Kevin Blackistone’s article, The Whitening of Sports Media and the Coloring of Black Athletes’
Images discusses how along the history of sports journalism, black
reporters, writers and columnists are not as prevalent as they should be. He
starts his article by saying that The American Society of News Editors reported
in April 2011 that the amount of journalists of color in newspaper and online
newsrooms had declined for a third straight year. That is sort of an alarming
statistic. Beyond that, a study found that sports departments are almost led
exclusively by white men.
Blackistone
does not limit his discussion to journalists of color, but he also talks about
the lack of a female presence in the sports newsroom. He also mentions how
individuals of color have increased in each of the three major sports
organizations; the NBA, MLB, and NFL, and that you would think this increase would
lead to an increase in the journalism world as well, but it has not.
Blackistone
also talks about how black athletes are portrayed in sports media. A quote that
struck me was “Most infamously, studies of sports broadcasts showed how the
success of black athletes was credited to their natural athletic ability, while
the success of their white counterparts was tied to diligence and, most
importantly, intelligence. I have never really thought about this before, but
now that it’s been brought to my attention, I’m sure it is true, and I’m
probably going to watch sports broadcasts with that in mind from now on. Blackistone
gives some examples of black athletes being mistreated in media. One example
was with LeGarrette Blount, former University of Oregon running back. After a
game, Blount punched a white player on the opposing team who had taunted him. The
NCAA had been trying to crack down on taunting at the time, but the player who
was punched was allowed to continue playing that season with very little
mention of the incident, while Blount was suspended for the season and was tied
to the punch for at least the next couple years of his career.
The second
article titled The New “Toy Department?” A
Case Study on Differences in Sports Coverage between Traditional and New Media
by Whiteside, Yu and Hardin discusses in particular in 2009 when Manny Ramirez
was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball for using a banned
substance, and a study that looked at how it was covered by traditional media
and “new” media. The authors define the labeling of the sports department as
the “toy department” as “the practice of eschewing social issues and at times
protecting key sources from negative stories.” They use the example of the
famous “Home Run Chase” between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998. It had
been revealed that McGwire had used steroids, but most media outlets decided to
downplay that in favor of the more “feel-good” home run chase story. They say
that the “toy department” label situates sports journalists as frivolous and unprofessional
(which we obviously now know is a big problem in journalism today).
As far
as the study regarding the Manny Ramirez story goes, there were some
interesting findings. Of the 94 articles/web posts that were coded, 45% came
from new media outlets, with ESPN.com providing 17% by themselves, more than
any print publication, including those from Los Angeles (where Ramirez was
playing at the time). As far as sources went, the study found that traditional
media had more reliable sources, using current players the majority of the
time. One finding that shocked me was that only about one-third of the articles
used the story as an opportunity to bring up the overall steroid problem in
baseball. If you are a baseball fan, you know how big of a problem steroid
usage has become, so it’s shocking that many stories did not use Ramirez to
discuss this.
Research Paper Ideas:
I’m unsure if we have to use
one specific event, like, one that occurred on one day in history, or if we are
allowed to use a series of events. If we are allowed to use a series of events
(in a short period of time of course), I was hoping to do the Tiger Woods saga
from 2009, when his life pretty much spiraled out of control, and many secrets
were let out.
If we have
to focus on an event that happened on a particular day, I would like to do the
Steve Bartman incident from the 2003 MLB Playoffs, when Bartman reached over
the wall at a Cubs/Marlins playoff game and took the ball away from Moises
Alou, eventually costing the Cubs the game, and the series.
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