It won’t be long before 2016 kicks in, and I’m going to make an early New Year’s resolution. I’m going to give the petty little haters of the sporting contest, the outrage merchants and blinkered code warriors, the red card.
While the actions of a certain ‘journalist’ igniting the recent A-League controversy has finally tipped me over the edge, it’s high time that people who try to divide us because of our sport of choice are put in their place.
You know who they are, the people that revel in controversies and highlight what they perceive to be wrong about the sport they don’t like.
Sport is often about more than the contest. It can also be a medium through which people can have an identity or a sense of belonging. This happens on many different levels, from the community club, to supporters of a team, and less often the identity that comes with following a sport or code itself.
But it is this sense of belonging that is easy pickings for the petty minded. Instead of celebrating what is great about their sport or team, they have an irrepressible urge to take down another sport a peg or two, as though it’s some zero-sum game.
That’s not to say journalists should ignore the negative, as that would be a grave mistake indeed. Instead, it is the opinion articles that perpetuate barely concealed prejudices, or the transparently dishonest comparisons between sports to generate clicks and comments that I am railing against.
Of course, the trouble isn’t so much defining what I’m against, but more what can be done to give it the red card.
I could simply ignore the articles and implore others to do the same, and while that has some merit there’ll be many people that still feel the need to read the rubbish and respond with a comment.
What is really needed is for well-written, articulate pieces that are honest and informative to take greater prominence than those of the outrage merchant and code warrior. After all, these are the pieces that I want to read, and there are plenty of them.
So my New Year’s resolution is this. When I read one of the articulate pieces that increases my knowledge and understanding of a sport, I’ll link to it on Facebook and Twitter. I’ll promote it to my circle of friends (well friends is a loose term, how about acquaintances?) with a short sentence or two.
When I read another article that is little more than petty clickbait, I won’t just ignore it. I’ll find an article that in some way or another counters the stupidity and pettiness of the original article. Then I’ll promote that article.
Yes, I know I’m just one person and what I do doesn’t really matter in the whole scheme of things. But the Australian media, in general, allows negativity and small-mindedness to lead public debate way too often, a phenomenon that sport is not immune to, it’s something that people can change in the digital age.
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