Portrayal of Athletes in the Media

Ethical Responsibility of Sports Media

Ask the average person what they know about college and professional athletes , and they will likely reel off a litany of bad-character miscreants who disgrace the annals of college and professional sports From O .J . Simpson to Barry Bonds to the Duke Lacrosse team , the casual follower of the world of sports would be forgiven for assuming that the entire upper level of sports was populated by violent criminals rapists , and drug addict . The statistical reality is much different . The badly-behaving individuals are the exception to the

general rule Sports-casting venues such as ESPN , Fox Sports , CNN /Sports illustrated spend a hugely disproportionate amount of time , effort , coverage and column inches to the bad-boys ' of sports (Guler , 2003 ) They often do so at the expense of the more positive stories (Guler , 2003 ) For every Kobe Bryant rape case , there are literally dozens of stories of charity goodwill , sportsmanship , courage and perseverance in the world of sports . The sports media is not only missing significant opportunities to promote interest in their area of coverage , they are behaving unethically by promoting the negative image of college and professional sports . Additionally , the sports media tends to focus on women and minorities in manners that promote social stereotypes (Guler , 2003 Women are objectified or ignored and minorities are often portrayed as criminals in the sports media . These tactics , while they may tend to increase circulation , are both irresponsible , and unethical , and they send the wrong messages to children and...