Looking at how there are different ways in which sport in brought to the general public and how the media can influence sport itself.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Michael Twiggins

Social Aspects Assignment 3

In this assignment I will be looking at how there are different ways in which sport in brought to the general public and how the media can influence sport itself.

The three main means of publishing sport to the general public not only in this country but countries across the world are:

Television
Radio
Newspapers

Television:

Television to me seems to be the main focus of attention when it comes to broadcasting sport to the general public. I believe that from a study of seeing how much coverage is shown in the three main means of publishing that television has the most power in attracting people to watch the sport on the television.

The reason for me thinking this is because when you watch the sport on the TV it gives the watcher a feeling of being a spectator in the ground by giving a range of angles to watch the sport from and being able to see the sport more clearly and watch every minute of the action without being disturbed by the person moving around in the seat next to you or the bloke in front of you standing up every time the ball goes into the opponents half.

The power of TV will give the viewer the best chance to see all of the sport they wish to watch from the comfort of their own armchair and allow them to actually watch their sport. For example some supporters are either unable to afford the ticket prices and travel costs that need to be put in to the being able to go watch the game so by having the game shown on TV for a pay-per-view fee, which is normally a third of what a ticket to the game might cost they are able to follow their favourite team or sport.

Also some football teams like Manchester Untied or Arsenal have sold out home games week in, week out so for some people unless you’re a season ticket holder it is very difficult to buy a ticket to see the game. So by having an alternate option of seeing the game live from the comfort of your living room will appeal to these fans unable to get into the ground.

Also due to the introduction of cable and SKY TV the wide range of sporting events that can be viewed at any one time from anywhere in the world has made people viewing sport from their home jus as popular as going to watch the game live.

‘ The BBC started broadcasting regular sport from 1936 and set up sports view, now known as Grandstand, the first all sport dedicated programme’

The game has also changed on how we can view it on TV over the years with the introduction of things such as the third umpire and ref’s in football being able to communicate with the linesmen over headphones. This has made the games more enjoyable to watch for the spectator because there is nothing more annoying than watching your favourite sport, and knowing that you should be awarded that try or given that penalty and you aren’t all because the ref cant see the action taking place. So by having the third umpire that can be turned to ...

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TV also along side live coverage on pay per view TV has replays of the action that happened during the day. The biggest example of this was Match Of The Day on the BBC. These sorts of programmes allow anyone with a TV to catch up with the day’s football action in the top flight.

The main reason for sport being interested in being shown on TV and for TV wanting to have live sport shown on their channel is because it brings in the largest amount of viewers and money. For example if the event being shown on the TV is the FA cup final between two top flight clubs then they will want the game to be shown on TV as it means publicity for their club, their sponsors, means that their fans will be able to watch the game and probably want to go out and show support by buying merchandise such as shirts and scarves.

Also with the game being shown live on TV the clubs are able to charge the TV company money to show the game on their channel, bringing in more finances into the club, also the coverage promotes their players and gives other clubs chances to watch players that they might be interested in buying.

The reason for TV wanting to televise live big sporting events is because they draw in the crowds and bring up the number of viewers watching their TV station. This brings in money on the part of the TV Company and also on the point of advertisement. Due to the event being shown live and loads of people watching the TV this means that the adverts being shown will have a higher price tag on them due to the large amount of people watching the game and seeing the adverts during the half time intervals or during intervals in the F1 grand prix, or during the break of the cricket.

So this is why I believe that the sports events need TV coverage just as much as the TV companies need the big sports events to be televised live on their channel.

Radio:

Nowadays radio is not really seen as a hugely popular way for the general public to listen to sport. The main time when people listen to sport on the radio is when they are in their cars or they cant afford to pay the money to go watch the sport live or on the pay-per-view option on cable or SKY TV.

When TV first came out in 1936 they only showed some sports giving the general public a taste of sport and they liked it and wanted to see more. Due to this rise in demand for more sport, radio became a lot more popular and the sales of radios rose dramatically over the next 3 years. By 1939 almost 71% of the countries households owned a radio.

The advantages of having a radio are you being able to listen to the sport in progress wherever you may be in the country. Also radios have the advantage of being able to be used by the power of batteries or some are even wind up radio’s making them easy to work and run.

The disadvantages of using a radio to listen to the sport are not being able to see the action going on. The feeling of being there at the game and being one of the crowd is lost by only being able to hear someone else describe what is going on. For example when a player scores an amazing goal and the commentator describes what has happened you can get the image of it being only an average goal.

But then when you see the highlights of the game it could have been goal of the season and because you had the radio were unable to see it happen at that moment in time.

Another advantage of having sport on the radio, well its more of a plus for the radio station is the adverts that come on during the half time breaks or during incidents in the match. Most people who cant afford pay-per-view TV will listen and follow their team on the radio so by having a large audience they are able to advertise more products over the air that people will hear being advertised.

This means that they are able to air more adverts to more people and the radio station will more than likely intake more revenue from the company if sales rise because of the sport being broadcast on their station, meaning there are more listeners who will be likely to go out the next day or after the live broadcast and buy the product, or if they already own the product for example PG tips.

This example is good because if the listen hears that PG is being advertised on the radio they will become incensed to go and make themselves a cup of tea which means they are one closer to buying their next packet and maybe next time buying a bigger pack.

Hence this brings more money to the company over time and so because of this they will continue to advertise their product on this radio station and keep the money coming in to this particular radio station keeping it on the air to keep coverage of the big live games that are only on pay-per-view.

Newspapers:

Although newspapers have been around for the longest out of the 3 main types of sports coverage the amount of sport they actually wrote about in the early stages was very minimal as it was not seen that sport be the main topic of conversation in the work place or on the way to work or on a lunch break.

Whereas the TV and the radio are used to bring live coverage of action as it happens the newspapers are there to report on sporting events that have happened either the night before or the Monday after the weekends games and fixtures. And even now whereas the sporting coverage on the TV and radio only concentrate on the action that takes place within the sport the newspapers are there to report on any other new that has taken place in the week in the private life of the famous sports stars such as David Beckham and his family.

In the newspapers there are two different styles of how the paper will write a report on the match. Whereas there used to be only one type of newspaper the introduction of the tabloid newspaper has given a more in depth and focused view on sport.

The tabloid newspapers will normally focus on the entire match report and go into depth about incidents that happened either on or off the field examples of this could be a bust up on the pitch that involved all 22 players becoming involved in an argument, or two players having an argument or a scuffle in the tunnel towards the changing rooms after the game. But the view they will give will be in Standard English and will try to make the incident seem a lot worse than what it actually was.

The broadsheet newspapers on the other hand will give a full match report in context English and mention any incidents that happen either during or after the game but will not focus on these being the main points of the match report from the game.

In a tabloid newspaper the main focus of the match comes from images. The sport section will normally take up the back 6 pages of the newspaper with the main focus being on the premiership action from the weekend or the big European matches from the night before.

The images will normally be of the goal scorers or the key men within the game. If a match has an incident like a players leg being broken or a player being sent off in a big game then that is used as the main focus of attention. This brings bad press not only to the player but also to the club that he plays for.

Whereas in contrast the broadsheet newspaper will rarely use images for their sports coverage unless it is a big even such as the F.A cup final or England playing in the world cup. The reports from the match in the broadsheet will normally only be one side section long for each match as the main focus in tabloid newspapers are world news and events that will effect everyday life for the country such as political news and stocks and shares news.

Newspapers now play a big part in sports performers lives both on and off the pitch. The main areas of sports performers the papers focus on in England are the top-flight footballers such as David Beckham and Sol Campbell.

The way that newspapers have a big effect are by getting into these players private lives and their professional life. The reason that this has an effect on their career is because the public might be able to see a side of their favourite player that they haven’t seen before and will give them a bad image of them.

This means that the players life on the pitch can be affected and also off the pitch. The tabloid newspapers normally take out this sort of action, as most people that follow the sport will buy tabloid newspapers. So this is another main reason as to how the media has an effect on sport, because they can influence how the fans see the player and could result in the manager being forced to sit the start player on the subs bench or even worse the result being the player moving abroad to play his football because the pressure of the fans and media becomes to much to him to cope with.