Essay Sample on Sports and Society

Introduction

Sports involves physical application and skills where an individual or a team in the society compete against each other for entertainment. Sports activities impact positively to both adults and children by providing chances to get exercise and spending time with peers in a fit environment. Participating in sports makes someone healthier and stronger contributing to lower obesity rates. Exercising often through sports curricula contribute to a healthier lung and heart functioning and active persons tend to have lesser rates of high blood pressure and diabetes. Engaging in sports competitions and team practice provide healthier socializing options and might be beneficial to low-income individuals with no resources or money to socialize outside sports (Cashmore, 2005). This analysis aims at identifying how people absorb sports content in history from newspapers to radio to tv and now online and by giving their pros and cons.

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Before the internet, people used to follow sports activities by watching local news on television of which now the sports segments on local news are considered useless. Sports fans used to go to the stadium to watch football but now they watch live games while at home on Twitter and channels like Red Zone. In the past, message boards where anonymous fans rip each other and everything they stand for, there was sports talks radio where fans used to listen to sports news from. Reading newspapers was also a way to follow sports before the internet, although newspapers are still a huge part of following sports.

Newspapers

People used to follow sports updates by use of newspapers before the internet came into use. The use of newspapers, however, have pros and cons as follows. The advantages include; newspapers convey the news of the world. They are the basis of sports news for many countries in the globe and therefore transmit information concerning all sports activities happening around all angles of the world. Newspapers are read by a huge number of populations, therefore, sports news can be easily made available to many (Storch, 2010). A newspaper is relatively cheaper and therefore, anyone can afford to buy it to access sports news and updates. Readers of newspaper can read the news any time they demand containing information say sports as many times as they wish. Reading newspapers makes the reader well conversant as it enables someone to take part in each discussion relating to the world's present events like sports, and therefore, you will not only expand your knowledge on sports but also share the knowledge with others. Following sports news in the newspapers helps in improving the language and vocabulary of the reader as they keep reading frequently. Newspapers are available in various languages and so when the reader wants to read sports news, they can choose the newspaper of their choice. Those who follow sports updates from newspapers find it convenient since newspapers are lighter, hence, easy to carry anyway.

Following sports news on newspapers, however, has disadvantages like analog. In a similar way to radio, television and the internet are widely used by many people, newspapers are being considered as the last option to obtain sports and other news. Use of newspapers is at times expensive while advertising like if a team wants to advertise a tournament, it might be expensive beyond their budget thereby prohibiting people from advertising through the newspapers. Newspapers at times contain fake news especially news published on the front page, for instance, exaggerated sports results (Storch, 2010). Sometimes newspapers are printed with poorly printed images and text that cannot be seen and read easily by readers. This, therefore, makes it hard to get the projected information for instance on sports. It's hard for newspapers to be updated since once they are printed, they cannot be altered or updated, unlike online sports news that keeps on updating every time. Newspapers are awkward to carry around due to their lose pages and shape, therefore, discouraging sports fans to rely on them concerning sports updates.

Radio

Airing sports news on radio stations was widely used before the emergence of internet news. Advantages of using radio as a means of conveying sports updates include the fact it is cheap compared to television or print adverting. For this reason, people could prefer radio than newspapers since the audience does not pay any fee. There is a wide range of destination coverage thereby while conveying sports news, many audience and fans are reached with the information even in remote areas (Guang-xian, 2007). Radio attracts the attention of listeners, for instance, listeners pay much attention to sports new since they cannot be replaced. Radio have portability whereby a sports fan can listen to a live game or other sports-related news while driving, cleaning, and other activities anywhere unlike television that requires focused attention.

Disadvantages of conveying sports information on radio stations include lack of permanence whereby you listen to say sports news and then they are gone unlike in a newspaper where you can keep referring. Radios are prone to distraction, for instance, if there is noise in the background or when listening while performing other tasks, one might lose concentration thereby making it a less preferred means of conveying sports news (Guang-xian, 2007). Radio is not appropriate to listen to live match because most fans like football fans prefer watching the match live say on the television, hence, it is not preferred.

Television

Television has been a popular medium of broadcasting and advertising sports events ever since they began to appear in the majority's living rooms. Pros of using television in broadcasting sports news and events include; television sports news reach a much larger audience than radio stations and newspapers within a short period of time since the majority of sports fans prefer it. Television reaches viewers when they are most attentive, for instance, if there is a live football match, viewers are always aware and attentive ready to watch the game (Schaps & Guest, 2008). Television allows broadcasters to convey messages with sound, sight, and motion which gives it credibility and most preferred medium of the following and advertising sports activities.

Television has cons as well when it comes to sports. For instance, it is an expensive medium to make advertise sports activities, thereby, resulting in the skipping of some important sports updates which are also a disadvantage to the audience. It can be difficult to make changes pertaining to sports advertising on the television since it could mean to reshoot the video and updating the script which is an additional cost (Guang-xian, 2007). At times it is difficult to target the core audience with television when advertising sports events or airing live matches, since, some might be committed elsewhere and yet it requires the full attention of the viewer.

Online and Social Media Platforms

Recently, online users have increased and social media becoming the most preferred platform of retrieving updates. Sports stars have found themselves in interesting social media encounters. Sports clubs and stars around the world use social media to connect with their worldwide fan bases. Facebook and Twitter allow clubs of any sports team to distribute their information in a personal and interactive way, hence distributing it straight to their fans' news feeds with a simple click button of a like or follow. This interactive component allows followers to receive all the updates and have their say on a public forum by posting their comments about match results or other activities (Sanderson, 2011). Clubs tweet information about its players, results, fixtures, training session photographs and real-time game feeds. FC Barcelona, for instance, has over 35 million Facebook and Twitter followers and they all receive the updates. Social media provides an opportunity for sports teams to have a loyal and a growing fan base who always feel valued making them stick by the club through failure, success, and middle results. Use of social media, however, has its disadvantages like social media posts cannot be entirely deleted. In case something negative is posted about a club or a player, it is difficult to erase it from the fans, or if a club lost in a game, it must be updated in their page as a failure which cannot be deleted by any chance.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, use of internet and social media in sports is seen as the most preferred and modern medium of following sports activities like in Twitter and Facebook. From history, the newspaper was the commonly used but there emerged better medium like a radio with an added advantage of reaching a wider audience and being cheaper. Due to change in technology, televisions were invented and became a better medium over the radio for advertising and updating sports-related news. Currently, the majority of fans are using the internet to follow sports activities and watch live games online and even gamble on the same since it is convenient, portable, reliable, and even cheaper.

References

Cashmore, E. (2005). Making sense of sports. Routledge.

Guang-xian, L. I. (2007). On the Features, Advantages and Disadvantages of the Radio & TV University System [J]. Journal of Guangdong Radio & Television University, 6, 008.

Sanderson, J. (2011). It'sa whole new ballgame: How social media is changing sports. The Digital Revolution, 103.

Schaps, E., & Guest, L. (2008). Some pros and cons of TV advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 8(2), 28-39.

Storch, G. (2010). The pros and cons of newspapers partnering with 'citizen journalism'networks. The Online Journalism Review, 26.