3) Unit Three: Consumer Culture and Sport

Homework:

• Read "Football and the Rise of Sports Television," by Davies (print handout)
• Answer the Driving Questions for "Pro Football and the Rise of Sports Television"

Note: In our next class, you'll choose the grade you want to achieve through the way you complete the Tiered assignments for "Pro Football and the Rise of Sports Television"

LESSON FIVE: Pro Football and the Rise of Sports Television

LESSON SIX: Who Owns What in the Corporate World?

An E-Learning Module for Sports and Popular Culture Students

By the end of class, you will be able to... analyze how the corporate world influences each citizen's daily life through sports and popular culture.

Note: This is a 2-day lesson.

Introduction

In this unit so far, we have used visual analysis to explore the ways that sport is a reflection of the consumer society which surrounds and influences us. Now we need to start asking questions about how sport can be a mechanism to improve society through a greater awareness of options to a better life outside consumer culture. In doing so, we will learn to read the world of sports and media through keener understandings about how persuasion works.

In this E-Learning Module, you will research the broad dimensions of how sports, popular culture, and consumerism intersect. The information you compile will influence a final project that you will do at the end of this unit. This week, you'll become much more knowledgeable about what consumer culture is, how corporations influence nearly every aspect of U.S. daily life, what media can do to alter public discourse around consumerism, how deindustrialization has changed the U.S. identity, why NFL owners have the capital to be so powerful, and the degree to which you understand the constraints of economics in your own daily life.

You will receive a Mastery Learning grade for this E-Learning Module: when you complete it fully, you'll receive 100%, or 14/14 (2 points each) in Aspen. You'll also gain the background knowledge to meet Common Core standards: Range of Writing: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Let's Get Started! Please have two items open on your personal technology device: 1) Unit 3, Lesson 6 of the class website; 2) a Google Doc, titled, "Who Owns What in the Corporate World?" Please make sure to share your Google Doc: "Public on the Web." Please write the title of each step to make your response clearly identifiable. [Updating the Brackets daily]

Step One: Wikipedia definitions

Wikipedia offers several good definitions to help us understand what consumerism is all about. After you read these, create your own working definition of "consumerism." Your definition should be 2-3 complete sentences.

Step Two: 10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy" and "Ownership Chart: The Big Six.

Survey the information in both links. Consider the following questions. Which ownership connections surprised you? Which ones seem to be conflicts of interest? How do you feel about knowing that only a few corporations maintain significant hold over our consumerism? Write 3 sentences that express your reaction to the idea of corporate control of so many aspects of our everyday life... and if people are aware of this degree of corporate control.

Step Three: Media Reform Information Center or Media Reform Links

This website is filled with links and resources on media reform. Click through any two (college prep)/ three (honors) links. What information did you learn? Write at least 2-3 sentences.

Step Four: 19 Facts about the Deindustrialization of America that Will Blow Your Mind

This article is about six years old and was written immediately after the collapse of the financial markets in 2009. Do a discourse analysis on the article. (Note: "Discourse" is written/ oral/ body language.) In other words, what particular language choices do these authors use that stand out to you? List 4-5 particular words or phrases. Afterward, write a one-sentence response to this article: do you agree or disagree, and why?

Step Five: How the Owners of All 32 NFL Teams Made their Money

Do the owners of the 32 NFL teams have any common background about how they acquired their wealth? What stories stand apart from the others, and why? What do these stories tell us about owning major league sports teams? Write a 4-7 sentence paragraph that cohesively answers these questions.

Step Six: "Billy Beane Joins AZ Alkmaar as Advisor."

Read the article. Afterward, synthesize the main idea of this article into an analysis that discusses sports, big business, and statistical analysis. Why has such an approach to sports become common?

Step Seven: Peanuts & Crackerjacks: The Economics of Sports Game

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has created a game to help individuals identify what they do and do not know about economics. And they've grounded their lessons in the discourse of baseball! Play this game with 3 other students. How well did you do? Write 3-4 sentences that describe your understanding of the world of economics after playing this game.

Step Eight (12H/ Extra Credit 12CP): Locate your own online article that intersects sports, money, and socioeconomic class. Interrogate it by answering four questions on the Marxist Theory SPC.

Day One Homework: Set up your team on our class Fantasy Formula One "SPC Racing League" --- the first race of the season is this weekend in Australia.

Day Two Homework: Finish the E-Learning Module, if you did not do so today in class.

Mini-Lesson: Marxist Theory SPC

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. Here is the note-taking template we'll use (Dr. Carolyn has print versions for you).

DAY TWO: WRITING A REFLECTIVE RESPONSE

By the end of class, you will write a 3-paragraph reflective response about Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood.

Let's Get Started! Please follow the directions below. You have the entire class to work. If you do not finish, you may finish for homework. Dr. Carolyn will start to grade these tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Here are the Driving Questions We've Been Considering for this Consumer Culture Unit:

What is "consumerism?" How are sports and money necessarily interconnected? How do children become accustomed to the connections between sport and money? How might we separate consumer culture and sport to create a better society for fans?

Review of Unit Three: Economic and Monetary Levels of "Acceptance" and "Resistance" in U.S. Sports Culture

We looked at a wide-range of disciplinary perspectives on sport through body, mind, and culture as relate to a market economy. As we did so, we zoomed in on the way that consumer culture and the world of professional sports are inextricably tied. We also tried to figure why a secondary result of consumer culture is to invite some people in and to prevent other people from gaining access to success in professional sports.

Rubric (Click here for the Rubric.)