Sports Media

Media & Society

• Many, many scholars (especially postmodernists like Baudrillard) argue that our relationships with various forms of media (since at least the emergence of the newspaper) are just as/more important than our relationships with the people who surround us.

– Media provides not only entertainment, and information/opinions, but also teaches how to behave, what and how to consume, how to perform gender/sexuality, what race means, etc…

• Media is a major force in the coalescing of “discourse” (which is what scholars like Foucault study); those who believe in ideology as deception also point their finger at the media

– If you remember Anderson, media (including sports media) also provides the narration for the story of the nation

• For example, the Super Bowl is the most watched show on television by Americans

Media and Sports

• Sports that are televised regularly are generally the ones that are most popular

– It is most likely mutually reinforcing: networks chase sports that have gained some sort of appeal; sports that appear on television often begin to become more popular

• In an era where people have more choice – including DVRing shows, streaming them, gaming, or watching web-only content – sports is one of the few things people make much effort to view live.

– Ratings for the NFL have declined in recent years, but not near as much as everything else

Sports Media Outlets

• Often, sports radio broadcasts were carried on the mega power AM station in each market

– AM 1000 Chicago could be heard in half of North America

– But most of the day, these were news stations

• The first all-sports radio station didn’t premier until 1981, and the first station went out of business within a year

– Thus most sports talk was afternoon/evening, sometimes limited to pre/post game

• Now, many sports stations fall under the brand of “ESPN Radio” which plays national radio shows in the morning, and has local broadcasting in the afternoon and evening.

Sports Media Outlets (cont…)

• The game changer, really for the entire world, was ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network)

– Launched in 1979 from Bristol, CT, mostly with money from Gerry Oil (which was looking to diversify its holdings) and a 1 million guarantee from Anheuser Busch to advertise (upped to 5 million in 1981, even while ESPN was hemorrhaging money).

• At the time, only 20% of homes had cable; they were using satellites (a then new technology) to distribute the channel to cable companies nation wide

– They initially couldn’t afford to purchase pro-sports, so struck a deal with the NCAA.

• They were bought by ABC in 1984, and eventually ABC was bought by Disney.

– The ESPN family of networks (ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN News ESPN U, SEC Network, plus internet streaming) represents around 40% of the value of Disney.

– This extra money allowed them to get NBA, then NFL Sunday Night football, then MLB, and then NHL

• While ESPN dominates the US, Rubert Murdoch and his “Sky Sports” is very strong in much of the rest of the world (Fox Sports is his branch in the US).

SportsCenter

• ESPN began to hit its stride in the early 1990s when SportCenter, its nightly highlight show, became as much about quick wit, clever references and catch phrases as it was about the highlights (very similar to Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update)

– Previously, most local news anchors just read the score (and a few maybe had catch phrases)

– People actually watched SportsCenter more for the humor than the sports

– It launched careers of Craig Kilborn, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Rich Eisen, Robin Roberts, and, perhaps, most importantly, Stuart Scott

• Stuart Scott (who died of cancer in 2015) was the first African American news anchor of any kind to actively incorporate references to hip hop and slang into their on-air persona

Sports Talk

• As mentioned earlier in the course, the impact of sports goes way beyond the event itself, in that it dominates a lot of talk between fans (in particular, certain types of male fans)

– Unsurprisingly, one source of revenue for sports media is sports talk shows

• There are several popular formats for this (which are increasingly dominated by ESPN)

– Indeed, ESPN likes to generate its own news – it will have one talking head say something on one of its programs, and prompt all the other talking heads to comment about that comment

Sports Talk (cont.)

• Sports “Debate”

– The forbearer of all sports debate shows is ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, which still airs on Sunday mornings

• The format is just like a Sunday morning news “roundtable” where a rotating group of reporters (most of whom were semi-regulars) “debate” the week’s issues

• Although it got heated at times, for the most part it was civil and reasoned (and thus kind of boring)

– In 2001, debuted Pardon the Interruption

• This format was the same two hosts (most) every show, but they cover 15 or so topics an hour

– As a spinoff from PTI, ESPN started Around the Horn

• This is the same number of topics, but four talking heads from around the country

– They are also awarded points for the quality/entertainment of their “takes” until one of them “wins”

Sports Talk (cont.)

• First Take

– Started as a sort of normal ESPN morning show; in 2011, the role of show member Skip Bayless (long-time newspaper sports columnist) was increased and show refocused around debate

• In 2012, Stephen A Smith (a long time NBA reporter) was added as Bayless’s opponent

– Bayless had always represented the old style of sports columnist whose opinions were based on “gut,” not facts; he is often overly found of players that show “heart”

• He became famous for championing Tim Tebow as an NFL quarterback (many thought because Tebow was white)

– Smith himself is a controversial figure (particularly in regards to gender issues) even if he brought a different voice to sports talk

– Over time, the show becomes less about sports knowledge (or even sports reality), but more about two men yelling at each other to entertain the audience (with each basically performing a caricature of themselves)

• It became very similar to a CNN program called “Crossfire” which featured hosts debating each other every day – eventually the program had entirely replaced facts with yelling, and you actually became dumber about current affairs if you watched it.

– In 2016, Bayless was signed by Fox Sports (now headed by former ESPN head) to do a very similar show with former NFL player Shannon Sharpe; Smith remains on First Take. Neither show as popular.

Sports Talk (cont.)

• Angry Host/Angry Caller Format

– Call in shows (especially after sporting events) have been around a very long time

– The pioneer of an “edgy” version of format was Pete Franklin, who worked for WWWE AM 1100 in Cleveland from the 1970s to late-1980s.

• Not only would he scream about local teams, but he would berate callers who he didn’t agree with (and hang up on them with a flushing sound)

– He also gave awards to the best and worst caller on every show.

• Eventually, he was hired in New York, where his act fizzled, but he set the stage for hundreds of others, including Mad Dog Mike Russo and Jim Rome

• What ends up happening is that callers, not wanting to get humiliated, end up enthusiastically agreeing with whatever angry thought the host has

– Many of the hosts and callers spew thinly veiled racism, and often not-at-all veiled sexism and homophobia, and promote a culture of “average guy” victimization

• It very much resembles what happened to political talk radio beginning of the 1990s; however angry sports host actually predated angry political commenting host

Social Media

• Although ESPN thoroughly dominates sports conversation in America (even if the biggest games are often on other networks) the playing field has been leveled by social media

– Blogs were first, and gave fans a place to coalesce besides the local radio blowhards and the often too-close-the-team local newspaper reporters

• Now, many of these are being consolidated under aggregator sites like “Bleacher Report”, “SB Nation,” and “Deadspin”

– Eventually many newspapers added comment sections to their stories, and those quickly became the cesspool of humanity all comment sites are.

– We already mentioned community sites like Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs in the baseball lecture that challenged baseball understanding

– Besides quick takes, internet also became a place to promote in-depth sports reporting that newspapers were rapidly becoming unable to pay for

Social Media (cont.)

• But nothing was a game changer like Twitter

– It allowed new personalities to rise, many connected to SB Nation like Lana Berry, Celebrity Hot Tub [Ryan Nanni], Jon Bois, PFT Commenter; some like Bomani Jones in the lower rungs of ESPN’s talent stable.

• The most notorious of these are the personalities who became Barstool Sports, which caters to a similar audience as Maxim magazine.

– Many major network’s fantasy analysts got their start on Twitter (which provides chances for interaction/advice and up to the last second information about lineups)

– But most importantly, it is a way to connect with fans directly.

• It allows athletes to get beyond the soundbites, make extra promotion dollars, and show their very human side

Social Media (cont.)

• Not just athletes themselves, but television sports personalities are on Twitter as well

– Thus they tend to get swept up into the cess pool of politics, gender and race that “lives” on Twitter

• The most prominent example of this is Jemele Hill (formerly of ESPN), who President Trump basically called for her firing for speaking out about issues of race and gender.

– According to Jemele: “It is very important to make the distinction between politics and commentary, information and discussion of social issues… I don’t tweet a lot about politics. I do tweet more about social issues, which I consider to be issues of morality. Racism isn’t politics, racism is an issue of right and wrong. Tweeting about significant issues that impact marginalized people isn’t politics. That’s right and wrong.”

Storylines

• The number of people who think about sports as statistics and/or who actually understand the subtleties of what goes on during a match is small compared to the number of people who care about sports

– That being said, much sports media centers on gambling, and gamblers do care about numbers

• Even though sports gambling is illegal everywhere but Nevada in the US, every US newspaper and most TV broadcasts tell the “Las Vegas Line” before every game

– Fantasy is fun, but it is also a type of gambling, so the recent boom in fantasy coverage is just an extension of an older pattern

Storylines (cont.)

• Thus, what most people need to watch sports is, a la Barthes, a sense of theater, character and drama around sports.

– The excitement of success and failure is part of it, but they also like to care about the athletes, and see the “good” values of society rewarded with teams winning

– In fact, Pro-Wrestling (which has rebranded itself as “sports entertainment”) was way ahead of the curve

• The actual product, wrestling, was boring and kind of subtle – thus the exaggerated moves and later exaggerated personalities were needed to keep it alive

– Thus, a la Baudrillard, the actual referent – in this case wrestling – disappears almost entirely over time in “professional wrestling” so that all you are left with are signs of wrestling

Storylines (cont.)

• The place in sports where storylines do the most heavy lifting is in the Olympics

– Many Olympics sports go entirely unwatched by viewers in the four years between Olympic games

• Thus, viewers have no sense of the ongoing, year-after-year, drama that a league like the NFL builds up

– Also, it is very likely a whole new crop of athletes has to be introduced to the public

– NBC figured out the best way to do this quickly (and we are talking 5 minutes) was to intersperse coverage with an endless parade of human interest stories, usually of the athletes 1) super-human commitment to training 2) overcoming of some personal obstacle 3) their quirky personality

• Also, because many Olympics are not hosted in US time zones, many events during primetime are not shown live, giving NBC all day to craft stories (which is a little harder to do and maintain suspense in the age of Twitter)

Sound Bites

• One of the most interesting things about the omnipresence of sports media is the fact that athletes and coaches, rarely, if ever, say anything at all interesting about the competition at hand

– Some of this is to protect endorsement dollars, so as not to be controversial

– Some of this is that many athletes (like many people) are not natural public speakers

– Some of this is to not provide the opponent with motivation (or maybe to not disrespect an opponent)

• Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, was the master of manufacturing a slight by an opponent to motivate his team

• Tom Brady has been interviewed for a decade and a half, and has yet to make any interesting comments.

– He even has a weekly 10 minute radio interview during Thursday Night Football, where he still says nothing at all.

• When Marshawn Lynch refused to be interviewed (because he is shy and the whole thing is stupid) the NFL fined him

– So apparently, you can’t not talk, but you shouldn’t say anything if you do talk…

Conclusions

• Sports media, like sports leagues, is dominated by very large corporations, that often promote the status quo

– However, a la deCerteau, thanks to the internet (and Twitter in particular) everyday users have been able to control the interpretation of their favorite pastime

• Although sometimes that control goes in directions which are far from welcoming and tolerant

• But it also speaks to “diverse economies” (but also Bourdieu’s idea of many types of capital) that even giant firms are made of people, and many people (including some giant firm employees) have interests other than pure profit

– ESPN gave us Stuart Scott, Outside the Lines and 30 for 30 (two excellent, often critical documentary series), and even though it gave us the First Take clown show, it followed it up with His and Hers, a fun/nerdy debate show hosted by Michael Smith and Jemele Hill (which became the 6, and then faded when Hill left ESPN).

• Also, as consumers, we have shown most of us do not like sports capitalism in a purified form – it is not strong enough to stand on its own.

– It needs story or drama, or gambling or, for some people, something awful (like sexism, homophobia or racism) to give it power