SAM 700 Capstone

Hello everyone. My name is dan buoy and welcome to my presentation for S. A. M. 700.

The caps on course for american University.

So today I wanted to speak on the issue that's

important to me and I believe important to society in general

and it is specifically on

the N. B. A.

And how it goes about um spreading awareness for social justice issues and

whether that benefits the league or is a disadvantage to league overall.

So just to go ahead and get started,

we're going to provide a little bit of background on the issue itself.

So again,

should then be have messages of social justice and

racial inequality on television broadcasts or should they not?

Because some believe that woke free programming could

benefit the league short term or long term.

So we're going to ask ourselves the question whether

we should argue the point that

we continue

um using

pushing the social justice platform

and using the N. B. A. And W. N. B. A.

Two

set the standard for leagues moving forward

and whether that will benefit the league overall

or whether that would be a detriment

for viewership considering love the older demographic,

do not enjoy

those messages and

rather watch basketball by itself. And a lot have gone away from the dealership

itself giving up their own fandom because of political discourse. What have it.

So

to give context and a little bit of history,

2020 was a very tumultuous year obviously um with the pandemic and specifically the

murder of George Floyd uh Briana Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake,

many many more on top of that.

And it very rings, it rings echoes of 2016 with the protests for Eric Gardner as well.

Who oddly enough is very reminiscent

Um of 2020 considering Eric Gardner

uhh his final words were

I can't breathe before he was killed by the police

in the similar chokehold to George Floyd.

But

overall what these messages and the argument for um

these messages is to create a sense of support

and awareness and just to show that a little bit

of humanity and a sign of caring about the community

and that's what the NBA is hoping to do with

you know these messages and allowing athletes use their platform.

So it also can influence a lot in the United States.

And a good example was specifically in the bubble with the W. N. B. A.

In their own protests against one of their owners. Uh Atlanta dream

owner kelly Lefler

because they were specifically supporting

her opponent Raphael Warnock

in leading to his win in the Georgia election.

Other points controversy also include vaccinations over the last year or so.

Um W NBA and NBA have

lead most leaks in vaccinations which is

phenomenal but also the spreading of awareness

can be triggering to some and that's why we're going to

speak on that and how it affects the league overall.

Yeah.

So

What did this impact overall. So television ratings dropped tremendously in 2020.

Um but we do believe TV overall was dropping as

well due to the pandemic and sports in general,

um you know, we're always rescheduled.

Yeah.

And we also see that, you know, from 2016 to 2020,

some people say that these messages didn't really work considering

they were protesting for almost the same thing again.

Um

of course,

A lot of these people didn't understand in 2016 what specifically was going on

but we we we move forward from that and we kind of like

gain some understanding.

It's certain viewers say messages were the divisive.

So,

so what do we propose for gaining back specifically the fans that

leave because of the political discourse.

So we have multiple solutions and our first solution is education for the public.

And this promotes continuing

um the fight and spreading messages of racial inequality

in the United States and globally as well.

And of course it's not this isn't exactly the easiest option, you know,

because if it was easy, it would be done already.

But this is simply to

help with the understanding on specific issues for viewers.

And

if it was that simple, then we would already have,

you know,

consistent change

for human rights.

But this education is a very long term solution,

but it gets others to listen about um set issues,

other solutions include

having a separate broadcast,

but that also creates the idea that you have to spend money and

manpower to create said broadcast for just a certain demographic of viewers.

Um The other option is for

skipping on commentary when world issues arise.

So it's very much like the previous method,

but many spark TVs gift option to skip introductions for your netflix hulu shows.

So why not give them the option to skip

when a controversial moment arises to their attention?

And

this could be difficult to reach certain fans that don't have

to have more traditional TVs or viewing from their computer,

for example.

Yeah,

but this

definitely would benefit league short term uh to

gain back that viewership of those who leave

because of the political discourse and uh image that is set from like the NBA.

So we have to consider

that um the first opportunity for no racial context in broadcast.

So what do we gain from this? It prioritizes viewers

to regain um

those viewers who forfeit fandom because the political discourse.

But also we have that

opportunity to continue and restructure how we present racial

context in the United States for um our commentary.

And this continues pushing for the

fight against those justice and societal pressures

as well as adjusting to adhere to the

younger demographic and prioritizing them long term.

Considering that younger demographic obviously grows into the sport and

watches over a longer period of time.

Mhm.

So our goals um is to increase viewership overall

and to convey the branding of the NBA's image

to several different markets um to speak to our stakeholders

and green light water.

Our idea to

continue with

the messaging

of racial context or to have quote unquote woke free television

and we do this with, we're going to survey the fan base to see the options,

their opinions.

I'm sorry on broadcasting for controversial topics.

So goals short term

if we

continue

with,

you know, spreading the message, would this

help viewership?

Many would say like it decreases viewership and

that work free television would increase viewership immediately.

But also it also impacts our sponsorships.

So of course you have less controversy

with walk free television or television racial context,

but we also have sponsors that,

you know, may stay on board and some may

leave also due to the fact that you ignore things

such as education reform, such as community. Whereas

the other case if you continue with the education, um, you may lose sponsors that

are more traditional in the sense

the long term goals, some would say this could continue to divide,

but also you have a moral obligation to spread awareness on

issues

all over the world as well as the United States.

Um having certain

programs that give you the,

the possibility to skip controversial topics does satisfy the older audience,

but it does upset the younger demographic as well.

So overall we have to believe

what should we do,

whether it's financially or doing the right thing

and allowing athletes to use their platform,

Excuse me,

platform to continue.

I'm spreading these messages.

Total solution overall that we come up with is

that

is the opportunity worth the investment.

And we say that

having um television that ignores

these issues

is not exactly how we fix the issue long term.

So continuing to restructure how we brand the N. B. A.

And how we approach these issues of racial justice

is actually what we decided to do and

you know, short term it does hurt the NBA

but long term not so much.

Uh huh.

We do value general respect for Amanda even if it does, you know,

cost revenue and financial compensation,

but simply we cannot push a rhetoric where we remain ignorant on human rights.

Yeah.

You know, it's not open for interpretation because human rights are not political

and based on our cost benefit analysis,

it's not worth pursuing um

a television program that ignores

uh or a separate television program for um certain demographic of viewers.

And

from our surveys, majority offends

do believe that spreading awareness on social

justice issues is not a problem and they

believe that they prefer that NBA speaks on the community that it cares about.

So moving on cost benefit analysis shows are pros and cons that long term.

There will be less backlash against the quote unquote

woke media. Um it sets a standard for other leagues.

Um the NHL and NFL do have leaks about racial justice, but

it is mostly just words

rather than action and

the NBA has shown that it can put action behind those words

and athletes stand beside elite that cares about them.

Yeah,

the cons of course,

certain donors showed her true colors and repeal their

sponsorships while older demographic also continues to decrease leadership.

But we see that viewership since 2000 something has decreased from

About 20 million to 17

2, 15 and drastically 7.5 million in 2020.

of course, all sports ratings were down that year. But we do notice since 20,

Our 2002 that the numbers have been increasing.

So in 2021 looks like a huge bounce back year

implementing

implementation. We will scale back the overarching theme of racial

injustice in certain markets, but national television,

nationally televised games will communicate what is necessary for um our messages

and resources will be provided for those who wish to support.

So we want to put action behind those words.

Um, rather than just speaking on

a dead horse about racial justice

and communicating that is key.

Um,

jargon is super important when we want to use words that both parties understand.

Uh, we want to focus on all ethnic backgrounds, not just one.

We want to, you know, continue messaging on stop Asian hate.

Um, COVID-19 and stereotypes as well.

Education reform,

uh more community outreach and providing support for small businesses

that also help advertise for the team as well.

It's our strategy

and these are my references. Um, thank you so much for listening.

And again, I repeat that the argument was for either side, but we do believe that

the restructuring,

social justice protests and messaging in the NBA

will benefit the league overall. So thank you for listening

and I hope you enjoyed.

SAM 700 Capstone

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