Week 3Sport, media and culture: who’ scalling the shots? 87

3Face off: the changing relationship between sport and the media We want youtolook at tworeadingsthat focus on twokey moments in thehistorical relationship between sportand themedia. Take this as an opportunity to practise your note-taking skills (you may liketolook again at theOpenUniversity’ sstudy skills materials on note taking that youreadonline in Week 1).

Activity 3.2

Nowread thefollowing extract by Richard Holt and Tony Mason (2007), who discusspopularsports coverage in theUKfrom the1960s to 2000, when thepiecewas written.Why do they regard this era as historically significant? What are thekey changes?

Reading 3.1 Richard Holt and Tony Mason, ‘ Sensationalism and the popular press’ Inside stories and breathless hyperbole were hardly apost-war invention. The inter-war years had seen themass press takeupsport, forcing theclosure of theold AthleticNews and devoting several pages to sporteachday.The popularSundays likethe People and the had four to six pages of sports reporting. In thesummer the quality press had crickettowrite about and the Guardian had Neville Cardus,whose career spanned thewar and gave anew literaryrespectabilitytoserioussports writing. The sports pages of the popular daily papers were still largely concerned withnews-gathering, though withanincreasingly gossipy and speculativetwist via football columnists likeAlan Hoby ‘ The Man Who Knows’ .However,what he and others likehim really knew and what their papers were prepared to print remained quite different things. The Wolfenden Committee took evidence of theeffect of thepress on top-levelperformers in 1958. Denis Compton thoughtnomore than 10 per cent of journalists knew muchabout thesportthey were reporting. JudyGrinham, theOlympic swimmer,said ‘ she was “ knockedfor six” when she had abad reportinanewspaper and some swimmers, especially young ones, were absolutely broken hearted’ .But nowshe wasareporter herself ‘ she sawthe journalist’ spoint of view’ :the editorswanted astorymore than constructivecriticismand factual reporting.Discussing football, ,who had playedasanamateur forBlackpool and as aprofessional in thegreat Wolves team underStan Cullis,noted the ‘ tremendous range of reporting ability’ and stressed that ‘ people had to choose their newspaper accordingtothe type of 88 D170 This sporting planet

reporting they wanted’ .Slater,who worked as auniversity lecturer in physical education, ‘ did not think journalists were particularlycruel to young players’ and ‘ on thewhole he felt thepressdid agood job’ . Comptonagreedand added that good publicity foratop player meant increased earnings outside thegame. The newspapers were anxious to presentarespectable image of the country, covering up sexual scandalasavidlyaslater generations would expose it. Good behaviour wasall-important and sportsmanship had to be seen to extend from theindividual to thenational level. National pride had to staywithin thelimits of decentpartisanship. Patriotism rather than nationalismwas thenorm. Consider,for example, England ’ snotorious football defeat at thehands of theUnited States in 1950. The press was very disappointed but their tonewas surprisingly measuredbycontemporarystandards. Imaginewhat alater generation of journalists would have done to an Englandteam manager who was beaten by 500– 1outsiders. Walter Winterbottom did not have to face thewrathofthe Sun and managed to stayinthe job foranother twelve years. Press reactiontothe 6 – 3defeat at home by Hungaryin1953 were mixed, ‘ There can be no complaints, we were outplayed ... by a greatHungarian side,’ wrote Charles Buchan in the .The press debated whether England had been beaten by anew ‘ collective ’ football before deciding that the ‘ Merry Magyars’ had learned thegame from an Englishman, and so their victorywas also ours. There were, of course, some complaints. John Barrett ‘ deplored destructive and sensational writing’ about tennis, whichheput down to editors ‘ making mountains out of molehills’ .Gordon Pirie thought top athletes were caughtbetween their governingbody,whichwanted to veteverything, and thepress lookingfor exciting stories. ‘ Atop athlete must be most careful withhis words at all times, especially just before or after arace.’ It wasacase of damned if youdoand damned if youdon’ t; if yourefused to talk youweresurly, if yousaid too much youwere a ‘ big mouth ’ .All this has an oddlycontemporaryfeel, although thepress was not seen as too much of aproblem by most sportsmen andwomen in the1950s. Popular sports coverage changedsignificantly in thesixties and has movedinamore sensational direction ever since. Coverage reached new heights. By 1980 boththe Sun and gave over 20 per cent of their space to sportwiththe Mirror and the Express not far behind with 17.36 per centand 16.45 per cent respectively.Banner headlines,colour photographs, and coverage of everymajor game produced apaper where thebackpages stretched to thecentre and sports stories, especially scandal, often got ontothe front page. The tone was increasingly strident and chauvinist. When the Daily Herald closed Week 3Sport, media and culture: who’ scalling the shots? 89

in 1964 to be replaced by ,the new tabloid announced it would have ‘ four rows of teeth ’ and would settle fornothing less than complete success. Victoryathomeinthe 1966 World Cup fuelled vast expectations and nationalist rhetoric, driving asuccession of managers out of thejob under atorrent of abuse. wasEngland manager in theThatcher years whenthe tide of popular chauvinism reached its height: ‘ ON YER BIKE ROBSON’ ; ‘ BEAT ’ EM OR BEAT IT, BOBBY’ ; ‘ SENSELESS! SPINELESS! HOPELESS!’ or just ‘ PLONKER ’ .If Englandwon, therhetoric instantlywent theother way with ‘ BOBBY ’ S BEAUTIES’ or ‘ BRING ON THE ARGIES’ in aself-conscious reference to thevictorious Falklands Warwhichset thetoneofthe decade. The Daily Mirror,the Star and theother tabloids adopted thesame style and couldn’ tresist thechancetorakeoverthe past affairs of ‘ ROMEO ROBBY ’ .Nowonder Robson, after coming so close to theWorld Cup final in 1990, decided to leavethe Englandjob foramanagerial career on thecontinent. His successor,,who was thought to be ‘ good withthe press’ ,fared far worse. Dubbed ‘ Turnip’ by the Sun,he wasmercilessly ridiculed and quickly forcedout after England failed to qualifyfor theWorld Cup in 1994. Glen Hoddle wasadifferent kind of press victim,sackedfor acombinationofunconventional beliefs, insensitivecommentsabout disability and, it shouldbesaid, increasingly,erraticresults. Hoddle’ ssuccessor,, has all thecheerful populism andnational enthusiasm thetabloids expect. But they are unlikely to be anymore generous should he fail to produce awinning team. The growinginternationalism of sport, especiallyfootball, has proveda blessingfor sports journalists in searchofastory. The papers increasingly pickedupthe international angle in the1990s as European playerstook advantage of theBosmanrulingonthe free movement of players. This wasperhaps themost striking change in English football as teams likeChelsea and Arsenal fielded some of thebest Italian, DutchorFrenchstars, allofwhomhad stories to tell about settling in, British football, rumours of returnand so forth. This flood of foreign stars had started as atrickle of British players going abroad. Suchwas thesmug insularity of theBritishthat they scarcelythought of buying foreignplayers, even after theHungarians and theBrazilianshad shown howmuchbetter they could play thegame. Scotland, in particular,was inward looking, not even recruitingfrom England and reluctanttorecognise theachievements of the ‘ Anglos’ – those Scots, often star players, who went to play in England. Alternately adored and reviled by thepress in his nativeland, Denis Lawwas ‘ The King ’ at Old Trafford. But amongst a ‘ tartan’ press ridingthe new waveofScottish nationalism, his gifts were less fully appreciated. From the1960s 90 D170 This sporting planet

Englandexported some of its best players, usually to Italy and usually not forlong. They missed thebeer,the English language, even British food. Nowthe patternhas been reversed withavengeance withthe press ridingaceaseless waveofspeculation about new signings. Famous foreign sportsmen and women seemedtofascinate and dismay theBritish press in equal measure. Tennis players, in particular,who were only in Britain forafewweeksayear became temporarycelebrities as theappetite fordramaand sensationalism grew.Maria Buenoand Margaret Smithhad beenone thing, Billy Jean demanding equal prize moneyand Martina Navratilova as alesbianicon were another.Inthe men’ sgame it was not so much therobotic consistency of Borg which caughtthe headlines as thearrogant gamesmanship of McEnroe and his refusal to ‘ playthe game’ .John McEnroe took up alot of space in thetabloidsand thequality press in the1980s. ‘ Abrat’ he may have been but abrat that made good copy. The nineties sawanew developmentinserioussports writing. Sport and culture would no longer be treated as antithetical. NickHornby’ s Fever Pitch ,aCambridge graduate’ saccount of his obsessionwith Arsenal, provedtobeone of thebooksofthe decade. There had always been intellectuals who liked sportbut nowitbecame commonplace, even fashionable, to say so.There was asteady expansion in thespace given to sportinthe broadsheet press,more serious discussion and features – andmore tabloid-style gossip as well. Women began to break into themale bastion of sports reporting just as girls and women more generally were drawn to ‘ thenew football’ .The qualitySunday papers were always on thelookout foranew angle. The Observer packedoff Booker Prize-winning novelist, literarycritic and self-confessed football virgin,A.S.Byatt, to Euro 96. did thesame to Germaine Greer,who, ‘ bathed in testosterone’ ,was much taken with Gazza’ sinclination to runafter aball ‘ withthe unflagging enthusiasm of apuppy’ . ‘ Gazza’ had been of particular interest to intellectuals forsometime. His tears in the1990 World Cup were analysed by theleading social theorist AnthonyGiddens whilst poet, biographer and football fan Ian Hamilton devoted most of an issue of theliterarymagazine Granta to him. Not muchofthis was likely to have touched Gazza himselfwhose Geordie philistinismwas partofhis fascination. Gazza, in fact, took up agreat deal of thepress in the1990s from his injuries to his hair cuts, from drinking to domestic violence. Hello magazine paid afortune for theexclusive rights to photographhis wedding reception, which included apicture of theman himself in agoldmorningsuit toasting thebride fromagleamingurinal. The tabloids were resentful about beingexcluded, whichmadetheir subsequent denunciations of his Week 3Sport, media and culture: who’ scalling the shots? 91

wife-beating all themore vehement. Their collectiveindignation was instructive.Sensationalism had its constructiveside. Journalists would no longer coverupfor sportsmen, who had to takeresponsibility for their public and private lives. Those likeTonyAdams, who succeeded in changing themselves, were thenew media heroes: theprodigal sons and reformedsinners. Alesser player’ sbattle withdrugs or gambling madebetter copy than painting thegarden fence. The new sensationalism, of course, wasnot confined to sport. It was partofamuch wider shiftinpopularculture, whichfinally shrugged off theself-improving legacy of thepast. The popular Sunday papers had long pandered to thepublic’ sfascinationwithsex and violence likethe Victorian ‘ pennydreadfuls’ before them. But from the1960s thepopular dailies went consciously downmarket and their sports coverage went withthem. Sports journalismwent in twodirections: there was an impressiveexpansion of lively and serious writing about sport, mostlyfrom the ‘ quality’ press, and aheadlongrush into scandal in the ‘ middle market’ papers likethe Mail and Express as well as the tabloids. Likethe quality press they were no longer able to rely on matchreports to sell papers.Sensing theenormous public interest in thepeople behind theperformances, themass press threw itselfinto a frenzy of speculation,gossip and sensationalism. Sixoreight pages of sport, usually half on football, became thenormand this could expand to fill half thespace in thetabloids forbig events.A‘ good guy’ like could grab theheadlines as thenation gathered roundto supporttheir striker and his wife whentheir young son had aserious operation. But it was family break-up rather than family values that the public really wanted – or so thepopularpress believed. There was nothinglikeadeserted wife and child picturedalongsideher ex- husband frolicking in thesurf withanew bikini-clad ‘ companion’ to sell papers. Sports ‘ hacks’ were acynical bunch, notablydismissiveofanything ‘ arty’ or pretentious, bothliberatorsand destroyers, pushing backthe limits of what could and couldnot be said in public. It wasapopular Sunday paper,the People,whichexposed agambling and match-fixing scandal in English football in 1965. Of course, there was avastamount of ordinaryreporting, too, especiallyinthe regional and localpress. Match of the Day only carried thehighlights of afew games and even Sky can only coverafraction of allthe football beingplayed. Plenty of fans still likeafamiliar journalist’ saccount of agametocomparewith their ownimpressionsofhow theteamperformed in televised highlights. The sensational and themundane sit happily side by side. The News of the World,the biggest selling newspaper in Britain, cleverly packaged its sports coverage to put big national stories alongsidefactual 92 D170 This sporting planet

regional matchreports, often written by former local stars. , thehero of post-war Tyneside, wrote anorth-east football column forthe News of the World fortwenty yearsafter his retirement. Geordies were less interested in what wassaid than who was saying it. Presscolumns, ghosted or not, were apowerful source of myth-making, mixingnational stories withlocal legends. Current sports coverage rangesfrom theprobing literaryarticle to be found in theweekend sports supplements of thebroadsheets – anew feature of good sports writing prompted by thegrowing middle-class interest in football – to the ‘ thelad done bad’ stories of sex, violence and scandaljuxtaposed withads forsex aids, chat-lines and pornography in thetabloids. The unreconstructed model of aggressive, promiscuous masculinity is aliveand well and its most salacious outlet is simply called ‘ The Daily Sport’ .However,this ‘ socusoap’ withits ‘ spot thebrawl’ and unending tales of laddish nights on thetownco-exists withavast amountofserious comment and analysis. The upsurge in new sports magazines, bulgingfrom theshelves, eachmore glossy than thelast, cleverlyblends thetwo angles, appealing to thefan and the man,from complex technical pieces in thepicaresque life of aRobbie Fowler who ‘ fanciesany glamorous woman on telly longasthey’ ve got afannyand breathe.’ Hymns to ‘ clubbing ’ and consumption – varieties of Ferrari, BMW or Jaguar are an important partofthe story – nowplay amajor partinwriting about sport, not so much as aperformance, more as away of life.

Reading source Holt and Mason, 2007,pp. 197 – 201

Comment

n Sportispartofpopular culture,whichisitselfrepresented through thelanguage of sensationand hyperbole. Significantchanges took place in the1960s, when earlier measured and constructivecriticism of sportand sporting performance gave way to anew sensationalism and hyperbole, whichisnow commonplace. n Media coverage of sportisbothextensiveand diverse; it became particularlyextensivefrom the1960s, and nowoccupies more than 20 per cent of the Sun and the Daily Star,withbanner headlines, colour and coverage of scandals. n The 1990s sawfurther developments post – Bosman,withfuller European coverage of, forexample, theincreaseininternational players.