In my 21 years of life, I can safely say I've witnessed many events that are to be marked down in the history books. I witnessed 9-11, Obama's inauguration, Saddam and Osama's death announcements, as well as other countless historical events. Despite all of this, when I read the topic of this assignment, I instantly thought of the New York Yankees winning the 2009 World Series. I am the one and only Yankee fan in my family, and one of three Yankee fans among my friends, so that entire season I was rooting for my team, while dealing with everyone else bashing them.
The day of the final game against the Phillies, I was stuck at work. I was completely anxious the whole time at work, constantly getting updates and texts through the first hour of the game. My texts messages where going off nonstop with detailed descriptions of the players every move. I took a cab home, listening to the game through the radio. The cab driver seemed to be just a big a fan as me. All the while I was being constantly updated through the many facebook statues being posted about the game.
I watched the rest of the game as soon as I got home, and like most people living in my neighborhood, I was ready to celebrate the moment we won. Instantly, everyone on my street was outside celebrating the win. I was enjoying the victory considering most of my family and friends were hoping the Yankees lost. Everyone I knew was ready to celebrate the victory and drink the night away on the Yankees behalf. Living in the Bronx, most people here are huge Yankee fans. Everyone was extremely excited for the ticker tape parade honoring the victory.
While I wasn't able to physically be at Yankee Stadium for the game, I had a detailed account of everything that happened through the media. ESPN alerts, Facebook statues, text messages, radio and television were all keeping me in tune with everything occurring at that single moment, although I was not able to attend. The media is astonishingly powerful. I never really realized how many different channels I used to be updated with the game. The game can be considered a ritual model because it was something everyone I knew was talking about for days, it was something we were able to share with one another, whether in victory or loss.
Media has the ability to transmit something as serious as the presidential race of 2008, in which America inaugurated its first president of color, or something as lighthearted as a baseball game. Whatever the channel, the sender (the media outlets) transmits a message to the receiver (everyone decoding the message) which informs them of whatever the event maybe, almost instantly (1). Its pretty hard to pick just one memorable mediated experience, but this World Series championship is by far one of my favorite memorable mediated experiences.
(1) Hanson, Ralph E. Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. Vol. 3. Washington, DC: CQ, 2011. Print.
YES!!!! I got to school in Pennsylvania so I was surrounded by Phillies fans it was the worst! I was the only Yankees fan in my dorm, which somehow was all Phillies fans? It's great that major sporting events like the World Series can be nationally televised. If I was at a school in California and Major League Baseball was only letting FOX5 or Philly stations show the game I would be devastated. Think of what it would have been like to listen to it on the radio?!
ReplyDeleteThat was a good day for the Yankees and the State of New York. When a major league team win the championship it gives that state so much fame for the year. The way Media is now, you can see the parade live on like three different TV channels. It also a good way to make money selling the team's products. For example when the Yankees won with in a few hours store started to sell Yankees World Series Champion shirts. This was a good way to show how Media works.
ReplyDeleteJust look back at 1977 and the correlation between the Yankees winning the World Series and the change in New York City from then on. If you watch the miniseries "The Bronx is Burning" the message of the show basically says that because of the Yankees New York started to recover from the worst year they ever had. A little much, but I do believe that World Series helped New York.
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