The higher class workers probably wont work as long as some one from a lower class as their jobs are paid well enough for them only to work 4 to 5 days a week, and have the rest of the time to play their sport. It would also be very difficult for a lower class person to even fit into playing golf or crocket, as such a large amount of higher class people play it and have certain teams and people that are aloud to play. It would be the same for a higher class person who wanted to start playing football or rugby it would not be as hard for them to get involved but it would still be seen as them playing with the wrong sort of social class and this is why there is such a big divide in the sort of class of people that play certain sports.
At the sametime people that are in full-time work are committed to responsibilities and therefore cant play sport all of the time, the people that play most of the sport are actually students even though they aren’t included in the social class standings, they still have more time and less responsibilities so that they can enjoy and play more sports with their time.
Social class is often the problem with people wanting to take part in certain sports in the UK as many hidden problems are such as status, where you live, what school you went to and who you socialise with.
In the USA things are abit different as they don’t have a social class structure, it has a system that is dominated by race and ethnicity, as whites hold majority of the power with Latin and black/African holding little power although in time this is changing.
Examples of racial divides in the USA is very clear to see as black baseball players once had to play in their own leagues, and whites had their own leagues.
Baseball also shows us that there is a huge divide as only black players will play in certain positions such as fielders with the whites only playing batsmen and catchers with the rest of the positions being taken up by Latin Americans.
It’s the same with American football normally the quarter back is the only white player in the team because the quarter back is the player that controls the game and chooses when to attack, as this is seen that this position isn’t given to a black person as it is to important this shows that whites still have power over everyone else in American sports.
Some people may not be able to play sports as they have not enough money to do so, or their work life could get in the way of things, they could have very busy social life’s, their ability as a performer might not be good enough, social standings, gender, educational barriers, sexuality, religion, medical conditions, or where they come from.
Most people will play sport because they excel in a certain sport, they find it enjoyable playing, or they play for the social side of sport, or they could just play because they like to win and get the good feeling after playing sport.
When you are placed into a social class you can normally be stuck in it for the rest of your life but there is a way in which people can move up or down and it is called social mobility and is a relatively new phenomena and it could not have happened back in the 1970s.
One of the main reasons that social mobility can take place is because of education, this allows people to better themselves and therefore get batter jobs with better pay.
The education system in the UK allows everyone to leave at an appropriate level to join the world of full-time work, therefore if your family was in a lower group of class when you where a child saying that your father was a labourer then you could move up out of that class and go into a top class standing through your education e.g. qualifications such as G.C.S.Es, A-levels, PhDs which would get you a higher paying job with a better standing.
Media in Sport
Some different types of media used in sport would be such things as television, radio, internet, newspapers, and magazines.
It is also important to realise that when a sport is reported on the media professionals will give their own opinion and interpretation of a certain event, as this will sometimes differ from someone else’s views of the event it depends how the person saw the event e.g. live, on television with aid of replays.
Sports events are always open to lots of interpretations and sometimes not all facts are reported on and a lot can be missed and some over focused on it depends on the reporter and the company they are reporting for.
Some sports can and have been promoted heavily by the media which can help them guarantee success.
You will notice that sports that are more exciting which will normally need high levels of skill are more heavily published and some sports like American football is made for television as hey have advertisement breaks every five minutes so the sport is played around the adverts.
Some sports such as cricket have even come up with new games for television to make it more exciting and that is where 20-20 cricket came into play to boost ratings and to get people more interested in cricket.
A lot of sports which are very good high skilled sports aren’t given a lot of time on television and are rarely seen for example table tennis it’s a very good game but television companies aren’t interested in showing the events.
Some sports like snooker are only really shown when big events are being played and the television company showing the event will hype the event up with advertising before the event has even begun. They will devote a lot of air time to the event therefore the viewers sometimes don’t have a choice but to get involved in a certain sport as the event is shown all the time for 3 weeks and normal broadcasts are over taken.
Sometimes the media can focus to much on a performer in question and not the event, as this is often seen in such sports as marathon running only the best runners will really get the attention like Paula Radcliff because she’s good at the event and is also of English nationality so viewers will want to see how she is getting on as England is a very patriotic country.
Now on Sky sports you can rather than watch the football game you can watch a certain player with player cam which allows you to watch and see the certain athlete’s game from start to finish.
Some athletes like Anna Kornacova in tennis don’t always seem to finish in finals or semi-finals but they are still watched and hyped up as players because of their good looks and some what celebrity standing, the same thing can be seen with David Beckham he is always in the newspapers but most of the time its not for his sport its to do with his private life which the media is really interested in.
Some good things to come out of coverage of sport on television are it creates publicity and marketing for sports, raises interest in sport, encourages participation in sport, gives extras about events e.g. replays and analysis, helps minor sport out now and again and can also increase the popularity of a certain team or individual.
Some bad points about television covering sport are that it can sometimes result in a loss of interest in a certain sport, controversies can be created deliberately, errors by officials can be over analysed and also unsporting and bad behaviour can be over hyped and shown too much in a certain sport.
Television channels will also only normally show the best and most popular teams like Manchester United and Chelsea in football are always on television where as teams who stand lower in the division won’t normally get a lot of air time.
Also they will always show the events at prime time to beat off any competition from rival channels and will force people to watch game at times when they would normally be watching their favourite soaps etc.
Sport is also a major part of national and local newspapers and sports news is often the first thing that people turn over to after buying their paper, or it will depend on which paper they buy based on how much sports coverage it has.
The papers will normally have big sport stories on the front pages to get the reader interested, most papers will have a separate sport section and will normally take up at least a quarter of the papers content.
Newspaper will normally fit into three different categories such as:
Popular Tabloids such as The Sun, The Mirror and The Star with their Sunday papers being The News of The World, The Sunday People and The Sunday Times. They mainly focus on only a small selected number of sports and will use sensational stories to help sell their newspapers. They are interested in transfers of players between clubs and these papers are mainly aimed at male readers with The Sun having the highest circulation figures of any paper.
Tabloids such as The Mail and The Daily Express, with their Sunday papers being The Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Express.
Theses papers are also highly interested in sport and again will only focus on a small number of sports; they cover a broader report on topics and are aimed at female readers.
Broadsheets are printed on bigger sets of paper and they include such papers as The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and The Times, their Sunday papers are The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph.
They tend to focus on a much broader range of sports and will go into more serious sporting issues; they have more interviews with sports people and don’t build stories on as much speculation.
Broadsheet papers are aimed more at intellectual people and doesn’t contain as many celebrates, has a lot more writing, less pictures, no celebrity gossip, humour is a lot more intellectual, aimed at higher class of people, deals with a lot of politics, more logical information, a lot more expensive to buy, a lot of text on the front pages.
Where as the tabloid newspapers tend to have a lot of slang language, a lot to do with celebrates, made for working class people, no business sections, huge sport section, humour easier to understand, less to do with politics, a lot more eye catching, cheaper to buy, a lot of useless information, aimed at male readers with women in paper and not as much text on front pages mainly pictures.
Sensationalism is when a story is over built and dramatised, or an incident can be sensationalised to make it sound and look better or worse than it really is, highlight programmes of sporting events can sometimes sensationalise incidents and can be very biased in what they want to show on their air time.
The difference between television and newspaper media coverage in sport is television gives you live coverage and good visual action, you can see replays and analyse events, commentary can be added to visuals, less likely to distort your interpretation, technically sophisticated and has a high production cost.
Where as newspapers are 12 to 24 hours out of date, photographs only, text explanations only and have a very low production cost.
Media provides promotion for sport in the UK by providing a good information service such as tables, fixtures, results etc, it creates excitement and drama in big events, it also offers education in sports, advertises for sports, also aids sponsorship for sports goods and businesses, it creates role models and personalities.
For the media to successfully cover sports events the sport needs to be highly skilful and strength and physical fitness are needed, the competition needs to be well matched e.g. leagues, rules that are easily understood, needs to fit into a good time scale e.g. 90 minutes, good well known players and clubs must be shown to make viewing more interesting and a good level of nationalistic relevance is needed.
Media can also help under-exposed sports by marketing the minority sports, and adapting the rules to help the spectators understand them easier, also sponsorship deals will help to develop the sport by encouragement, they can also big up smaller sports such as handball by creating events for television purposes.
You will also notice that women’s sport is very under represented by the media because it is seen as less exciting and less skilful compared to male sports and therefore media wouldn’t see it as a serious business to take up, also women’s sport at a management levels is still controlled by men and only in time will this change as the sport gets more skilled and better to watch.
Sport and Politics
Sport can reflect the society that we live in, in the sense of social issues and values, where as politics also plays its role in values, standards and beliefs in a society.
Sport will always form apart of the national curriculum in education and schools, and most schools will have very good sports facilities.
Sport also can be used for a social policy in getting the standards of peoples lives improved giving people activities to take part in. Sport is also seen as an economical tool and creates jobs, equipment, facilities, and wealth in general.
Sport has a huge role to play in improving the mental and physical health of the nation therefore reducing pressure and spending from the NHS.
The government sees the value of sporting success and recognises with what sporting failure brings for example the England football team failing to qualify for the world cup in 1994 was on comparison with the failure of John Major.
Whilst the government spends its money on sport, then it will be used for political means for example countries that host big events such as world cups and Olympics wouldn’t spend millions of pounds if they weren’t going to get anything political out of it. Most countries will host big events to show off how good and powerful they are and how well there political system works to the rest of the world, therefore attracting attention and being seen as a world power meaning increased investment in the country.
Some political events in Britains history
1960- Woolfenden reports recommend a body be set up to influence sport in the public sector, as sport is seen to regenerate social order and the desire for international success is recognised.
- Advisory sports council is set up to offer advise on sporting matters to the government.
1972- Sports council formed as an independent body for governmental policy, aim was to increase standards of sport and increase participation rates.
1974- Minister for sport was established as part of the department for the environment.
1975- White paper on sport and recreation was to limit the role of the government in sport, meaning that intervention was kept to a minimum.
1980- The government persuades its athletes to boycott the Olympic Games in Moscow in protest to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, some athletes felt like they where being used as political pawns, and most ignored the boycott
1988- Sports council downgraded the Sports for all scheme to target groups of people with low levels of activity and social problems, mainly inner city areas and unemployed people.
1992- John Majors own interest in sport gave a huge boost and he also formed the Department of National Heritage to represent sports and arts, this meant that for the first time sports interests where represented at a very high level.
1995- Raising the game issued the problems with sport in schools and established the importance of sport in education.
1997- Conservatives lost control and power being replaced by Labour and the Department of Culture was born and they looked after sport and media.
In the 1990s the sports council rather than devoting time for the participation of sport it concentrated on the excellence of its athletes, sports councils then became Sport England.
The political involvement of the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games are the biggest sporting events in the world and are therefore often used for making political statements as they know that there is a world wide audience watching some Olympic games in history have used the events for this reason.
Berlin 1936-
These games where used by Hitler to show the world the power of the German nation and wanted to show off the strength of his new breed of men who where tall, muscular blue eyed and blonde haired.
But his display that he wanted to show got twisted around when a black American athlete, Jesse Owens won four gold medals. As Hitler was a huge racist and had already started his war against the Jews, he refused to acknowledge Jesse Owens as a winner and unlike all the rest of the gold winning athletes Jesse wasn’t seen or spoken to by Hitler.
Mexico City 1968-
In the 1960s the civil rights movement was at its highest as black people in America where fighting with white Americans for equal rights and black athletes that got to the podiums decided to give a black power salute.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos came 1st and 3rd in the 200m race final and they received their medals wearing black socks and no shoes representing poverty.
When the American national anthem was played both men raised their right arms and clenched a fist wearing black gloves to make a protest.
Munich 1972-
These games where very well organised and well run but where over shadowed by a huge disaster, as the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians was brought to an international attention.
On the 5th of September a group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic village and reached the Israeli athletes, killing one and holding ten others hostage. The Palestinians demanded a helicopter to take them to the airport do that they could fly home and escape, holding the athletes as a ransom for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. The German police decided to attack the terrorists as the helicopter landed and they opened fire, this then resulted in the Palestinians exploding hand grenades in the helicopters killing all ten athletes.
At the memorial service the next day it was said that the games where to go on and that the terrorists wouldn’t be able to stop the Olympic Games.
Moscow 1980-
These games where held just after the Soviet army had invaded Afghanistan and the war was still on going whilst the games took place. The American committee refused to send any of its athletes to the games as they did not agree with the invasion, it was the same with Britain but a ban wasn’t put in place but several British athletes did attend but where represented under the Olympic flag and not the union jack, and even though the athletes won five gold medals the national anthem was never played.
Los Angeles 1984-
These games just like the last ones where also boycotted by the Russians as the Americans had boycotted their games four years ago, but also another thirteen other socialist countries boycotted the games in protest to what the Americans did in the last games.
The Soviet Union also thought that the Los Angeles Olympic committee where violating the games by using them for commercial gains.
Drugs in Sport
Drugs have been used in sport for as long as sport has been played, and they are normally used to gain the advantage over their opponents. In the Olympic Games in ancient Greece drugs where used all of the time by male athletes and there was lots of corruption and doping.
In 1960 a Danish cyclist called Kurt Jensen killed himself after overdosing on amphetamines, as did a British cyclist called Tommy Simpson whilst he was competing in the 1967 Tour de France.
It is seen that drugs in sport gives an athlete an unfair advantage as a chemical advantage is pumped into the user’s body therefore making them stronger, quicker and generally better at a certain sport.
It is also debatable that where a person is born will make an athlete have an unfair advantage for example where an athlete is born whether they are born in high or low altitude places will come into matters, whether training facilities are ready available, or whether they have good financial support all comes into advantages and disadvantages.
With long distance athletes Kenyan runners will straight away have a huge advantage as they train at high altitude in warmer conditions. Australian athletes get a huge advantage due to the massive investment that their government has put into sport facilities and financial support.
The reasons that a lot of athletes take drugs could be to with results in their sport and they aren’t performing well enough and not receiving rewards that they should be getting, for example they would receive financial gains and respect etc.
Drugs can have very dangerous side affects and can it some cases lead to be fatal, some athletes when injured or unwell will turn to drugs to get better quicker so that they can start practising again for their sport, sometimes performers coaches will push them into taking drugs that the athletes don’t even know that they are taking.
Sporting committees see drugs as something that shouldn’t be in sport and if any athletes are found to have taken drugs in most sports these days they will get bans of long periods and huge fines to make examples of showing that drugs will not be tolerated in big events such as The Olympic Games.
Commercialisation in Sport
Commercialisation is when the practise of business is applied to sports and sporting events and are always looking for ways to make financial profit.
People who run sports clubs can sell there sports to television companies to show the sporting action, or for the sponsors to help with the sponsors products.
Sports have and always will have a commercial aspect as they are seen as entertainment for the public and world to see. Sports have always attracted large audiences but the financial opportunities for sports weren’t put to real us until the 1960s by the growth and power of television. Television meant that sport could be watched beyond stadiums and as a result of this it became more of a good idea for television companies to pay for rights to broadcast certain sports. At the sametime sponsors saw that television could spread the message of their products everywhere, this meant that sport became globalised and could be seen all around the world.
In Britain today you can now see such sports as American football and basketball, and football from Spain an Italy.
Commercialised sports are normally found in societies where people have the time to watch sport, with money to spend on watching and supporting sports.
Spectators also add atmosphere to sports and big events and are very important to sport being as big as it is, sport needs good levels of attention and need to be dramatic. It helps when you get star players or crowd favourites, as some people might follow the sport just because of one certain athlete.
Societies where sports really take off are normally industrial societies that have high levels of output, therefore making them wealthy, giving the people spare levels of money to spend on sports and also free time to follow and support sports.
Most industrial societies will be in towns and cities which mean that they can easily get to sports events and venues.
It is also needed to have good levels of transport links so that people can get to sports grounds.
Before commercialisation sports where run by governing bodies, however with the introduction of companies offering sponsorship new groups of people come into place and have power over the sports and can control certain parts of the game.
For example a television company can decide what time a football game will start and finish, they can also insist on logos being shown everywhere and having branded equipment and clothing.
The increase in merchandising has been one of the biggest successes in sport, rather than just supporting your team now you can buy all types of merchandise to show that you support them. This can be seen with replica shirts and clothing, a good example of this was the England away shirt was made in grey so that it would look good with jeans therefore making there merchandise good to wear as well as sporting.
A lot of football clubs now have superstores attached to their grounds where their supporters can buy merchandise.
Commercialised sports will sometimes make changes to make the sports a lot more interesting and exciting, changes where made in football to stop negative play and speed the game up by stopping the pass back rule to goalkeeper.
If you where to look at how much the Olympic Games will make between 2001 and 2004, it makes £2236 million from broadcasting rights, £1815 from corporate sponsorship, £380 million from ticket sales and £100 million from merchandise.
Some of the bigger sponsors at the Olympics would be Coca-Cola, MacDonald’s, Visa and Samsung, but you will noticed that there is no stadium advertising and no advertising on competitors clothing .
All of this money is split up and ninety-three percent to the 199 National Committees, Organising Committees and the International Federations.
Severn per cent goes to the International Committee.