The commercialization of sports has been fueled by the mass media. These outlets are used to advertise individual athletes and sports events. They are important to the evolution of modern sports and to the development of sports culture. Sports and mass media are inseparably linked. Whether the spectators watch sports on television, online, or in person, they all consume media that promote and commercialize the sport.
Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is still an international sporting order. Nations are grouped into core, semiperipheral, and peripheral blocs based on economic, political, and cultural factors. For example, in the core sports world, we find the United States, Russia, Australia, and South Korea. These countries are able to recruit the best athletes from poorer nations and compete with the developed nations on a global stage.
While the aesthetic element of sports survives, the focus in modern sports is on measurable achievements. One key aspect of the transition between Renaissance and modern sports is the semantic shift in the word measure. Previously, the word measure denoted a sense of balance and proportion, but it soon came to mean purely numerical measurements.
As a result, sports became part of national identity construction. In the late nineteenth century, the game became known as “patriot games”. Both established and outsider groups used sports as a means of constructing national identity. In some cases, the outcome of a national championship may be viewed as the validation of a national identity.