Sports, Media, & Pop Culture -- Inspirational Sports Figure Video

Sports, Media, & Pop Culture- Intro Video

This is the video for our first class. It can be viewed on youtube through this link http://youtu.be/MsKLk8VcZz4

Sports Media & Pop Culture -- Essay 2 -- American Culture & the Super Bowl

American Culture and the Super Bowl

Angela M. Nigro

Avila University

            American football is an important aspect of American history and culture.  Although it had not been developed until the 1860s, this sport, a combination of soccer and rugby, has grown enormously in terms of players and spectators (History, 2014).  In addition, new advancements in technology, industry, and society have allowed for increased participation and viewership for sporting events.  As American culture has progressed, so has football.  Through the history of football, specifically the National Football League (NFL), one can look at a single sporting event to get a glimpse of how the media and American pop culture are advancing.  This event is the Super Bowl.

            The Super Bowl is the championship game of the NFL and has been in existence since 1967.  Prior to 1967, there was an American Football League (AFL) as well as the NFL.  These two leagues were in competition with one another, but merged together in June of 1966 to form what is now known as the National Football League (NFL) (Redmann, 2011, p. 10.) It was a privilege for a network to broadcast the Super Bowl and networks hoped to attract more viewers throughout the entire year simply by airing the Big Game, a term referred to as a ‘spillover effect’ (Rowe, 1999, p. 75).  Without the shift from radio broadcasting to television broadcasting that occurred in 1933, the Super Bowl would not have been as effective as it was (Rowe, 2003, p. 50).  One of the first radio networks, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), established in 1926, became one of the first networks to televise the Super Bowl (Rowe, 2003, p. 49)

            In addition to viewers, networks that aired the Super Bowl expected to be able to negotiate advertising rights throughout the year with all other programs.  The networks selected to broadcast the Super Bowl took advantage of the opportunity by instituting a steep fee for advertising time.  The first Super Bowl game in 1967, actually called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, aired on both NBC and CBS.  For a 30-second commercial slot, CBS charged $42,500 and NBC charged $37,500 (Klara, 2011, p. 9).  Within the first few years of the Super Bowl, the cost of a 30-second advertisement increased by about $10,000, but by 1978, a 30-second spot with CBS was $162,300 while NBC charged $185,000.  These prices only rose higher over time and by 2002, FOX and ABC charged $2.2 million for a 30-second commercial (Klara, 2011, p. 9).

             While advertising prices increased, so, too, did viewership throughout the years.  There were only around 44 million viewers for the Big Game in the 1960s, but numbers have risen now to over 100 million (Klara, 2011, p. 11).  In Sport, Culture, and the Media: the Unruly Trinity David Rowe discusses why he believes sports are so popular.  He mentions that while many programs have been previously recorded or edited, “sports are the last remaining live coast-to-coast events” (Rowe, 1999, p. 79).  Rowe goes on to quote Singer by saying “only sports has the nation, and sometimes the world, watching the same thing at the same time, and if you have a message, that’s a potent messenger, (Singer, 1998: 36)” (Rowe, 1999, p.78-79).  American is a capitalist nation and many operations are driven by money.  This is easily reflected in the Super Bowl. 

            An interesting aspect of this capitalist society lies in advertising industries and corporations themselves.  With the presence of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, some companies have created an interesting approach for advertising.  The tactic is simply to create an advertisement that may be too sexually explicit for television, have it rejected or banned, and hope that conservative news stations and other reporters speak out against the video, therefore unintentionally promoting the company (Morrissey, 2011). 

Richard Belfry, owner of a satirical T-shirt and novelty item company, JesusHatesObama.com, wrote a Super Bowl ad featuring Obama and Jesus bobbleheads dueling (Morrissey, 2011).  FOX rejected the ad, so Belfry tried Plan B, which relies heavily on news media coverage and today’s cultural fixation with controversy (Morrissey, 2011). After dozens of news media such as CNN and New York magazine covered the story, the advertisement, which only cost $15,000 to make, had over 300,000 views in only four days on Youtube (Morrissey, 2011).

            Although advertisements have always been emphasized throughout the history of the Big Game, the half time show was not initially the illustrious and complex performance that it is today. The first three games featured university marching bands and Carol Channing was the first solo performer in 1970 (NFL, 2014).  Throughout the years until 1989, the halftime show varied, featuring performances of university marching bands or drill teams, the nonprofit organization and performance group Up with People, as well as appearances by city or organization bands and performers such as the Los Angeles Super Drill Team in 1983 and the U.S. Air Force Band in 1985 (NFL, 2014).

            Since the 1990s, the Super Bowl has hired big name performers for the half time show such as Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Boyz II Men, Phil Collins, Aerosmith, NSYNC, U2, Shania Twain, No Doubt, and Sting.  These performances began to shift from instrumentals and vocals to dancers, special effects, sky divers, and other elaborate displays.  The change in the performing style only reflected the advancement in technology such as with computer enhancing effects, LED lighting, and even an improvement on staging displays and pivoting platforms.  Each half time show may reflect the current trends in pop culture based on the performer, but there was a slight change of performers after 2004.

            The most controversial half time show could arguably be during the 2004 Super Bowl XXVIII in which Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction at the end of her performance, exposing her breast on live television.  In an article in Time Magazine, some writers said that the actions during the show only reflect the negative aspects of American culture today.  They write, “A culture that tells young men they can’t formulate a thought deeper than ‘show us your tits’. A culture tat pushes young women to put out for the market, then ridicules them when they do. A culture swinging between cynical sex-sells greed and moral parentalism” (Poniewozik, 2004).

            After their performance, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) became more strict on TV regulations and the Super Bowl had to delay broadcasting for a few seconds on the coasts to ensure appropriate broadcasting for the audience.  There was also a shift in the performers, from young adult pop stars to legendary rock artists such as Paul McCartney (2005), the Rolling Stones (2006), Prince (2007), Bruce Springsteen (2009), and the Who in 2010 (NFL, 2014). After more mature bands performed and the chaos of the 2004 half time show was forgotten, the NFL and the broadcasters focused on more mainstream performers again.  Within the last four years, the Blackeyed Peas, Madonna, Beyonce and Destiny’s Child, and Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have performed.  These performers reflect current pop culture and did not create any controversy.

            The fact that a musical performance is incorporated into a sporting event can be dated back to the Games of the Ancient Greeks in which included art and poetry alongside their athletic competitions (Rowe, 2003).  Even though this is a classical tradition, our culture today includes many technological and social advances that stray away from older methods.  For example, it is become more common for advertisers to engage in the public and submit their own videos via social media to win a prize and have their video featured as an advertisement, which has been done by Frito-Lay’s Doritos and the National Football League.  Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and websites like Reddit have created a way for sports enthusiasts to communicate and share information, even outside of the particular season.  Information readily available on the Internet such as potential recruits, new contracts, possible trades, and other team-related information has allowed sports fans to be more involved in the team and more informed.

            The Super Bowl reflects the current pop culture through the selection of the performers in the halftime show as well as the interests in the advertisements.  While America is a capitalist nation, it is not out of character for networks to be driven by monetary gain and competition, therefore charging over millions of dollars if the demand is present.  While the sport itself is exciting to watch, more viewers can focus on other entertaining factors during the Big Game.

References

             

 Morrissey, B. (2011). A $15K Super Bowl Play. Brandweek. 52(4).

           

National Football League. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/history/entertainment

 Poniewozik, J., Ressner, J., Gregory, S., Cuadros, P., Stewart, F. (2004). The hypocrisy bowl. Time Magazine,  163( 7).

Rowe, D. Critical Readings: Sport, Culture, and the Media. (2003). Buckingham, PA: Open        University Press. 

Rowe, D. Sport, Culture, and the Media: The Unruly Trinity. (1999). Buckingham, PA: Open        University Press. 

Sports Media & Pop Culture -- Essay 1 -- Merging of the Classes

Merging of the Classes

        Sports entertainment is a common interest among many individuals, regardless of their differences.  While one person may work in the fast food industry and another may be the CEO of a prestigious accounting firm, these two people may both be L.A. Lakers’ fans.  Although there are still divisions between how one may watch a sporting event or the type of beverage he or she drinks while watching a game, sports entertainment can unite the most diverse or be a distinguishing factor for the most similar of people.

      In David Rowe’s Critical Readings: Sports, Culture, and the Media, I learned a brief history about sports entertainment, particularly in the United States.  One of the first types of popular sport in this country was horse racing.  This sport, however, was more popular among the higher-class individuals and tended to be a costly sport if one decided invest in a particular horse to be the winner.  Other sports that evolved, such as basketball and soccer, did not carry the same superior and haughty reputation, as did earlier sports that mainly attracted the upper class.

       Advancements in the media, such as separate sport sections of the newspaper, increased the fan bases of modern sports and allowed people to converse about the sports in their every day life.  Decades ago, it may have been a luxury for a household to own a television.  Therefore, only the wealthier families would be able to watch programs, possibly a sporting event being televised.  Today, it is rare to find a family who does not own a television.  People of all demographics in the United States can watch sports and cheer on their favorite team.

       In late December, I was in Arlington, Texas at the Dallas Cowboys’ Football Stadium.  My friend, Haley, has a friend who works for the Dallas Cowboys and was able to give us free passes into the game.  We had on wristbands and were told they were for standing-room only.  At this game, I observed a few things that were addressed within this book.  The first thing is about the financial aspects of sports and how much revenue is generated from this leisure activity.  Arrowhead Stadium admits people who have tickets for an actual seat in the stadium.  The Dallas Cowboys Stadium sells at least a few hundred more tickets than the actual seating capacity, designated people to stand behind the seats to watch the game.  This is a very clever business tool to generate more revenue.  With more individuals in the stadium, there may be an increased purchase of food and drinks within the stadium as well.

       The other thing I noticed at the game was the large variations among social classes all under the same roof.  My friend initially thought the wrist bands were for the common area, but after standing for the first quarter and barely seeing the gigantic television screen in the middle of the field, we happened to watch a group of men in the Air Force show their wrist bands to a security person who then assisted them to go to the VIP section.  We had on the same wristbands.  We went from standing on our toes and barely seeing the screen to entering a huge lobby area that lead to a fantastic view of the field.  I felt as though I was upgraded from coach to first class.  Through the experience, I realized that while sports may unite people of various classes, there can still be a separation, especially within the stadium.