It’s interesting to think about the role that technology has played in the evolution of sports media. I feel that there are distinctive stages in the history of the engagement between fans and sport where changes in technology (or in other words changes in the dominant medium) have eventuated in changes in this relationship.
In the first place there was the spoken word and this was a time when sport was predominantly local and representative of a single community. The team was the mouthpiece of this community. This is where the preoccupation of professional sporting teams with image management comes from.
Then came newspapers and people could not only keep up with the results of their own team, but other teams as well. This is probably where the preoccupation with statistics and records comes from, as previously it would have been hard for fans to keep track of these as clubs may not have had the resources. Media organisations did however, and realised that fans had an appetite for them.
Radio was the next leap forward in the way sport was disseminated, and once again changed the relationship between sporting organisations and fans. For the first time a dichotomy was created between watching sport at the ground and listening to it at home on the radio. However it was probably not a strong dichotomy because radio was not a visual medium, therefore the experience of consuming sport at home missed out on one of the vital sense.
However the radio era did globalise sport to a certain extent. Although not cosmopolitan, it made Australian audiences more aware of sporting contests that were taking place overseas, particularly in places like Great Britain. Here I’m thinking particularly of the 1934 Ashes series were over by over descriptions were telexed from the UK to a studio in Sydney and recreated as though they were really happening.
Television changed things again, creating a visual aspect to consuming sports at home, but in a sense it was also a step backwards because when television was introduced the technology was not in place for many live broadcasts. However, this is probably the era where sport was truly commoditised when its considered that the Olympic Games launched television in Australia. Ever since there has been a strong relationship between the two.
Truly live television created a true dichotomy between watching sport at the ground and watching it in the home, and solidified sport’s place as a television (and media) commodity. It was in this era that battles were fought over sporting rights, as media moguls wanted the best live sporting content for their networks. This gave sporting organisations previously untold riches and brought a new professionalism to games.
The era of cable and satellite television brought more channels and consequently more sports. For the first time audiences could experience regular sporting contests from overseas on a regular basis, instead of special events being broadcast and weekly highlights packages being offered in the meantime.
This is the era in which sport truly started to become global. Thanks to satellite and cable television it is now possible for global fans to immerse themelves in the experience of watching and following a sporting team without being at the ground to experience it.
Finally the era sport has now entered into is that of social media or Web 2.0. This is beginning to create a bottom up rather than top down approach to sports media, as fans have even more choice about the sorts of sports media they consume, and the ability to customise it. It is also further locking in global sporting teams by giving fans the tools to form networks and communities with like minded sports lover, consequently created a virtual analogue of the community feel that has always been a part of sport.
