Sports and the media have a long withstanding relationship that benefits both parties mutually. Since the creation of radio and television, sports coverage has grown tremendously in comparison to the days in which the only forms of coverage were from interviews and printed articles. Nowadays, television network contracts are commonly worth millions of dollars as various networks compete for the rights to broadcast major sporting events such as the Superbowl and World Cup. Competition between major broadcasters perpetuate the symbiotic relationship between sports and the media as they constantly feed off one another. For instance, whenever a sport experiences a surge in popularity such as the National Basketball Association’s Championship then the media coverage of that sport tends to dramatically increase as it promotes the sport resulting in an increase in consumer traffic to their platforms.
While sports heavily rely on the media, there are instances in which it affects athletes’ lives. For instance, when I competed on the women’s soccer team at the University of Southern Mississippi, we were required to submit our social media usernames for every platform we had to the athletic department as the compliance department monitored our social media posts. While this is a minor example of how the media can affect the lives of athletes, it felt quite major at the time. Personally, I did not have any social media accounts apart from Facebook, but I was still required to provide the athletic department with my name on Facebook as well as a link to my profile so they could monitor my activity. Our athletic program had strict rules on the type of content we were allowed to post as any negative or obscene posts could negatively reflect upon the program and university. For instance, as we were sponsored by Russell, we were heavily discouraged from posting any content in which we were wearing university issued athletic gear mixed with athletic gear from other brands such as a Nike headband. Though these types of social media posts may seem frivolous, many athletes were punished with additional conditioning, study-hall hours, and even suspension from their respective teams for not following the social media guidelines implemented by the athletic department.
Overall, I am a firm believer that the relationship between the media and sports is crucial to the future of both parties as they are dependent on each other. Without the incredible coverage from the media, I do not believe sports would have become as prominent in society as they are now.
Cheyenne's Blog 