Summary of the main themes of the field study
Violence in sports-sports is often marred by violence and other forms of hooliganism. Sports fans in most cases take their passion for the game to extreme heights where they turn a blind eye to the sensibility and decorum. The numerous fights are a clear demonstration of violence in sports. Qualitative research offers firsthand information regarding field incidences (Corbin & Strauss, 2014).
Intolerance in the game-while sports acts as a uniting factor in the society. It is often full of intolerance. Fans normally find it too hard to withstand contentious decisions that go against them. As a result, the referees are usually on the receiving end of intolerant fans. The fans cannot endure poor and discriminative officiating.
• Bias in sports-while integrity is the foundation upon which sports is built there are always chances that an official can be corrupted to make dubious decisions. As a result, it is important that the integrity of the game is maintained. In several instances, there is violence due to disgruntlement by fans. They are contesting wrong and suspicious decisions that are unwarranted. Qualitative approaches often offer the chance to witness incidences of bias (Bowling, 2014).
Reflective
The purpose of observation is to help access real situations and offer firsthand experience. There were several sports events taking place at the local level when the recording was being done. Several people were taking part in the events that were happening. There were football games taking place; amateur rugby game was also taking place at the event. Volleyball also took place. The situations are recorded to allow further inquest of the situations. It will help provide detailed analysis A section of the population was watching the sports from the terraces built by the local authority for the fans to sit while supporting their favorite teams. During the time, there were several groups of people taking part in the cheering of the teams as they took the pitch against each other. In the football field, a fight broke between the rival fans who had been insulting one another for sometimes in the build up to the fight. A goal had been controversially scored by the Team A. However, the fans of Team B protested furiously in the hope that it would be disallowed. To their dismay, the referee counted the goal. The contentious issue was what seemed like an offside. In an observation, it is important to record scenes for further reference (Creswell, 2013).
Despite the protests by the fans, it became apparent that little could be done to change the mind of the referee. The allowing of the contentious goals resulted in the exchange of words between the two rival fans. The situation then escalated, and the two fans from either side got personal about the incident. The fan of team B took the protest to team A fan and after a little altercation, they got to blows. The police were informed, and they arrived in time to restrain the two fighting individuals. They were arrested and taken away in a police car. In the rugby field, a young man scored a solo try for his fifteen aside to secure their place in the final of the rugby event. Several fans lifted him and moved around the facility with him on their shoulders. As they were moving around, there were other scenes of jubilation at the volleyball field where another underdog team had beaten the favorite team. The upset brought so much joy to the neutral observers and the fans in general who felt that the victory of the team well deserved. In the second observation, the final of the volleyball was taking place when a middle-aged man ran into the held the referee by the neck for what he considered a blatant awarding of set score to the opponent unfairly and in such a decisive match. It made the match to be stopped for around approximately seven minutes before the resuming. According to Davies & Hughes (2014), it is important to focus on particular incidents during the observation.
However, after the resumption of the game, the previously victimized team eventually won by three sets to nil. That brought so much excitement to the fans that lifted and sang praise for the players who made them proud. In light of the qualitative approaches, observation provides firsthand information that equally offers the aesthetic value of events. The third observation took place on the football field where the final was taking place. After around 80 minutes of the game, a fan threw an object on the pitch targeting the referee for an alleged unfair penalty award to one side. That made the penalty be stopped for approximately 10 minutes since the referee had been hit with the object and had to receive first aid service. The police had to step in once more to restrain the fans from physically assaulting the referee further. The incidences marred the scenes as there were a lot of contestable decisions made by the referee on different pitches. The decisions were met with fury by the fans that left the event infuriated at certain decisions. It is important to note that these three scenes were spread out to cover the whole sections of the sports. The first was done in the morning. The second took place at midday while the last was observed towards the end of the event. Picking random time to observe gives a dynamic view for observers (O’Brien et al., 2014).
References
Bowling, A. (2014). Research methods in health: investigating health and health services. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2014). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage publications.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Davies, M. B., & Hughes, N. (2014). Doing a successful research project: Using qualitative or quantitative methods. Palgrave Macmillan.
O’Brien, B. C., Harris, I. B., Beckman, T. J., Reed, D. A., & Cook, D. A. (2014). Standards for reporting qualitative research: a synthesis of recommendations. Academic Medicine, 89(9), 1245-1251.
