Reflections of Realities
Aarhus University
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Sport Organizations’ Diminished Autonomy through External Pressures
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robert C. Schneider
Politically based manipulation of sport organizations takes place in several forms. Individuals, special interest groups, corporations, and governments effectively apply pressure, with the support of social and traditional media, to force policy change within sport organizations. Reactions to external pressures leading to diminished organizational autonomy is evident in professional USA sports including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and college sport’s preeminent governing body, the NCAA and its member universities. Leagues have embraced questionable political messages designed to offend and alienate large segments of the target audience (Malanga, 2020). Leagues have also acquiesced to government-based political positions, so long as there is a financial return (Bremmer, 2019). Sport franchises too have lost autonomy in the interest of bowing to powerful companies’ political persuasions (Associated Press, 2020; Diamond & Radnofsky, 2021). The short and long-term effects of external pressures, reinforcing a shift of sport organization self-control to external bodies is deserving of moral analysis including long-term effects on sport and society.
Instagram Policies and Online Abuse Towards Elite Women in Strength Sports View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Catherine Phipps
Social media is user-generated content which can be used by athletes as a positive platform for branding, promotion, and coverage of their sport. However, it is also a space which enables hate, abuse, public shaming, and discrimination. In this paper, gendered abuse towards elite, high-profile women in strength sports (including powerlifting, CrossFit, strongman, Olympic lifting and bodybuilding) is explored, utilising semi-structured interviews with a number of athletes. Findings demonstrate various types of gendered abuse experienced by women, from appearance-related comments and unsolicited advice to the more extreme forms of abuse a such as death threats and threats of sexual violence. Self-surveillance and silencing strategies were also critiqued by the participants. Although these findings demonstrate deep-rooted problems surrounding sexism and misogyny which go further than social media, it is also argued that platforms such as Instagram have a key responsibility in tackling these issues, and their policies currently do not do enough to prevent abuse towards women.
The Unforgiven: Janet Gretzky and the Canadian Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Craig Greenham
Janet Jones (Gretzky) was vilified in the Canadian press for her perceived, not actual, role in the blockbuster hockey trade that involved her husband, Wayne Gretzky. Unfairly and without proof, Jones was cast as a manipulative American seductress that duped the righteous, but too trusting, Canadian hockey star into a bad decision that negatively affected his country. The media granted Jones absolution after a hasty indictment but the amnesty proved temporary. Twice more Jones found her reputation sullied by the Canadian media as it attempted to validate its initial verdict. This investigation of Canadian media illuminates important truths about its willingness to engage in gender-based chauvinism, particularly in sports sections, and the media’s reluctance to move beyond those narratives even as time passed and truths were revealed. This analysis considers the reactions of local and national media and is guided by recent research into press coverage of WAGs.
