Mass media contains intended messages to socialize society in a certain way. Sports is just another one of those areas where the media has a great impact on the publics’ perceptions. It does not necessarily mean that stereotypes in sports are valid or that people believe them, because they are not. However, the stereotypes remain and do not seem to be changing anytime soon. First, African Americans are the overwhelming majority in professional basketball and football. And surprisingly these are the only sports were people ask “What makes football or basketball players more inclined to get into fights?” Tt is not fair to only look at sports where African Americans are the majority, but it happens because most people think that black people dominate the most popular sports and thus think black people to be more violent. This is never asked in other sports, like baseball or hockey, where fights still occur in the sport, but the majority of players are not African American. Also, there are many more instances of violence from the rest of the United States that does not receive the attention that professional athletes do. This shows the media chooses the messages and stories they provide the public. Not surprisingly, it is the black athletes that are stereotyped in sports, not white athletes.
There are many possible reasons black people are stereotyped in this fashion. Firstly, because of the violence or contact in sports, it is bound to make the athlete more violent in real life, black or white. Yet, the percentage of athletes that commit violent acts in the public is nothing compared to the rest of the United States. Since athletes are role models, the public holds a higher standard from them. But that still does not excuse the stereotype that football and basketball players are more likely to get into fights or that black athletes are more likely to be violent. These are the most popular sports in the United States and media bias toward these sports is a fact. Ironically, the perceived arrest rate for the NBA and NFL is much lower than in comparison to what the media displays. In other words, violent acts or stories in the media are more likely to about black people over whites, even if white people commit more violent crimes. This goes for professional athletes too. The fact is the people who filter the media are mostly white and stereotypes come from the media, so it creates a bias. According to the book, as of the year 2000, 90 percent of the sports writers from newspapers are white. Thus, the stories writers present will most likely come form white people and in doing so they look at white people in a positive light, while black people in a negative light. Therefore, the media reinforces racial stereotyping because there is no equal representation in the media. For instance, more people remember violent stories where the perpetrator is black and the victim in white, such as when Latrell Spreewell attacked a white referee. Also, graduating rates do not help this perception of black people.
Only 14 percent of freshman athletes graduate in four years. However, the percentage is misleading. For football and basketball, players can leave for college before they graduate college. A lot of players will end up doing this because they need the money because they come from a poor background. Even so, people still discern them as people being dumb. In some cases this can be true, but it is not fair that black athletes do not have the same opportunities as white people. White people dominate mass media and whatever they deem necessary for the public to intake is not up to the control of the reader. The media is where people observe and learn stereotypes, and in this day and age, sports are all over the media, especially television. A sport might be majorly black, but the perceptions do not have to be positive. As stated earlier, football and basketball athletes are looked at as “violent” All in all, it is a shame that black athletes have to suffer the most from the media because they are shown in negative fashions more often then not.
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