Gabby s Class Notes - Ben Carrington PDF

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Week 1: Sociological imagination ○ To challenge or to question common sense ■ Normative thinking ■ “It’s common sense” — most anti-intellectual conversation stopper ● Essentially saying there is no sense in arguing and discussing and questioning bc the general public agrees for it to be true ● Common sense isn’t inherently wrong, but we still have to check behind the curtain ● Importance of debunking ○ Before we can learn we need to unlearn ○ Inquiring —> using theory and empirical research to test the truth of the matter ○ Don’t accept things at face value ○ Developing justifications ● If you disagree with something someone said — engage the argument not the person ● Just as we have theory and equations to explain the biological physical universe, we also need to have these for the social universe ○ Social universe ■ Sports, politics, communication, etc. Rowe: 1. Sport is a safety value for unhealthy impulses a. Civility process 2. Sports as a commercial development a. Turning sports into controlled events 3. Tele-presence — viewers can feel like they’re “after the fact” 4. State of control/regulation of news/sport information a. Absence of trust 5. sport/media complex no longer limited to the context of US/cable TV

Week 2: Intrinsic vs. extrinsic factor of sports Nationalism as politics ● Colin Kapernick (49ers quarterback) ○ Unveiled politics that were already there ○ National anthem normalized in games ○ Mobilizing nationalist agenda through sports ○ National politics that exist in NFL - “common sense” Commodification and speed of news becomes of value itself

Week 3: Media Professionals and making media a sport (rowe again) (reading answers) 1. “Shabby Reputations” — 3 reasons why sports reporters have a lower standing in journalism a. People think there is a lack of professionalism i. Aren’t held to the same standards by editors for accuracy, competence, fact vs. opinion, etc —> not as rigorously edited b. Sports journalists sometimes become detached from the wider profession and attached to the world of sports fandom i. Bc they are held to the standard that they are also fanatics of the sport ii. Less focused on internal promotion or trying out more prestigious rounds c. “Anorak journalism” d. Stigma attached to sport that isnt really news 2. Sports journalists being white/male — does it matter? a. Representation of common belief systems and understandings b. w/o additional perspective, the story is stunted in depth c. “Clubbish” image of sports journalism due to weaker standards 3. The 4th estate a. Press has the ability to frame political issues and explicitly advocate b. An estate of power c. Significant social/political influence d. Sports journs. Less likely to cut corners i. They have relationships w/ the sports ppl/officials/organizations that they can't afford to lose ii. Heavily dependent on those sources iii. Don't want them to cut you off 1. Mutual relationship (reading notes from class) 1. Things associated w/ the body of sports seem to be perceived as less important a. More cerebral topics like politics and economics are seen to be at a higher level b. mind/body split dualism theories i. Might want to push back on those ideas c. DISCOURSE OF SPORTS: i. Being “naturally gifted” —> destined to be a professional athlete ii. In reality —> nearly every aspect of sports is NOT lateral — you are training to look natural iii. Athletes absorb this discourse and reiterate it 1. Our physiology can be shaped/trained in a similar way that your mind/intellect can be d. The Social process of producing the “natural athlete” e. The fact that sports isnt labeled as political makes it easier to have a political influence i. Sports strips the name but keeps the influence

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Suppose 95% of all sports journalists are all black, lesbian females i. Different questions would be asked ii. White heteronormativity is sooo normalized 1. We don't think of this as a demographic group 2. The result of a configuration of power

(Lecture notes wk 3) ● In the UK you need a license to watch TV ○ In the US you just need to buy a TV and purchase a cable subscription ○ (UK) Fee involved as well per household ○ A public broadcasting fee ■ A media outlet separate from the commercial sector (in the US we have NPR and PBS) ■ A component of state funding ● Broadcasting as a “public good” ○ A common space = a park = a public good ■ Free access for everyone ■ Not limited by money, society, background, status etc ■ Contribution to society ○ Heavily subsidized ■ $1.25 to travel from USC to Downtown ● Costs much more than that (the public service infrastructure like buses and building a metro) but it has to stay at a normal price ■ Public education is another example ● An investment out of taxation ○ Some countries believe that media is a public good ■ (in opposition to something that is determined to have commercialized value) ■ Some public broadcasting is not commercially viable ○ Marxism — the exploitation (profit — workers sell their time) ● UK — BBC (british broadcasting company) ○ Emerges as public good to provide a broader range of content ○ No commercials — on 24/7, 365, bc of the LICENSE FEE ○ World connections of BBC ■ When a journalists tunes into MSNBC from Thailand, BBC broadcasters are usually already on site ■ Still are commercial providers but the BBC is the biggest ■ Why on US news about foreign topics, you usually have a british reporter

Week 4: (lecture)

The One Great Scorer - “The histories of media and sport are substantially intertwined, both w/ each other and more extensively w/ capitalism and modernity” (rowe, 2013, p 62) MODERNITY: epoch (a period of time/era) ● Modernity is the name we give to similar periods of time (2020 included) ● 500 yrs from now they’ll be studying 2020 as the end of modernity BEFORE MODERNITY: 1492 —> emergence of the new world and the beginning of modernity ● Differentiates b/w an old way of life and a new way of life ENLIGHTENMENT: contrasted w/ the dark ages ● Humanity becomes the shaper ● No longer fixed by nature, church, or superstition ● HUMANITY becomes @ the center of the cultural universe ○ An example: ■ When you feel sick you go to the doctor ■ Validation of scientific intelligence ■ Transferring of trust to scientifically proven methods of healing ■ Trusting enlightenment/modernity ● Before you would’ve gone to the priest SECULARIZATION: ● Displacement of society revolving around religion —> to science ● The separation of church and state ○ Rationalized, scientific approach to world issues ○ We are no longer the victims of nature, we control it CAPITALIZATION: ● Replaces argiculture and farming ● The nation-state is created ○ Creation and birth of the United States ○ Connection of highly complex societies w/ differentiation —> key element of modernity *** ● Consumption defines us ○ What clothes we wear ○ What cars we drive ○ Types of phones we have ■ Capitalism drives the tendency to upgrade our belongings/ourselves ● The things you own own you —> DEPENDENCY TECHNOLOGY: ● 1984 and Brave New World ○ Modern life is being stuck in an iron cage ○ Immense technological advancements in a short period of time

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Creating things we don’t necessarily have control over Ex: the ability to kill 100,000 ppl @ the push of a button —> we have the capacity to do so The iron cage (MAX WEBER) *** ○ Free and equally limiting

Back to capitalism —> the things you own, own you ● We become deskilled in the process of becoming dependent on technology ● Such as how to get around ○ Cant get anywhere w/o our phones ○ Other examples: food preparation, self care/shaving ● Life expectancy is declining bc of this POST-MODERNITY ● Some think its 1980s-now ○ A NEW EPOCH EMERGING ● A shift b/w the real and the unreal ● Line b/w the physical reality and the virtual reality is so blurred, ppl prefer the copy to the original ● World is full of simulated experiences that effectively make up a new work ● The matrix ○ Concept of the movie ○ Living in a simulation ○ Your real physical body is getting stimulated by a machine but your mind is elsewhere ○ Machines are smarter than humans ● THEORIST OF POSTMODERNITY — BAUDRILLARD (two L’s) ○ Says the original becomes less important than the copy ○ The mediated version of the world is preferred ○ Example: someone likes skiing on artificial snow over real snow ○ Displacement of real thing for artificial thing

FANTASY SPORTS/EGAMING — How is sports changing in post-modernity? ● Tennis ○ Modernity = 2 ppl hitting a ball ○ Post- modernity = watching a computerized version of the court to see where exactly the ball landed ● Using technology to get us to a degree of certainty to avoid the fallibility of humans ○ Could argue that is a part of being human — error ● Imperfections are taken out with post-modernity ○ There are no mistakes ○ Even the ppl in the stadium expect the experience to be similar to how they see it at home

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Want to know/see the replay Augment the live event to feel like you're at home

SPORT JOURNALISM IN POST-MODERNITY ● MODERNITY JOURNALISM ○ Dealing w the gap b/w the event the getting the report to the ppl ● POST MOD JOURNALISM ○ Gap has collapsed ○ New concerns/issues to tackle ● Players tribune — players becoming journalists ○ If you’re a fan who wants to hear from lebron, you dont need the media to mediate ■ You can hear from lebron right from his social media ● Media are important in influencing how we see the world: ○ The media doesn’t tell us what to think, but they greatly influence what we discuss in everyday conversations” — Coakley, 2015, p390 ● Agenda-setting ○ Editorial decisions made by producers on what is important to know ○ In comparison to the millions of things that actually occur everyday ○ Who is making those decisions/are there commercial interests involved? ■ Ex: “around the world in 60 seconds” — what makes this cut ○ Assumptions about the audience that shape what you get to read/watch The media provides INFORMATION, INTERPRETATION, AND ENTERTAINMENT ● Entertainment goals have higher priority than others within COMMERCIAL media ENTERTAINMENT VALUE OF SPORTS NEWS ● Inherently, the results are already over, why would we need to talk about it anymore? ● Think about how much discourse came from one, four-hour event ? (super bowl)

Week 5: (reading notes) ● Fan vs. supporter ○ Threshold of commitment > identity ○ Corporate — engagement financially with the team constitutes a fan ○ Location has a factor in it as well ■ To be an arsenal sports fan you have to be from North London (example) ○ Designated place in a hierarchy ○ Commercial logic vs. other forms of communication and commitment ● “Fair weather fans” — ○ support the team when its doing well. Bandwagoning ● Hooliganism

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Groups of sports fans in england who come to games just to fight others 1980s — horrific fan culture w/ terrible instances where masses of fans died ■ Now, laws in place to prevent Soccer rooted in lower class culture ■ Didn’t want to sit during games ■ 1992— soccer is cleaned up — David Beckham ● Globalized and branded —> $$

ACTIVE AUDIENCES ● Call and response idea ● Antiphony ○ At a classical music performance, there is no back and forth b/w the audience and the performers ○ In comparison, DJ + audience ■ Crowd responds to performance to please the audience ○ In sports ■ The 12th man — noise of the crowd that can influence the performance of the team ■ NBA - clackers during a free throw ■ Fans like to be heard and it impacts the game ○ This makes the 12th man/ audience ACTIVE *** FANS HAVING POWER ● An example: ○ The home-field advantage ■ Fan discourse becomes a form of power ■ What they do/don’t spend their money on ○ USC Trojan family ■ Stakeholders in the enterprise ■ More fan power in college sports than national ○ Collective fan organization takes over less in the US than it does internationally KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPORT MEDIA: 1- PRINT MEDIA ● This includes newspapers, magazines, and fanzines, books, catalogues, event programs, trading cards; words and images printed on paper ● “Life in the iron cage” - weber ○ The things you own, own you ○ Tend to devalue things that aren’t the most efficient or logical ■ Ex: the newspaper ■ We’ve become attune to speed ○ Modern tech tries to imitate the real thing ○ Flipping a page on a kindle — value of the tactile ■ There is still value in the print material

2- ELECTRONIC MEDIA ● Radio, television, film, video games, internet, online publications, word commentary and images we receive in audio and video forms ● How does print media survive this shift? ○ Charging online subscriptions ● Computers and the internet blur the hard distinction that print is reading and electronic is listening/watching ○ Cell phones have now become important mobile devices for our consumption of sports media THE GLOBAL VILLAGE (marshall mccluen) ● Village — think about small scale interactions ● Globe — anonymous and large ● Globalization = increased interconnectedness of the world DRIVEN by technology ○ Example: coronavirus ■ Charles De Gaulle Airport to LAX ■ How quickly things can spread ■ The iron cage makes it spread more rapidly ● Previous disconnectedness has shrunk ○ Relationship b/w time and space is smaller ○ Friends on whatsapp — doesnt change how far away you physically are ● The medium is the message ○ Technology becomes the message (Back to reading) Kellner ● Spectacle = LINKED to commercialization ○ Branding ○ Generating revenue ■ Some idea of commerce ■ Some kind of financial interest at stake ○ Relationship b/w capitalism and spectacle ■ Sports being linked to celebrity culture and athletes can make millions of dollars ■ Every part of the visual commodity is sold for commercial use ■ Can become part of the game itself ● The visuality is really important ○ Guy Debord —> “we live in a society of the spectacle” ● Producer —> consumer —> producer ○ Spectacle —> associated w/ spectacular ■ “Postsumer” ● Producer consumer spectacle ● Posting and viewing - visuality draws people in ○ The visuality becomes a value that we desire

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Scopophelia —> pleasure by looking ■ Defining feature of how we attribute value A surface level form of understanding ■ We start to spectacularize ourselves ● Ex: Instagram ○ Everyone’s happy and smiling — food, travel, etc ○ A representation of ourselves ○ Disconnected ○ Partially driven by commercialism ● Staples center ○ Overloaded w commercialism that is visual

MICHAEL JORDAN AND HIS BRAND — THE LINE // USE VALUE (Marx) V. SIGN-VALUE (Baudrillard) ● Worried about brand image —> entire professions dedicated to the presentation of a person ● Economy of signs (Baudrillard) ○ Criticism of marx ■ (Marx)Go into marketplace w money and purchase ● Supply and demand ■ (Marx)The price of something is determined by its use-value ■ (Baudrillard) — says sign-value is more important in post-modernity ● Ex: jeans ○ Use value (marx): buy jeans until they are ripped our worn out ○ Sign value (baud): buying designer distressed jeans ■ Value behind what it signifies ■ About status ○ Michael jordan ■ First global sports start ■ Symbolism — even for ppl not that into basketball ■ NBA and Nike symbolism relationship (back to lecture wk 5) POWER RELATIONS AND SPORTS MEDIA 1. Making profits — will it sell? 2. Shaping values — is it moral? 3. Providing a public service — is it for the common good? 4. Building their own reputations — how does it make us look? 5. Expressing themselves in technical, artistic, or personal ways — is it good? ●

-these 5 goals may often be in conflict with eachother ○ -morals/reputation in conflict with profit ○ -TMZ kobe scandal —> risked reputation for profit

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Power relations ○ Influence priority given to the 5 goals the drive media content ■ Key decision-makers don’t solely operate based on corporate interests but also their own interests ■ Based on social status and other general demographics ■ Decisions made by white men are seen as neutral ● White normativity and heteronormativity and male ● Reproduction of this one sided world view

HISTORY OF SPORTS MEDIA RELATIONSHIP ● Sport emerges as an institution well suited culturally and ideologically, first, to the emerging capitalism of the 19th century, and 2nd, to the mature corporate capitalist society of the 20th century ● Sports in a capitalist society reflect capital values ○ Merit brings you to the top —> pays off ○ Prioritization of the individual superstar ● Production of the top athletes comes from societal infrastructure (America —> Capitalism —> Opportunity) ● Earliest forms of sports media were sports reports (normally boxing or horse racing) found in newspapers in the late 18th c.

Week 6 ●...