Sports and the Media; Conclusion

     Professional athletes in America are portrayed as heroes when they're playing their respective sports, especially to children. That is, until an athlete does something off the field to demonize them. This opens the door for the media to expose their dark deeds, no longer portraying the athletes as heroes, but more like villains. Five years ago, allegations of Tiger Woods cheating on his wife surfaced, tainting the golf superstar's image and, ultimately, hurting his career. Woods was already quiet and stand offish to the media, but afterward he became quite hostile when reporters would bring up the incident.
     Yesterday, Dan Jenkins from Golf Digest magazine wrote a satiric article titled 'My (Fake) Interview with Tiger*' with the subtitle '*or how it plays out in my mind.' The article is essentially a parody, taking comedic jabs at Tiger's past and Jenkins' portrayal of how he thought Tiger would honestly answer the questions. Woods, somewhat unsurprisingly, did not laugh at the article. In Woods' dissent to the article, however, he brought the issue back into the limelight, causing major networks like CNN to talk about the parody article and the incident that occurred 5 years ago, when most people basically forgot about it by now. The media is oddly powerful in swaying the mood of a country towards an athlete or other public figure.
     On the other hand, many athletes also do their best to stay away from the media, even if it costs them. Marshawn Lynch, running back for the Seattle Seahawks, recently got fined $100,000 for refusing to talk to the media after a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. This was Lynch's second major avoidance of the media. When Lynch does talk to the media, it is very brief and often off topic. In an interview prior to Super Bowl 48, Lynch said to the media "I'm just here so I don't get fined." I wish more athletes would have this mentality towards the media; where they do their talking on the field, and have as little exposure off the field/court/ice etc. as possible. This would allow athletes to worry strictly about their performance, and not about becoming TV personalities or celebrities through self promotion.

     Throughout this blog, I have learned how significant of a role the media plays in everyday life, especially on a social aspect. Today's culture revolves around the media and electronics, giving major news outlets and media entities the power of deciding how to distribute and spin information to the people. The manner and mode of publishing news and information drastically impacts society and their understanding of what is truly going on. It will be interesting to see how media outlets continue to adapt to the fast changing nature of electronics and technology.