Wednesday 24 November 2010

'How are athletes from ethinic minority groups represented by contemporary sports media? Why might this be so?'

The points I will be considering for my investigation are:
  •  1968 olympic games when Tommie Smith and John Carlos celebrated their win by doing the 'black power salute'.- The media instantly reacted negatively to the atheletes by publishing in- times magazine 'unacceptable and petty'.
  •  Ron Atkinson (former commentator) reffered to former chelsea player Marcel Desailly as a 'fucking nigger'- Does Racism still exist and why?
  • The movie 'Gridiron Gang' is very significant to my investigation as the movie follows a gang of prison inmates where they are selected to play American football to help them become good citizens . The majority of the stars are of ethnic minorities however the social connotations   
     from the movie are that the prisoners who turn athletes are given a “second chance” through sports. The movie links in with Beulah’s theory on black people and the media, she argued: “For many years black people in society and the media are treated as the ‘problem’ or the ‘victims’.
  • The 1986 movie ‘Wildcats’ has a similar narrative, only this time instead of prisoners, it is focused on badly behave pupils. They are also given a “second chance” through sports which does affect how people see ethnic minorities from an outside standpoint.
  • Didier Drogba and Tiger woods- how the media blew certain situations out of proportion.