Reading 3.2 Toby Miller, Geoffrey Lawrence, Jim Mckay and David

94 D170 This sporting planet Reading 3.2 Toby Miller,GeoffreyLawrence, Jim McKay and David Rowe, ‘ Sports media sans frontières’ God wore number 23. ( De Morgen,Belgium) The ‘ Michelangelo’ of sportshoes will not return. ( Faz,Germany) His royalAirness will never fly again. ( Telegraaf,The Netherlands) God is going home. ( Yedioth Ahrnonoth,Israel) [B]asketball is alone. ( La Repubblica,Italy) The King is Leaving. ( Sport,Spain) Earthquake. ( El Mundo Deportivo,Spain) Amyththat has gone beyond sports. ( El Periodico,Spain) Tell us it is not true. ( El Pais,Spain) [H]e’ sthe greatest.(Herald Sun,Australia) King MikeAbdicates. ( Age,Australia) God will never fly again. ( Asahi Shimbun,Japan) God finally to retire. ( Tochu Sports,Jordan) [His] nameisengraved on theheartofeveryone. ( Beijing Morning Post,China) Año Uno D. De J. [Year One After Jordan]. ( Ole,Argentina) (quoted in ‘ The World Bids’ ,1999) Theseresponses to Michael Jordan’ sretirement testify to three things – his exceptional athletic ability, thesuccess of Nikeworldwide, and the spread of theNBA acrossTVscreens: Rafaga NBA in Mexico, La Magia de la NBA in Argentina, Give Me Five in Belgium, NBAMania in Japan, NBAJam in Taiwan, and Zou Jin in thePRC (Andrews, 1999: 508).Just as Nikeand theNBA built their strategies forgrowtharound Jordan, so his career can only be understood in terms of thoseinstitutions. While this is perhaps themost spectacular instance of themedia– sports link, TV in particular is inseparable fromglobal sport, as bothamarker of globalization and one of its prime movers. IOC official historymarksthe Olympics in terms of broadcast revenues – atotal of US$1.25 billion forthe 2000 and 2002Games – and their status as ‘ asocial, even sociological event, whichmore or less reflects thestate of theworld’ (Macleod, 1996: 23; Verdier,1996: 34). This sense of sportstanding formore than itself, always bothrepresenting and beingrepresented, has apre-commercial heritage. In its nascent medievalform, and as it maturedinthe momentofearly modernity, sportwas above all alocal cultural pursuit, linked first to the ‘ rough play’ of mainly young men in thefestival seasons and later through more formal, regular contests between settlements in particular regions (Elias, 1986).While never disappearing entirely,local sporthas progressivelygiven way to regulatedprofessional competitions organized on national and international lines. The forces that, above Week 3Sport, media and culture: who’ scalling the shots? 95 all others, havetransported sportfrom local pitches to theglobal stage are themass (and especiallyelectronic)media (Cunningham and Miller, 1994; Rowe,1996). If aprofessionally-based economyofsport wasfirst established by theenclosure of sports grounds and charging forattendance at matches againstvisiting teams, then thecapacity to carry sports action, advertising, and promotional messages enabled that economytotakeonfirst anational and then an inter-and transnational character,asthe game wastransformed from apractice to aspectacle (Bourdieu, 1999: 16). In this chapter we examine howcontemporarysportarticulates with advertising, promotion, and commodification as it connects, disconnects, and reconnects collectiveexperiencesofspaceand time within and between nation-states. We are concerned withhow local, regional, and national cultures are projected by thesports media into thedomain of theglobal and, in turn, howthe reception of globally mediatedsportaffects those levels of culture. We have selectedfive sporting cases – blackathleticprotest, British (especially English) soccer,Canadian ice hockey, Australian rugbyleague, and women’ s tennis – to demonstrate howcertain contemporarysports seek to accommodate, mediate, or resist globalizing pressures accordingto their specific histories and geographies,institutional frameworks,and structures of culture. Eachsite shows theinfluenceoftelevision and enduring and shifting patterns of identification. Mediated sports cultures Sports reporting in theprint and electronic media is deeply reliant on imagingthe body.Still photography provides asense of ‘ having-been- there’ (Barthes,1977), often through minute attention to thebodies of athletes.Photographic presentations of sporting bodies are largely limited to rigorous motion (during competition)and inertia (for example, at amedalceremony). The latter image carries most efficiently theidea of thenation. For manyspectators, themedal ceremonyatmajor international events likethe summer Olympic Games epitomizes national identification and affect. Suchrituals are tableauxofbodily dispositions. The athletes,their bodies draped in the colours and insignia of nationand corporation, are led to theceremony by afunctionary.The different heights of theblocks on whichthey stand spatially signify hierarchy.They bend to receivetheir medals as in amilitary service, then turntheir gaze to their national flags, also hierarchically arranged,while thenational anthem of thewinning athlete/team reinforces visual supremacywithaural presence. Apart from flags fluttering in thebreeze, themomentisstill. At this point, athletes frequently cry – movedperhaps by asense of individual and, heavilyimputed by television and radio commentary, national 96 D170 This sporting planet achievement and responsibility.The statelynature of theceremony demands that spectators and viewersbeserious. It is not unusual for patriotic viewersathometostand fortheir national anthem, disciplined, as Foucault (1977) argues,most effectively not by external repression but through externally induced and internally accepted discourses of thesocial self.Iftears well up in their eyes, this discourse of nationhas become powerful enough to produce involuntary physiological responses in those subject to it. National mythologies prosper when internal fissures – class, gender, race, ethnicity,locality,age, sexuality,and so on – aresubmerged.The risk of displaying differences and divisions to aglobal audience, rather than asserting theexistence of aunified nation, makes themedal ceremonyand other less formal aspects of major sporting events subject to strict official control over communication in all its forms – verbal and non-verbal, abstract, and corporeal. Athletes are pressured by national sports committees and media organizations (especially those who havepaid forprivileged access to them) not to be controversial about issues ‘ backhome ’ – to preserve theillusion of the unitednation forthe duration of theevent. The IOC, state-licensed and -funded national sports bodies, and thesports market’ slucrative sponsorship and endorsementcontracts, are decisiveindisciplining athletes.The sporting body’ smarketability is significantly,but not exclusively,influenced by its degree of political quiescence.Race, gender,and sexuality also haveasubstantial impact on its place in the international cultural economyofsport. We shallexamine nowthe vast and complex infrastructure that is hidden behind these sports tableauxofwinners and losers. Modernsportand themedia developed simultaneously and symbiotically, supplying each other withthe necessaryresources for development: capital, audiences, promotion, and content.The sports media emerged out of aneed,first, forthe reporting of sports information through theprint media and, later,through presentation of sports events via theelectronic media (Rowe, 1992a,1992b; Rowe and Stevenson, 1995).InBritain and Australia, print sports journalism developed from notices about thetimeand place of forthcoming local sports events,matchdescriptions, results, and, rather quaintly,the hospitality (usually by ‘ theladies’ )afforded to visiting players (Brown, 1996). As sportbecame increasingly professional andcommodified, it did not disappear from thelocal print media, but became secondary – even in provincial newspapers – to national and international sport (Rowe,1999). This progressivedetachment of sportand place wasfirst supplemented and then acceleratedbyradio andtelevision. National public broadcasting organizations likethe British Broadcasting Week 3Sport, media and culture: who’ scalling the shots? 97 Corporation (BBC),the Australian Broadcasting Commission (later renamed aCorporation) and theCBC usedsuchmajor sporting occasions as theFACup Final, theMelbourne Cup horse race, and the Stanley Cup play-offs, to develop outside-broadcasttechniques and to engage in state-sanctionedprocessesofnation-building (Gruneau and Whitson,1993; Hargreaves, 1986; Haynes, 1999; Whannel, 1992). Once thenationcould be reached through thepublic and commercial sports media (Wilson, 1998), its boundaries could be exceededasthose media carried thenationtodistant and dispersed sports events, further building asense of national identity by encouraging readers, listeners, and viewers to supporttheir national representatives in international sporting competitions. There has been adramaticshiftinthe nature of world television over thepast decades. It has been transformedfrom acomparatively scarce resource to acommonone in most parts of theworld, moving from a predominantly nation-based and state-run medium towards internationalism and privatization. The global fashion for neoliberalism has:(a) cut down cross-ownership regulations (encouraging capitalists to invest in variousmedia); (b)reduced public- sector budgets (drawing labour,product development, and technologicalinitiativetoprofit-centred services); (c) opened up terrestrial TV to international capital (undercutting local production); and (d) attackedthe idea of public broadcasting

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