German tears exposed as TV sham
In the semi final between Italy and Germany, Mario Balotelli smashed in his second goal of the game as good as sending the Azzurri into the Euro 2012 final. As Super Mario ripped off his shirt in celebration, the TV cameras switched to a German fan in the ground shedding a single tear in one of the more poignant moments of the tournament.
Poetic eh? No, absolutely not. It was a scene shot BEFORE the game as the women cried during the German national anthem…and that wasn’t the only moment of media doctoring during the Euros.
Read all about it here
It reminds me of what I said in one of my columns once. The narrative that TV and other media feel they need to accompany a football match is bizarre to me. MOTD do something very similar whereby they show clips of attempts on goal that were offside but then portray them in the analysis afterward as missed chances. Then they’ll either hammer the player that missed them or build up the goalkeeper who might have saved a couple of them.
I really don’t understand why we need that, I don’t understand why football needs a storyline at all.
If you read French, I recommend the following book: Le match de football televise, by Jacques Blociszewski. The issue you raise resonates with his argument that television has a huge influence on how we watch the game, how our emotions are stirred by techniques such as the one you mention here. TV is also exacerbating disrespect towards refereeing decisions, thus referees’ judgements and professionalism, and anticipates the current debate about camera evidence. His view is that there is nothing ‘objective’ about camera evidence.