Globalisation and The Media: Olympic + sponsors = Global Event??

Week 4 - 31 July 2012

There was a debate on this week tutorial – are the Olympic a truly global event? I prefer it is a matter for one’s own perspective and angle. The Olympic could be a positive and negative global event.

http://www.london2012.com/photos/galleryid=1303934/#fireworks-off-the-tower-bridge

Politically, what counts as a ‘global’ event? In dictionary, global refers to involve the entire earth, covering, influencing and relating to the whole world. When I was watching the athletes walk in the stadium with their national flags on the opening ceremony, the number of nation is more than enough to rise an international gaming competition, even they have a ‘nation’ for independent Olympians. It seems the game is having every single nation joined and is fair and equal.

But when I looked into the International Olympiccommittee (IOC) or Organising Committees for the Olympic Games, I bet you that those members’ nationality of these committees never equal to the number of national flags that appear on the opening ceremony. Westerner always calls for democracy, then why would the choice of the host city depend on the vote of the IOC session but not a vote of people from all around the world??

Economically, there is no doubt that sponsors and the host city are the first unit benefited from the Olympic. The Olympic Games is a heaven for advertiser, it gives an effective and glorious platform for them to globalize their product. Indeed when facing a huge expends in the Olympic, sponsorship is the best solution. But negatively, it could have issues like - Has sponsorshipspoilt the Olympic spirit?, to the Olympic. Besides, the profit made from tourism and service industry is even more impressive under the European debt crisis.