Sport was once considered to be the reflection of sportsmanship and team spirit. Sport was taken seriously by the athletes who used to practice and train themselves immensely. But today, sports have a completely new meaning; the seriousness regarding sports which athletes once had has diminished in the present times. Sports were once about making the country proud and representing the country in Olympics was a dream of every athlete but all that has changed in the present times. Sport today has become extremely commercialized and this can be attributed to the presence of media. Media gives too much attention to sports, to an extent that many issues of greater gravity are completely neglected. All the media attention towards sport has made sport distasteful in today’s world. Though it is not that sport does not deserve attention, it is true that media attention increases the self-esteem of the athletes and makes them perform better. However, the increasing commercialization of sport is harmful as it makes it over-hyped and the importance of sport exaggerated.
Sport has become a profitable field for many industries; many companies spend a lot of money on these sporting events. The commercialization of sport has also diverted the athletes from the sporting ideals and has made them extremely money-minded. Many athletes are used as a spokesperson for many brands and millions of dollars are spent on advertisements during these sporting events. An instance of the growing commercialization of the sport can be that during the Olympics where Coco-Cola and McDonalds had spent a considerable amount on advertising and were unhappy because not many spectators were allowed in the stadium. Many sports brands use athletes to promote their sports gear by wearing them during a tournament. The commercialization of sport has led to the deterioration of sporting ideals. The media has created a culture where athletes are considered to be heroes; media creates celebrity athletes so their news channels get more audience.
Sporting events have gained too much attention today, winning or losing has become more important today instead of the fun for playing the sport. Sport has always been looked at from a nationalist perspective, where winning is deemed to be a victory in combat. This is evident during the cricket matches between India and Pakistan or rugby matches between South Africa, Australia and Britain. The media often highlight these matches and overhype about them. One instance of this can be China winning more Gold medals than the United States during the Olympics. It was counter-argued by the US media that the US leads in overall medals in Olympics and Chinese athletes are under-aged and the medals should be snatched away from them. Therefore, the importance of sport is exaggerated.
Sports have also been portrayed exaggeratingly by the media because of the inclusion of politics in sports. There has been a relationship between sports and politics even before the initiation of media coverage but media has made sports and politics seem indivisible. A sporting event boycott of apartheid South Africa was given a boost by the media. The media also highlighted instances wherein athletes chose to play in the sporting event which led to anger among the people from their home countries. China too was challenged with the argument over the organizing Beijing Olympics and the Olympics committee was heavily criticised for giving a country like China was given the responsibility of holding such an important sporting event.
In conclusion, media has given too much importance to the sport and by doing this has reduced its importance. Today, media has made sport a highly commercialized sector and the athletes less interested in the sport. The media has turned sport into a money minting machine and the athletes as Gods.