Ethical Responsibility of Sports Media Essay Example

expected women to compete in certain sports. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) When a woman broke that stereotype, members of the media questioned their femininity. This behavior is unethical because the media discourages girls from competing in certain sports by questioning their identity when they do. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) Studies have indicated a number of behavior patterns among members of the media that diminish the image of women in sports. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) Media members refer to women in sports as “girls. ” (Duncan, et. al. 990) Additionally, studies indicate that women athletes are more often shown in negative emotional context, such as crying or frustrated than their male counterparts. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) It has also been found that when women fail in sports, the reason is more often framed as incompetence on the part of the loser, rather than any particular prowess on the part of her competitor. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) The opposite habit is typically practiced for male athletes. (Duncan, et. al. 1990)

Commentators have also tended to focus on personality more than ability when discussing female athletes. Duncan, et. al. 1990) Also, the media coverage of women’s sports at the collegiate and professional level is disproportionately weighted in favor of male sports. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) The phenomenon of the objectification of women in sports coverage can best be exemplified the annual swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) Women, when pictured in Sports publications are typically in swimsuits or cheerleading outfits. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) All of these trends represent an unethical pattern of reporting on the part of sports media. (Duncan, et. al. 990) By

following the advertising dollar, which chases the notion of women as passive sex symbols, the sports media perpetuate the social stereotypes that have been detrimental to equal treatment of women. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) The organization of sports by gender creates a sort of “separate, but equal” discrimination pattern. (Duncan, et. al. 1990)

As the Supreme Court decided in 1954, separate can never be equal; there is an implied inferiority in Womens’ sport. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) When women do cross that line, they are typically objectified, or ignored. (Duncan, et. al. 990) A recent study pointed to more specific trends in sports reporting with respect to gender. The overall technical quality in areas such as sound, editing, and camerawork was superior in men’s sports coverage than in parallel coverage of women in the same sport. (In the case of the study, basketball was the sport examined) Slow motion replays and on-screen statistics were used far more often in men’s games than in women’s. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) Even when mentioning the category of sport, discrimination is common. Women’s sports are marked as being women’s sports, whereas often, the men’s sports are assumed.

For example, one might see and advertisement for the Women’s NCAA Final Four Tournament, but the comparable tournament for men is called simple the NCAA Final Four tournament. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) While these may all seem like minor criticisms, taken together they send a powerful message about the relative importance of female sports efforts. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) Race is another area that has seen discrepancies in reporting by the sports media. In fact, there has been the same disparity in coverage between

blacks and whites as in that of men and women. Beck & Bosshart, 2003)

According to research, African American athletes’ success is far more often attributed to athletic prowess, such as power, speed, and strength, than to strategy, skill, and experience, as their white counterparts often experienced. (Beck & Bosshart, 2003)In fact, in many media outlets portray black athletes as oversexed, privileged, spoiled malcontents, compared to whites who are portrayed as “blue-collar”, team players with good work ethic. (Beck & Bosshart, 2003)The overall image that is given is that African Americans rely on natural ability as a substitute for hard work and study. Beck & Bosshart, 2003)

This is clearly an unethical and inaccurate message to send to viewers. As an example, in 2006, a pro-bowl tight end for the Green Bay Packers, Mark Chmura, was accused of sexually assaulting a minor at a post-prom party. Kobe Bryant, then with the L. A. Lakers, was accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in Colorado. Both athletes were found not guilty, but coverage of the trial and accusations about Bryant outnumbered coverage of the Chmura case by major outlets. The ratio was nearly ten to one.

The key difference between the circumstances is that Chmura is white, and Bryant is black. In recent years, major media outlets have had a heightened awareness of these issues, and have been far more proactive about redressing these issues, and others. Another aspect of disparity in sports reporting with respect to race is the relatively small number of African-American sports journalists as compared to the ratio of players. (Beck & Bosshart, 2003)Across the board, African-Americans make up about 45% of all collegiate and

professional teams, yet they represent less than 20% of the population of sports journalists.

Beck & Bosshart, 2003)These facts amount to ethical shortcomings with respect to sports media because, again, with the popularity of college and professional sports among the nation’s youth, that population takes its cues from media coverage of these events. It is the ethical responsibility of sports media to promote positive images of the minorities who play. Such would not be a difficult task, as a vast majority of all athletes, regardless of gender or race are hard-working, dedicated and, in many cases, dedicated scholar-athletes who value positive work ethic and sportsmanship. (Beck & Bosshart, 2003)

Sadly, the sports media paints a different picture of athletes of all stripes. In recent years, professional sports and college sports have produced thousands of athletes who have behaved in a manner worthy of pride, attention and discussion. (Beck & Bosshart, 2003)Despite this, the sports media focuses its attention on the relatively rare cases of egomaniacal, criminal or otherwise repugnant athletes. As an example, ESPN ran hundreds of stories and spent considerable amount of air time on the topic of Cincinnati receiver Chad Johnson, who wanted to legally change his name to “Ocho-Cinco” so he could wear that nickname on his jersey.

While this story occupied the broadcasters and journalists, other stories were nearly completely ignored. In April of last year, for example, the Women’s softball team of Central Washington University committed an act of sportsmanship that is unique in the annals of NCAA history. (Unbelievable, 2008) While playing for a playoff berth against perennial rival, Western Oregon, they helped a batter who had hit a homerun, and tore

a ligament in her leg running the bases complete the run around the bases, and seal the victory against them. Unbelievable, 2008)

Two members of the Central Washington team picked up their opponent and rival, and carried her around the bases, allowing her to touch each one in turn for the score. (Unbelievable, 2008) Had they not done so, Western Oregon would have had to substitute a runner, which, by rule, would have reduced the out-of-the-park homerun to a single. (Unbelievable, 2008) The selfless act of the Central Washington University players cost them the victory in the game, as the final was 4-2, and the homerun accounted for three of those points. Unbelievable, 2008)

When asked why they would do such a thing, Central Washington’s first basewoman, who was one of the two who carried their opponent around the bases, responded, “In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much. It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run. ” (Unbelievable, 2008) This incident was eventually picked up by the mainstream sports media, but not before film of the incident had been circulating on YouTube for a number of days. (Unbelievable, 2008)

For all the publicity that has been cast on players who use performance-enhancing drugs, often the stories of athletes who used hard work and dedication to regain their physical abilities. Another example that did not get any media attention until years after the fact had to do with a college quarterback for Southern Mississippi in the late 1980s, who was involved in a serious car accident before his senior year. (Ten

facts, 2008) He had to spend his entire senior year rehabilitating from his injuries, which were life-threatening. Ten facts, 2008)

After managing to make it onto the Atlanta Falcons squad as a third-string quarterback, he sat on the bench for his first season, and was traded to the “Siberia” of the NFL, the Green Bay Packers. (Ten facts, 2008) The reason this individual’s story is even known at all is because when he stepped into the lineup to replace an injured Don Majikowski in September of 2002, he kept the starting role for sixteen seasons, never missing the start, and, at the time of this writing, is still the starting quarterback for the New York Jets. Ten facts, 2008) His name is Brett Favre. (Ten facts, 2008)

This is just one of hundreds of success stories from the NFL, NBA, and NCAA. There are myriad numbers of athletes whose stories are just as compelling, but are never told because the attention is given to athletes such as Michael Vick, formerly of the Atlanta Falcons, who was arrested for running dog-fighting contests, O. J. Simpson, convicted recently of armed robbery, and Travis Henry, who was arrested for drugs. At the college level, many of the same characteristics of media coverage can be observed.

A recent study of the coverage of the Big Ten’s sports news reached several telling conclusions regarding coverage in 2006. (Yu, et. al. 2007) Football received far more off-field coverage than any other sport, at 59%. (Yu, et. al. 2007) It should be noted that with rare exceptions, none of which are currently in the Big Ten Conference, only males play college football. (Yu, et. al.

2007) College football received twice as much coverage as men’s basketball, which was the second most covered sport. (Yu, et. al. 007) Much of the news coverage in the Big Ten in 2006 dealt not with the athletes at all, but rather stories about movement or rumored movement of coaching staff. (Yu, et. al. 2007) These stories comprised 57% of the coverage in 2006. (Yu, et. al. 2007)

Players composed only 29% of the coverage, with issues involving the athletic programs and the NCAA in general accounting for the rest. (Yu, et. al. 2007) 29% of the stories that could be categorized as negative, focusing on crime, rules violations, academic ineligibility, or controversial comments were centered on coaches. (Yu, et. al. 007) Stories about crime by athletes (such as robbery, theft, gun-related charges, battery, alcohol or drug-related charges, or sexual assault) on newspaper web sites made up only 16% of all stories, with majority of these stories being about former players. (Yu, et. al. 2007)

The study further found that forty-two current athletes, an insignificant proportion of the total number of athletes in the Big Ten, were mentioned in stories about arrests or criminal charges. (Yu, et. al. 2007) On the other hand, the negative coverage of these few athletes was repeated in multiple articles, which increased the negative press overall. Yu, et. al. 2007) It also should be noted that all forty-two of the athletes mentioned in connection to criminal activities were men, most of whom were football players. (Twenty-seven of the forty-two) (Yu, et. al. 2007) As it is with media coverage in sports in general, the focus of most off-field stories was on men’s

sports. (Yu, et. al. 2007) News about women’s sports made up only about 11% of coverage. (Yu, et. al. 2007)

Most of the coverage of women involved basketball. (Yu, et. al. 2007) Athletes, as opposed to coaches or administrators, dominated all the crime stories featured in the Big Ten in 2006. Yu, et. al. 2007) Most crime stories were related to robbery/theft or gun-related arrests or charges. (Yu, et. al. 2007) A large portion of those Athletes were featured in every negative category except that of controversial comments or behavior. (Yu, et. al. 2007) Athletes dominated all crime categories. (Yu, et. al. 2007)

Most crime stories that appeared on newspaper Web sites were related to robbery/theft or gun-related arrests or charges, but a large number of these stories focused on a single former player from the Ohio State University. (Yu, et. al. 007) Most of the crime-related stories about current players, focused on assault or arrests related to alcohol abuse. (Yu, et. al. 2007) Again, much of the coverage of current-athlete criminal behavior was centered on only two athletes. (Yu, et. al. 2007) Of the thirty-three articles that covered student-athlete alcohol abuse, one-third concerned with a single student-athlete from Illinois who faced a drunk-driving charge. (Yu, et. al. 2007)

Of the forty-two individual athletes mentioned in connection to crimes (less than 0. 5% of the student-athlete population), charges against six were dropped. Yu, et. al. 2007) This study also noted that the general public’s impression of collegiate athletics is colored significantly by the media’s portrayal. (Yu, et. al. 2007) According to this study, almost half of respondents of a survey believe that college athletes are “out of control.

” (Yu, et. al. 2007) The reason for this belief is probably due to the media coverage intercollegiate athletes receive. (Yu, et. al. 2007) The disproportionately large amount of negative portrayals can mislead media consumers into a general belief that college athletes are troublemakers. Yu, et. al. 2007)

Coverage of crime by athletes generally operated on saturation coverage of a few incidents and a few personalities. (Yu, et. al. 2007) Increased media coverage has created also the illusion that athletes are more violent than in previous decades, when statistics do not back up that observation. (Yu, et. al. 2007) In addition to the negative image cast upon athletes in general by the promotion of negative stories, the over-reporting of negative behavior reflects poorly on the institutions who the players are supposed to represent.

For example, despite the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals have carried several hundred athletes on their rosters over the past couple of years, none of them have garnered the attention of the players who were arrested for various offences during that span. As a result of this handful of incidents, the coach and management of the team now have a reputation of hiring troubled athletes, exercising either poor judgment or a lack of standards. The organization suffers as a result of this reputation.

Its fans are disgusted, which lead to a loss of ticket, and advertising revenue, and the rest of the nation generalizes the team’s troubles to the entire city of Cincinnati. One might argue that the sports media has an obligation to air only the stories that are of interest to the highest number of people. This argument is disingenuous, however. The grassroots

interest generated by the Central Washington story, which prompted the mainstream sports media to publish the story, proves that the public would respond to positive stories at least as well as they do to negative stories.

Additionally, gender inequities could be fairly easily reduced by implementing a number of relatively simple changes in the manners and habits of sportscasters. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) Televised sports news should provide more coverage of existing women’s sports. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) This coverage should include visual as well as verbal coverage in proportions that are roughly equivalent to the coverage of men’s sports. Viewers should be able to hear about and see women’s sports on the news. (Duncan, et. al. 1990)

SportThe amount of resources and technical and production quality should be equivalent in the coverage of men’s and women’s sports. Duncan, et. al. 1990) Commentators and announcers could easily adjust their habits by avoiding pejorative terms for women athletes, such as referring to them as “girls”, rather than “Women”. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) They should also make an effort to balance the language they use with male and female athletes in terms of description of attributes. (Duncan, et. al. 1990) The ideal announcer, commentator, director or producer of a sports program would be blind to gender, race and other irrelevant factors. (Duncan, et. al. 1990)

As far as coverage of non-athletic activities of athletes, a policy of equal, or even proportional time ought to be applied to stories of good behavior as well as bad. Those who would argue that viewers or readers would grow bored of positive stories would do well to recall the level of repetition involved in

the reporting of crime and violence within the same demographic. Surely, if viewers are not bored or put off by 80% negative coverage of athletes, they certainly would not be put off by 80% positive coverage, especially since the availability of so many stories would cut down the need for repetition.