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KNES 287 Sport and American Society: Module 1 Topic D
Module 1: Structure and Process
“Society of the Sporting Spectacle”
Topic A: Sport and the Sociological Imagination
Topic B: Sport and the Neoliberal Political Order
Topic C: The Corporeal Economy of Sport
David L. Andrews
Physical Cultural Studies Program
Department of Kinesiology
Topic D: Society of the Sporting Spectacle
This week’s focus: CULTURE and the CULTURAL SYSTEM
Theme 1:
Culture
Politic
s
Sport
Economy
Society of the Mediated
Spectacle
Technology
What is the inter-relationship between sport and culture?
Culture: Two Related Meanings
1. A Set of Practices
2. A System of Meanings
The things we do within The values, idea, and
our everyday lives.
beliefs (the ideologies) of
society
Through these interrelated
cultural elements, we learn
the rules and expectations of
the society in which we live.
CULTURE (system of
meaning) and the MEDIA
(the technologies
through which meaning
is communicated).
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The Evolution in Communicating
the Cultural System (Meaning)
Culture (as a System of Meaning) and Technology
The speed and
reach of cultural
communication
(the circulation of
meaning) has
changed over
time within the
advent of new
“media
communications”
technologies…
Contemporary Media Culture/
Technologies of Communicating Meaning
VISUAL [and written]
DIGITAL
INTERTEXTUAL
GLOBAL
INSTANTANEOUS
VIRAL
To the “shot” seen around the world…
Zinedine Zidane’s head butt of Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup
Final between France and Italy (when the “world” was watching the
game via television).
See Video Clip 1
Era
Method of Communicating Meaning Speed of Communication/
(Type of Communication)
Cultural Change
Pre-Modern
(Prior to 1700)
Word of Mouth
(Verbal)
Slow
Transcription
(Written)
Modern
(1700-1950)
Printing Press
(Written/Mechanized)
Reach of
Communication
Local
Regional
Faster
Telegraph
(Written/Electronic)
National
Cinema
(Visual)
International
Radio
(Verbal/Electronic)
Post-Modern
(1950 to present)
Television
(Visual)
Satellite Television
(Visual)
Instantaneous
Global
World Wide Web
(Visual/Verbal/Written)
We’ve gone from the shot heard around
the world…
Bobby Thompson’s walk off home run for the New York Giants against
the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant in 1951 (when
the “world” was listening to the game via radio).
To the shot tweeted around the world…
T.J. Oshie scores in the shoot out against Russia, Sochi 2014.
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The Spectacle and CULTURAL MEANING
“media spectacles are those
phenomena of media culture that
embody contemporary society’s basic
values, serve to initiate individuals into
its way of life, and dramatize its
controversies and struggles”
(Kellner, 2003, p.2)
French Situationist: Guy Debord
“Society of the Spectacle”
Source: Kellner, D. (2003). Media culture and the triumph of the spectacle
Media Spectacle (pp. 1-33). London: Routledge.
Debord’s Society of the Spectacle:
In other words, within the SOCIETY OF the (MEDIA)
SPECTACLE, it is through CONSUMPTION of
MEDIA CULTURE that we learn the:
The INTEGRATED Spectacle and CULTURAL MEANINGS
Monumental
Spectacle
(mass mediated
happenings:
mega-events)
CULTURAL MEANINGS and VALUES
that shape our
UNDERSTANDINGS, EXPERIENCES, AND
IDENTITIES
(particularly those related to
nationality/race/ethnicity/gender/sexuality/class etc.).
Monumental Spectacle
(mass mediated
happenings:
mega-events)
Individual
Spectacle
(mass mediated
personas:
celebrities)
Integrated
Sport
Spectacle
Commodity
Spectacle
(mass mediated
commodities:
brands)
Individual Spectacle
(mass mediated personas:
celebrities)
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Commodity Spectacle
(mass mediated commodities:
brands)
In our MULTIMEDIA world,
meanings are constructed
INTERTEXTUALLY:
Through an AGGREGATION
of numerous TEXTS which
COMBINE to shape
CULTURAL MEANINGS.
Television
Radio
Internet
Dominant
Meaning
of SPECTACLE
Social
Media
Newspapers/
Magazines
Television
Internet
INTERTEXTUAL
NEYMAR
[individual spectacle]
INTERTEXTUAL
SUPER BOWL
[monumental spectacle]
Newspapers/
Magazines
Circles are
Individual TEXTS
Internet
Television
Social
Media
Radio
Social
Media
Radio
Newspapers/
Magazines
Circles are
Individual TEXTS
CULTURAL
INTERTEXTUALITY
Internet
Television
Social
Media
Radio
Newspapers/
Magazines
Circles are
Individual TEXTS
INTERTEXTUAL
UNDER ARMOUR
[commodity spectacle]
Circles are
Individual TEXTS
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The Sport Spectacle as INTERTEXTUAL Site of CULTURAL MEANING
Theme 2:
Sexuality
Meanings
Race/Ethnic
Meanings
National
[Ds]Ability Meanings
Meanings
Class
Meanings
The Politics of the
Sportainment Spectacle
Gender
Meanings
While other METHODS OF COMMUNICATION are
important, our focus is on TELEVISION, which
remains the most EFFECTIVE MEANS OF MASS
COMMUNICATION.
TELEVISION plays a key role in the
MANUFACTURING of SPORT SPECTACLES, and the
MEANINGS generated by them.
Social Welfare Functions of
Mass/Commercial Communications Media
Inform
Educate
Entertain
Neo-Liberal Functions of
Mass/Commercial Communications Media
Inform
Ed u c at
e
Entertain
(capital
accumulation/pr ofit)
The Mass Media’s Interest in Sport
“The media have no inherent interest in sport. It is
merely a means for profit making. For
newspapers and magazines, sport sells the
publications. For TV and radio, sport gets
consumers in front of their sets to hear and see
commercials; in effect, TV and radio broadcasts
rent their viewers and listeners attention”
Sage, G. H. (1990). Power and ideology in American sport: A critical perspective
(p.123). Champaign: Human Kinetics.
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Sport-Media CONVERGENCE
“mediasport”
the “media-sport complex”
the “sport-business-TV nexus”
“the high-flying entertainment-mediasports industry”
SPORT
ENTERTAINMENT
Sporting events can be
manufactured into relatively
inexpensive, highly popular
(and therefore extremely
profitable) SPORTAINMENT
SPECTACLES, designed for
mass ENTERTAINMENT and
PROFIT
SPORTAINMENT
WWE: The Ultimate Sportainment?
The Sportainment NORM
Manufactured Sportainment
Entertaining/Engaging “Middle America”
In order to attract the widest possible
audience, PRIMETIME programming tends to
focus on MAINSTREAM VIEWS and VALUES,
which RESONATE with the majority of the
population.
Therefore, PRIMETIME broadcasts tend to
focus on TRADITIONAL/DOMINANT
AMERICAN THEMES, BELIEFS, and
IDENTITIES.
See Video Clip 2
The MAINSTREAM/PRIMETIME
sport media is thus a clear
example of an ISA (soft power),
as its content REINFORCES
DOMINANT/MAINSTREAM
values and beliefs, many of
which can be linked to the
NEOLIBERAL CONSENSUS/
HEGEMONY.
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Louis Althusser’s Notion of IDEOLOGICAL
STATE APPARATUS (ISAs)
Politics
Mass Media
Religion
Sport
Manufacturing Popular Consent
Institutions which
express and
reinforce the
ideology (values
and beliefs) of the
political order.
“SOFT POWER”/Consensus Politics
Althusser, L. (1989). 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses' in Lenin
and Philosophy and other Essays. London: New Left Books pp 170-86
Source: Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The
political economy of the mass media. New York: Pantheon Books.
Embodying NEOLIBERALISM
The POLITICS of the
SPORTAINMENT SPECTACLE:
An Illustrative Example
The Celebrated/
Responsible
Neoliberal Subject
Spectacularized Embodiments of NEOLIBERALISM
Celebrated/
Responsible
Neoliberal Subjecst
Demonized/
Irresponsible
Neoliberal Subjects
The Demonized/
Irresponsible
Neoliberal Subject
The Biggest Loser:
Spectacular Neoliberal Embodiments
2014 “Biggest Loser” winner Rachel Frederickson
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Training Bodies, Training Audiences/Citize ns
“the powerful role of the reality
television in the making and
remaking of [NEOLIBERAL]
citizens”
Source: Silk, M., Francombe, J., & Bachelor, F. (2009). The Biggest Loser: The
discursive constitution of fatness. Interactions: Studies in Communication
and Culture, 1(3), 383-403.
Primetime Audiences Demand Mainstream Value/
Belief Systems (NEOLIBERAL IDEOLOGY/VALUES)
RUGGED
INDIVIDUALISM
PROGRESS/
SELF-BETTERMENT
NATIONALISM
BRAVERY
HETERO-SEXISM
DETERMINATION IN
FACE OF ADVERSITY
COMPETITIVE
INDIVIDUALISM
See Video Clip 3
Neoliberal
Bio-Politics
The GOVERNANCE of (individual) BODIES
Such are the CULTURAL CO DES (IDEOLOGIES)
driving “The Biggest Loser” narrative.
The IDEALIZED SUBJECT of NEOLIBERAL
politics is the CITIZEN-CONSUMER, the
INDIVIDUAL who is a:
-
DETERMINED
COMPETITIVE
RESPONSIBLE
RATIONAL
“entrepreneur of the self”
Source: Foucault, M. (2010). The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the College de
France, 1978-1979, New York, Picador.
POPULAR SPECTACLES such as TBL,
reinforce neoliberal notions of
COMPETITIVE INDIVIDUALISM, and the
PRIMACY of INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
in the SHAPING/MAKING OF THE SELF.
In this way, society/social location, or wider
social influences are thought to have no
INFLUENCE or RELEVANCE.
Society is a non-factor, it is all down to the
INDIVIDUAL.
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For some there is a naïve REALISM when it
comes to TELEVISUAL MEDIA, as if
television programming merely, and
OBJECTIVELY REPORTS REALITY.
Theme 3:
The Hyperreality of the
Sportainment Spectacle
In fact, the TELEVISUAL MEDIA is actually
responsible for the MANUFACTURING and,
sometimes, the MANIPULATION of REALITY.
Television doesn’t REPORT REALITY, it
REPRESENTS (RE-PRESENTS) REALITY.
Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality I
There is no such thing as:
HYPERREALITY:
REALITY TELEVISION
It is all moulded, manipulated,
manufactured, or constructed in some
ways.
It is all an interpretation of reality,
rather than a mirror of it…
Jean Baudrillard’s Hyperreality II
The HYPERREAL SIMULATIONS of REALITY manufactured
and presented through the televisual media advanced an
understanding of reality based on DOMINANT CULTURAL
CODES (or systems of meaning) viewers recognise and which
shape their views and experiences, of reality.
Examples
of Cultural
CODES
“more real than reality itself”
(1983, p. 139)
A culture associated with the blurring of the
boundary between the “real” and the “fictional”.
HYPERREALITY: A situation within which MASS
MEDIATED MODELS or SIMULATIONS of reality
come to represent and influence the perception
and experience of reality.
Source: Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).
HYPERREALITY: MEDIATED CODES
Race/Ethnic
Codes
[Dis]Ability
Codes
Sexuality
Codes
National
Codes
Class
Codes
Gender
Codes
Source: Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).
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According to Baudrillard:
The televisual reality of the media Gulf conflicted
with the material reality of the Gulf War.
Source: Baudrillard, J. (1995). The Gulf war did not take place. Bloomington,
IA: Indiana University Press.
NBC’s Olympic
HYPERREALITY
“Collateral Damage”:
Sanctioned Televisual
Representation
of the Gulf War, 1991
“Collateral Damage”:
Non-Sanctioned, Realist
Representation
of the Gulf War materiality, 1991
NBC:
The primetime platform for
Manufacturing a HYPERREAL
Olympics Games SPECTACLE
into a high revenue generating
form of SPORTAINMENT.
In 2014, NBC signed a $7.75 billion
contract with the IOC guaranteeing that
the network will televise Olympic Games
(Summer and Winter) until 2032.
As Richard Pound, then IOC vice president,
brazenly admitted, in relation to NBC’s
commitment to the Olympic Games:
“If you owe them [the bank] $10,000, you’re a
customer. If you owe them $10,000 billion
you’re a partner”
(Thurow, 1996, p.14).
Source: Thurow, R. (1996, July 19). Lord of the Rings. The Wall
Street Journal Interactive Edition.
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“These are NBC's games, and by now we should
know how they're played.
The network sees the Olympics less as sports
than as spectacle, at least in prime time, and it
packages them accordingly into a sort of athletic
variety show. Events are delayed, results are
hidden, and while bad news is not ignored, it's
not stressed, either. This is not Monday Night
Football. The game is not the thing.”
Bianco, R. (2006, February 13). Prime-time Olympics:
A variety show. USA Today, p. 1D.
“I get to arrange how all these
things are perceived in the world”
“I live more than anything else to
produce the Games”
Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, 1996; 2004.
““Where families gather, advertisers follow”
“We will once again emphasize our
packaged primetime show. The time
difference doesn’t allow for us to be live in
primetime. We will package and curate it in
a way that makes it a place that huge
gatherings of family and friends want to
gather and get together in front of their TV.”
Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press
Event, Janauary 7, 2014.
Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group, Chairman, NBC Sochi Olympics Press
Event, Janauary 7, 2014.
Entertaining/Engaging the American Family
In order to attract the widest
possible audience, NBC’s
OLYMPIC PRIMETIME
programming tends to focus on
HEGEMONIC [NEOLIBERAL]
VIEWS and VALUES, which
RESONATE with the majority of
the population.
In Baudrillard’s terms:
beijing olympics
We did not watch the
Beijing Olympics on
primetime NBC; rather,
we are fed the televisual
NBC Olympics: the
Olympics as primetime
entertainment.
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In Baudrillard’s terms:
The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics
sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the
Beijing Games.
In Baudrillard’s terms:
London olympics
Televisual Representation
of the Olympic Games
We did not watch the
London Olympics on
primetime NBC; rather,
we are fed the televisual
NBC Olympics: the
Olympics as primetime
entertainment.
Material experience of the
Olympic Games
In Baudrillard’s terms:
The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics
sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the
London Games.
In Baudrillard’s terms:
Sochi olympics
Televisual Representation
of the Olympic Games
We did not watch the
Sochi Olympics on
primetime NBC; rather,
we are fed the televisual
NBC Olympics: the
Olympics as primetime
entertainment.
Material experience of the
Olympic Games
The televisual reality of the mediated Olympics
sometimes conflicted with the material reality of the
Sochi Games.
Theme 4:
Manufacturing Olympic
Hyperreality
What Russian viewers saw.
What actually happened.
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The NBC-Olympic Sportainment Convergence
NBC manufactures a mediated
primetime Olympic hyperreality
(a manufacture model of reality),
designed for maximum ratings
(and thereby profits), which did
not necessarily reflect the
material reality of the Olympic
experience.
See Video Clip 4
Manufacturing The Olympic Spectacle/Reality
See Video Clip 5
Entertaining/Engaging the American Family
In order to attract the widest
possible audience, NBC’s
OLYMPIC PRIMETIME
programming tends to focus on
HEGEMONIC [NEOLIBERAL]
VIEWS and VALUES, which
RESONATE with the majority of
the population.
NBC’s Olympic Time
1. Purely live
“Soap opera games”
Produced for maximum sentiment,
maximum ratings, and maximum
revenue
Carlson, M. (1996). The soap opera games: Determined
to make every event a tearjerker, NBC overplays the
personal stories. Time: 48.
2. Live-on-tape
“Plausibly Live”
3. Taped Coverage
Packaged/Features
Where, and how, and why is time manipulated
within within sportainment spectacles??
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NBC’s Manipulation of Olympic Time (Emotions)
Taped coverage enables NBC to build up
the intensity, the excitement, and the
AUDIENCE for the event.
Hence, taped coverage of MAJOR events
tends to be spread across the primetime
program, with “teasers” early in the
broadcast designed to engage the viewer
and build the audience to a peak between
10pm and 11pm ET.
See Video Clip 6
NEOLIBERAL NARRATIVIZING:
The process of turn an event/
spectacle into a NARRATIVE/
STORY
Stories are most emotive/
compelling/engaging when they
focus on PEOPLE (the
human/individual angle)
Personalizing/Individualizing
the events through human
interest stories, NBC shaped the
way viewers perceived and
consumed the Olympics:
The goal of making them
emotionally invested in the
athlete and hence the broadcast.
NBC’s Emotive Olympic Broadcast
Philosophy/Narrativizing:
1. Story
2. Reality
3. Possibility
4. Idealism
5. Patriotism
Creating/Personalizing Olympic Drama
(Manipulating Popular Emotions)
“You have to familiarize people
with the competitors. What are
their back stories? How did they
get there? Why should we care
about them? What is at stake
here?
Bob Costas, Host, NBC Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event,
Janauary 7, 2014.
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The Lyndsey Vonn Deficit
NARRATIVIZING Bode Miller and the Super G
“I think Lindsey gives you
great promotional value,
and she’s an amazing
athlete, and an amazing
story. But there are
amazing athletes that are
going to be in Sochi, many
of which we know, some of
which we haven’t identified
yet.”
Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, NBC Sochi Olympics Press Event,
Janauary 7, 2014.
See Video Clip 7
NBC aren’t the only contributors to the
creation of POPULAR NARRATIVES/
MEANINGS.
In our MULTIMEDIA world, meanings are
constructed INTERTEXTUALLY:
Through an AGGREGATION of numerous
TEXTS which COMBINE to shape
CULTURAL MEANINGS.
See Video Clip 8
NBC’s Coding the Olympic Athlete
Primetime Audiences Demand Mainstream Value/
Belief Systems (NEOLIBERAL IDEOLOGY/VALUES)
RUGGED
INDIVIDUALISM
PROGRESS/
SELF-BETTERMENT
NATIONALISM
BRAVERY
HETERO-SEXISM
Manufacturing personalities in order to
emotionally engage the mainstream audience.
DETERMINATION IN
FACE OF ADVERSITY
COMPETITIVE
INDIVIDUALISM
Such are the CULTURAL CO DES
(IDEOLOGIES) driving NBC’s Olympic narrative.
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NBC’s PRIMETIME Olympics, reproduces
traditional/dominant AMERICAN cultural values,
beliefs and identities in order to attract/appeal to
the AMERICAN FAMILY audience
Louis Althusser’s Notion of IDEOLOGICAL
STATE APPARATUS (ISAs)
Politics
Mass Media
Religion
Sport
Hence, the NBC Olympic spectacle, helps to
reproduce neoliberal American CULTURAL
CODES/NORMS.
Theme 5:
Institutions which
express and
reinforce the
ideology (values
and beliefs) of the
political order.
“SOFT POWER”/Consensus Politics
Althusser, L. (1989). 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses' in Lenin
and Philosophy and other Essays. London: New Left Books pp 170-86
1. High-Level (Monumental) Sportainment
Sportainment Spectacles,
Popular Physical Inertia, and
Public Health
Television’s “Most Watched and Tweeted”
2. Medium-Level (Everyday) Sportainment
Average audience of 114.4
million viewers “said to be
the most-watched television
program of all time”.
U.S. household rating of 49.7
(meaning 49.7% of
households were tuned in).
28.4 million game related
tweets.
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3. Low-Level (Manufactured) Sportainment
Survivor
XFL
6 out of 10 football related.
Source: Nielsen Ratings
Dancing with the Stars
Splash!
Celebrity Boxing
The Ultimate Low-Level (Manufactured) Sportainment?
Interestingly, there has also been a
sportization of primetime television:
The attributes and expressions of
sporting contests have become an
important part of the network media
environment.
See Video Clip 9
The sportainment NORM has led to
televised sport coverage (especially
that for primetime network television)
augmenting the basic nature of the
sporting event in order to make it
more spectacular, and thereby more
entertaining to a primetime audience.
As a result, and as
CONSUMERS/VIEWERS, we have
become used to being:
ENTERTAINED
as opposed to being
INSPIRED
by SPORTAINMENT SPECTACLES.
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One of the main stated LEGACIES of the London Olympic Games (which
contributed to the winning of the bid) was the encouragement of
involvement in SPORT and PHYSICAL ACTIVITY among the world’s
youth (inspiring 2 million youth in the UK to become more active).
However, research has suggested there
is in fact no correlation between
staging Olympic Games (or other major
sport spectacles) and raised levels of
physical activity among the general
populace.
Source: Weed, M., Coren, E., Fiore, J., Wellard, I., Mansfield, L., Chatz iefstathiou,
D., & Dowse, S. (2012). Developing a physical activity legacy from the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: a policy-led systematic review.
Perspectives in Public Health, 132(2), 75-80.
Amusing Ourselves to Death Revisited?
The Consequences of Sportainment?
Stimulating
Passive
Consumption?
Stimulating
Active
Involvement?
SOCIAL
CULTURAL
GLOBESITY and the SPORT SPECTACLE?
PHYSIOLOGICAL
CALORIFIC INCREASE
Increased
Calorie Intake
Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact
of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport
Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.
Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact
of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport
Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.
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ENERGY DECREASE
+
PHYSIOLOGICAL RESTRUCTURING?
Reduced
Energy
Expenditure
=
Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact
of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport
Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.
GLOBESITY and the SPORT SPECTACLE?
Increased
+
Calorie Intake
Reduced
=
Energy
Expenditure
Increased
Obesity
Levels
Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact
of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport
Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.
KFC Couchgating – Sport Spectacle and Globesity?
Increased
Obesity
Levels
Dickson, G., & Schofield, G. (2005). Globalization and globesity: The impact
of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. International Journal of Sport
Management and Marketing, 1(1-2), 169-179.
See Video Clip 10
McDonald’s and Olympic Globesity?
Perhaps the rise of
SPORTAINMENT
spectacles has, in
fact, had a
significantly
negative influence
upon PUBLIC
HEALTH?
See Video Clip 11
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See course website for
related required readings,
video clips, key concepts,
thematic review
questions, and essay
question.
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