The news had written some articles about how there was a high chance of a terrorist attack to occur at the World Championship. The security kept assuring the public that everything was safe. The media kept promoting the advanced ticket sales to make more money. As well as the promotion of the tickets to the actual event, they promoted the viewing of the Championship on TV. After the event they found that 6.5 billion people in 187 countries tuned in to the Championship. They article talks about how there is a difference on how the Finnish magazines talk about their sporting events than how other countries do. The Finnish talk proudly of their sports and now nationally, they talk about the sports in a technical sports journalistic way.
I chose to write about this article because of the way it talks about how sports are influenced by the media. In my webisode, it mentions how the media has adapted to the public's interest in broadcasting sports. The fans feed off of what the media presents to them. In this article it talks about how the fans feed off of how the media presents the promotion and news on sports that help to change the way the Championship was viewed.
An important issue that is raised is how the media affects the way fans view their sports. This is really important because it's not only about how the public chooses which sports they want to watch and what they should worry about when they go to the sporting events. Now the news and media tell the audience which events to go to, when to be scared of terrorist attacks, and who their favorite player should be. I'm sure these theories have been thought of before. The media is a very influential part of culture, especially these days with reality shows and celebrity gossip blogs. It is only natural that sports would be effected as well.
This article relates to many ideas in the book. Not only can the media affect what is watched by the public but it can also persuade what the public buys through advertising. With commercials and product placement (124-128), people are influenced by the media everyday. The more positively and frequently they see a product, the audience will want to purchase that product. When the Championship was advertised, it was talked about in a positive light by the Finnish making their ticket sales very high.
An example not mentioned in the article is the recent 2010 Winter Olympics. They advertised for Shaun White very frequently, making the audience want to tune in and see if he would get gold. He is very likable and easy to promote. The audience tuned in to see if he won, which he did, and he got a very good response from the audience. Another example is the Beijing Olympics. Although Americans do not normally like the Chinese and vice-versa, everyone was very impressed by the opening ceremonies. It showed how the Chinese were very proud of their own country and how the rest of the world could be too because of the media.
It is talked on often how the public is influenced by the media on topics like sex and body image. In this article it talks about how children see 40,000 ads a year. This is very important on looking at how the media and news can have such an impact on people's lives. The news needs to know that they can have a very large impact on what people do, including when watching sports.
