Thursday, January 13, 2011
Sports, the new form of RTV?
After last weeks stunning upsets of the Seattle Seahawks over the New Orleans Saints, as well as the New York Jets win over the Indianapolis colts, I wouldn't hesitate to say that sports could very well be considered a form of reality TV. First, its unscripted, this means that no one can possibly know for sure whats going to happen. People use statistics to try to guess, but nobody gave the Seahawks, who had a .500 (50%) winning percentage, (and a lot of holes in their passing, and defensive game) to beat the defending super bowl champs. Also, there is more drama in sports, than any other form of entertainment. Coaches and players get into arguments, rivalries known throughout the country. We even become united as a country every 4 years to watch the Olympics. I've seen grown, burly men cry at sporting events, as well as fights, and cheers so loud, the ground was shaken. Another fantastic example of upsets occurred last night when an unranked, and slovenly Florida State basketball team, took down the first seeded Duke team. Thats my argument for sports to be considered a form of reality TV, please comment on this if you agree or disagree STRONGLY, thanks!
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4 comments:
Jets are going all the way!! No but seriously, you present good points. I'm always complaining that reality shows feature too much drama and emotion, but I forget that sometimes sports bear about as much drama as a spanish soap opera. I completely agree with you, sports are reality tv.
I appreciate the feedback but must warn you the steel-curtain will close on Sanchez! I'm kinda disappointed there won't be a Steelers vs. Seahawks repeat! :P
This is a valid point about sports being reality television, however, to be the devil's advocate, part of the definition of RTV as laid out in Wikipedia and other articles commenting on the genre is that RTV is edited in some significant way. You might translate this as a form of scripting. If this is the case, is it possible that the broadcasts of sporting events aren't scripted enough to be considered reality television?
The games are scheduled to air around times that best fit the channels schedules, and the NFL for example picked a team to be in the playoffs even tough they had a sub- .500 winning percentage, and many teams did better than they did. That seems like the league had quite a bit of influence in who made the post season to me. Sports are edited from a distance as well through fines penalties, and other forms of punishment.
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