I love sports… I consequently have found a love for the athletes that play sports! Athletes have become much more than minions we watch play the games we love. Athletes today are celebrities brought into the media because of their impressive skill at their given sport. However often times the focus on them in the media isn’t just about game performance but about their life off the court/field. I have noticed a theme that the tendency of the media portrayal seems to cast a “bad boy” persona on athletes. Throughout this blog I am interested in the way that media portrays athletes as “Bad Boys”. Some examples of “Bad Boy” reputations that I think of right away are stories about how Ray Lewis “killed someone and got away with it”, Kobe Bryant with his rape charges and “Me First” attitude, the list goes on and on.
My blog is inspired in part by a comment that somebody made to me about the situation with new Texas A&M quarterback to the 2012 season getting in trouble with the law. He was out on Northgate and got in trouble for drinking, fake ID, and fighting. The comment that was made to me was that, “It’s a good sign that A&M players are getting in trouble, statistically the bad boys are better athletes.” Could this be why professional athletes in the media are given the bad boy persona in order to make them seem like better athletes? I was fascinated by the comment and by the bad boy persona I began to take note of after that comment, even in television shows athletes are given that same stereotype. I am interested to explore athlete’s bad boy persona that I have noticed in the media.
This is going to be a very interesting topic. I have noticed throughout my life how athletes have gone from a professional image to a more of a reality star image. I don't know how to react about the media's over exposure of athletes personal lives. On one hand it troubles me that so much of their private business is publicized, and on the other it brings me countless hours of entertainment. Sports-based channels like Sports Center is a huge example of this. Once a show that stuck to showing top plays and highlights is now very commonly straying away from the sports side of the athletes lives, and doing more stories on their personal lives. I can't wait to see what you do with this.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about doing my blog about the very same thing. The media loves taking small things (tweets,interviews) that athletes say and blowing them up. I'm excited to see a woman's perspective on the matter, since the majority of most sports critics are men.
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