Sport as Spectacle of Michael Jordan
Case Study
I have devised a presentation in order to critically analyse sports as spectacle, my research question consists of how Michael Jordan’s elite NBA career elevated media speculation. By critiquing theorists such as Debore, Abercrombie & Longhurst and Tomlinson I can illustrate how spectacle is perceived in our mediated society.
Media
In an era of global technology, instant news, infomercials, electronic town meetings, and “Made for TV Documentaries,” the borderlines between news and analysis, news and entertainment, news and fiction are constantly shifting.
As techno capitalism moves into a dazzling and seductive information/entertainment society, mergers between the media giants are proliferating, competition is intensifying, and the media generate spectacles to attract audiences to the programs and advertisements that fuel the mighty money machines (Kellner, D).
By spectacle, I mean media constructs that are out of the ordinary and habitual daily routine which become special media spectacles. They involve an aesthetic dimension and often are dramatic, bound up with competition like the Olympics or Oscars. They are highly public social events, often taking a ritualistic form to celebrate society’s highest values.
Yet while media rituals function to legitimate a society’s “sacred center” (Shils) and dominant values and beliefs (Hepp and Couldry 2009), media spectacles are increasingly commercialized, vulgar, glitzy, which are important arenas of political contestation.
Theorising in the presentation media spectacle as eclipsing and absorbing media events create first indicate how analysis is connected to (Debord,G) notion of the society of the spectacle and theories of media events and spectacles.
The strengths of media/branding when optimised efficiently can become a major media spectacle on a global scale. Michael Jordan is widely acclaimed as the greatest athlete who ever lived, named “Athlete of the Century” by the TV net ESPN. Yet
I have devised a presentation in order to critically analyse sports as spectacle, my research question consists of how Michael Jordan’s elite NBA career elevated media speculation. By critiquing theorists such as Debore, Abercrombie & Longhurst and Tomlinson I can illustrate how spectacle is perceived in our mediated society.
Media
In an era of global technology, instant news, infomercials, electronic town meetings, and “Made for TV Documentaries,” the borderlines between news and analysis, news and entertainment, news and fiction are constantly shifting.
As techno capitalism moves into a dazzling and seductive information/entertainment society, mergers between the media giants are proliferating, competition is intensifying, and the media generate spectacles to attract audiences to the programs and advertisements that fuel the mighty money machines (Kellner, D).
By spectacle, I mean media constructs that are out of the ordinary and habitual daily routine which become special media spectacles. They involve an aesthetic dimension and often are dramatic, bound up with competition like the Olympics or Oscars. They are highly public social events, often taking a ritualistic form to celebrate society’s highest values.
Yet while media rituals function to legitimate a society’s “sacred center” (Shils) and dominant values and beliefs (Hepp and Couldry 2009), media spectacles are increasingly commercialized, vulgar, glitzy, which are important arenas of political contestation.
Theorising in the presentation media spectacle as eclipsing and absorbing media events create first indicate how analysis is connected to (Debord,G) notion of the society of the spectacle and theories of media events and spectacles.
The strengths of media/branding when optimised efficiently can become a major media spectacle on a global scale. Michael Jordan is widely acclaimed as the greatest athlete who ever lived, named “Athlete of the Century” by the TV net ESPN. Yet