sometimes coaches are examined in depth. Fan interest is hyped and each print media wants them to return to their publication for post-game reporting and analysis. They too are seeking to create a loyal audience.

American football is a very macho sport. It is a mans world, but progress is being made and many deliberate attempts are being made to bring women into the audience. As an example, it is not unusual to have sideline reporters on each side of the field to provide up-to-the-minute and on-site details on injuries, strategies etc. These are sometimes former players, sometimes male commentators, but also the place where you are most likely to see female sports reporters working an NFL or college game. On the sideline they can provide the latest news, but they certainly arent expected to be able to analyze situations and provide insightful clarification and commentary. They are still outsiders. They are little more than window dressing, and only a step up from the cheerleaders who also get to stand along the sidelines during the game for our entertainment. In most sports, men are on the field and women are on the sidelines.

Feminists have long complained about the gender bias in sports, but have also suggested that news reporting in general is written by men, interpreted by men, and written for men. (Worshing 2000) This becomes very obvious in sports reporting and sports media and creates a dilemma for program directors and editors. There is a vast potential audience out there half the population. It is to the advantage of these entities to curry the favor of women. Female sports reporters and writers are now more commonplace, but still not considered as knowledgeable or significant as male reporters and writers. Demographic studies have been completed to try to understand which programming and stories most appeal to this segment of the audience. For example, NBC televises the Olympics by showing parts of competitions, and many personal interest stories of athletes. The latter has been identified as being more appealing to women than actual coverage of a competitive event.

But TV has also had a more direct influence on what we watch. Competition formats have been changed to better accommodate broadcast conditions where 30-minute segments dictate the broadcast day. Specific examples include: the 1988 Commonwealth Bank Cycling Classic in New South Wales, where competitors were ordered out of bed 30 minutes early to complete one lap of the course, then stopped and informed by the organizers that they had unknowingly staged a dummy start for the benefit of a TV crew. They were told the real race would start in 30 minutes. Drivers in the 1989 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide risked their lives by racing in a blinding rainstorm, because a postponement would have prevented advertisers from reaching a global TV market. The starting times for the mens 100 meter race at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul was moved forward by three hours to start at 2:00 p.m. to accommodate the Americans in prime viewing time. Players, umpires and 95,000 fans of Australian football were forced to wait several minutes for the start of the second half of a game so that Channel Seven could screen a backlog of commercials. The 1992 Indy Grand Prix was moved up three hours so it would not conflict with Channel Nines telecast of a World Cup cricket match. Badminton and volleyball matches were re-configured to better match a set time for TV broadcasts. Tie breaks have been added to tennis and golf to better control the length of the matches. The starting times of most professional and collegiate sports in America, and the Olympic Games are dictated by television. TV time outs regularly interrupt the natural flow of games on American television. And live coverage with mini-cams has altered the perspective of the viewing audience who watched expedition climbing.

Experts fear that spectators will attempt similar climbs without recognizing the danger and the necessary training and expertise. (Roderick 2001) It has also been noted that year around media coverage of sport that has lead to a loss of our sporting calendar, and sports are no longer just played during the traditional seasons. (Winder 201) Seasons have been extended for play-offs so that the fans can watch a sport for months on end. American NBA basketball and NFL hockey are prime examples with seasons that begin in October and conclude in June.

If you look carefully at these examples, you begin to see how the trinity of news, entertainment, and culture become more similar and less distinct. What should be reported in the sports media? What constitutes sports? It sometimes seems that what is printed in the sports pages or broadcast on the sports programs is sport. In other words, the media defines sport. Of course, there are there are the traditional team sports, soccer, American football, basketball, rugby, baseball, and so on. You will also find coverage of bicycle racing, tennis, golf, and horse racing. But even in this incomplete list you see a ranking of how much coverage the different sports have, and you should recognize that sports with female athletes are not really on this list. It could be argued that the stories are directed at the audience, mostly male from 18-50 years of age. But how do you bring females into your audience?

Here is a further example of content that looks at a moral issue and the audience. A few years ago I attended a national conference on sports ethics, where there was a session with a panel of national sports journalists. Each made introductory remarks and then the floor was opened to questions. A member of the audience asked, If I want to find out the going price for a prostitute, I cannot look in the paper for the current market price. If I want to buy some marijuana I cannot check in the paper for the price on the street. If I were a pedophile I could not look up the going rate for a child for a sexual experience. But, in the United States, where gambling is legal in only one county in the entire country, I can look in any sports pages in the country to find out what the betting line is on most major sporting events. Why?

The first response from the panelists was silence, followed by some squirming and shuffling of papers. Then the guarded responses. Basically to a person they said that the betting line was published because the editors wanted it included and the readers demanded it. It did not make any difference to them that sport gambling is a major problem in the United States, and organizations like the NCAA are trying hard to combat its influence on the college games that are played. Even a recent news article in the Dallas Morning News suggested that gambling interests motivated the judging scandal at the Salt Lake City Olympics. (Harasta 2002) Isnt this an interesting contrast from the same people who rise to high moral ground when athletes do things they shouldnt, like the Iverson case mentioned earlier? The legality or morality of the issue is not as important as something that may enhance readership and make the advertising dollars more secure. The sports reported in this case seem to be dictated by audience. Is that wrong? Or is that just smart journalism?

Sports media is a part of a growing global communications complex. It is recognition of the growing role of sport in the global culture. That does not mean that there are not problems. I submit that sports journalists are becoming more and more like pawns in this push to join this growing enterprise. The role of sports journalism seems to be evolving more towards entertainment and away from news. Part of the problem is related to an ambiguous definition of sport by the media. Part of it results from the coercion to produce news, regardless of its significance. Part of it is how the media responds to ethical issues in what it reports and how it reports it. And part of it is a result of how the media wants to re-package sport to fit broadcast parameters.

This brings me to my most disturbing thought, that the only real game that is played is gambling. Everything else supports and enables this game to be played. Perhaps this is the role of sport in society - to provide the means for gambling. Games and competitions provide the opportunity for gambling. We speculate on the outcome before the competition is held, and then place our bets. In fact, sometimes the actual competition is anti-climatic when it does not meet our expectations. Sports media specializes in this with articles by writers and columnists that provide all kinds of insight into what may happen in the contests. It is scary to contemplate if this is true that games and competitions serve primarily as facilitators for gambling interests. If it is, and we enable it to continue, then it is a terrible loss for everybody.

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