SOA 317: Dr. Leonard / Name______
SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT PROJECT #5
Mass Media and Sport: Sport Themes Revealed in Cartoons
In Chapter 14, "Sport and Mass Media", I suggest that sport and the media have a symbiotic relationship . . . . each needs the other for survival. Cartoons and comic strips often reveal in humorous (or serious) and succinct ways some key sociology of sport principle(s). For example, the feature on the right (from "Berry's World") shows the coach barking, "I heard a rumor that you think we're out here to build character and have fun!" This illustrates Harry Edwards' contention that part of the American sport ideology is that it builds character when, in fact, the (Vince) Lombardian ethic that "winning is not the most important thing (about sports), its the only thing" probably is more true, particularly at the "upper levels" of sport competition. Obviously, the coach doesn't accept sport's character-building and fun nature and the cartoon captures these themes.
Another illustration (see below) is captured in the "Tank McNamara" comic strip. This timecheating, in the form of illegal (according to NCAA guidelines regarding what schools can "give" athletes) recruiting, is being highlighted. The cars on the rack are apparently going to be used as enticements for recruiting blue chip athletes.
The cartoon on the left is in a more serious vein. According to Karl Marx (one of the proponents of the conflict vis-a-vis functionalist theory of sport and society), "religion is the opium of the people." He meant that religion, like opium, could give one a false sense of hope and optimism ("false consciousness") and, at least temporarily, dull the senses, take one's mind off problems and produce euphoric feelings. Notice, that in the cartoon the initials "B.F." means "Before Football". Today there are conflict-oriented sport sociologists who argue that sport has the same narcotic-like affect that was once the province and function of religion.
Your taskis to select three cartoons, tape them to a clean sheet of paper and write a paragraph describing what sociology of sport principle(s) is (are) represented for each.One page for all answers will be expected.