Description
The genre of sports is immensely popular culturally in both national and international settings and often times boosts the morale of relatively large communities mired in tragedy and strife. Consumption of sports media in U.S. culture has grown significantly by almost every conceivable measure, with trends showing that the demand for it continues to grow. Applying the theories of gatekeeping, framing, and agenda setting, this study explores the role of sports journalism in the traditional media landscape, reinforcing its notion as a DVR proof format with increasing financial profitability within the traditional journalism business model. An in-depth look reveals the ethical quandaries of sports journalism, as members of sports media are often forced to compromise their journalistic integrity due primarily to a lack of leverage with the entities they're assigned to cover. This study shows that sports journalism typically receives denigration from the traditional news media field despite playing an integral part in serving as the gatekeeper of significant news events of cultural and social significance. A comparative contextual analysis is implemented using the analytical-descriptive methodology to research the sports media's coverage of two historical events of vast cultural significance: Jackie Robinson breaking MLB's color barrier, and Jason Collins and Michael Sam becoming the first publicly outed gay athletes in the NBA and NFL, with subtle bias, a clear agenda, and unethical journalistic practices found in their media coverage.
