Meghan Takacs Give the People What They Want, or What They Need?

The mass society theory says, media are able to directly influence the minds of average people, transforming their views of the social world (Baran & Davis, 2006, pg. 55). Having said that, herein lies the debate surrounding the ethics of sports journalism, a major component of mass media: essentially, mass media directly influences what people think in terms of social institutions and is able to do so because of its monopolistic, yet seemingly credible power; however, journalists in the sports industry are often bias, which directly relates to why many key ethical questions involve matters of access and the collection, distribution, and ideological balance of information, (Oates, T. , & Pauly, J., 2007, 334). Therefore, the ethical dilemmas benchmark is somewhere between giving the people what they want (overly dramatized, bias stories, which the media justifies as ethical) and objective, authentic journalism. His papers routinely overdramatized even the most mundane events (Baran & Davis, 2006, pg. 49). Consequently, Hearsts success in the field of mass media and public relations essentially served as a catalyst to the rise of yellow journalism, and built the foundation to sports journalism today. Even with functional displacement, newer technology is still bringing corrupt, bias, and agenda-setting sports journalism to viewers all over America. Consequentially, Sports journalism has historically been described as a toy department vocation with little-to-no critical distance between reporters and the sports figures they cover, especially on the professional-sports beat (Hardin & Zhong, 2010, pg. 6). Especially, now more than ever, sports journalism students who can parlay their eagerness into something resembling a jobare being asked to produce more content and do so more

quickly than any generation to precede them. They blog, they tweet, and then they blog and tweet some more, and yes, eventually they file a story, squeezing in time to watch the game (Moran, 2010, pg. 61). With a profession labeled as the toy department, its difficult to define the boundaries between exciting and professionalism. Furthermore, often times, the goal of sports news is to sensationalize the story to attract viewers. Staged news, or "pseudo-events," as they were labeled by historian Daniel Boorstin in his 1961 book The Image, are commonly staged by public relations people attempting to draw news media coverage of activities that otherwise would go unnoticed (Evenson,1998, pg. 623). Do journalists continue to force-feed dramatic sports coverage that the people want, or do journalists provide more objective cultural pluralism to the world of sports? In this inevitably inconclusive debate, much like other media ethics issues, The general public does not perceive any visible, unified, and concerted effort among sportswriters to practice their craft in a consistently ethical manner (Wulfemeyer, 1985, pg. 57). For example, There was a moment that explained why a sports fan in New England would reach for The Boston Globe each morning. The excitement of a New England Patriots victory had become overshadowed by speculation that Randy Moss, the gifted and controversial wide receiver, was about to be traded to the Minnesota Vikings (Moran, 2010, pg. 60). Sports journalists determine what is news, but do we all agree? Another element in the ethical dilemma of reporting in sports journalism stems from the narrative of sports journalists, or the way in which a story is told to the general public or fans. The work routines of sports journalists, after all, are organized around regularly scheduled, carefully managed, and orchestrated contests. The buildup to each game is replete with what Lawrence Wenner (1989) called insiders gossip and the self-conscious

creation of a script or storyline for each event (Oates & Pauly, 2007, pg. 337). For example: in the days leading up to the 2006 British Open, newspaper and television sports news reports included frequent contributions by journalists anticipating possible storylines: How would Tiger Woods perform, given the recent death of his father? Would Phil Mickelson bounce back in his first major since blowing a safe lead on the final day of the Masters? the recently fatherless Woods would become the dominant storyline (Oates & Pauly, 2007, pg. 337). As stated before, the ethical dilemma in sports journalism is between giving the people entertainment-based news, an often thrilling narrative, and giving them a fair picture of a game. However, creating social news and drama in sports ultimately established the general guidelines of sports reporting. Therefore, The games may be of little social consequence, but the stories told about them routinely give shape to deeply felt communal values, including the value of self-sacrifice, the possibilities of group achievement, the power of the individual will, and the capriciousness of social hierarchies. How such stories are told raises vital ethical questions. That they are told is vital to our shared experience of democratic culture (Oates & Pauly, 2007, pg. 346). This is what gets fans involved, this is what sells. Moreover, one of the perspectives on media is that the audience of the mass media is an active audience that uses media content to create meaningful experiences (Dennis & Stanley, 2006, pg. 35). Essentially, people want to read controversial news so that they can create an opinion; people use media to make meaning when they are able to intentionally induce desired experiencesthere are often significant results, some intended and others unintended (Dennis & Stanley, 2006, pg. 35). In other words, the mass media controls what people think of their social institutions and most of

these stories are often over-sensationalized in order to create meaning, or create a social stereotype that people can universally identify with. Ultimately, Sports journalism should be held to the same ethical standards regarding conflict of interest, responsibility, accuracy, and fairness as any other kind of journalism. Without the readers' credibility, a journalist and publication have nothing. Unethical practices undermine that credibility (Wulfemeyer, 1985, pg. 66). The other side of the argument of ethics in sports journalism is giving the people what they want, whether it is dramatic stories, or just reports on a game. However, in an entertainment-focused mass media society it is the medias duty to give the people what they want; people keep watching, the media keeps giving. From the media conglomerates point of a view, what sells is what the people want. Pop culture in sports has become a phenomenon that allows people to escape from the real-world, with the notion that they pick and choose what they read and watch. Furthermore, pop culture is an attempt to provide easy-going forms of social cohesion, without the costly rites of passage that bring moral and emotional knowledgeit has replaced imagination by fantasy and feeling by kitsch; and it has destroyed the old forms of music and dancing, so as to replace them with a repetious noise (Baran & Davis, 2006, pg. 68). Often times, in a world of chaos people enjoy repetition and the feeling of being in the know, which is commonly reinforced by the medias stereotypes. Additionally, sports journalism has often been portrayed as, the sandbox of the newsroom, a comparison that suggests the work of the sports department is more playful and childlike than that of the rest of the news organization (Oates & Pauly, 2007, pg. 336). Perhaps building on this concept is the necessity to fabricate the news, to make the news

more entertainment focused since this is what the people want. However, sports journalism doesnt always have to be portrayed as the sandbox of the news room. To counteract this theory, The New Journalists, in their quest for fresh, sophisticated storytelling strategies, turned to sports as a cultural activity worthy of serious examination (Oates & Pauly, 1985, pg. 340). By portraying sports as a cultural phenomenon, whether the events be trivial or not, the ultimate goal is to demonstrate that in many ways sports writing fundamentally resembles other forms of reporting, and that the journalism profession should not use sports as an ethical straw man, against which to defend the virtue of its serious work (Oates and Pauly, 1985, pg. 340). Though, often times, according to Deweys theory, it is not the responsibility of the news to bring an ethical standpoint on sports news, but it is the duty of the people to be educated and able to form their own opinions (Baran & Davis, 2006, pg. 86). Sports journalism can be viewed as gray propaganda, in which the transmission of information or ideas that might or might not be false (Baran & Davis, 2006, pg. 77). Since propagandists live in an either/or, good/evil worldwhere one side is the truth, justice, freedomin short, the American wayand on the other side were falsehood, evil, and slaverytotalitarianism (Baran & Davis, 2006, pg. 77). It is the citizens duty to consume sports media as entertainment; it is his or her duty to interpret sports news by using the practical function of knowledge as an instrument for adapting to the reality the media gives and either accepting or rejecting it. The mass media, in this case, sports media, are not something that feeds us news, but it is rather something we can choose to accept or reject. We are consuming media at a faster pace than ever before. With the technological advancement in social media, as well as the Internet, stories are produced quickly. The

seemingly conventional ways of sports journalism are no longer as predictable. For example, Under the old model, if a source passed along sensitive information to a reporter at noon, the reporter would have an entire day to digest the information, determine its context, contact others, and return to the original source to confirm additional information before it was time to write a story. The entire process could take four, six, eight hours. Now this process might be compressed into minutes (Moran, 2010, pg. 61). As a result of this, perhaps the ethical dilemma is not concerned with the medias intentions, but is more concerned with the advancement of technology. Today, the context of what people read is interpreted based on prior knowledge, assuming we are educated to do so. Feasibly once the media catches up with the new forms of technology it will be apparent that, reporting staffs will have to be enlarged, resources increased and maybe even working hours reduced to permit more thoughtful, fair, objective, complete, and accurate reporting More supervision and checks/balances will have to be provided to prevent special- and self-interests from dominating sports pages (Wulfemeyer, 1985, pg. 66). On another note, the unethical aspects of sports journalism can also be debated on the basis of famous sports reporter, Gay Taleses notion that, Sports writing, Tlese told the audience, gives those who do the job "the capacity to observe emotion." It's why he calls the job "a dream occupation" (Moran, 2010, pg. 61). This being the fact that sports journalism must be sensationalized in order to fit the wants and needs of its viewers. Sports Journalism perhaps has always been more about the drama and the players. Taking a closer look at a situation that happened fairly recently, will explain, more specifically, the ethical dilemma of sports journalism. Rush Limbaugh was hired by ESPN to become a commentator on the National Football Leagues pre-game show. Three weeks

after his debut on the network, Limbaugh was in the midst of a major controversy when he stated that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is favored by the media because he is Black (Niven, 2005). Perhaps Rush Limbaugh was hired to create controversy because the sports media agenda-setters believe people are unreasonable humans, and they have to create controversy, or propaganda in order to create a continuum in which people must choose a place. Furthermore, In Mercurio and Filaks theory, Black quarterbacks were primarily described with words and phrases that emphasized their physical gifts and their lack of mental prowess. Conversely, White quarter- backs were described as less physically gifted, but more mentally prepared for the game and less likely to make mental errors (Filak & Mercurio, 2010, pg. 57). In this case, Rush Limbaugh represents a subjective view that purposely creates bias information in which people are forced to choose a side. In addition to this purpose, Limbaugh also serves to build a story: The storyline-building that suffuses sports journalism routines is done so consciously that an unexpected turn during the course of a game itself is commonly referred to as a departure from the script. This storytelling function of sports journalism is celebrated openly in other ways as well. Anchors often stamp their personality on a sportscast by inventing catchphrases (Oates & Pauly, 2007, pg. 337). However at the foundation of this matter is the fact that media outlets cover sports with a clear conflict of interest: Their very enterprise is deeply invested in the continued success of commodified sport. Because the most elemental structures of sports news ensure free exposure for the teams of elite leagues, Mark Douglas Lowes (2000) called media coverage of sports publicity-as-news (Oates & Pauly, 2007, pg. 338).

Works Cited 1.) Baran, S. & Davis, D. (2006). Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. 2.) Evensen, B. (1998). Sports Journalism. History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia, 621-623. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 3.) Hardin, M., & Bu, Z. (2010). Sports Reporters' Attitudes About Ethics Vary Based on Beat. Newspaper Research Journal, 31(2), 6-19. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 4.) Mercurio, E. , & Filak, V. (2010). Roughing the passer: The framing of black and white quarterbacks prior to the nfl draft. Howard Journal of Communications, 21(1), 56-71. 5.) Moran, M. (2010). It's a Brand--New Ballgame For Sports Reporters. Nieman Reports, 64(4), 60-62. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 6.) Niven, D. (2005). Race, quarterbacks, and the media. Journal of Black Studies, 35(5), 684-694. 7.) Oates, T. , & Pauly, J. (2007). Sports journalism as moral and ethical discourse. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22(4), 332-347. 8.) Wulfemeyer, K. (1985). Ethics in Sports Journalism: Tightening Up the Code. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 1(1), 57-67. Retrieved from EBSCOhost