LIFE IN THE LIMELIGHT
Abstract
The media today wields more power in professional and amateur sports than ever. Indeed, the very notion of media has changed drastically in recent years, as players and coaches join fans on social media sites, exchanging the most trivial thoughts and, sometimes, overstepping their bounds with inappropriate comments. Ultimately, social media encourages behavior that distracts athletes from on-field performance, as does the “real-time” criticism of reporters who are no longer restricted to the print medium. This situation is creating a situation in which the difference between players who can cope with, and perform under, such stressful circumstances and those who cannot is crystal clear.
Keywords: Media, professional, amateur sports, social media, reporters.
LIFE IN THE LIMELIGHT
Introduction -
There is no more pervasive, and perhaps no more powerful, force in modern-day society than the media. It creates a symbiotic relationship between media and politics that is with us daily; one, seemingly, unable to exist without the other. Only marginally less linked are media and sports. An important part of sports’ appeal is its participatory, or pseudo-participatory, nature in which fans are catered to by teams who see them as profit centers. Fans feel themselves entitled to a sense of ownership which encourages them to participate in the affairs of teams and individual athletes. Media in its various forms; broadcast, social, etc., have a demonstrable effect on the performance of athletes in professional and high-profile amateur sports. In the past, athletes adopted a stoic attitude toward the media, which was manageable in the days when “media” equated to newspaper reporters. In the modern era, Twitter posts and sports reporters’ podcasts provide instantaneous coverage and access to the ongoing dialogue about those who make the headlines. The ability of media to impact an athlete’s performance is proof that the media has become inseparable from what happens on the field or court. We live in an age when an athlete’s entire career can play out in the media, regardless of whether it spans days or years. In such an environment, the media can have as much impact on performance as conditioning, coaching and experience.
Pressure in print, on the air and on line
There is an endearing scene in the baseball movie Bull Durham, in which Kevin
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Costner’s character advises hot young pitching prospect Nuke LaLoosh on what to say in interviews, an aspect of life in the Major Leagues as important as learning to throw a good curve ball. It is a telling exchange which speaks to the manufacturing of persona, the face each athlete creates, wittingly or unwittingly, and presents to the world. This is a day-to-day proposition, and a positively perceived image can turn sour in minutes. When this happens, the causal relationship between media coverage and player performance is at its most apparent (Ott and Van Puymbroeck, 2006). Athletes are as individual as anyone else in society when it comes to handling media pressure. In recent weeks, Jon Jay, a talented young outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of Major League baseball’s best teams, has experienced a slump in which his batting average, and other key statistics, dropped sharply. A high-profile sports reporter from the St. Louis Post Dispatch commented in print (“Cards Need More in Center Field”) and on line, writing that Jay must either produce better numbers or expect to be replaced, despite the fact that Jay had a very successful 2012. The day after the reporter’s criticism appeared Jay got two hits, including a home run, and led the Cardinals to a key victory. Players are trained to avoid commenting on such media criticism and Jay did not respond verbally to the articles. However, his performance in the face of such a harsh assessment supports a causal relationship between the media and player performance. A study published in 2011 indicates that there is a higher likelihood that such an upswing in performance is simply part of a cycle of “better” and “worse” periods which typify any athlete’s season (Eisenmann, 2011). And yet, the daily presence of such criticism is a constant factor in a professional (and major amateur) athlete’s life.
A 1990 study on the relationship between cognitive/emotional distractions and sports performance put forth the Multidimensional Anxiety Theory, which holds that an athlete’s
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performance will degrade in response to cognitive stress from an external source. The study indicated that the reverse is possible as well, meaning that an “inverted U-relationship” shows
that as an increase in somatic anxiety goes up, a player’s performance will improve along with it (Martens et al, 1990). However, comparing a young athlete’s anxiety response to that of an experienced athlete would seem to indicate that the seasoned player develops coping strategies, which go hand-in-hand with the creation and maintenance of a public persona. “Without having the ability and proper knowledge to cope in competitive, stress-inducing situations and environments can have an affect (on) the way an individual thinks, feels, and reacts” (Cooper, 2010, 43). Thus, the athlete’s experience level is a determinant in whether he or she performs well or poorly in response to anxiety and external stress.
External pressure in the form of media attention can come in various forms and measures. It can, in the case of Jon Jay, be a temporary, albeit intense, singling-out of the player, or it can turn into something considerably more intense. The level to which media singles out an athlete for negative attention is, in part, a function of the athlete’s public persona and his or her ability to cope with this attention. A more experienced athlete is more likely to prove successful at avoiding a significant amount of unwanted media attention than an inexperienced one. Some notable athletes, such as tennis great John McEnroe, have proven adept at performing well under the intense scrutiny of negative media focus. Others tend to lose focus, allowing themselves to become embroiled in media “feuds” that take on lives of their own, separate from what happens on the playing field. Some simply choose to ignore (or attempt to ignore) the media entirely, refusing to speak to reporters or to engage in online exchanges. Others appear to feel compelled
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In 1994, ESPN talk show host Jim Rome interviewed Jim Everett, then the quarterback for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. Rome had for some time referred to Everett as “Chris,” referring to female tennis player Chris Evert, Rome’s meaning being that Jim Everett was a player who was afraid of contact on the football field. Everett took exception to the slight but accepted the invitation to appear with Rome, who taunted Everett on the air. The exchange turned physical, with the two engaging in a shoving match that ended with Rome falling to the floor and a table being overturned. Neither pursued legal action but the episode has become a hallmark of media “player baiting,” its intent being to force a professional athlete to lose composure in public and sustain damage to his public persona. Rome was accused of engaging in unprofessional, even immature conduct but has since gone on to enjoy a highly successful career with a nationally syndicated radio program. Everett, who had taken personal responsibility for the Rams’ failure during his tenure, has become associated nearly as much with the on-air incident as for an otherwise distinguished career.
While such media feuds rarely flare into physical confrontation, they are a fixture of the American sports scene. The fact that the Rome/Everett incident has become a prime example of the classic athlete/media feud, and is still widely discussed in the media and among fans, indicates that the public’s taste for sensationalism (not to mention violence) proves the sports media establishment wields tremendous power. Today, the media’s influence extends beyond creating stress and anxiety for an athlete; it can impact whether or not an athlete has an
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opportunity to perform at all. Cable sports network powerhouse ESPN has grown so powerful that it can impact the fortunes of sports teams/franchises, which require media exposure
in order to succeed financially. Players who are struggling have a lesser opportunity to play their way out of slumps in an environment where teams must win in order to ensure television exposure.
Media outlets like ESPN have hired former athletes as on-air personalities in recent years, a move intended to bring a higher level of expertise to play-by-play commentary. However, former players are also able to bring a more intense level of criticism to their role as broadcasters, thereby adding a new dimension to the media pressure with which athletes are daily confronted. Fans benefit from more informed commentary, and much of the time players are treated fairly by former players. At the same time, athletes are subjected to greater scrutiny, which can create its own kind of distraction and engender bitterness on the part of the player toward the commentator. Some observers have noted that commentators, whether they are former athletes or not, are guilty of perpetrating a form of deception, which does not accurately reflect what actually happens on the field/court. This “narrative fallacy describes our ‘limited ability to look at sequences of acts without weaving an explanation into them, or equivalently, forcing a logical link, and arrow of relationship, upon them’” (McNerney, 2011). This theory contends that undue criticism (and undue praise) is routinely ascribed by commentators to players and coaches for specifics, such as pitching, fielding and coaching decisions, in determining the outcome of a game. Ultimately, the only meaningful fact is simply that one team outscored the other (McNerney, 2011).
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Social media: interactive media and the modern athlete
The impact of social media on modern-day athletics is, at best, uncertain. Some insist that Twitter, Facebook and other interactive venues provide an unprecedented conduit for athletes and fans to communicate, and to relate as individuals. And yet the number of athletes who have suffered negative public relations from an ill-advised use of social media outlets is growing. In 2000, former University of Kentucky basketball star John Wall used Twitter to vent frustration over what he considered unduly rough treatment by Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari. Wall was punished for his tweets, and forced to cancel his Twitter account. He went on to have a successful season, but there was little doubt that his play suffered during the Twitter controversy, which proved to be a substantial distraction. Such incidents have happened at the college and professional levels. At the December 2012 conference of the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, Duke University athletic director Kevin White warned that matters have gotten so bad that an unpopular and underperforming coach could easily (and instantly) be confronted with “an online uprising” (Elfman, 2013).
The idea is to help athletes avoid such distractions and minimize the resultant public pressure, however, many have suffered from poor performance, and some have lost opportunities to play due to irresponsible social media use. Recently, Chicago Cubs third baseman Ian Stewart was suspended without pay for an angry tweet: “I meant they might as well release me since I have no shot of a call up. Let me sign elsewhere” (Lariviere, 2013). And yet interactive media continues to be a wildly popular aspect of high-profile sports. It provides the kind of instant gratification that fans crave, allowing them to act as “experts,” weighing in on player performances as though they were professional reporters themselves. Indeed, social
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media has created a kind of quasi-reporter, one who has no official credentials other than a rabid interest in sports and a desire to impact the sports scene. For “real” reporters, social media allows substantive reports and brief updates to be filed minute-by-minute. For players, ignoring the vagaries of media coverage can be difficult when reporters have the ability to level criticism at will. Thus, social media opens the possibility for a new kind of media feud, one that can be damaging to a player’s image and to his or her ability to focus on performing well. It is a highly seductive scenario, one fraught with danger for athletes unaccustomed or unable to exercise restraint.
Conclusion
The super-charged intensity of media scrutiny long ago ended the notion that athletes are somehow impervious to the external pressure of high expectations. The highly competitive nature of professional and “big-time” college sports places a high premium on the athlete’s ability to concentrate. The 24-hour onslaught of broadcast and social media has brought reporters and fans into the athlete’s realm to an extent never before seen. Consequently, the distinction between athletes who struggle and those who can succeed under such pressure is more distinct than ever. Attempts have been made to police players’ access to social media and to punish those who exercise poor judgment on line, but the truth is that interactive media is and will remain an omnipresent fact of life in the world of sports. Its influence will continue to test players’ ability to produce despite the pressures of cogitative anxiety. It is to be expected that some athletes will develop adaptive strategies to cope with the situation. Those who cannot will suffer under the glare of media scrutiny and, ultimately, fail.
LIFE IN THE LIMELIGHT
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