The media constructs reality

My intention is to probe into the world of media and discuss various theoretical and conceptual frameworks used across media and cultural studies. I will explore work of different key theorists in media and cultural studies. I shall also examine the different approaches to textual and audience analysis and study how sport is represented through the media, as well as looking at the cultural and ideological issues that operate through these representations. I shall summarise key points of my chosen title and implement current issues/theories into my selected sport - football adjacent to the theme 'The champions League so far'.

It is apparent that sport and the mass media have a particularly strong association going back to the eighteenth century (Rowe 2004). Horne (2006, pg 41) states how the media helped to construct what is sport, and how governing bodies for various sport came into effect after newspapers started publishing league tables during the late 19th century. Sport and media was further strengthened during mid 20th century by the arrival of televisions and today it is quite difficult to imagine sport without television.

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But, what is Sport? Nicholson. M (2007, p. 4) notes that sport is best understood as having three core dimensions (Guttman 1978).

First, it has a physical dimension Second, it is competitive. Third and finally, it must be structured and rule bound and Nicholson. M (2007, p. 4) further adds "that it is worth nothing because mediated sport is almost exclusively highly structured highly competitive and very physical. In fact, sports such as football, which empathise, if not exaggerate sport's tripartite definition, tend to dominate media coverage generally and television coverage in particular.

" Nicholson (2007, p. 10) also states "A cumulative total of 28,800 million people through-out 213 countries watched the 2002 tournament in Korea and Japan.

" From this we can establish that masses of people are consuming masses of products within sport. A staggering 28,8000 million throughout the world watching the media, this is where I begin my exploration into how the media is represented and perceived by such a substantial audience. It should be noted that studying media is not a homogenous subject. Rowe (2004,p. 65) ' the media are both the driving economic and cultural force in sport because they provide (or attract) most of the capital that in turn creates and disseminates the images and information which then generate more capital and more sport...

' We can ascertain that within the 213 countries, there would be a vast range of cultures. Culture is "at the very least, means industries and practices like design, architecture, multimedia, film, broadcasting, publishing and fashion" (Redhead. S, 2004). Amongst the different cultures will be different codes. For example, English as a language can vary amongst the different regions like slang, also the different contexts and styles within ethnic groups to specialised vocabularies - work or sport related.

The code containing message(s) is often described as being "encoded" from the sender and then "decoded" by the receiver. Within media the encoding process works on multiple levels and plays an integral part within the various cultures, how we make sense of ourselves and others, our experience of time and space, how power circulates and is contained and how meanings are exchanged, to put it better, "The Media does not reflect reality, The media constructs reality". Redhead. S (2008). So what is media? Bignell.

J (2002) refers it to all things which are channels for communicating something and further explains how simply walking down a street, various messages are being generated for us, by signs, posters and traffic lights. Bignell (2002, p. 3) stated five basic assumptions which may underlie meanings of the media. They are: Patterns and structures of signs in media texts which condition the meanings which media can be communicated and understood. The signs in media texts are understood in relation to other signs and other texts in social and cultural contexts.

Each medium has features specific to it and features which are shared with other media. Texts and media position their audiences in particular ways, and audiences understand and enjoy the media in different and diverse ways and finally, the negotiation of meanings between media and audiences is important in understanding the ways that we think about ourselves and our culture. David Rowe (2004,p. 8) states" A trained capacity to decode media sports texts and to detect the forms of ideological deployment of sport in the media is, irrespective of cultural taste - a crucial skill.