Dissertation writing help - Analysis of the relationship between higher education and television

Custom Dissertation Writing Service on relationship between media and intercollegiate athletics.

Dating back to the early 20th century, there has been heated debate regarding the role and function of big-time college sports in American higher education. One side defends national programs as simply a weapon in the arsenal of college marketing, while the other side argues that big-time sports programs amount to nothing more than overcommercialized, semi-professional teams masquerading as amateur sport. As cable television coverage of big-time college sports has expanded in the last 30 years, teams that never received national attention are now appearing on regional and national television on a regular basis and are developing new relationships with broadcast media.

Two theories seek to explain the relationship between media and intercollegiate athletics. One theory suggests media is a parasite, sucking the life from college sport-and especially their host institutions-(Radar, 1984), whereas the other maintains that a reciprocal relationship exists between the two, leaving each one better off than it would be without the other (Real, 1998).

The purpose of this study was to examine which of these two theories best explains the developing relationship between broadcast media and two universities that experienced a sizeable increase in the amount of national television coverage through football from 1991 to 2002. Fresno State University and San Diego State University were selected and assigned to the study group and three peer institutions (Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, and Cal State Sacramento) were assigned to the control group for comparative analysis. Data were gathered and analyzed for alumni and non-alumni donations (1991-2001) and first-time freshman admission applications (1994 to 2002) at each university. Independent-samples t-tests were conducted and trend data analyses were performed.
Results from the analyses support the hypothesis that national exposure through football has a positive affect on alumni and non-alumni donations and on out-of-state freshman applications for the universities in the study group. These results support the theory that a reciprocal relationship exists between media and intercollegiate athletics and suggests that increased television exposure can provide greater access to potential donors and prospective applicants across the country.