Page 112 - Sport Culture and the Media

MONEY, MYTH AND THE BIG MATCH || 93

be traced in media and cultural studies back to the seminal work of Roland
Barthes (1973). It is being discussed in this section on political economy, and
not in the ‘usual place’ where textual analysis happens, to demonstrate the
indissolubility of the making and unmaking of media sports texts.
In Mythologies, Barthes (1973) attempts to deal with these different kinds of
‘truth’ – what is believed and what can be established theoretically, empirically
and so politically (in terms of a class struggle and other forms of political
action) as true. While in later works (such as Barthes 1978) he was somewhat
less definitive about the clear division between truth/reality and falsehood/myth
(Rojek 1985), the analytical and political dilemma has not gone away (Sugden
and Tomlinson 2002). In particular, the ways in which myths can function
to obscure objective judgement and cloak it in mystifying ideology is still
troubling if the test of any ‘truth claim’ is reduced to a choice between avail-
able myths (Thwaites et al. 1994). In the light of the postmodern and post-
structuralist assault on the enlightenment concept of ‘truth’ (see, for example,
Norris 1993), how can we speak authoritatively about the way things ‘really are’
and so propose rational and progressive political values and actions? Rather
than attempt to provide a simple answer to this question (which, if it existed,
would mean that it need never be posed), it is preferable to develop and refine
our understanding of the multiple phenomena and relationships that make the
social world and its culture(s). Earlier in this chapter, for example, we saw the
undeniable power of economic forces in the shaping of sport and of media
sport, but it was also apparent that the mobilization of economic factors
was dependent on cultural forces (including the popular appeal of sport in the
first place). These symbolic and affective elements did not simply respond to
economic imperatives but were critical in shaping economic possibilities (as
shown, for example, by the stubborn lack of international ‘transportability’ of
many sports no matter how slick the advertising and promotional campaign).
An intellectually respectable political economy of the sports media, therefore,
must seek to be aware of the many influences – strong and weak, constant and
intermittent, predictable and unpredictable – on the making of media sports
texts.
In illustrating this argument, it is useful to examine briefly some instances
where the cultural politics of media sport are played out in contrasting ways.
For example, in looking at the gender order in media sport above, it was clear
that women have been subject to subordination and/or under-representation in
two key organizational complexes – in media corporations as owners, senior
executives and ‘rank-and-file’ professional personnel (Creedon 1994a,b) and
in sporting organizations on governing bodies and as professional athletes
(Jennifer Hargreaves 1994; McKay 1997). The intimate, longstanding linkage
between sport and masculinity has helped secure the dominance of male sport