Saturday, August 30, 2014

Does Racism In Sports Media Still Exist

By Mattie MacDonald


Racism by definition is simply the act of discrimination in terms of the race of an individual. In other words, it is looking down on people based on their race, may it be their ethnical background or the colour of their skin. Racism in sports media has over the recent past been a controversial issue that has raised eyebrows.

There are certain aspects in the society that are held responsible for bringing the aspect of unity among people. Media is such a device where people can communicate and share information from whatever part in the world that they may be situated at. One of the major issues of discussion is sports. Here, due to certain ignorant people, hate is preached in these games via the same instrument that was supposed to bring oneness.

One cannot keep up with the changing technology. Through the internet, people from all over the world can be connected just as a small village. Here, among other things, sport is usually a big topic that almost everyone participates in. Discrimination due to race is on the high as certain players, because they belong to a different race, are scorned and insulted. This may ruin someone emotionally and the very weak may end up quitting the game permanently.

There comes a time when very great tournaments rare organized. The composition of these sports is quite different as in participation is people from different countries that speak a foreign dialect. In other cases, the players are not given the privilege of having commentators who can translate for them the ongoing game. This becomes an issue due to the fact that only individuals from certain language are affected which brings about ill feeling and one feels like an outcast.

An issue arises in the case of how black players are covered during games. When a close investigation is done, one comes to the conclusion that most of the reporters are white. This affects the way reporting is done as some express their view saying that black players are just natural players that do not have to work as hard to make it to the big games which is a bad comment that may stir up negative feelings among people.

Although the issue of racism is still rampant, it cannot be compared to how it was in the early years; previously, when this was a real disaster. Media houses have had to come up with guidelines that minimize the use of discriminatory language and setting up of ethical codes that see to it that these small ethical communities are protected.

Media is also responsible for breaking down stars that are so loved in the society just because of their ethnicity. They blow their weakness beyond proportion, expose their personal lives and majorly ruin their careers. Come to look at it, everybody does wrong at one time and it is not good to take situations to greater heights just with the aim of tarnishing the name of an individual.

Racism runs very deep in sport media. In a bid to solve the issue of negative ethnicity, it is a wise step to balance the media crew in terms of race. This avoids domination of a particular race which triggers hate. When they are all balanced, it will be much harder for them to put across negative statements about others.




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