2000 Summer Olympics and How it Affected TV Ratings
I believe the coverage of the 2000 Olympics perfectly illustrates the media’s eagerness to pursue “Fluff” coverage of everything but athletics. In an attempt to arouse interest in an even in which will not even be completely broadcasted, so as to increase NBC’s rating, while simultaneously upsetting loyal Olympics viewers. With the quick rotation of sports events which should be covered during the predetermined times, rather that granted an arbitrary amount of television attention.
It is already bad enough that we have to watch this year’s summer Olympics during fall and on tape, it is even worse to see an edited version of the game with countless athletes bios and commercials in between games. I found myself sitting in front of the television anticipating some exciting Olympic games, and ending up watching more biographies on athletes and commercials than the actual games. “Every time I turn it (TV) on, it’s an interview or some story about somebody. They don’t show the events,” Marguiles said. “Besides, I already know who won when it comes on. Why I am I going to watch it for four hours?” The 15 hour time difference is what has destroyed it for NBC and the American people, because the results would just casually leak out through Radio, Internet, Newspaper and News broadcast. NBC is even trying to have everyone hide the games results till they show it on TV as well, if I could have found a web-cast of the games live, I would not even turn on NBC, CNBC or MSNBC. In the United States, it appears, viewers are currently despising the fact that NBC, which gathered more money then you can fit into a soccer stadium in order to broadcast these games, opted to televise approximately one million billion hours of competition without showing a single second live. Whereas in Australia, by contrast, viewers are currently despising the fact that the local NBC station is showing approximately one billion trillion hours of mostly live competition every day, still can’t seem to “Capture” the spirit of these games. Also on Sunday September 17th of 2000 NBC stated “ …at least one gold medal even each day will be seen on cable”, only swimming and women’s gymnastics were shown on Cable, after pleas from angry fans did NBC put pieces of the gold medal women’s soccer match on NBC, which was supposed to be shown in fragments from the time of 10 am.
The year is 1972 and people are ready for the summer Olympics. Unfortunately for the eager sports spectators the 1972 Munich Olympics have a much more tragic story line. People don’t talk about any records broken or international competitiveness, instead people remember the Munich Games because of the hostage situation. A Palestinian formed group called the Black September terrorist captured nine Israeli Olympic athletes. Jim McKay one of the Olympic sportscasters at the games says, “The Munich tragedy was the biggest event in my career and the most terrible.” Truly Munich’s is tarnishing the Olympic Games. Even today the impact and repercussions of the game can be felt not only with the heightened security protocol but a lasting social impact as well.
The Penn Museum site on the Olympic Games in Greece presents a well-organized home page that entices the viewer in. It compares, in the first few sentences you see, the similarities between the ancient Olympics and today’s Olympics. As a reader, I am already enticed to learn more because of the comparisons made, it feels relatable and relevant to me. It is organized into five sections, the games, the athletes, the women, the politics, and the commercialism. Bentley and Ziegler present information on the Olympic Games very differently. The information is a small paragraph within the books chapter on Greece; it does not go into any real detail but rather offers an idea of what the Olympic Games were. The paragraph simply states that the Olympics started in 776 BCE as a part of the PanHellenic festivals; it gives a short list of some events, and says that winners were heroes and it happened every four years. In contrast, the website has many details and small interesting tidbits of information that make the viewer want to read more. The first section, the games, focuses on where the games took place and some common misconceptions about the Olympics in regards to the marathon, nudity, and the Olympic flame. The next section, the athletes, discusses the athletes and amateur vs. professionals and prizes, and rewards. I learned that in anc...
As the base of this essay is on how the Olympics have been used in the
As a result, there has been a significant change in the manner of presenting sports in media outlets. As a matter of fact, media discrepancies are getting better.
The citizens above lost their homes after the government paved a pathway to the Olympics through their neighborhood.
Why do female athletes receive less media coverage than male athletes? Male athletes dominate professional sport that airs on television. The media easily overlooks female athletes except during occasion like the Winter Olympics. The articles Media Coverage of Women’s Sports is Important (Lopiano, 2008) and Take Back the Sports Page? (Sommers, 2010) acknowledge factors that determine the amount of media coverage female athletes receive. [Lopiano and Sommers address this issue in regards to media coverage on female athletes differently. Lopiano focuses on the general message the media broadcasts and Sommers uses statistics to show the difference between female and male media. Lopiano and Sommers agree that the media considers female sports less valid. Both focus on different aspects such as problem and solutions and the different consequences of unequal media coverage]. The authors discover similar as well as different factors that contribute to the inequality media coverage of both female and male athletes obtain.
A very popular and large sporting event that receives an extremely high volume of national media coverage is the Olympic Games. For a number of years, major stations like NBC has provided audiences with an around the clock coverage of the Games. Many other major medias similar to NBC have also done the same by devoted sections solely to the Olympic Games. The Olympics is a time where citizens come together to root for their home country, strengthening their sense of nationalism and pride and cheering for their home athletes to come out victoriously and the country as a powerhouse of the world. Organically, the games give off a sense of war like mentality because countries are competing against each other for the prize, the gold metal. As a competitive college athlete, I can relate to the feeling of pride and nationalism one get before and especially after competing and beating an opponent.
Sports is real life drama that can’t be scripted, from underdog stories to the fall of dynasties none of the events that occur in sports can be scripted. Sports media cover all these dramas and puts out their opinion about the subject, which usually has a bias towards big markets. The bias of sports media may be predictable, but not every viewer is informed so their opinion about the matter can easily sway the viewer. Sports media isn’t always bad because they do capture the special moments in sports and they bring awareness to social issues to the public. Sports media can single handedly make or break a player’s, coach’s, or team’s image by either covering the good or the bad story and it will affect the opinion of the national audience.
How did politics affect the Olympic Games in 1936, 1968 and 1972? In 1934, the death of President Hindenburg of Germany removed the last remaining obstacle for Adolf Hitler to assume power. Soon thereafter, he declared himself President and Fuehrer, which means “supreme leader”. That was just the beginning of what would be almost 12 years of Jewish persecution in Germany, mainly because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews. It is difficult to doubt that Hitler genuinely feared and hated Jews. His whole existence was driven by an obsessive loathing of them (Hart-Davis 14).
...age of female sports. News and the press coverage and broadcast of male’s sports substantially more than females. This is an issue because women in sports work and dedicate themselves equally as much, but receive less than 10% of coverage. Granted, women make up only 2/5 of athletes, but the coverage is far more uneven than the number of athletes. Women’s sports receive the shorter broadcast on television, magazines, and newspapers. Secondly, when female athletes do receive coverage, there is more focus on the appearance of the athletes rather than their dedication to, or skill in, the sport. Athletes not considered attractive by the majority population are ignored and forgotten by the media. The media should be more even in their coverage between male and female athlete’s, and cover women based on skill and effort, as opposed to their level of attractiveness.
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
There are many various factors that have shaped the modern Olympic movement from 1892 to 2002. The original goal was to create an international community through sports competition. Much like the Ancient games between Greek city-states, the games were made to promote unity. However, as time passed many worldwide events such as the Cold War and women suffrage altered the goals of the Olympics. Political views and movements began to shape the Olympics. In addition, economic gains and pursuits became an important aspect of the Olympics. The participation of nations during the 20th century involved nationalism as well as social, political, and economic reasons for joining and participating in the Olympics.
The ancient Olympic Games originated in Greece in 776 BC and were started as a mark of respect to the Greek gods. But the ancient Olympic Games ceased in 393 AD, because the roman emperor Theodosius decreed that the ancient Olympic Games were a pagan cult. The modern Olympic Games started again in 1894 and continue to this day.
The concentration on commercialization and finding new revenue streams erodes this core Olympic principle, as it begets focusing on the subset of the world population with the most purchasing power. Specifically, the Western population with high disposable time and income: “Global sport can serve the role as a unifier of nations, building social capital and inter-cultural understanding of liberation and democracy. However, the present structure of global sport can be seen as a promotion of the consumer-dominated phase of western capitalism” (McGuire 64).The IOC’s heightened focus on commercialization has come to directly contradict Olympic principle number two: “the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind” (Olympic Charter 13). This excerpt is a criticism of the IOC’s recent Celebrating Humanity
The majority of viewers are never able to witness these events first hand, which is where television comes into play. Without television, the people who are able to view sporting events would be restricted by the size of the arena. However, television allows sporting events to be broadcasted to millions even billions of people allowing them to experience the events and feel more connected to the teams they so dedicatedly support. Without television, people would not have as much access to sports, and therefore the ability of sports to unite people and nations would not be nearly as successful. Sporting events are one of the biggest media spectacles in world culture. Douglas Kellner writes “media spectacles are those phenomena of media culture that embody contemporary society’s basic values, sever to initiate individuals into a way of life, and dramatize its controversies and straggles, as well as its modes of conflict resolution” (108). The movie Invictus depicts how Nelson Mandela used sports, in particular rugby, as a means...