Is mass media partly to blame for Woolmer murder?

Just before Woolmer's death, cricket websites were full of the most despicable venom penned by irate fans mortified at Pakistan's poor performance at the World Cup.

Mass hysteria

And one wonders to just what extent the world's mass media is inadvertently helping turn sporting passion and national pride into what can only be described as mass hysteria?

The entire way in which the carefully orchestrated and choreographed professional wrestling “business” is portrayed on television is based firmly on provocation and confrontation with fans being whipped up by commentators and participants to the most extraordinary and pretty darn frightening levels of vengeful hysteria.

Bad losers

And what was once the gentleman's game of cricket is now fast outstripping wrestling, soccer and other contact sports in terms of what can only be called a "bad loser backlash".

There seems to be no doubt that the mass media is adding fuel to this fire of manic behaviour among supporters.

The Indian, Pakistani and particularly Australian media is vicious to the extreme in criticisms of poor performance by their national teams. With the result that Aussie cricketers have taken to trying to distract opposition batsmen by turning what used to be inoffensive banter into carefully orchestrated, vindictive and reprehensible sledging in an effort to use every possible ruse to win matches. Playing against Australia no longer requires sporting skill but also massive mental strength.

But, on top of that, some very selective morality is being employed by many a mass medium in taking player and administrator comments out of context in an effort to hype up confrontation and provoke responses that guarantee the sustainability of the story.

Mental strength

Only recently, right here in South Africa only a few weeks ago, the media was full of an interview with Australian fast bowler Glen McGrath claiming that the SA cricket team weren't mentally strong enough to handle the pressure of big games.

What McGrath had actually said was that when SA was readmitted to cricket 16 years ago, their international inexperience manifested itself in a lack of mental strength.

He then added that these days SA was a lot stronger and had become a formidable opponent. The bulk of our mass media, however, conveniently left that last bit out. Because with it in there was simply no story.

Professional sport has disappeared and in its place there is showbiz. Pure entertainment. And objectivity and reportage in the sporting sections of the mass media seem largely to have disappeared too. And replaced by journalism akin to Hollywood gossip columns.

It does not take a rocket scientist to start making the connection between this trend of over-hyping confrontation on the sport field by the mass media and fans who are driven to such heights of passion that they very easily cross the divide between rational thought and vengeance.

Vengeful losers

It probably won't be long before sport today, seen to be aided and abetted by the mass media, will be populated on and off the field, not by vicious winners but violent, vengeful losers.

What was once healthy competition is now turning in competitive paranoia.

After looking at hundreds of case studies, Alfie Cohn, the American author of No contest -The Case Against Competition which won the National Psychological Award for 1987, came to the very firm conclusion that competition was destructive and counter productive not only in excess.

"It is destructive not merely because we are doing it the wrong way - it is destructive by its very nature. I think the phase ‘healthy competition’ is a contradiction in terms and the ideal amount of competition [notice that he doesn't say 'conflict'] in any environment - the workplace, classroom, family, playing field - is none…"

Accountable

There is no question that both professional sport administrators and the mass media can expect growing social pressure to become accountable for their actions. For using provocation and hyping conflict in advertising events and for being mischievously selective when quoting players and administrators in efforts to make coverage more juicy, controversial and generally give issues longer legs.

Somehow those who administer sport and those who keep the public informed are going to have to seriously start looking at ways of relieving the pressure among fans, otherwise the current trend of calling for coaches to be fired when they lose a game or two will turn into vicious vigilantism.

Sport betting

And of course, what needs to be outlawed completely is sports betting because nothing turns a normal, healthy, competitive fan into a raving lunatic is not only seeing his team lose but watching his hard-earned cash disappear as well.

The answer to this madness can probably be found in that sign in the White House Press Room giving new political journalists a clue to where to start digging to get to the bottom of a story: "Follow the money..."