With sports, the media heed your demands

I considered the logic in Vanessa Strobbe's column Tuesday about why the media fail to provide adequate coverage of "secondary" sports.

I allowed it to stew, and I came to a conclusion: This isn't a chicken-or-egg question.

When it boils down to it, it is a question of dollars and cents. I'm not trying to sound like too much of a student, but just to tip you guys to the fact that I was listening in my media theories class: While the media do determine and govern what messages are forecasted to the rest of the public in television shows, newspapers, magazines, etc., we are integral players in determining what is deemed newsworthy. To focus in this case on sports, local newspapers such as the Albuquerque Journal cover a substantially smaller amount of "secondary" sports because we, the people, have not demanded the Journal cover more sports like volleyball, skiing, softball, tennis or track. Secondly, transitioning back to the question of dollars and cents, does it make sense, let alone dollars, to promote, cover and glorify sports there isn't a demand for? While one priority of the Journal is to diversify and inform the public, saying the Journal isn't concerned about its bottom line would be like saying a football field isn't 100 yards long. Obviously, that's false.

Besides, momma said (no, not knock you out) honesty is best: From a personal standpoint, when I say to myself, "Hey, there's a track meet this week," or, "Hey, UNM versus Arizona, baby," who I am to fool readers about what excites me most? The truth hurts, but would it be responsible of me to pretend to be impartial and say, "Wow, yeah. I'll definitely be attending that track meet"?

Most of you guys (and girls - I don't discriminate) out there, while you may not stand up and support me in a public forum, are thinking the exact same thing. Now, to all the peeps that compete in track and field, don't get me wrong. I have a profound respect for what you do. In no such manner am I questioning whether you are true athletes. I'll take it a step further. I'll say student athletes who compete in sports such as softball, track, skiing and tennis are more noble than some athletes who compete in mainstream sports such as basketball, football and baseball, because they often do it simply for the love of the game. According to the logic presented in Tuesday's column, you guys don't play for the notoriety, because hey, half the time you guys don't even make it into the Journal's graphs. That's where the Lobo comes in. We pick up - or at least try to - the slack for the stories "secondary" sports.

But as far as college institutions are concerned, take a quick peek across the country. Institutions are no longer recognized as solely academic pantheons. When you think of Duke University, do you say, "What a great school at which to study medicine"? Probably not. More than likely, Cameron Crazies are going to start bopping up and down, bust out Blue Devil paraphernalia and chant things like, "Coach K all the way!" Whether you want to believe it, UNM is concerned about building a national platform for our football and basketball programs. Think of it like trickle-down economics. If our football and basketball programs are able to earn national recognition, doesn't that, in turn, trickle down and repudiate the rest of our lesser known, yet highly successful programs?

All in all though, let's give Vanessa a break. She's right, after all. Someone has to ask the tough questions.