Dear Earnest,
The globalization of media has impacted the world. Many great new innovations have come about in the recent decades that have made it possible for you and I to be able to find out information instantaneously. I know that your are just as big of a sports fan as I am, and like to use certain media outlets to acquire information about your favorite athletes and teams too. Athletes are always being conversed about through television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet. So much of what athletes say and do affects the perceptions of you and I. The media makes all of this possible. Remember when we talked about Tiger Woods and that character Brett Farve? We said that those guys are idiots for the recent negative media attention they have been getting. The media has made our perception of these guys seem not as 'professional' as we thought they were. We looked up to these guys as kids but now we look down on them. Tiger is an adulterer, and Brett likes to send lewd pictures of himself to others. Dude, we had some really great heroes that we looked up to right? Not quite, my friend. The media has ultimately destroyed our childhood heroes and makes us look negatively upon them. It is good that the media gets out the truth so that athletes don't continue on with their horrible actions but the media should be a little more careful in what they broadcast to the public. The media should stop hounding on the stories of these athletes because it is ultimately giving the athlete more attention that they enjoy having. When you are a role model for children across the world you would think that you might want to conduct yourself in a matter that is appropriate for young kids that want to copy your life. This is why athletes should be more cautious in their dealings with the media. Every move they make or word that comes out of their mouth can be broad casted to millions in seconds. The vicious media, looking for any new breaking story, puts athletes on display to be negatively viewed by the public and its perceptions. There goes our so-called heroes...
Till we meet again Earnest.
I've never really thought about this issue before: the way kids look up to sports idols and will ultimately mimic much of their actions. I can see this as being a really interesting issues paper that is definitely loaded with debate potential.
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