The tensions between football clubs and the media, and in the main newspapers, has been all to evident in the opening weeks of the season.
Celtic’s 48 hour fall-out with the Daily Record has created plenty of headlines- mainly online- with the Herald group also suffering a week long fall out with Rangers.
The old days of newspaper bans have been replaced with ‘the withdrawal of co-operation’ with both parties keen to kiss and make up and see what sort of deal can be achieved from the fall out.
As newspaper circulation falls by 10% on average across the boards the desperate battle for survival is likely to result in further ‘withdrawals’ with the stakes just as high south of the border. Competing against Sky Sports News and two national radio stations further squeezes the options for newspapers as they fight for survival in a multi-media age.
Sir Alex Ferguson has been in devastating form this season and followed up his televised fall-out with Kelly Cates in midweek with a full blooded blast at Ashley Cole after yesterday’s shocking and largely unpunished tackle on Javier Fernandez during Manchester United’s 3-1 win over Chelsea.
Lauren Rutter of Football Fancast looks at the newspaper coverage of the Premiership as Arsene Wenger jostles with Stevie Kean and Steve Bruce to become the first manager to get sacked.
Lauren writes: ‘After just five games of the season, the title is already a two-horse race between Manchester United and Manchester City with the rest battling for the minor places. Manchester City are seemingly better than Barcelona, Chelsea are too slow to challenge for the title, Liverpool are still in crisis, as are Arsenal. Steve Bruce is heading for the sack. Sergio Aguero is the greatest import the world has ever seen. These are just a few of the over-exaggerations that have dominated the media coverage of the opening few weeks of the season.
In the world of rolling updates and 24-hour news, some degree of media hyperactivity is to be expected. However, it seems that the media frenzy around football is reaching new heights with each week that passes, and the media hyperbole is now starting to border on the ridiculous.
Media hyperbole has amped up coverage of every aspect of the game in recent weeks, from completely writing off Chelsea, despite their reasonable start to the season, and going into overdrive in stating that Manchester City and Manchester United are clear title favourites. In their quest to bring us something new and exciting every week, the media have created a particularly fierce culture of hype, where everything is now bordering on being an over-exaggeration.
Teams flit from being praised one week, to torn down the next. The new look Liverpool side were held up almost immediately as genuine title contenders, only to be heavily criticised and plunged back into crisis after their defeat to Stoke.
Players are hailed as the next great thing, or the best player we have ever seen, only to be slammed when they fail to live up to these heights again. The media hyperbole runs right through the game, and it is not just clubs and players that are affected, as it infiltrates every aspect of the game from exaggerated transfer sagas to criticism of managers, as the media bays for blood in the Premier League managerial sack race, hyping up and adding fuel to the fire.
It seems that the media has lost all degree of balance, or even just sense in its coverage and analysis and simply can no longer resist analysing through hyperbolic terms. The use of ridiculous headlines, and powerful imagery, might be necessary to grab our attention in this media saturated world, but the exaggerated nature of the coverage now means that we are starting to lose all sight of context within the game.
Take Chelsea, strong contenders at the top of the league for the last few years, and no doubt likely to challenge once again this year. However after only four games the media seems to have written them off, quick to criticise Andre Villas-Boas, and describe Chelsea’s team as aging and slow.
They have also been quick to jump on the Man City bandwagon and get completely carried away with their start to the season. Just this week stories have emerged suggesting that City will be the ones to topple Barcelona, before they have even kicked a ball in Champions League football. The worst part to all this media hype, though, is that it will be quick to reverse and state exactly the opposite by this time next week.
In the saturated media world we now live in, it appears that the media believes they need to be bigger and better to grab our attention. Sure, extreme exaggeration can be used to make a point, and add colour or humour, but when it is used so often and is bordering on the ridiculous almost every time, it starts to get frustrating.
Everything is subsequently blown out of total proportions, every new story needs an exaggerated angle, some sort of controversy, however minor, must be picked apart to the minutest detail, even things like tackling or the quest for respect in football seem to get completely over-exaggerated, and coverage loses all sense of perspective.
The media has seemingly lost all sense of proportion. No title race is won in August or even September, so their writing off of Chelsea and heralding of Manchester City is simply ridiculous. After five games last season, they heralded Chelsea as the champions and called the title race as good as over, and look how that turned out.
No doubt, if the tables are turned later in the season they will be quick to change their tune. Yes City and United have looked good so far, but they don’t deserve the exaggerated praise that pundits, analysists, and journalists alike have gone too. It’s fine adding a bit of colour to your piece, but it appears as if the level of media hyperbole we are subject to week in week out is starting to cross the line.
CLICK HERE for SFA chief condemns Daily Record
CLICK HERE for Morten Rasmussen goes in goals for Sivasspor
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
