Blog #8- How do sports fall into this?


How do sports fall into this?

Political participation and the divide that has occurred throughout the past couple of years has dramatically increased, this could be due to a lot of factors, but I believe the strong beliefs regarding President Trump is a huge part. Whether people agree or disagree with him, I have noticed, at least through my own social media, that people are more willing to expose their beliefs to a wider audience. These articles touched on media multitasking and second screening when it comes to watching politics or other television shows, but I wish we could have seen some more research regarding sports and their influence on political participation. The influence that professional athletes have is continuing to grow, and with the constant increase of social media in our everyday lives, athletes and other prominent people’s beliefs will continue to rise.

While political participation can stem from watching, hearing or reading about politics on different media outlets, I believe that it has increased in the past few years by individuals watching sports. For example, take the effects that Colin Kaepernick had on Black Lives Matter and their influence in public policy. By taking the knee during the national anthem he was able to bring more awareness to the cause. Now, this doesn’t mean that it was the only way to bring awareness to Black Lives Matter, but it was certainly affective in creating awareness. There are also long term effects that have come from these protests in the NFL, for more up to date information on the aftereffects going on with the NFL please click here.here.
Williams and Gonlin spoke about the community that was behind HTGAWM, and I think that sports has that same type of following. Avid sports followers were brought into the political realm when these protests started happening, and some were not happy about it. There were many people who vocalized that athletes should not have a say in what happens in politics, but why shouldn’t they? Because they are making a living off of being a professional athlete they do not have the right to inform the public on what they believe? I believe it is the responsibility of influential people to stand up for what they believe is wrong to help make a difference. It is important that this is done in a way that lets every voice be heard, especially ones that differ from their own.
As the protests became more influent in the NFL I believe there was a positive correlation to second screening as individuals wanted to state their agreement or disagreement with what these athletes were doing before their respective games started. Now, with the long-term effects emerging, it will be interesting to see how people respond when the season starts up again in the Fall. If McGregor and Maurao are correct in their findings that second screening during news influences online political participation, I believe the findings for watching sports with political references will also have a positive correlation to what people are saying. The influence that online political participation has on public policy would be more interesting to view. (Luckily, Jamie and I will be researching along these lines for the class so hopefully we are able to create better insight!)
With the wide range of influence that celebrities and other influential people have on our society, it is important to be able to express our opinions for and against their beliefs. With the availability that individuals have today in regard to social media, it makes it easier to find agreeing opinions. By being able to see opposing beliefs it will help us grow as a society and become better members of our democratic system.

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