Article 1: Defining Scandal in Sports: Media and Corporate Sponsor Perspectives Stephanie Hughes and Matt Shank
Article 2: Women, Team Sports, and the WNBA: Playing Like a Girl
Answer two (2) of the questions below. Each question is 1.5 - 2 pages per answer.
Font: Times New Roman 12, double-spaced
The questions below were designed to encourage you to synthesize what you have learned throughout the course so far and to articulate it in written form. Your answers should demonstrate your knowledge of the readings and lectures from the entire course. In order to answer the questions adequately, you will have to review relevant readings from the textbook and posted online, look over your lecture notes, and then summarize this material, as well as, provide anecdotal examples for discussion.
Choose two of the questions below to answer!
1. In class we discussed a number of notable changes to sports that have resulted from an increase in the importance of media. Discuss three of these changes in depth thinking about its importance, both historically and currently, to the sport, to the media, and to fans. Describe the phenomenon and discuss if you think each change was good for sports or not. Why or why not?
2. Discuss the three types of sports fans as described in the text. Describe the kind of fan you see yourself as and why. Next, choose two theories or motivations as discussed in class or the text and apply them to anecdotes from your own life. Be thorough in discussing the theory or motivation and use your anecdote to provide the context to understand the concept.
(Types of fans:
1. Social
-emotion, low level
-be with friends
2. Focusd
3. Diehard, vested
-high level emotion
-season ticket holders)
3. For this question, you will analyze a scandal. To do this you will choose one example and discuss it. Find sources from the media (be sure to cite 2-3) and use them to answer a variety of questions including:
*How were the three criteria of a scandal represented in you example?
Social Norms or moral boundaries are transgressed
The actions are carried out by individual people
The incident is widely circulated via the media and constructed as a narrative story for the media audience
*How was the incident covered in the media?
*Finally, how could the organization or individual better improve upon their handling of a scandal in the future?
(Please do not choose one of the scandals we discussed heavily in class. There are so many to choose from.)
4. For this question choose one of the following concepts, either race or gender. What is race (or gender)? I mentioned in class that both of these concepts of socially constructed. Explain what that means, providing examples. Next, discuss at least two examples of how the concept that you chose is important in the context of sports and media. How have discussions around your concept shaped the landscape of sports media?