“Wow! This woman is super fast. She is faster than everyone else. I am sure that she practices every day for many hours. Lifting weights to strengthen her muscles, running laps to improve her endurance, and sprinting, sprinting, sprinting to become faster and faster and faster. She is soooo pretty too. I hope that one day I will be exactly like her!”
These were the thoughts I had about former sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones. Since I joined my track team in Dresden, Germany, Mrs. Jones became my idol, my sports hero and role model. I worked out three to five times a week just to be as successful as she was. Once I grew older, I received the news about her cheating in competitions and taking performance enhancing drugs. The image of my sports idol was changed forever.
Relating to personal experience, I will discuss the importance of professional athletes being seen as role models by children. On the one hand, they can set a positive example for them, teach, and motivate them. On the other side, they can have a negative influence on children by demonstrating bad behavior, for example with the abuse of drugs, doping or violent behavior outside of their sports. I want to show how media portrays pro athletes as role models and what effect they have on society. An important position in understanding why children are likely to choose an athlete as a role model is to examine the influence of media in this case. According to George Rodman, author of Mass Media in a Changing World, “Social modeling is considered an important part of socialization, the process by which a child learns the expectations, norms, and values of society.” It is part of the social learning theory which believes that all humans learn by watching others, containing famous people such as actors, musicians, politics, and athletes who are represented in the mass media as well.
Relating to personal experience, I will discuss the importance of professional athletes being seen as role models by children. On the one hand, they can set a positive example for them, teach, and motivate them. On the other side, they can have a negative influence on children by demonstrating bad behavior, for example with the abuse of drugs, doping or violent behavior outside of their sports. I want to show how media portrays pro athletes as role models and what effect they have on society. An important position in understanding why children are likely to choose an athlete as a role model is to examine the influence of media in this case. According to George Rodman, author of Mass Media in a Changing World, “Social modeling is considered an important part of socialization, the process by which a child learns the expectations, norms, and values of society.” It is part of the social learning theory which believes that all humans learn by watching others, containing famous people such as actors, musicians, politics, and athletes who are represented in the mass media as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment