UNIT PAPER

Unit Paper: News Story



Unit Paper: News Story

Introduction

I will be analyzing the Ryan Braun and his appeal win for use of a banned substance. What makes this story interesting to me is that it involves sports and politics in the same instance. Sports I consider to be soft news because usually sports are a form of entertainment, and entertainment is soft news. Politics on the other hands is hard news. Hard news usually affects a greater part of the community. This story is the combination of both but if had to be categorized I would say this is hard news because of the fact that this is the first time in Major League Baseball history that an appeal for a drug suspension has gone in the athletes favor and it presents the potential problems with the baseball drug testing system that were not exposed until this case presented itself. In this essay, I argue why the context in which Braun's case was reported in the news media made it 'hard news.'

Body

Influence of media is very significant in influencing the audience perception towards particular concept, group, or entity. Media effect has been a prime concern in different study domains to determine its impact in broad range of dimensions. The relationship between media and politics has always been crucial and rather undeniable. Media helps in connecting the individuals to world and represents the identity of society. In the sphere of sports news, we see examples like Ryan Braun steroid litigation following his baseball match. Braun tested positive in October for elevated levels testosterone. In the subsequent case of Ryan Braun, there was no evidence suggesting that he had used any steroids or drugs (Busfield 2012). However, in the trial that followed the match played on 1st October, 2011, between National League Division Series against Arizona at Miller Park, Braun had to undergo many pressures to feel the guilt he did not deserve. Not only did he miss the many opportunities in the games his team played in its next season, he had to undergo suspicious eyes of the journalists and his professional colleagues. The false media predictions that Braun would not succeed in his appeals were also apparent through rampant Internet rumors. The rumors were not baseless at all (France 2012). After all, we do not have many players who have cleared themselves up from the anti-dote litigations. In his views, "Many of the stories that were erroneously reported by the initial network (ESPN) continue to live on, and it's sad and disappointing that this has become a PR battle and that people continue to leak information that's inaccurate."

Braun had made his appeal on the basis of a seemingly flawed urine sample collection process for the players testing on their dopamine and steroid levels. From his own example, he presented how his urine sample collector, Dino Laurenzi failed to ship the sample to Fedex as long as 44 hours after the test. In his view, no proper documentation had been maintained for ...