Media And Baseball :: essays research papers

Media affects everyone and everything; There is no escape. Media is everywhere and surrounds everything. Henry Jenkins and Marshall McLuhan have differing points of view as to what the meaning of media is. They both, however, have their particular ponits which they describe well. Jenkin's talks about the different types of cultures that exist, focusing on popular culture, in his essay, "What Everyone Should Know About Popular Culture." Mcluhan talks about the concepts of Narcicism and the "Global Village." Both Jenkin's and McLuhan's ideas can be focused on a particular thing, such as Baseball. That can be further broken down and analyzed at the team level. The Los Angeles Dodgers have most recently been the center of attention due to the top media coverage of the team. The team does, however, have a great history. They were originally known as the Brooklyn dodgers until they made a move to Los Angeles in 1958. They then became the Los Angeles Dodgers and their owner became Walter O'Malley. He was the owner and president for the next twenty years. After that, he passed the team down to his son Peter. This is a great example of Jenkin's definition of Folk Culture. A very important item was passed down from generation to generation of O'Malleys, eventhough the item was quite massive. Throughout the years, however, the Dodgers were much a part of popular culture. Baseball was known as "America's Favorite Past-time," and still is. The tradition that the O'Malley family had with the Dodgers lasted until 1998, when a big corporation, the FOX group owned by Rupert Murdoch, took over the team. This was a time of chan! ge, but some could argue was for the best. Being owned by the FOX group means there is more media exposure for the team. Now that the team is owned by Rupert Murdoch, McLuhan's ideas about media can be implemented. McLuhan's concept of narcicism can clearly be seen with the transition of the Dodgers from family-owned to corporation-owned. The availability of large funds to acquire key players makes the Dodgers seem narcicistic. People can think that they love themselves so much, that they will do anything to win. Most recently, Kevin Brown, one of the league's top pitchers was signed to a 105 million dollar contract for 7 years. This is the biggest contract in baseball history. This and other aquisitions was supposed to lead the Dodgers to excellence this year. Unfortunately for Dodgers fans, this did not happen. The team is 20 games out of first place with no chance of making post season play. All that can be done is look back and start thinking about next season.