The impact of media sport events on the active participation of young people and some implications for PE pedagogy

Abstract

This article addresses the impact of selected sports media events on the active participation of a group of young people aged 14/15. Its particular focus is on an intense period of media sport coverage during the European Soccer Championships (Euro ‘96), the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships and the Atlanta Olympics and on how a group of British young people articulate ways that consumption of these products creates opportunities and challenges for their own sports participation. The data reported here focus on one aspect drawn from a wider media sport and audience investigation designed within a hermeneutic and interpretative methodological framework. Through daily diaries and interviews this article draws particularly on young people's interpretations of sport and media as competing leisure activities and lifestyle choices; ways in which they perceive that watching sport provides them with new motivations and opportunities for physical activity; and the potential of sport media messages and images to ‘inform and fashion performance’. The results suggest that whilst there are associations to be made in relation to motivation, modeling and performance levels, connections between the intensity of media sport coverage and sustained involvement and improvement in young people's sporting activity remain tenuous. The article concludes by revisiting the author's professional concern in the light of the research process and considers the pedagogical implications for PE professionals to strengthen links between media sport and active sports participation.