SPORTS

JOURNALISM
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
 Sports in every society were prominent masculine symbols and were
disseminated by using different mass media techniques prevailing in the
society.

 Sports like sprinting and wrestling found in cave paintings of Lascaux

Caves in France dates back to Upper Paleolithic era. 1 Stone slabs
representing three pairs of wrestlers of Sumerian Civilization routed in
3000 BC.

 Pictorial representation was used to propagate the basic rules of the game,
uniform of the players and means to announce the winner by awarding
them different collars. By these pictorial representations we know that
games like Hockey, Gymnastics, Archery, Fishing, Boxing, Weight Lifting,
Swimming, Rowing and Marathon running were popular sports of those
times
WHAT ARE DIFFERENT TYPES
OF PLAY?
Caillois in his book Man, Play and Games proposes four
fundamental categories of play to use to describe the
complexities of games by their roles: 
Agôn (competition), agôn implies that sustained
attention, appropriate training, diligent application, and
the desire to win is required. So any competitive event
would have element of agon.
 Alea (chance): Games of chance (alea) result in an
outcome over which the players have no control and must
be taken as fate rather than mastery. The player is entirely
passive and awaits his destiny, such as in the outcome of
a roll of the dice. Flipping a coin or saying a counting
rhyme have little to do with rules, but betting games,
roulette, and lotteries are played in strict parameters.
 Mimicry (simulation): When engaging in make-believe or
making others believe he is someone other than himself,
mimicry comes into play. Suspension of reality and illusion
are the basis of this play form. The use of masks and
disguises, games of illusion, and children’s pretend play are
freely played with no rules attached, but theater, puppet
shows, and performances in general do have restrictions and
a framework that control the event.
 Ilinx (vertigo): The last kind of game, ilinx, includes those
based on the pursuit of vertigo, an attempt to momentarily
destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of panic
on an otherwise lucid mind. Activities include
spinning, swinging, racing downhill, and sledding that are
enjoyed just for fun. More structured activities for
experiencing vertigo include amusement park rides,
tightrope walking, skiing, and mountain climbing.
 The word ‘Sports’ comes from the old
French despot meaning ‘leisure’. American
English uses the term ‘sports’ to refer to this
general type of recreational activity ,
whereas other regional dialects use the
singular ‘sport’. The Persian word for sport
is based on the root ‘bord’ meaning
‘winning’. The Modern Greek term for
‘sport’ is athilitismos, directly cognate with
the English term ‘athlete’ and ‘athleticism’.
 The oldest definition of ‘sport’ in English (1300) is
of anything humans find amusing or entertaining.
Other meanings include gambling and events staged
for the purpose of of gambling: hunting and games
and diversions, including ones that require exercise.

Roget’s defines the noun sport as an “activity

engaged in for relaxation and amusement” with
synonyms including diversion and recreation. An
example of a more sharply defined meaning is “ an
athletic activity where one competitor or team of
competitors plays against another competitor or
group of competitors (with) a conclusive method of
scoring… not determined by a judge.
HUNTING-ONE OF THE
OLDEST SPORTS
EARLY FOOTBALL
ULAMA-MESOAMERICAN
BALL GAME
ORIGIN OF SPORTS
From 776 BC Olympiads were organized by the Greeks and from
there we find a series of athletes being depicted as champions
through the paintings and statues.

Historically, Indian society was considered as metaphysical beings,

hardly interested in material things but ancient texts like the Vedas
and the Upanishads talk in detail about physical activities in form of
shlokas. All these texts convey the message to keep the body fit and
healthy and seek health from activities like Yoga.

“The existence of the world is dependent on strength. Be devoted to

strength.” (Chhandogya Upanishad 7.8.1). “May our body become
invincible like a rock” (RigVeda 6.75.12). Mold of seal found in
Indus valley civilization depicts an asana of yoga. Like all the other
activities, sports like wrestling and other physical activities were
also depicted in the ancient monuments and paintings of India
WHAT IS SPORTS JOURNALISM?

Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports

on sporting topics and competitions. It is the
disciplined craft of watching people compete, and
reporting on the same.

In fact sports journalism is recent. In the pre-

independence era, the subject "Sports had a very
negligible position in society. The idea about it was
that it is nothing but a subject of entertainment & its
limit was just to have recreation in ideal time.
While the sports department within some newspapers has
been mockingly called the toy department, because
sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious'
topics covered by the news desk, sports coverage has grown
in importance as sport has grown in wealth, power,
and influence.

The symbiosis of media and sport seems to find its roots in

the Victorian England era. The year 1863 is marked in the
history as a breakthrough in intensifying the relations
between the two institutions. The introduction of rotary press
in London provided an impetus to the growth of newspaper
circulation. The same year in London, football association
was formed which standardized the rules of the game
eventually leading to its transformation into a game of mass
attraction.
In the year 1882, first imprint of journalism emerged on sporting
history. Australian cricket team was touring England and managed
to beat the mighty English on their soil for the first time at the
Oval. In response to this incidence of sports, the Sporting Times
published a mock obituary and announced the death of English
cricket by headlining it as “body is cremated and the ashes will be
taken to Australia.”

In the subsequent year when England was preparing to tour

Australia, English newspapers sensationalized and wrote, “the
tour is to regain the ashes”. A damsel from Australia presented an
urn to the touring captain Ivo Bligh which contains the ashes of a
bail, a ball or a vail. Whatever it was, the urn would endure as the
trophy for which the two nations would henceforth compete.
Figure-1 shows the obituary published by the Sporting Times
declaring the death of English Cricket. Refer to
https://www.facebook.com/2333602356897804/photos/august-29-
1882-at-the-oval-the-england-cricket-team-lost-to-australia-in-eng
land/2402181813373191/
LEGEND OF ASHES BY
CRICBUZZ (2017)
SPORTS IN INDIA

While sports journalism remains to be an important and integral

part of the news organisation, most of the organisations consider it
as soft news and hence, give it less attention. Sports journalism is
the essential element of many news media organizations.

It is false that there was not any evolution in sports during pre-
independence era. Comparatively cricket & hockey these two
games have closeness to 'Lord/Boss' so they were famous in
higher middle class. Wrestling was popular in villages from the
pre-independence period. There was a lot crowd on the
playgrounds on these games. But newspaper never took the sports
close to them. Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Atya-Patya etc. games were not
known to the newspapers.
In pre-independence era neither the Wrestlers like Gama-
Gunga not including hockey players like Dhyanchand were
given any special importance by the Marathi newspapers.
Though hockey, cricket were even popular; though they even
has a place in society, still they weren't recognised that they
could get any independent place in sports journalism.

But the steps were taken slowly towards the sports

journalism. Some numerous newspapers in Pune-Mumbai
had started to send their special reporter to get news from the
test cricket matches. Madhu Rege (Daily Sakaal), Sadashiv
Palsule (Daily Kesari), Manohar Datar (Tarun Bharat) can
also be introduced. We can't say them as sport reporter, but it
was step ahead towards it.
He should get the income scale the same as other
reporters, the last paper of newspaper should be
reserved for sports news & sports reporter should give
'live' report of tournaments by being present there.

This idea in India was only in English newspapers.

Bennet Colemen company adopted this idea & from
that the first step of sports journalism was taken. The
editor of Maharashtra Times D.B.Karnik, sports
journalist V.V. Karmarkar (Nashik), Anand Kelkar
(Pune), Vasant Bhalerao (Mumbai) were the people
behind this success. Later many newspapers started
giving news place to sports. news.
SOCIO-POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE
In days when technology to intervene
and aid in sports was still developing,
print journalists played a special role in
its games. They were named official
scorers and kept statistics that were
considered part of the official record of
league.
 Active sportswriters were removed from this
role in 1980. Although their statistical
judgment calls could not affect the outcome of
a game in progress, the awarding of errors and
wins/saves were seen as powerful influences
on pitching staff selections and play lists when
coach decisions seemed unusual. The removal
of writers, who could benefit fiscally from
sensational sports stories, was done to remove
this perception of a conflict of interest, and to
increase statistics volume, consistency, and
accuracy.
Sports stories occasionally transcend the games
themselves and take on socio-political
significance: Jackie Robinson breaking the color
barrier in baseball is an example of this.

Modern controversies regarding the hyper-

compensation of top athletes, the use of anabolic
steroids and other, banned performance-enhancing
drugs, and the cost to local and national governments
to build sports venues and related infrastructure,
especially for Olympic Games, also demonstrates
how sports can intrude on to the news pages.
Sportswriters regularly face more
deadline pressure than other reporters
because sporting events tend to occur late
in the day and closer to the deadlines
many organizations must observe. Yet
they are expected to use the same tools as
news journalists, and to uphold the same
professional and ethical standards. They
must take care not to show bias for any
team.