What holds the attention of public - speculation or the event ?
World Cup Football championship is going on in South Africa. Football is the most popular game in the world and has the highest viewership and along with Olympics is the sport with the highest viewership in the world. Football is a simple game in terms of rules of the game and has following all over the world unlike other games like basketball, volley ball and cricket which are of interest to some cluster of countries or the other.
Liek Olympics, the build up for World Cup football event in South Africa commenced a month before the event in Indian newspapers. There were write ups about each of the 32 teams participating and there were several articles about how South African administrators were working hard to make it a perfect event.
The first set of 48 league matches are over and 16 teams are now battling it out in the knock out stage. From this stage each match has to produce a result and the winning teams advance to quarter finals followed by semi final and final.At each stage the number of teams reduces to half finally leaving two teams to fight it out for the title.
There are a lot of similarities in the coverage and forecasting of the outcome of matches in most of world sporting events. At the last 16 stage, there are two matches every day. The newspapers are full of speculations on how the matches of the day would pan out, who would be in the playing ,who would be in the bench, likely substitutions etc.There are several experts giving their point of view in the same newspaper on each of the matches. The next day's paper has an article each on the matches played and then again there are several articles about the matched slated for the day. Though there are some articles minutely analysing the way the matches were played, the pre-match articles on how matches would pan out far out number the post match analysis articles.
All these makes me wonder whether it is the speculation about the match or the actual match itself is more interesting and holds the imagination of the public. I think speculation holds more interest as there are infinite possibilities and this could be debated at length with adrenalin pumping but the match lasts only for an hour and a half. Match is a visual physical event and there is little space for speculation and hardly any work for brain cells there whereas speculation can keep our grey cells working all the time.
The speculative nature of human mind is what makes the build up to the world cup exciting. Once the World cup final is over and the winner carries away the trophy, all the news about the event suddenly ends the next day. Nobody talks about the event a week later !
No wonder gambling is popular and though certainty in any future activity reduces anxiety and provides for beetr planning and rational allocation of resources , it is speculation and uncertainty of events what keeps adrenalin flowing.
Liek Olympics, the build up for World Cup football event in South Africa commenced a month before the event in Indian newspapers. There were write ups about each of the 32 teams participating and there were several articles about how South African administrators were working hard to make it a perfect event.
The first set of 48 league matches are over and 16 teams are now battling it out in the knock out stage. From this stage each match has to produce a result and the winning teams advance to quarter finals followed by semi final and final.At each stage the number of teams reduces to half finally leaving two teams to fight it out for the title.
There are a lot of similarities in the coverage and forecasting of the outcome of matches in most of world sporting events. At the last 16 stage, there are two matches every day. The newspapers are full of speculations on how the matches of the day would pan out, who would be in the playing ,who would be in the bench, likely substitutions etc.There are several experts giving their point of view in the same newspaper on each of the matches. The next day's paper has an article each on the matches played and then again there are several articles about the matched slated for the day. Though there are some articles minutely analysing the way the matches were played, the pre-match articles on how matches would pan out far out number the post match analysis articles.
All these makes me wonder whether it is the speculation about the match or the actual match itself is more interesting and holds the imagination of the public. I think speculation holds more interest as there are infinite possibilities and this could be debated at length with adrenalin pumping but the match lasts only for an hour and a half. Match is a visual physical event and there is little space for speculation and hardly any work for brain cells there whereas speculation can keep our grey cells working all the time.
The speculative nature of human mind is what makes the build up to the world cup exciting. Once the World cup final is over and the winner carries away the trophy, all the news about the event suddenly ends the next day. Nobody talks about the event a week later !
No wonder gambling is popular and though certainty in any future activity reduces anxiety and provides for beetr planning and rational allocation of resources , it is speculation and uncertainty of events what keeps adrenalin flowing.
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