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“Society of the Sporting Spectacle”
KNES 287 Sport and American Society: Module 1 Topic D! ! “Society of the Sporting Spectacle”! ! ! ! ! ! ! David L. Andrews ! Physical Cultural Studies Program! Department of Kinesiology! Module 1: Structure and Process! Topic A: Sport and the Sociological Imagination! ! Topic B: Sport and the Neoliberal Political Order! ! Topic C: The Corporeal Economy of Sport! ! Topic D: Society of the Sporting Spectacle! This week’s focus: CULTURE and the CULTURAL SYSTEM! Culture Poli+cs Sport Economy Technology What is the inter-relationship between sport and culture? Theme 1:! ! ! Society of the Mediated Spectacle! ! !! Culture: Two Related Meanings! 1. A Set of Practices! 2. A System of Meanings! The things we do within The values, idea, and our everyday lives.! beliefs (the ideologies) of society! Through these interrelated cultural elements, we learn the rules and expectations of the society in which we live.! CULTURE (system of meaning) and the MEDIA (the technologies through which meaning is communicated).! Culture (as a System of Meaning) and Technology! The speed and reach of cultural communication (the circulation of meaning) has changed over! time within the advent of new! “media communications” technologies…! The Evolution in Communicating the Cultural System (Meaning) Era Method of Communicating Meaning Speed of Communication/ (Type of Communication) Cultural Change Pre-Modern (Prior to 1700) Word of Mouth (Verbal) Slow Transcription (Written) Modern (1700-1950) Printing Press (Written/Mechanized) Reach of Communication Local Regional Faster Telegraph (Written/Electronic) National Cinema (Visual) International Radio (Verbal/Electronic) Post-Modern (1950 to present) Television (Visual) Satellite Television (Visual) World Wide Web (Visual/Verbal/Written) Instantaneous Global Contemporary Media Culture/! Technologies of Communicating Meaning! VISUAL DIGITAL! INTERTEXTUAL! GLOBAL! INSTANTANEOUS! VIRAL! [and written]! We’ve gone from the shot heard around ! the world…! Bobby Thompson’s walk off home run for the New York Giants against ! the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant in 1951 (when! the “world” was listening to the game via radio). ! To the “shot” seen around the world…! Zinedine Zidane’s head butt of Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup ! Final between France and Italy (when the “world” was watching the ! game via television). ! See Video Clip 1 To the shot tweeted around the world…! T.J. Oshie scores in the shoot out against Russia, Sochi 2014.! French Situationist: Guy Debord! “Society of the Spectacle”! Debord’s Society of the Spectacle:! The INTEGRATED Spectacle and CULTURAL MEANINGS! Monumental! Spectacle! (mass mediated! happenings:! mega-events)! ! Individual! Spectacle! (mass mediated ! personas:! celebrities)! ! Integrated! [Intertextual]! Spectacle Commodity! Spectacle! (mass mediated! commodities: brands)! ! Monumental Spectacle! ! ! ! !(mass mediated happenings:! ! !!! ! ! mega-events)! ! Individual Spectacle ! ! ! !(mass mediated personas: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! celebrities)! ! Commodity Spectacle ! ! ! !(mass mediated commodities: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !brands)! ! The Spectacle and CULTURAL MEANING! “media spectacles are those phenomena of media culture that embody contemporary society’s basic values, serve to initiate individuals into its way of life, and dramatize its controversies and struggles” ! (Kellner, 2003, p.2) ! ! Source: Kellner, D. (2003). Media culture and the triumph of the spectacle Media Spectacle (pp. 1-33). London: Routledge.! In other words, within the SOCIETY OF the (MEDIA) SPECTACLE, it is through CONSUMPTION of MEDIA CULTURE that we learn the: ! ! CULTURAL MEANINGS and VALUES! ! that shape our! ! UNDERSTANDINGS, EXPERIENCES, AND IDENTITIES! (particularly those related to nationality/race/ethnicity/ gender/sexuality/class etc.).! Monumental! Spectacle! (mass mediated! happenings:! SPORT mega-events)! Individual! Spectacle! (mass mediated! personas:! SPORT celebrities)! ! INTEGRATED! [Intertextual]! Sport! Spectacle! Commodity! Spectacle! (mass mediated! commodities: SPORT brands)! ! ! The Sport Spectacle as Site of CULTURAL MEANING! Race/Ethnic ! Meanings ! Sexuality ! Meanings ! National ! Class ! [Ds]Ability! Meanings ! Meanings ! Meanings ! Gender! Meanings ! Engaging “Middle America”! In order to attract the widest possible audience, PRIMETIME programming tends to focus on MAINSTREAM VIEWS and VALUES, which RESONATE with the majority of the population.! ! Therefore, PRIMETIME broadcasts tend to focus on TRADITIONAL AMERICAN THEMES, UNDERSTANDINGS, and IDENTITIES. ! Theme 2:! ! ! The Economics of the! Sport Spectacle! ! !! The Mass Media’s Interest in Sport! ! ! “The media have no inherent interest in sport. It is merely a means for profit making. For newspapers and magazines, sport sells the publications. For TV and radio, sport gets consumers in front of their sets to hear and see commercials; in effect, TV and radio broadcasts rent their viewers and listeners attention”! ! Sage, G. H. (1990). Power and ideology in American sport: A critical perspective (p.123). Champaign: Human Kinetics.! A Promotional Conduit! “In corporate/Americanized sport, the game has become somewhat less important than its capacity to be a vehicle presenting particular [commercial] messages to a particular select and often massive audience.”! ! ! Source: . Donnelly, “The Local and the Global: Globalization in the Sociology of Sport,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 20:3 (1996): 246. ! ! The Economics of Televised Sport! TV Rights! Fees! - Mega-Event! - Regularly Scheduled! Revenue! Generated! - Advertising Space! - Broadcast Sponsorship! Audience! Figures! - NIELSEN Rating! - 1 pt = 1 million plus h’holds! TV Media Rights Fees for Major US Sports! (in millions, paid by broadcasters)! SPORT 1986 1991 1996 2001 2005 2009 2013 NFL 400 900 1,100 2,200 2,200 3,735 5,900 MLB 183 365 420 417 558 N/A 1,600 NBA 30 219 275 660 767 930 930 NHL 22 38 77 120 120 N/A 201 Olympic TV Rights for US National Broadcasters! Year 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 Location Rome Tokyo Mexico City Munich Montreal Moscow Los Angeles Seoul Barcelona Atlanta Sydney Athens Torino Beijing Vancouver London Sochi Rio De Janeiro Pyeongchang Tokyo Network CBS NBC ABC ABC ABC NBC ABC NBC NBC NBC NBC NBC NBC Universal NBC Universal NBC Universal NBC Universal NBC Universal NBC Universal NBC Universal NBC Universal Hours 20 14 43.75 62.75 76.5 150 (planned) 180 179.5 161 171 441.5 806.5 416 3,600 835 5,535 1,539 - Rights Fees $394,000 $1.5 million $4.5 million $7.5 million $25 million $87 million $225 million $300 million $401 million $456 million $705 million $793 million $613 million $894 million $820 million $1.18 billion $775 million $1.226 billion $963 million $1.418 billion As Richard Pound, then IOC vice president, brazenly admitted, in relation to NBC’s commitment to the Olympic Games: ! ! “If you owe them [the bank] $10,000, you’re a customer. If you owe them $10,000 billion you’re a partner” ! (Thurow, 1996, p.14). ! Source: Thurow, R. (1996, July 19). Lord of the Rings. The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition.! ! The Profit Engine: Advertising Revenue! Exclusive rights to high profile events (for high audience ratings) have resulted in an ability to charge exorbitant costs to advertisers and sponsors:! • $725,000 for a 30 second spot during NBC’s primetime London 2012 Olympic Games coverage! • $?????? for a 30 second spot during NBC’s primetime Sochi 2014 Olympic Games coverage! • $4.00 million for a 30 second spot during the 2014 Super Bowl! 539 hours on NBC TV/ 1,000 hours online! Estimated $1 billion ad revenue generated! Why SPORT as source of ratings/revenue?! ! It is hugely:! POPULAR! (and thereby commercially! attractive)! “Undeniably, sports is a big draw on TV. In the U.S., about 170 million adults (71% of the U.S. population) identify themselves as sports fans, and 97% of them watched sports on TV.”! ! ! Source: Spangler, T. (2013, August 13). Sports Fans: Get Ready to Spend More Money to Watch Your Favorite Teams. Variety.! Top Rated U.S. Television Shows of All-Time! 11 out of 20 sport related.! Source: Nielsen Ratings! WHY SPORT?! Reason #1. Its explicit and telegenic physicality (conjoined as it is with an implicit hetero/homoeroticism). ! ! Reason #2. Its innate competitive structure (which encourages empathy inducing personal narratives).! ! Reason #3. Its potential for generating visceral excitement (created by the uncertainty, real or imagined, surrounding the outcomes of live sporting contests) ! ! Reason #4. Its nurturing of deep-rooted individual identifications and loyalties (about which corporate brand managers must surely fantasize). ! ! Reason #5. Its relatively straight forward and inexpensive production demands (especially compared with equivalent programming lasting more than two hours).! ! ! ! ! Social Welfare Functions of ! Mass Communications Media! Inform! Educate! Entertain! Neo-Liberal Functions of ! Mass Communications Media! Inform! Educate! Entertain! (capital accumulation/ profit)! Theme 3:! ! ! The Sport Spectacle as Sportainment! ! !! Sporting events can be manufactured into relatively inexpensive, highly popular (and therefore extremely profitable) MEDIA SPECTACLES, designed for mass ENTERTAINMENT and PROFIT! Sport-Media CONVERGENCE “mediasport” ! the “media-sport complex” ! the “sport-business-TV nexus” ! “the high-flying entertainment-mediasports industry”! SPORT! ENTERTAINMENT! SPORTAINMENT! XFL (2001): The Pinnacle of Sportainment?! XFL as Manufactured Sportainment! See Video Clip 2 !“I don’t care how [the fans] are entertained. If they’re entertained by the quality of football, great. If they’re entertained from cheerleaders, terrific. If they’re entertained from the reality show and get to see and hear coaches and what they say at halftime where the NFL would never allow you to go, great.”! (Vince McMahon, ! quoted in Morgan, 2001)! Of course, the XFL failed, but why?! ! ! !Perhaps because primetime NFL is already !better sportainment?! ! ! Better SPORT?! ! Better ENTERTAINMENT?! In other words, the NFL was already more XFL than the XFL?! ! ! The NFL as Sportainment?! See Video Clip 3 UFC v Professional Boxing! Contrived Sportainment Spectacle? ! v! Antiquated Sport Spectacle?! Manufactured Sportainment! See Video Clip 4 UFC/MMA! “much more exciting sport than any of the other combative sports”! ! “a more spectacular sport”! ! A sport with “cohesive marketing”! ! “Your sport (boxing) is getting swallowed”! Theme 4:! ! ! The Hyperreality of the Olympic Sportainment Spectacle! ! !! ! ! ! ! THE OLYMPICS AS ! MONUMENTAL ! SPORTAINMENT ! SPECTACLE! ! (a high profile, mass interest, commercially ! oriented sporting event)! Manufacturing The Olympic Spectacle/Reality! See Video Clip 5 NBC’s Olympic! HYPERREALITY! For some there is a naïve REALISM when it comes to TELEVISUAL MEDIA, as if television programming merely, and OBJECTIVELY REPORTS REALITY.! ! In fact, the TELEVISUAL MEDIA is actually responsible for the MANUFACTURING and, sometimes, the MANIPULATION of REALITY.! ! Television doesn’t REPORT REALITY, it REPRESENTS (RE-PRESENTS) REALITY. ! There is no such thing as:! ! REALITY TELEVISION! ! It is all moulded, manipulated, manufactured, or constructed in some ways.! ! It is all an interpretation of reality, rather than a mirror of it…! Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality I! HYPERREALITY: ! ! “more real than reality itself”! (1983, p. 139)! ! A culture associated with the blurring of the boundary between the “real” and the “fictional”.! ! HYPERREALITY: A situation within which MASS MEDIATED MODELS or SIMULATIONS of reality come to represent and influence the perception and experience of reality. ! ! !Source: Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e). ! ! Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality II! The HYPERREAL SIMULATIONS of REALITY manufactured and presented through the televisual media advanced an understanding of reality based on DOMINANT CULTURAL CODES (or systems of meaning) viewers recognise and which shape their views and experiences, of reality. ! ! ! Examples ! of Cultural! CODES! Source: Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e). ! HYPERREALITY: MEDIATED CODES! Race/Ethnic ! Codes ! [Dis]Ability! Codes ! Sexuality ! Codes ! National ! Codes ! Gender! Codes ! Class ! Codes ! Source: Baudrillard, J. (1995). The Gulf war did not take place. Bloomington, IA: Indiana University Press.! ! According to Baudrillard:! ! The televisual reality of the media Gulf conflicted with the material reality of the Gulf War.! ! “Collateral Damage”: ! Sanctioned Televisual Representation! of the Gulf War, 1991! “Collateral Damage”:! Non-Sanctioned, Realist Representation! of the Gulf War materiality, 1991! NBC:! ! The primetime platform for ! Manufacturing a HYPERREAL Olympics Games SPECTACLE into a high revenue generating form of SPORTAINMENT.! The NBC-Olympic Sportainment Convergence ! See Video Clip 6 “These are NBC's games, and by now we should know how they're played.! ! The network sees the Olympics less as sports than as spectacle, at least in prime time, and it packages them accordingly into a sort of athletic variety show. Events are delayed, results are hidden, and while bad news is not ignored, it's not stressed, either. This is not Monday Night Football. The game is not the thing.”! Bianco, R. (2006, February 13). Prime-time Olympics: A variety show. USA Today, p. 1D.! ! “I get to arrange how all these things are perceived in the world”! ! “I live more than anything else to produce the Games” ! Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, 1996; 2004. ! beijing olympics In Baudrillard’s terms:! ! We did not watch the Beijing Olympics on primetime NBC; rather, we are fed the televisual NBC Olympics: the Olympics as primetime entertainment.! In Baudrillard’s terms:! ! The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the Beijing Games.! ! Televisual Representation! of the Olympic Games! Material experience of the! Olympic Games! London olympics In Baudrillard’s terms:! ! We did not watch the London Olympics on primetime NBC; rather, we are fed the televisual NBC Olympics: the Olympics as primetime entertainment.! In Baudrillard’s terms:! ! The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the London Games.! ! Televisual Representation! of the Olympic Games! Material experience of the! Olympic Games! Sochi olympics In Baudrillard’s terms:! ! We did not watch the Sochi Olympics on primetime NBC; rather, we are fed the televisual NBC Olympics: the Olympics as primetime entertainment.! The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the Sochi Games.! ! NBC manufactures a mediated primetime Olympic hyperreality (a manufacture model of reality), designed for maximum ratings (and thereby profits), which did not necessarily reflect the material reality of the Olympic experience.! “We will once again emphasize our packaged primetime show. The time difference doesn’t allow for us to be live in primetime. We will package and curate it in a way that makes it a place that huge gatherings of family and friends want to gather and get together in front of their TV.”! Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.! ““Where families gather, advertisers follow”! Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.! NBC’s HYPERREAL Russia/Sochi 2014! See Video Clip 7 The importance of PLACE.! ! The NBC games use the location of the games as an important aspect of the spectacle. ! ! They are a 2-3 week travelogue, bring the viewer into a different culture.! ! Hence, an emphasis on making it appear an INTERESTING and/or APPLEALING DESTINATION.! NBC/Costas on Putin: Framing the Games?! See Video Clip 8 “We will cover any social or political issues as they are relevant to the Games from a sports perspective.”! Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.! NBC’s Olympic OBJECTIVITY?! “The huge investment, and more than $800 million in sponsor commitments so far, has some observers primed to expect that the grimier aspects of the Games will be scrubbed from the picture. Much of NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Summer Olympics — the last hosted by an authoritarian government — was at pains to stress China’s social and economic progress, not its repressive recent past.”! Source: Farhi, P. (2014, February 5). For NBC, a challenge in covering the Sochi Winter Olympics objectively. The Washington Post.! Sochi’s Material [non-NBC] Reality! ! See Video Clip 9 “Soap opera games”! !Produced for maximum sentiment, ! !maximum ratings, and maximum !revenue ! Carlson, M. (1996). The soap opera games: Determined to make every event a tearjerker, NBC overplays the personal stories. Time: 48.! NBC’s Olympic Time! 1. Purely live! 2. Live-on-tape! “Plausibly Live”! ! !3. Taped Coverage! Packaged/Features! Where, and how, and why is time manipulated within within sportainment spectacles?? Taped coverage enables NBC to build up the intensity, the excitement, and the AUDIENCE for the event.! ! Hence, taped coverage of MAJOR events tends to be spread across the primetime program, with “teasers” early in the broadcast designed to engage the viewer and build the audience to a peak between 10pm and 11pm ET.! NBC’s Manipulation of Olympic Time (Emotions)! See Video Clip 10 ! NARRATIVIZING:! ! The process of turn an event/ spectacle into a NARRATIVE/STORY! ! Stories are most emotive/ compelling/engaging when they focus on PEOPLE (the human angle)! ! !! NBC’s Emotive Olympic Broadcast ! Philosophy/Narrativizing:! 1. Story! 2. Reality! 3. Possibility! 4. Idealism! 5. Patriotism! Personalizing/Individualizing ! the events through human interest stories, NBC shaped the way viewers perceived and consumed the Olympics:! ! The goal of making them emotionally invested in the athlete and hence the broadcast.! Creating/Personalizing Olympic Drama! (Manipulating Popular Emotions)! “You have to familiarize people with the competitors. What are their back stories? How did they get there? Why should we care about them? What is at stake here? ! Bob Costas, Host, NBC Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.! The Lyndsey Vonn Deficit! “I think Lindsey gives you great promotional value, and she’s an amazing athlete, and an amazing story. But there are amazing athletes that are going to be in Sochi, many of which we know, some of which we haven’t identified yet.”! Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.! NARRATIVIZING Bode Miller and the Super G! See Video Clip 11 See Video Clip 12 NBC’s Coding the Olympic Athlete! Manufacturing personalities in order to emotionally engage the mainstream audience.! Primetime Audiences Demand Mainstream Value/ ! Belief Systems (hints of neoliberal ideology) RUGGED! INDIVIDUALISM! PROGRESS/! SELF-BETTERMENT! NATIONALISM! BRAVERY! HETERO-SEXISM! DETERMINATION IN! FACE OF ADVERSITY! COMPETITIVE! INDIVIDUALISM! Such are the CULTURAL CODES (IDEOLOGIES) driving NBC’s Olympic narrative. NBC’s PRIMETIME Olympics, reproduces traditional/dominant AMERICAN cultural values, beliefs and identities in order to attract/appeal to the AMERICAN FAMILY audience Hence, the NBC Olympic spectacle, helps to reproduce American CULTURAL CODES/ NORMS.! Theme 5:! ! ! Sportainment Spectacles and Popular Physical Inertia!! 1. High-Level (Monumental) Sportainment! Television’s “Most Watched” Average audience of 112.2 million viewers “said to be the most-watched television program of all time”. ! ! U.S. household rating of 46.4 (meaning 46.4% of households were tuned in).! ! 25.3 million game related tweets.! 2. Medium-Level (Everyday) Sportainment! 6 out of 10 football related.! Source: Nielsen Ratings! 3. Low-Level (Manufactured) Sportainment! Survivor! Dancing with the Stars! XFL! Splash!! Celebrity Boxing! Interestingly, there has also been a sportization of primetime television:! ! The attributes and expressions of sporting contests have become an important part of the network media environment.! The Ultimate Low-Level (Manufactured) Sportainment?! See Video Clip 13 The Sportization of Primetime! American Gladiators! The sportainment NORM has led to televised sport coverage (especially that for primetime network television) augmenting the basic nature of the sporting event in order to make it more spectacular, and thereby more entertaining to a primetime audience.! As a result, and as CONSUMERS/ VIEWERS, we have become used to being:! ! ENTERTAINED! ! as opposed to being! ! INSPIRED! ! by SPORTAINMENT SPECTACLES. ! One of the main stated LEGACIES of the London Olympic Games (which contributed to the winning of the bid) was the encouragement of involvement in SPORT and PHYSICAL ACTIVITY among the world’s youth (inspiring 2 million youth in the UK to become more active).! However, research has suggested there is in fact no correlation between staging Olympic Games (or other major sport spectacles) and raised levels of physical activity among the general populace.! Source: Weed, M., Coren, E., Fiore, J., Wellard, I., Mansfield, L., Chatziefstathiou, D., & Dowse, S. (2012). Developing a physical activity legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: a policy-led systematic review. Perspectives in Public Health, 132(2), 75-80.! Amusing Ourselves to Death Revisited?! The Consequences of Sportainment?! Stimulating ! Passive! Consumption?! Stimulating ! Active! Involvement?! SOCIAL! CULTURAL! PHYSIOLOGICAL! GLOBESITY and the SPORT SPECTACLE?! Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.! CALORIFIC INCREASE! Increased ! Calorie Intake! Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.! ENERGY DECREASE! +! Reduced! Energy ! Expenditure! Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.! PHYSIOLOGICAL RESTRUCTURING?! =! Increased! Obesity ! Levels! Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.! GLOBESITY and the SPORT SPECTACLE?! Increased ! Calorie Intake! +! Reduced! =! Energy ! Expenditure! Increased! Obesity ! Levels! Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.! KFC Couchgating – Sport Spectacle and Globesity? ! See Video Clip 14 McDonald’s and Olympic Globesity?! See Video Clip 15 See course website for related required readings, video clips, key concepts, thematic review questions, and essay question. !
