As a Journalism minor and ambitions of becoming a hockey, baseball, or volleyball broadcaster, criticizing sport media is one of my favorite things to do. While I am not involved in the Maxwell Project, I do enjoy watching broadcasts from a critical perspective. It helps me learn what not to do as well as expanding my horizons on broadcast styles. One thing that always strikes me is the disparity of coverage between different sports. One of my favorite sports to watch on television is volleyball. It is extremely difficult to find a broadcast unless it is the NCAA tournament finals. Sometimes there are broadcasts on the Big Ten Network, but that is rare.
However there is one segment of sport that gets highly ignored completely. The Special Olympics were largely ignored by mass media. In order to find coverage, you had to go online to find clips or broadcasts of games like sitting volleyball. This is an obvious difference to the coverage for the "regular" Olympics, which are a spectacle to say the least. It is understandable why they are a spectacle though. There is no other brand of sport quite like the Olympics. They offer something for everyone. There are individual and team sports, sports of skill and sports of pure power, women's sports and men's sports.
So, why no Special Olympic coverage? You get the same opportunity to see sports that you are largely unfamiliar with as well as seeing the stories of athletes who have persevered through the ugliest of situations to make it to international sport competition. If there is one thing that is touching to say the least, it is a perseverance story. A non-disabled person could never understand what a disabled person has gone through to get to the Special Olympics. Honestly, can you think of a better thing to watch than one of these amazing people get awarded a dream-come-true gold medal on the Olympic platform? I can't.
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteI couldnt agree with you more. I think that it is bad that the media can choose what they want to broadcast and what they don't. I agree with you that i think that the special olympics should get more coverage than they do now. I have never seen a special olympics event till dr.Spencer showed those videos in class i can say now that i would definitly watch it if it was on tv. I think it is amazing the heart and determination that these people have and after just wathcing video clips in class they have become and inspiration to me. NO i cant think of a more amzing thing then watching them win medal for their country. Great post!
Tyler Clifton
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good post!!! I really didn't think about it that way, but after reading your post it seems more interesting to watch the special olympics then the "regular" olympics. I feel like it's not our fault though because if ESPN exposed society to the special olympics I'm sure more people would want to watch it. Like you said once you hear the 'heart-felt' stories who wouldn't want want to see someone like that receive that metal they have been working so hard for! If the media could just get better at broadcasting ALL coverage, including the special olympics, then that would just help show people that you can do anything if you put your all into it.
-Danielle Miller
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. I believe that the Special Olympics deserve more coverage than it receives. This could be a lesson for athletes who compete in the "regular" athletes to not take advantage of their opportunity because there are others who have gone through a great deal of adversity as well. Athletes with disabilities have had to learn to cope with their disability in order to participate in sports again. Not only have they had to learn to live with their disability to go through everyday tasks, but had to train extremely hard to compete at the Olympic level. These athletes need to receive more air time because I believe that there would be a great deal of viewers because of how much the competitors overcame. They can act as role models to others because they learned to accept and succeed in living with a disability; therefore, others can be inspired to overcome adversity in various aspects in their lives as well.
-Casey Daulbaugh