Sports Journalism and the Fight For Fair Competition

A sport film is an overall film genre which makes use of sport to the extent that the movie is largely based on sport to some extent for its plot inspiration or resolution. The general idea of a sport film derives from the fact that a film can be largely based on sport, particularly competitive sport such as American football, soccer, rugby, hockey, and boxing. These films tend to follow an ongoing story line, which tracks the sport followers and players through various stages of competition, often with a clear-cut motive behind their performances. Although there can be many different underlying causes for the followers and players to win, lose, or be injured, the film-makers tend to center their films around these events, particularly where the players and the spectators have a direct stake in the outcome.

In order to ensure fair competition among sport, a number of criteria must be met. These include an equal opportunity for all sport fans and competitors, a level playing field, rules that are reasonable to all stakeholders involved, an established and popular sports league involved, reasonable restrictions on personal injury, and the provision of an adequate training and development facilities. Many countries have in place anti-competition and discrimination laws which prevent one person from dominating or unfairly advantaging another in a sporting activity, although these types of laws are frequently ignored in the United States. To ensure fair competition, these rules must be enforced, especially in fields with higher levels of skill, athleticism, and competition such as professional boxing and professional wrestling.

A major part of ensuring fair competition and a fair distribution of gains or losses is making a fair assessment and reporting of sport events. Reporting can be subjective, depending on who is reporting and what is being reported on. It can also be biased, depending on who is doing the reporting and how they are reporting it. As such, sports journalists are very important for ensuring fair competition and a level playing field. One of the major challenges facing media outlets covering sporting events is ensuring the right reporting standards are met, so that a balanced and fair picture of what happened can be produced.