This week’s focus: CULTURE and the CULTURAL SYSTEM Theme … · 2015. 9. 25. · See Video Clip 2 The SportainmentNORM In order to attract the widest possible audience,PRIMETIME

9/24/15

“Society of the Sporting Spectacle”

David L. Andrews Physical Cultural Studies ProgramDepartment of Kinesiology

KNES 287 Sport and American Society: Module 1 Topic DModule 1: Structure and Process

Topic A: Sport and the Sociological Imagination

Topic B: Sport and the Neoliberal Political Order

Topic C: The Corporeal Economy of Sport

Topic D: Society of the Sporting Spectacle

Economy

Culture

Politics

Technology

This week’s focus: CULTURE and the CULTURAL SYSTEM

What is the inter-relationship between sport and culture?

Society of the Mediated Spectacle

Theme 1:

Culture: Two Related Meanings

1. A Set of PracticesThe things we do within our everyday lives.

2. A System of MeaningsThe values, idea, and beliefs (the ideologies) of society

Through these interrelated cultural elements, we learn the rules and expectations of the society in which we live.

CULTURE (system of meaning) and the MEDIA (the technologies through which meaning is communicated).

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The speed and reach of cultural communication (the circulation of meaning) has changed overtime within theadvent of new“media communications” technologies…

Culture (as a System of Meaning) and Technology The Evolution in Communicating the Cultural System (Meaning)

Pre-Modern(Prior to 1700)

Word of Mouth(Verbal) Slow

Post-Modern(1950 to present)

Television(Visual) Instantaneous

Modern(1700-1950)

Printing Press(Written/Mechanized) Faster

Telegraph(Written/Electronic)

Transcription(Written)

Cinema(Visual)

Radio(Verbal/Electronic)

Satellite Television(Visual)

World Wide Web(Visual/Verbal/Written)

Era Method of Communicating Meaning(Type of Communication)

Speed of Communication/Cultural Change

Reach ofCommunication

Regional

National

International

Global

Contemporary Media Culture/Technologies of Communicating Meaning

VISUAL [and written]

DIGITALINTERTEXTUALGLOBALINSTANTANEOUSVIRAL

We’ve gone from the shot heard around the world…

Bobby Thompson’s walk off home run for the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant in 1951 (when the “world” was listening to the game via radio).

To the “shot” seen around the world…

Zinedine Zidane’s head butt of Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup Final between France and Italy (when the “world” was watching the game via television). See Video Clip 1

To the shot tweeted around the world…

T.J. Oshie scores in the shoot out against Russia, Sochi 2014.

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French Situationist: Guy Debord“Society of the Spectacle”

“media spectacles are those phenomena of media culture that embody contemporary society’s basic values, serve to initiate individuals into its way of life, and dramatize its controversies and struggles” (Kellner, 2003, p.2)

The Spectacle and CULTURAL MEANING

Source: Kellner, D. (2003). Media culture and the triumph of the spectacle Media Spectacle (pp. 1-33). London: Routledge.

In other words, within the SOCIETY OF the (MEDIA) SPECTACLE, it is through CONSUMPTION of MEDIA CULTURE that we learn the:

CULTURAL MEANINGS and VALUES

that shape our

UNDERSTANDINGS, EXPERIENCES, AND IDENTITIES

(particularly those related to nationality/race/ethnicity/gender/sexuality/class etc.).

Debord’s Society of the Spectacle:The INTEGRATED Spectacle and CULTURAL MEANINGS

MonumentalSpectacle

(mass mediatedhappenings:mega-events)

CommoditySpectacle

(mass mediatedcommodities:

brands)

IndividualSpectacle

(mass mediated personas:celebrities)

IntegratedSport

Spectacle

Monumental Spectacle (mass mediated

happenings: mega-events)

Individual Spectacle (mass mediated personas:

celebrities)

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Commodity Spectacle (mass mediated commodities:

brands)In our MULTIMEDIA world, meanings are constructed INTERTEXTUALLY:

Through an AGGREGATIONof numerous TEXTS which COMBINE to shape CULTURAL MEANINGS.

CULTURAL INTERTEXTUALITY

DominantMeaning

of SPECTACLERadio

Television

SocialMedia

Internet

Newspapers/Magazines

Circles are Individual TEXTS

INTERTEXTUALSUPER BOWL[monumental spectacle]

Television

SocialMedia

Internet

INTERTEXTUALNEYMAR[individual spectacle]

Television

SocialMedia

Internet

INTERTEXTUALUNDER ARMOUR[commodity spectacle]

Television

SocialMedia

Internet

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The Sport Spectacle as INTERTEXTUAL Site of CULTURAL MEANING

National Meanings Class

Meanings

Race/Ethnic Meanings

Sexuality Meanings

GenderMeanings

[Ds]AbilityMeanings

The Politics of the Sportainment Spectacle

Theme 2:

While other METHODS OF COMMUNICATION are important, our focus is on TELEVISION, which remains the most EFFECTIVE MEANS OF MASSCOMMUNICATION.

TELEVISION plays a key role in the MANUFACTURING of SPORT SPECTACLES, and the MEANINGS generated by them.

Social Welfare Functions of Mass/Commercial Communications Media

Inform Educate

Entertain

Neo-Liberal Functions of Mass/Commercial Communications Media

Inform Educ ate

Entertain(capital

accumulation/pr ofit)

“The media have no inherent interest in sport. It is merely a means for profit making. For newspapers and magazines, sport sells the publications. For TV and radio, sport gets consumers in front of their sets to hear and see commercials; in effect, TV and radio broadcasts rent their viewers and listeners attention”

The Mass Media’s Interest in Sport

Sage, G. H. (1990). Power and ideology in American sport: A critical perspective (p.123). Champaign: Human Kinetics.

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“mediasport”the “media-sport complex” the “sport-business-TV nexus” “the high-flying entertainment-media-sports industry”

Sport-Media CONVERGENCE

SPORT ENTERTAINMENT

SPORTAINMENT

Sporting events can be manufactured into relatively inexpensive, highly popular (and therefore extremely profitable) SPORTAINMENT SPECTACLES, designed for mass ENTERTAINMENT and PROFIT

WWE: The Ultimate Sportainment?

Manufactured Sportainment See Video Clip 2

The Sportainment NORM

In order to attract the widest possible audience, PRIMETIME programming tends to focus on MAINSTREAM VIEWS and VALUES, which RESONATE with the majority of the population.

Therefore, PRIMETIME broadcasts tend to focus on TRADITIONAL/DOMINANT AMERICAN THEMES, BELIEFS, and IDENTITIES.

Entertaining/Engaging “Middle America” The MAINSTREAM/PRIMETIME sport media is thus a clear example of an ISA (soft power), as its content REINFORCES DOMINANT/MAINSTREAM values and beliefs, many of which can be linked to the NEOLIBERAL CONSENSUS/ HEGEMONY.

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Louis Althusser’s Notion of IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS (ISAs)

PoliticsMass Media

ReligionSport

Institutions which express and reinforce the ideology (values and beliefs) of the political order.

Althusser, L. (1989). 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses' in Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays. London: New Left Books pp 170-86

“SOFT POWER”/Consensus PoliticsSource: Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. New York: Pantheon Books.

Manufacturing Popular Consent

The POLITICS of the SPORTAINMENT SPECTACLE:

An Illustrative ExampleThe Celebrated/ResponsibleNeoliberal Subject

The Demonized/IrresponsibleNeoliberal Subject

Embodying NEOLIBERALISM

Celebrated/ResponsibleNeoliberal Subjecst

Demonized/IrresponsibleNeoliberal Subjects

Spectacularized Embodiments of NEOLIBERALISM The Biggest Loser: Spectacular Neoliberal Embodiments

2014 “Biggest Loser” winner Rachel Frederickson

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“the powerful role of the reality television in the making and remaking of [NEOLIBERAL] citizens”

Source: Silk, M., Francombe, J., & Bachelor, F. (2009). The Biggest Loser: The discursive constitution of fatness. Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture, 1(3), 383-403. See Video Clip 3

Training Bodies, Training Audiences/Citizens

Primetime Audiences Demand Mainstream Value/ Belief Systems (NEOLIBERAL IDEOLOGY/VALUES)

NATIONALISM

COMPETITIVEINDIVIDUALISM

HETERO-SEXISM

Such are the CULTURAL CODES (IDEOLOGIES) driving “The Biggest Loser” narrative.

RUGGEDINDIVIDUALISM

PROGRESS/SELF-BETTERMENT

DETERMINATION INFACE OF ADVERSITYBRAVERY

NeoliberalBio-Politics

The GOVERNANCE of (individual) BODIES

The IDEALIZED SUBJECT of NEOLIBERAL politics is the CITIZEN-CONSUMER, the INDIVIDUAL who is a:

- DETERMINED- COMPETITIVE- RESPONSIBLE- RATIONAL

“entrepreneur of the self”Source: Foucault, M. (2010). The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979, New York, Picador.

POPULAR SPECTACLES such as TBL, reinforce neoliberal notions of COMPETITIVE INDIVIDUALISM, and the PRIMACY of INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY in the SHAPING/MAKING OF THE SELF.

In this way, society/social location, or wider social influences are thought to have no INFLUENCE or RELEVANCE.

Society is a non-factor, it is all down to the INDIVIDUAL.

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The Hyperreality of the Sportainment Spectacle

Theme 3: For some there is a naïve REALISM when it comes to TELEVISUAL MEDIA, as if television programming merely, and OBJECTIVELY REPORTS REALITY.

In fact, the TELEVISUAL MEDIA is actually responsible for the MANUFACTURING and, sometimes, the MANIPULATION of REALITY.

Television doesn’t REPORT REALITY, it REPRESENTS (RE-PRESENTS) REALITY.

There is no such thing as:

REALITY TELEVISION

It is all moulded, manipulated, manufactured, or constructed in some ways.

It is all an interpretation of reality, rather than a mirror of it…

Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality IHYPERREALITY:

“more real than reality itself” (1983, p. 139)

A culture associated with the blurring of the boundary between the “real” and the “fictional”.

HYPERREALITY: A situation within which MASS MEDIATED MODELS or SIMULATIONS of reality come to represent and influence the perception and experience of reality. Source: Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).

Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality IIThe HYPERREAL SIMULATIONS of REALITY manufactured and presented through the televisual media advanced an understanding of reality based on DOMINANT CULTURAL CODES (or systems of meaning) viewers recognise and which shape their views and experiences, of reality.

Examples of CulturalCODES

Source: Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).

HYPERREALITY: MEDIATED CODES

National Codes Class

Race/Ethnic Codes

Sexuality Codes

GenderCodes

[Dis]AbilityCodes

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Source: Baudrillard, J. (1995). The Gulf war did not take place. Bloomington, IA: Indiana University Press.

According to Baudrillard:

The televisual reality of the media Gulf conflicted with the material reality of the Gulf War.

“Collateral Damage”: Sanctioned Televisual Representationof the Gulf War, 1991

“Collateral Damage”: Non-Sanctioned, Realist

Representationof the Gulf War materiality, 1991

NBC’s OlympicHYPERREALITY NBC:

The primetime platform forManufacturing a HYPERREAL Olympics Games SPECTACLE into a high revenue generating form of SPORTAINMENT.

In 2014, NBC signed a $7.75 billion contract with the IOC guaranteeing that the network will televise Olympic Games (Summer and Winter) until 2032. As Richard Pound, then IOC vice president,

brazenly admitted, in relation to NBC’s commitment to the Olympic Games:

“If you owe them [the bank] $10,000, you’re a customer. If you owe them $10,000 billion you’re a partner”(Thurow, 1996, p.14).

Source: Thurow, R. (1996, July 19). Lord of the Rings. The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition.

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“These are NBC's games, and by now we should know how they're played.

The network sees the Olympics less as sports than as spectacle, at least in prime time, and it packages them accordingly into a sort of athletic variety show. Events are delayed, results are hidden, and while bad news is not ignored, it's not stressed, either. This is not Monday Night Football. The game is not the thing.”

Bianco, R. (2006, February 13). Prime-time Olympics: A variety show. USA Today, p. 1D.

“I live more than anything else to produce the Games”

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, 1996; 2004.

“I get to arrange how all these things are perceived in the world”

“We will once again emphasize our packaged primetime show. The time difference doesn’t allow for us to be live in primetime. We will package and curate it in a way that makes it a place that huge gatherings of family and friends want to gather and get together in front of their TV.”

Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.

““Where families gather, advertisers follow”

Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.

In order to attract the widest possible audience, NBC’s OLYMPIC PRIMETIME programming tends to focus on HEGEMONIC [NEOLIBERAL] VIEWS and VALUES, which RESONATE with the majority of the population.

Entertaining/Engaging the American Family

beijing olympics

In Baudrillard’s terms:

We did not watch theBeijing Olympics on primetime NBC; rather, we are fed the televisual NBC Olympics: the Olympics as primetime entertainment.

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Televisual Representationof the Olympic Games

Material experience of theOlympic Games

The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the Beijing Games.

London olympics

We did not watch theLondon Olympics on primetime NBC; rather, we are fed the televisual NBC Olympics: the Olympics as primetime entertainment.

Televisual Representationof the Olympic Games

Material experience of theOlympic Games

The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the London Games.

Sochi olympics

We did not watch the Sochi Olympics on primetime NBC; rather, we are fed the televisual NBC Olympics: the Olympics as primetime entertainment.

The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the Sochi Games.

What Russian viewers saw.

What actually happened.

Manufacturing Olympic Hyperreality

Theme 4:

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The NBC-Olympic Sportainment Convergence

See Video Clip 4

NBC manufactures a mediated primetime Olympic hyperreality(a manufacture model of reality), designed for maximum ratings (and thereby profits), which did not necessarily reflect the material reality of the Olympic experience.

Manufacturing The Olympic Spectacle/Reality

See Video Clip 5

In order to attract the widest possible audience, NBC’s OLYMPIC PRIMETIME programming tends to focus on HEGEMONIC [NEOLIBERAL] VIEWS and VALUES, which RESONATE with the majority of the population.

Entertaining/Engaging the American Family

“Soap opera games”Produced for maximum sentiment, maximum ratings, and maximum revenue

Carlson, M. (1996). The soap opera games: Determined to make every event a tearjerker, NBC overplays the personal stories. Time: 48.

NBC’s Olympic Time

1. Purely live

2. Live-on-tape“Plausibly Live”

3. Taped CoveragePackaged/Features

Where, and how, and why is time manipulated within within sportainment spectacles??

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Taped coverage enables NBC to build up the intensity, the excitement, and the AUDIENCE for the event.

Hence, taped coverage of MAJOR events tends to be spread across the primetime program, with “teasers” early in the broadcast designed to engage the viewer and build the audience to a peak between 10pm and 11pm ET.

NBC’s Manipulation of Olympic Time (Emotions)

See Video Clip 6

NEOLIBERAL NARRATIVIZING:

The process of turn an event/ spectacle into a NARRATIVE/ STORY

Stories are most emotive/ compelling/engaging when they focus on PEOPLE (the human/individual angle)

NBC’s Emotive Olympic BroadcastPhilosophy/Narrativizing:

1. Story

2. Reality

3. Possibility

4. Idealism

5. Patriotism

Personalizing/Individualizing the events through human interest stories, NBC shaped the way viewers perceived and consumed the Olympics:

The goal of making them emotionally invested in the athlete and hence the broadcast.

“You have to familiarize people with the competitors. What are their back stories? How did they get there? Why should we careabout them? What is at stake here?

Bob Costas, Host, NBC Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.

Creating/Personalizing Olympic Drama(Manipulating Popular Emotions)

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“I think Lindsey gives you great promotional value, and she’s an amazing athlete, and an amazing story. But there are amazing athletes that are going to be in Sochi, many of which we know, some of which we haven’t identified yet.”

Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event, Janauary 7, 2014.

The Lyndsey Vonn Deficit

See Video Clip 7

NARRATIVIZING Bode Miller and the Super G

NBC aren’t the only contributors to the creation of POPULAR NARRATIVES/ MEANINGS.

In our MULTIMEDIA world, meanings are constructed INTERTEXTUALLY:

Through an AGGREGATION of numerous TEXTS which COMBINE to shape CULTURAL MEANINGS.

See Video Clip 8

NBC’s Coding the Olympic Athlete

Manufacturing personalities in order to emotionally engage the mainstream audience.

Primetime Audiences Demand Mainstream Value/ Belief Systems (NEOLIBERAL IDEOLOGY/VALUES)

NATIONALISM

COMPETITIVEINDIVIDUALISM

HETERO-SEXISM

Such are the CULTURAL CODES (IDEOLOGIES) driving NBC’s Olympic narrative.

RUGGEDINDIVIDUALISM

PROGRESS/SELF-BETTERMENT

DETERMINATION INFACE OF ADVERSITYBRAVERY

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NBC’s PRIMETIME Olympics, reproduces traditional/dominant AMERICAN cultural values, beliefs and identities in order to attract/appeal to the AMERICAN FAMILY audience

Hence, the NBC Olympic spectacle, helps to reproduce neoliberal American CULTURAL CODES/NORMS.

Louis Althusser’s Notion of IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS (ISAs)

PoliticsMass Media

ReligionSport

Institutions which express and reinforce the ideology (values and beliefs) of the political order.

Althusser, L. (1989). 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses' in Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays. London: New Left Books pp 170-86

“SOFT POWER”/Consensus Politics

Sportainment Spectacles, Popular Physical Inertia, and

Public Health

Theme 5: 1. High-Level (Monumental) Sportainment

Average audience of 114.4 million viewers “said to be the most-watched television program of all time”.

U.S. household rating of 49.7(meaning 49.7% of households were tuned in).

28.4 million game related tweets.

Television’s “Most Watched and Tweeted” 2. Medium-Level (Everyday) Sportainment

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Source: Nielsen Ratings

6 out of 10 football related.

3. Low-Level (Manufactured) Sportainment

Celebrity BoxingDancing with the Stars

Survivor

Splash!

Interestingly, there has also been a sportization of primetime television:

The attributes and expressions of sporting contests have become an important part of the network media environment.

The Ultimate Low-Level (Manufactured) Sportainment?

See Video Clip 9

The sportainment NORM has led to televised sport coverage (especially that for primetime network television) augmenting the basic nature of the sporting event in order to make it more spectacular, and thereby more entertaining to a primetime audience.

As a result, and as CONSUMERS/VIEWERS, we have become used to being:

ENTERTAINED

as opposed to being

INSPIRED

by SPORTAINMENT SPECTACLES.

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One of the main stated LEGACIES of the London Olympic Games (which contributed to the winning of the bid) was the encouragement of involvement in SPORT and PHYSICAL ACTIVITY among the world’s youth (inspiring 2 million youth in the UK to become more active).

However, research has suggested there is in fact no correlation between staging Olympic Games (or other major sport spectacles) and raised levels of physical activity among the general populace.

Source: Weed, M., Coren, E., Fiore, J., Wellard, I., Mansfield, L., Chatziefstathiou, D., & Dowse, S. (2012). Developing a physical activity legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: a policy-led systematic review. Perspectives in Public Health, 132(2), 75-80.

Amusing Ourselves to Death Revisited? The Consequences of Sportainment?

Stimulating ActiveInvolvement?

Stimulating PassiveConsumption?

SOCIALCULTURAL PHYSIOLOGICAL

GLOBESITY and the SPORT SPECTACLE?

Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.

CALORIFIC INCREASE

Increased Calorie Intake

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ReducedEnergy Expenditure

ENERGY DECREASE PHYSIOLOGICAL RESTRUCTURING?

=IncreasedObesity Levels

GLOBESITY and the SPORT SPECTACLE?

ReducedEnergy Expenditure

+Increased Calorie Intake =

IncreasedObesity Levels

KFC Couchgating – Sport Spectacle and Globesity?

See Video Clip 10

See Video Clip 11

McDonald’s and Olympic Globesity?

Perhaps the rise of SPORTAINMENTspectacles has, in fact, had a significantly negative influence upon PUBLIC HEALTH?

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See course website for related required readings, video clips, key concepts, thematic review questions, and essay question.

This week’s focus: CULTURE and the CULTURAL SYSTEM Theme … · 2015. 9. 25. · See Video Clip 2 The SportainmentNORM In order to attract the widest possible audience,PRIMETIME

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