Article #2

One of the consequences of the media influence on sport is commercialization.

According to the president of sportive marketing Margy Lang “The advantages of the commercialization of sport are made much clearer in these two weeks of Summer Games, than perhaps at any other time. There is no better example of the commercialization of sport in the context of its advantage in moving sport forward.” (Advantages of Commercialization of Sports)

The author is arguing and quoting the president of the International Olympic Committee Dr. Rogge, that "Without the support of the business community, without its technology, expertise, people, services, products, telecommunication, its financing - the Olympic Games...cannot happen. Without this support, the athletes cannot compete and achieve their very best in the world's best sporting event.", but The Olympic Games could be happen without high technologies and telecommunication and they were successfully organized before era of commercialization. No doubt, the Olympic Games in that case would be not popular as they are today, less number of people would have opportunity to watch it, and finally, the Olympic Games would not be profitable as they are today. For example, “Los Angeles made a $215 million profit from the 1984 Olympic Games… NBC's recent $3.5 billion deal with the IOC for broadcasting rights to all winter and summer Olympics between 2000 and 2008.” (Big business demands a corporate Olympics)

The next author’s argument is “Again, without the commercial partners and sponsors of sport, where would sport be? Sponsorship and partnerships create opportunities for sport to flourish, to develop and to thrive among the marketplace competition and forces“. (Advantages of Commercialization of Sports) This remark is a vivid example that sport cannot exist without the media & money and it is only huge business. The author tries to use method of manipulation called “appeals to threat”, but sport existed before commercialization and not sport decided the media as a partner, but the media decided sport as a good product which would be sold without problem anytime and anywhere. Moreover, accordint to the Olympic Charter the main purpose of sport is making nation healthier and promoting atmosphere of friendship, but the media and commercialization destroyed this principles and the main purpose of sport is making money today.

High sports results are the main purpose of sport today from the childish and it is common tendency when child do not have opportunity to be involved into sport, because he/she does not give high results.

The International Olympic Committee and other sports organizations such as FIFA and NHL are influenced and depended on the media. Commercialization is a consequence of the influence of the media on sport and the model which exists today has more shortcomings than advantages.

References:

Margy Lang, “Advantages of Commercialization of Sports”, 19 August 2008, http://en.allexperts.com/q/Sports-Business-3020/2008/8/advantages-commercialization-sports.htm
Richard Phillips, “Big business demands a corporate Olympics”, World Socialist Web Page, 16 March 1999. http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/mar1999/olym-m16.shtml
Olympic Charter, http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_122.pdf, p.11, 14