As far back as we have records, heroes have existed. It’s not just all about Superman, but about Hercules, Aeschylus, Odysseus. It’s about Joseph and Jesus and Abraham and Mohammed. About Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 21st century, it’s about Arnold Shwarzenegger, Barack Obama, soldiers in the Middle East, Tiger Woods. Etc etc etc. Heroes are everywhere. With them comes this great image about them that is cast far and wide, projecting a perspective of awe and admiration, fear and respect, intimacy and personality.
Back up… Tiger Woods? He who has had countless mistresses and who apparently has a sham of a marriage that was alleged to have been a mere media ploy? Hmm…
I’m not one who is interested in celebrity news. Like anyone else, I will admit that yeah, maybe it can be kind of interesting, but typically I don’t even glance at Perez or read the People magazine cover in the grocery line. I’m just not that into it. But taking a class on journalism has made me become aware of something: the media is a powerful, powerful tool. And Tiger Woods is someone who knows just how to use it.
The thing with Tiger is that everyone is up in arms about him right now. But why? Because he was Tiger, the untouchable, the unbreakable, undefeatable. Oh la la, and lookie here, now he’s the baddd mannn Mommy always warned us about. Mmm… maybe. People are always drawn to drama, especially celebrity drama, so the hubbub about the straying hubby isn’t all that surprising. What is surprising, however, is how long this scandal has been kept wrapped up. According to my instructor, a journalist herself, the news of Tiger’s busy hands has mostly likely been long known. He has so many journalists on his tail everyday, there were countless rumors about certain bars and rooms he frequented for questionable purposes. But no one ever reported it. Why? Because Tiger had essentially built up an empire controlling the sports media– if anyone ever wanted to be in Tiger’s circle, they would never write anything bad about him. Once an enemy, always on the blacklist for life. And because Tiger was such a big name and thus drew in tons of revenue, no high-aspiring sports journalist would ever report anything negative about the heroic Tiger Woods. He had developed a myth about him that created around him an untouchable aura. His PR team was gooood.
Achilles didn’t have a PR Team, neither did Jesus. Jackie Robinson rose to fame on his own and Martin Luther King was a preacher. Yet, these people all became heroes and mythical figures (in the sense of their power, not that they never existed) and still retain some power in the media today. Achilles is in countless translations and editions of The Iliad, Jesus has the Bible, Babe and Jackie still lived in a time where media was used to broadcast sports and thus spread their names to the national listeners of baseball. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermons and speeches were reported in newspapers and televised. Perhaps they didn’t all have a PR team that possessed the same kind of imperial hold over media, but the fact is that they live today because of and through the media. This is how powerful the concept of media, especially mass media, is. Isn’t it crazy to think about the fact that people who work in and with the media have such a tremendous power over its audience? How every choice they make determines the scope of the knowledge received and understood by the public? It’s a double-edged sword, the media…
(To be continued next week…)
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Gabby Park is a thinker who is fascinated by the concept of communication in society and who aspires to one day be someone who actively pursues the acquisition of hidden knowledge.
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