Criticism of SportsCenter

850 Words2 Pages

I love sports. From playing all kinds of sports, to watching events with family and friends, sports are a staple in my life. And when one wants to know the happenings of any athletic event, the only place to turn for all the coverage is ESPN. ESPN is one the largest news publishers in the world. What separates this network from the other news giants such as Fox, CBS and CNN is it primarily covers news around the sports world. A majority of people would recognize ESPN’s signature news program “SportsCenter”. SportsCenter is the number one sports news program in American television (Badenhausen, 2012). From elementary school buzzer-beaters, to figure skating, to the Super Bowl, if sports news happens, SportsCenter will cover it. SportsCenter has become so popular because it allows men to feel masculine by giving them an outlet of competition and the ability to act as the primal men of thousands of years ago. Where SportsCenter sometimes runs into trouble is when they cover something too much. SportsCenter has built up a reputation of being biased towards certain teams and athletes. This bias leads to questions about SportsCenter’s journalistic ethics. How SportsCenter chooses to deal with these issues directly leads to their success or failure. SportsCenter has become so popular due to the way it can make people, especially males, feel when watching sports. It can create feelings that connect back thousands of years to when none of the modern day sports even existed. During an episode of SportsCenter “(It) all adds up to the perfect story: a staged contest that fittingly resembles the drama inside the ancient coliseum, from which they can carve a gripping tale of heroes and villains”(Pelosi, 2012). This shows that people feel the... ... middle of paper ... ...s Worth $40 Billion As The World's Most Valuable Media Property." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 09 Nov. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. . Kent, Milton. "It's Time for Some Changes at ESPN." AOL News. AOL News, 16 July 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. . McVeigh, Alex. "Miami Heat: ESPN's Coverage of LeBron James and Co. Bordering on Irresponsible." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. . Pelosi, JP. "Why Do Men Watch Sports?" The Good Men Project. WordPress, 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. .

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