Theorizing the Madness

They say that March goes in like a lion and out like a lamb. The only animals that come to mind when I think of March, however, are wildcats, huskies, and all the other NCAA team mascots. What makes March so maddening is that so many games are going on at once that it’s hard to follow. Unfortunately, only CBS covers the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This allows other forms of media to bring us these games. While TV only shows us one game at a time, radio has stations broadcasting each game. Likewise, the Internet has live updates including stats, and box scores, and play-by-play. All these media outlets at my fingertips and I’m still frustrated that the TV is only showing me one game. Why is watching the game on television so much more appealing to me than all other media? Why do I and so many other basketball fans only watch the game CBS lets us watch? Several prominent communication theories can be useful in approaching this question.

The most useful theory would be the Uses and Gratifications Theory, developed by Jay G. Blumler and Elihu Katz. Uses and Gratifications Theory assumes that viewers choose their media, that the media compete with other sources of recreation, and that people are aware of their media consumption enough to help researchers (Chandler, 1994). These two theorists have also done their separate work. Katz, along with Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, studied thirty-five social and psychological needs that media satisfy and categorized them into five groups: cognitive needs, affective needs, person integrative needs, social integrative needs, and tension release needs (WikiBooks, 2007).

Cognitive needs include gathering information and understanding what one learns. Not only do people want to know facts, events, and other aspects of society, but also they want to comprehend what they know. Television gives us information about the game that radio broadcasts and Internet stat updates don’t. The radio commentator can give us the score every once in a while and who scores each basket. Internet sites such as espn.com can go a step further by keeping us updated on the score constantly and giving us a box score of all the stats. Television, however, trumps both other media by letting us know what all ten players are doing, and what kind of shot was taken from where on the court, and more. TV lets us watch a certain player who a radio announcer or web site might not focus on. Television provides us with more information, and lets us choose what information we want. Radio and Internet can’t give us that.

Affective needs have to do with experiencing pleasure and releasing emotion. Whether through laughing at a comedy, or sympathizing with victims we read about in a news story, people must express emotion and attain pleasure. Watching the tournament on TV fulfills this gratification in several ways. First of all, fans are deriving pleasure from seeing basketball. Box scores on Internet do not provide the pleasure of watching a basketball game; neither does radio. They give us limited information about the game but do not supply the pleasure that a college basketball fan seeks from this event. Secondly, TV viewers can see how players feel when they win, or when they miss the potentially game winning shot. The view of the game that TV gives fans allows us to relate to the players and allows for emotional release. We can sympathize with the losers and understand the joy of the winners. Internet and radio do not show us the expressions, the tears, or the shouts of glee or anguish. Only television lets fans see the emotional side of sports.

Personal integrative needs include establishing credibility among others and preserving our status in society. Consuming media lets us to seem knowledgeable to others. Actually watching a basketball game on TV gives fans more credibility and status than listening on the radio or following along on Yahoo! Sports. March Madness is a nationwide, social event. When friends and colleagues gather together the day after a game, most fans don’t want to be the one who cannot join the conversation when a fellow fan exclaims, “Did you see that dunk?!” Nobody asks, “Hey, did you see the 2 change to a 4 when he hit that shot?” Watching the game on TV is essential if one wants to be part of the endless post-game discussions and debates that ensue after every game in the NCAA Tournament. In order to seem in the know, our best bet is to watch the games on television.

Social integrative needs relate to connecting with family and friends. Most people do not watch these games alone. Fans watch together at sports bars. We watch with families or friends in our homes. The TV is the central element in living rooms across the nation. Television is a more socially oriented medium because we can discuss how players look, or what should have happened on the previous play. TV gives us the ability to notice a player who was open, but did not receive the ball, or a foul that should have been called, but wasn’t. Internet and radio will tell us what happened, not what didn’t happen. These are all things that we can comment on and discuss as we watch the games. The visual element of TV adds to the social atmosphere.

Tension release needs alleviate stress in one’s life. If a fan is using the games to take a break from work, simply checking the score once in a while leaves room for distraction. Likewise, with radio, we listen to the game, but our attention is more likely to be divided. Looking around to see unfinished tasks disrupts the process of relieving stress. By captivating our sense of sight, TV allows us to engross ourselves even further into the action and forget about what is causing anxiety. Radio and Internet box scores are not compelling enough to fully take us away from our every day lives.

People will simply say that TV is more fun to watch. Those people are not realizing the theoretical reasoning behind this choice. Communication theories, which have been developed and tested by experts through decades of research, point to television as the medium that provides optimum satisfaction when watching sports, especially the NCAA Tournament. Basketball fans can follow as many games as they want on the Internet or radio. Firmly established communication theories will tell us, however, that watching the TV broadcast of just one game fulfills our needs more efficiently. That is why NCAA fans choose television over radio, Internet, or any other media.

References:

Chandler, D. (1994). Why do People Watch Television? Retrieved February 28, 2007, from

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html

WikiBooks. (2007). Communication Theory/Uses and Gratifications. Retrieved February 28, 2007, from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Communication_Theory/Uses_and_Gratifications

This essay was originally written for a college level communication course.