Post Class, 4/4 Ann

After class on Tuesday I thought more deeply into our conversation about Tiger Woods in relation to Adorno and Hork’s “The Cultural Industry.” In class we talked about the hype that was recently involving the Tiger Woods scandal. This relates to Adorno and Hork’s theory that, “no one has to answer officially for what he or she thinks.” After Tiger Woods got into a car accident near his home it was a while before he made any statement about what had happened. He did not want to make a statement because he did not want people to find out what had happened between him and his wife. He had no obligation to make a statement but the media pressured him into making a statement. By not saying anything the media also began to make assumptions about why Tiger Woods wasn’t making any statement about the accident. We also talked about this scandal compared to the OJ Simpson scandal in the early nineties. I think that in some ways people were more surprised by the Tiger Woods scandal than OJ Simpson. OJ Simpson was a football player and I think that more negative stigmas and stereotypes are associated with football players than golfers. Because of the history and prestige associated with golf I think people were more surprised with Tiger Woods. Golfers are usually rich, white men. It takes a lot of money in order to get involved in golf due to the price of equipment and course fees but football on the other hand is more accessible for children to begin playing at a young age. I think that the media hyped up the Tiger Woods scandal and tried to add to the shock value which was possible due to the reputation of the sport of golf.