Sports and Media Effects
Since the dawn of civilization, people have enjoyed viewing sports. From the time that there was glad-iatorial combat in Rome and frenetic ball games in the land of the Aztecs, there have been avid sport spectators (for an excellent review of the history of sport spectators, see Guttman, 1986). A sport spectator is defined herein as someone who regularly watches, listens to, or reads about sporting events. Spectators can be further subdivided into two classifications: direct sport consumers and indirect sport consumers (Wann, 1997). Direct sport consumers are individuals who are actually in attendance at the sporting event. Indirect sport consumers are individuals who view the event on television, listen to it on the radio, or read about it in the newspaper or on the Internet. This entry focuses primarily on the reasons why indirect sport consumership is so ubiquitous and discusses the effects that sport fanship has on people.
The prevalence of sport spectatorship in Western society is undeniable. Consider that in 1986, American viewers reported a preference for watching televised sports over watching newscasts, documentaries, sitcoms, and every other category of televised entertainment except movies (Guttmann, 1986). Major events such as the Super Bowl regularly top 100 million viewers, while the World Cup is reported to have drawn more than 2 billion viewers internationally.
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