Ethical and legal issue in Media

Ethical and legal issue in Media

Australian Sport Scandal and its impact upon society

Introduction

Match fixing, personal life scandals or drug abuse amongst sport players a serious issue in Australia or not? The sensational are of the view that Australia's use of sporting codes of ethics tends to get corrupted by factors such as match fixing, usage of drugs by the sports players and planned crimes. The current scandal highlighted in sport would seem to have alarming consequences on approximately $ 10millions in advertising and marketing through endorsements and also marketing done through sponsorship.

The sporting codes earn a huge amount through their endorsement and advertising offers that they receive The leading lawyers of such organizations sponsoring these sporting codes have already warned that there is a chance that many of the prospective sponsors could use their right of special claims to establish termination of their contracts with the sporting codes if the number of crimes and ethical issues created by them would remain high. One example of such a situation could be Tiger Woods who was removed from some top notch brand campaigns after media revealed about his extra marital affair.

The consequences of such scandals

Media giants and telecommunication and PR firms like Telstra have already been considering the possibility of withdrawing some its sponsorship campaigns from the sporting industry in case the allegations regarding match fixing and drug abuse is confirmed by the concerned players.

Telstra's reporting head said in his press conference last week that their brand image is highly dependent upon its association with their sponsorships, therefore unacceptable behaviors or scandalous events committed by these sporting codes and seriously jeopardize the perception of their brand. As stated by Telstra boss David Thodey last week during the company's results presentation. It is of utmost importance to these sponsors that their image is aligned to the values that are shared within the nation. Hence some of the behaviors executed by the sporting personalities could be in great conflict with the overall norms and values of the society they live in.

In the passing weeks, Telstra provided a new, 5- yearly more than $100 million sponsorships to the NRL, They both signed a contract for both NRL and AFL for digital rights deals for both of these sporting codes.

Sporting Codes and clubs concern of emerging social media and greater transparency

There is however concerns those other possible sponsorships could get cancelled off because due to the risk of these companies's reputation getting ruined through associations with sporting clubs involved in illegal and unethical practices. According to some of the legal professional misconduct by clubs and codes has in recent years become more evident, and clauses that are mentioned in the sponsorship contracts give these firms the right to end their sponsorships.

Expert in Sports legislation Mark O'Brien, who is one of the managing partner at the law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery, declares that the clauses in sponsorship contracts had become further more generalized and common with the ...