Ana Paula Silva Santos

PED 696

Dr. Sheffer

Reading Reviews Week 1

Why We Watch and Enjoy Mediated Sports

This article emphasizes theories and motivations that explain why we watch mediated

sports. The author explains that we have psychological and sociological needs that through sports

we try to fulfill them. We are shown different theories such as cognitive dissonance, selective

exposure, which are pretty much the same thing, the uses and gratifications approach, and mood-

management theory. Cognitive dissonance states that we will watch content that correlates with

our own beliefs, opinions, thoughts, and attitudes. And consequently, avoid content that is going

to go against all that. The author explains that we as humans experience actual psychological and

cognitive distress when watching something that contradicts our beliefs. Selective exposure is in

the same ballpark, we choose what coincides with our beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes. However,

we are not only looking for agreement but also content that will most likely please us. The uses

and gratification approach explains that we have psychological and social necessities that we

believe media content will meet. So, we seek different programming depending on what needs

we have at that specific moment. The mood-management theory states that we seek content to

alleviate the intensity of bad moods and to boost good moods.

The author also discusses the three broad motivations for us to watch mediated sports.

Those motivations fall into these categories: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral/social needs.

When talking about emotional motivations there is entertainment, eustress, self-esteem, and

escape motivation. Entertainment and eustress touch the base of our arousal, we have allegiance
to our teams, we have this sense of fanship, and above all, sports have everything, drama,

suspense, and we love that thrill of victory. With sports we never know what is going to happen,

we do not see the outcome and not knowing keeps us on the edge of the seat and always wanting

more. We always seek these positive emotions, we get psyched up, pumped up, and we love it.

Self-esteem motivation states that we seek sports because the event's aftermath can raise our self-

esteem, especially if our favored team wins. Escape motivation is the only one that has nothing

to do with the outcome or fanship. It states that some spectators seek sports to escape their daily

lives stress or negative feelings. The primary cognitive motivation for viewing mediated sports is

the learning aspect of it. We learn everything about the teams and the players, and this

consequently gives us great joy socially. We acquire this great sense of belonging; we connect

with friends and strangers. And it allows us to strike up conversations with anyone about the

topic. There is an artistic expression aspect to the cognitive reasons as well. Behavioral and

social motivations are release, companionship, group affiliation, and family. The release theory

states that we seek sports for emotional release. Companionship states that sports content

provides us with the chance to interact with friends or strangers. Group affiliation is greater than

companionship, fans here experience this great sense of belonging that can be felt on many

levels. And family means we seek mediated sports because it gives the families something to do

together and pass along heritage. Finally, there is an economic aspect as well, we watch to learn,

and we learn so we can bet. This motivation is not necessarily linked to fanship, most times is

purely economic.

All in all, I enjoyed this article very much. It was very informative, and I caught myself

repeatedly thinking, I do that when I am watching, or I want to watch when this happens. So, the
article was very educative, and it made me more aware of our reasons. I feel informed enough to

have an educated conversation about the topic.

Jazz Age Journalism's Battle Over Professionalism, Circulation, and the Sports Page

This article emphasizes the jazz age of journalism and the battles that rose due to its

vision of mass media. After WW1 a new era of journalism emerged where the media aimed to

attract readers with these sensational stories. During that time a lot of newspapers were focusing

on stories about celebrities, crime, sex, and so on. It was a tabloid era, where juicy headlines with

large pictures were implemented and used to grab people’s attention. Seemed to have been an era

where stories about people's lives and misfortunes were gold and the media’s intention was to

startle, excite, and even mislead the reader.

In this article, we are introduced to the situation of that era by the example of the Jack

Dempsey era. Back then the fight was between journalists that believe the jazz era and especially

the sports sections of journalism was crossing the ethical and professional line of the true essence

of journalism. The sports section of newspapers was considered a young giant and throughout

the article, we see how this young giant changed the course of journalism in the twentieth

century. The time raised a big controversy among journalists about what true journalism was all

about. Many believed what was being done with boxing and especially Dempsey was an attempt

only focused on profits and what sells. Many argued that most actions by the sports departments

were corrupted, concentrated only on preying on the reader's sentiments and naiveness. And

consequently, those actions were destroying the reputation of trustworthy journalism. Many

believed good journalism and wheezing over the sports page did not correlate. Some opinions

illustrated a different aspect of the rise of sports coverage. Where the rise was creating a passion

in the middle class for performing and reading about sports.

 This article shows a defining era in journalism where ethics and professionalism between

different visions of mass media were introduced. I very much enjoyed it, I believe it was very

educational and I was oblivious to this part of the mass media history. It is interesting to see how

such a big conflict back in the 1920s is still a reality to us today.

This is SportsCenter

In this article, researchers examine ESPN’s SportsCenter to detect if any changes

occurred to the program during the years 1999-2009. The study gathered its data from three

weeks in 1999 to another three weeks in 2009. The article shows us how SportsCenter changed

the course of sports broadcasting and how every decision on types of issues, format, news

characteristics, news items, and so on, followed the course of time and technology and it was

always an example to all. ESPN’s SportsCenter is believed to have influenced the sports-media

world in a great manner when it came to news gathering and reporting practices.

The study used different theories and tests/approaches to analyze everything about

SportsCenter’s practices and determine if indeed there was a difference. The study aimed to

analyze questions such as if there was going to be any difference in the length of segments; If

segments from 1999 would have higher frequencies of basic score reportage stories than 2009; If

segments from 1999-2009 would have a difference in frequency of episodic and thematic frames;

If segments from 1999 would feature a higher frequency of broadsheet stories as opposed to

tabloid stories than 2009; If segments from 1999 would feature higher frequencies of stories that

call on timeliness as the main news characteristic than 2009; If segments from 2009 would

feature higher frequencies of stories that include a specific branding hook or promotional

thematic concept than 1999; If segments from 2009 would feature higher frequencies of product
placement than 1999; And if segments from 2009 would feature higher frequencies of corporate

synergy than 1999.

By analyzing and applying scientific methods the researchers found that SportsCenter's

approaches and practices to sports news and information had changed significantly in the past 10

years. I enjoyed this article, I believe it shows perfectly how sports media is a constantly

changing industry and to stay on top you have to move and change constantly with it. We today,

can see better than any other era how sports media relies on technology and how it progresses

along with it, and how it evolves day after day. I believe that is the beauty in it, it does not allow

you to settle, because if you do, the train may leave you behind.

Local TV Sports and the Internet

The article shows us the difficulty of sports segments in local media stations in the 90s-

2000s and how the rise of the internet and technology turned out to be an enemy in disguise for

many. Local sports broadcasting saw its survival threatened by the rise of the internet. Blogs

were the first change to be seen in the industry when sports segments on local television started

to find problems due to their lack of profit. Many executives at the time had the opinion that the

matter was worthless fighting for and found it more profitable and easier to just shut everything

down.

During this struggling time for local television sports, the internet appeared in the form of

blogs. Many television stations saw this as an opportunity, this advancement in technology

offered an environment with more options and communication. Blogs and the internet, in

general, offered more audience and a more interactive way to communicate with fans and

spectators, however, journalists were skeptical about it and fans began blogging on their own

which diminished the quality and profitability of sports journalism in the platform. Then social
media came along, which many can argue had the most influence on the way we consume and

the media report sports. Social media presented problems to the media in relation to athletes

being able to avoid the mainstream media and just communicate with fans directly. Also, the

news was immediately on Twitter so local broadcasters found themselves with their hands tied,

basically nothing to report that the people already do not know. Many tried to adapt and

transform along with it, however, uncertainty about the transition had the power of holding

people back.

This article was very informational, I was oblivious to the power and consequences of the

internet at the beginning of the sports media-technology relationship. Nowadays, the relationship

is much stronger, I believe the media adapted and learned how to use social media in its favor.

However, we must never forget that when it comes to sports and social media, there are very

ugly parts to it, and the things the athletes have to experience are appalling. It just serves to

show, every good has its bad within it.

Paradigm Shift or Passing Fad? Twitter and Sports Journalism

This article performs investigative research to find out for what purpose sports reporters

use Twitter. Also, if the sports media industry is facing a shift in its media paradigm. Authors

search to answer if this can shift typical journalistic approaches. The article shows us the

importance of Twitter at the time and how everything it offered as a media and communication

tool made it the biggest game changer in the industry of mass media.

The authors went into the research with the information given by the journalists that they

used Twitter mostly for work. Connecting with audiences, breaking news, promoting, and so on.

The research’s goal was to discover what was the dominant use of Twitter by sports journalists

and if there were different kinds of uses for Twitter for different groups of sports journalists. The
data showed that most sports journalists lied in the initial survey. Data shows that more than half

of journalists used Twitter to post personal opinions, and most did not use it for any of the

reasons mentioned in the beginning such as promoting, posting breaking news, interacting with

their audience, and so on. Data also shows that sports journalists of different media outlets use

Twitter for different purposes. For example, print sports journalists used Twitter for breaking

news more than any other type of media outlet.

This article shows how the “typical” way of doing things in sports media does not exist.

There is no typical, only what serves that specific moment and environment. And that everyone

involved in the industry should be forever students, always learning, but most importantly,

always open to learning and evolving with the job.