The media has played a huge role in the individual players building their own personal brands in the sport industry. Although the media has done tremendous beneficial things for the players, and the constant publicity of their lives, this has certainly had it’s negative effects as well. Their lives are now being broadcasted all the time, they attend a charity event or donate large sums of money we will know about it. However, they get in trouble with the law or do something controversial, we will also know about it. Currently, Messi is being investigated for tax freud. There are articles blaming him and other blaming his father. It is unclear because the media is not filtered for accuracy, as well all know. Many of these articles are headlined with stating the jail time that Messi could face. As a public figure, this news coverage is very negative for his personal brand. The confusion of who to blame has led many to question Messi’s character. When controversial news is exposed about players in the sports industry, the negative effects are shown in things such as jersey revenues. For example, when news broke about Ray Rice, an NFL player, hitting his wife; his jersey sales virtually stopped completely. The players have to be extremely careful in their everyday lives because they are constantly selling their personal brands. They are a walking 24/7 advertisement for themselves.
Is media crossing the line and becoming much too invasive on athletes personal lives? Is this just the price to pay for the fame and fortune of professional athletes these days?
-Neeka Hodaie
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/10/lionel-messi-alleged-tax-fraud-barcelona
-Neeka Hodaie
sportsandmediasite 
This is a really interesting topic. I think you could go a little more in depth about how athletes are constantly in the spot light and then how that effects the decisions they make. Some of your wording is a little unclear, but other than that I think this was a really good choice and I am interested to read more about it. Your examples are good too, just maybe develop them a little more!
-Claire
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Thank you for the advice, I did some edits to improve it!
-Neeka Hodaie
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Yeah, I find it very interesting as well that all these news sources post stories about players even when the facts might not be completely accurate. I’m curious if players or organizations have sued any media sources for defamation. I know that in the States we would not hesitate, because of our sue happy nature, but people are not so quick to sue in Europe. In the example of sales of jerseys, a news source could seriously damage a players profit by reporting false information. It’s interesting to see news sources publish without fact checking first.
-Sean
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I have done some research and suing media sources is actually not that common or successful because of freedom of press, in the United States. I think lots of athletes have accepted the negative and untrue stories as part of being in the lime light and the fame they have, as they should. This actually connects with one of my other articles about why athletes should use social media, as one huge way is to defend themselves against false stories.
-Neeka
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Yeah, I find it very interesting as well that all these news sources post stories about players even when the facts might not be completely accurate. I’m curious if players or organizations have sued any media sources for defamation. I know that in the States we would not hesitate, because of our sue happy nature, but people are not so quick to sue in Europe. In the example of sales of jerseys, a news source could seriously damage a players profit by reporting false information. It’s interesting to see news sources publish without fact checking first.
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I also think this is an interesting topic. I know that in the states you have professional players join TV shows after they retire, and this keeps their jersey sales going. Do you know if players in Europe do the same thing? Also when referencing the wife beating, are you referring to the incident this past football season when Ray Rice hit is wife? I’m just wondering because I have not heard of Jerry Rice hitting his wife. I am also interested to know if this 24/7 coverage of their lives makes them tell their family to act a certain way while in public.
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Thanks for catching that mistake! Haha just changed it! I meant Ray Rice. I have read a lot about athletes children especially having to be careful because they will be exposed to the whole world for often making common adolescent mistakes. Such as if a athletes underage child is pictured drinking, the media takes the opportunity to use the bad press against the player.
-Neeka
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I am not too sure of how sports players were before, but for me I see them as a sort of celebrity in our age because of the complex business aspects that come along with being an athlete. Creating a brand image for yourself and not just the team calls for a lot of attention in your personal and professional life, so I think that the invasion of privacy is something that one would have to expect when becoming such a huge name in the industry.
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I completely agree! They make so much more money in this day of age because of the crazy amount of media exposure they get so they need to accept the negative effects of it as well.
-Neeka
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