While no one knows when sports first started, it’s likely that they were part of childhood play. As time passed, sports developed into formal, autotelic physical contests. Prehistoric art depicts hunters pursuing prey with joy and abandon. As a result, ancient civilizations began to view hunting as an end in itself.
The relationship between mass media and sports has profoundly influenced both institutions. Over the years, mass media has evolved to include a wider variety of content and audiences. Sport became a lucrative, yet cheap, source of content. Commercial mass media also saw it as ideal for capturing audiences for advertisers. In addition, state and public media saw sporting events as a way to reinforce national culture and patriotism.
While the nature of sport development is not fully understood, emotions play an important role in the sporting experience. Athletes’ emotions reflect both their own self-assessments and how others evaluate them. These feelings may be expressed before, during, and after a performance. Often, the subculture surrounding a sport has rules for regulating these feelings. For example, athletes are expected to behave in a certain way during the national anthem or post-game celebrations of victory.
The culture of sports includes a wide range of styles. The traditional morning sports report is an example of one style, while more recent additions include soft news and celebrity sports gossip. The sports press also devotes considerable space to profiles of individual athletes. Increasingly, journalists have become interested in investigating scandals in sports, and fans are becoming more educated about issues such as performance-enhancing drugs, official corruption, and off-field violence.
