RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Study of Media Impact on Public Opinion Regarding Performance Enhancement in Major League Baseball
Jared W. Rutecki1, Gregory W. Rutecki2, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 3
First Page: 140
Last Page: 148
Publisher ID: TOSSJ-3-140
DOI: 10.2174/1875399X010030100140
Article History:
Received Date: 06/04/2010Revision Received Date: 09/06/2010
Acceptance Date: 23/06/2010
Electronic publication date: 27/08/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
From 1986-2006, allegations of performance enhancement in sport exploded from a barely acknowledged phenomenon, in venues like bodybuilding and professional wrestling, to a widely publicized issue through professional baseball. For Americans, baseball is identified as the National Pastime and thereby contributes to what has been characterized as America's civil religion. News magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and Time, have become outlets for setting public agendas on many topics, including steroids and fair play in athletics. Through content analysis, this study associated the agenda setting effects of magazine coverage of performance-enhancement in professional baseball. Frames characterizing the issue were determined. The relationship between coverage of implicated drug use and public opinion was explored through Gallup Poll results. The data suggest that baseball is a reliable culture-reflector for American society and that steroid use and performance enhancement have become an important social issue-with ramifications extending beyond sport.
