--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is otherwise with sports and the…" description: "\"“It is otherwise with sports and the media. There, too, a shift has occurred, from active participation to the vicarious participation of spectatorship..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d33/walker-percy-1958_active-participation_it-is-otherwise-with-sports-and-the-medi_2626257.jpg" --- # It is otherwise with sports and the media. There, too, a… ![“It is otherwise with sports and the media. There, too, a shift has occurred, from active participation to the vicarious participation of spectatorship. Four people used to go bowling, but 100 million watch the Super Bowl. Football, where men try to hit and hurt, has replaced baseball as the…” quote by Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d33/walker-percy-1958_active-participation_it-is-otherwise-with-sports-and-the-medi_2626257.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d33/walker-percy-1958_active-participation_it-is-otherwise-with-sports-and-the-medi_2626257.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d33/walker-percy-1958_active-participation_it-is-otherwise-with-sports-and-the-medi_2626257.jpg) > ““It is otherwise with sports and the media. There, too, a shift has occurred, from active participation to the vicarious participation of spectatorship. Four people used to go bowling, but 100 million watch the Super Bowl. Football, where men try to hit and hurt, has replaced baseball as the national game. It is as if the demotion from participant to spectatorship and from live spectatorship to TV spectatorship has to be compensated by upping the ante in violence.”” [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Society shifts from active participation to passive spectatorship, increasing violence to compensate for lost engagement. **In simple terms:** Spectatorship replaces participation, raising violence. Key Takeaway Encourage active involvement over passive watching. Themes media sports participation violence Mood reflective critical Type advice observational When to use this quote - education - community sports - family activities - media literacy - policy making Key Concepts sociology psychology culture Questions to Reflect On - How can you balance watching and doing? - What alternatives reduce violent spectacle? A Different Perspective Passive consumption may still provide enjoyment. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Active participation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/active-participation/) [Football](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/football/) [Sports](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sports/) [Super bowl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/super-bowl/) ## Related quotes > [We have always been taught that hockey is our national game, but it is only in general knowledge books and not on official papers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandeep-singh/we-have-always-been-taught-that-hockey-is-our-national-game-but-it-is/) [Sandeep Singh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sandeep-singh/) > [Sports, as a media property, is increasingly valuable because it's something you have to have live. As a result, we're a better touch point…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gary-bettman/sports-as-a-media-property-is-increasingly-valuable-because-it-s/) [Gary Bettman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gary-bettman/) > [As crazy as you think the political media is and as biased as you think the political media is... sports media is a billion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clay-travis/as-crazy-as-you-think-the-political-media-is-and-as-biased-as-you/) [Clay Travis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clay-travis/) > [If I were the commissioner of all sports media I would issue an immediate ban on three-person announcing teams on telecasts of live sporting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/al-bernstein/if-i-were-the-commissioner-of-all-sports-media-i-would-issue-an/) [Al Bernstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/al-bernstein/) > [I like to see Quentin (Roosevelt) practicing baseball. 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Not everything is the game of the century,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-tebow/i-think-sports-media-really-do-need-to-think-about-the-world-in-more/) [Tim Tebow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-tebow/) > [Baseball is our national game.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/calvin-coolidge/baseball-is-our-national-game/) [Calvin Coolidge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/calvin-coolidge/) > [Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/branch-rickey/ethnic-prejudice-has-no-place-in-sports-and-baseball-must-recognize/) [Branch Rickey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/branch-rickey/) > [Too much of our media, and not just sports media, but media, in general, is one where the people with the voices live in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-cain/too-much-of-our-media-and-not-just-sports-media-but-media-in-general/) [Will Cain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-cain/) ## More by Walker Percy > [“Do you know what he told me after lying under a cliff for thirty six hours with two inches of his femur sticking out?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/do-you-know-what-he-told-me-after-lying-under-a-cliff-for-thirty-six/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [Americans are the nicest, most generous, and sentimental people on earth. Yet Americans have killed more unborn children than any nation in history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/americans-are-the-nicest-most-generous-and-sentimental-people-on/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [“The real wonder is not that the Cosmos is now seen as wonderful but that it is not. Despite its inconceivable vastness, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/the-real-wonder-is-not-that-the-cosmos-is-now-seen-as-wonderful-but/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [“Ours is the only civilization in history which has enshrined mediocrity as its national ideal. Others have been corrupt, but leave it to us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/ours-is-the-only-civilization-in-history-which-has-enshrined/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [ \[In art\] you are telling the reader or the listener or the viewer something he already knows but which he doesn't quite know that… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/in-art-you-are-telling-the-reader-or-the-listener-or-the-viewer/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [“People usually told him the same joke two or three times.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/people-usually-told-him-the-same-joke-two-or-three-times/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [For the world is broken, sundered, busted down the middle, self ripped from self and man pasted back together as mythical monster, half angel,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/for-the-world-is-broken-sundered-busted-down-the-middle-self-ripped/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [Nobody but a Southerner knows the wrenching rinsing sadness of the cities of the North.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/nobody-but-a-southerner-knows-the-wrenching-rinsing-sadness-of-the/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [“For me, all signifiers fit me, one as well as another. 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To become aware of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/the-search-is-what-anyone-would-undertake-if-he-were-not-sunk-in-the/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [“Am I, in my search, a hundred miles ahead of my fellow Americans or a hundred miles behind them? That is to say: Have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/am-i-in-my-search-a-hundred-miles-ahead-of-my-fellow-americans-or-a/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) [Explore all 194 Walker Percy quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) ## More Active participation quotes > [We can learn that reward comes in creation and re-creation, no just in the consumption of the world around us. 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Clinton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-j-clinton/) > [Im generally of the view that we should know the names of those who enacted and justified imperial power - but only if the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/im-generally-of-the-view-that-we-should-know-the-names-of-those-who/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) [Browse all 38 Active participation quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/active-participation/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It is otherwise with sports and the media. There, too, a shift has occurred, from active participation to the vicarious participation of spectatorship. Four people used to go bowling, but 100 million watch the Super Bowl. Football, where men try to hit and hurt, has replaced baseball as the national game. 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