London Marathon and the Media

Last Sunday was the prestigious London Marathon, one of the most competitive and fastest marathons in the world. Marathons have been run for decades, with the first London marathon being held in 1981. However, since the first years of the marathon, media has become increasingly prevalent in our society, affecting our perspective on worldwide events, such as the London marathon taking place nearly 10,000 miles away while we were sleeping in the United States. From social media to news outlets and YouTube, media has allowed us to become increasingly more aware of the events happening around us in our society, seeing the details of different events instantly all over the interwebs and gaining a more personal understanding of the individuals involved in these events through social media.

On Sunday, April 28, I woke up and checked my phone immediately to see who had won the race I had been looking forward to seeing for weeks. Runners and news outlets had been hyping up the marathon as a duel between two world-class athletes: Mo Farah and Eliud Kipchoge, the first time they would be racing head-to-head in a year. During the weeks leading up to the marathon, the talk of the marathon was all over the news, including Youtubers making their predictions for the outcome of the race, British and American news outlets providing the details for the marathon and the contestants in the race, and social media accounts of these two athletes and other running accounts such as RunnerSpace and Dyestat. On the Instagram accounts of Kipchoge, random people from around the world were wishing him to run well and break the course record again. Was this possible back in 1981 when the first London marathon was run? Were ordinary people from around the world wishing the athletes good luck? Kipchoge himself posted videos of his weeks leading up to the marathon, including his training and his excitement for the race. Media definitely exposes us to events happening in the world, allowing us to become aware and informed on so many different issues taking place in a matter of seconds.

I am grateful for the media’s presence in the world today for providing such extensive coverage on important events that are of great interest to me, such as this marathon. I watched countless videos on race previews, pre-race interviews with these two athletes, previews of the race course, and videos of high school runners predicting what would happen during the race. Without the role of media, I wouldn’t know anything at all about the London marathon, and in fact, I probably wouldn’t even know the date of the race. On the morning of April 28, I immediately went onto the safari app of my iPhone and googled London Marathon into the search engine. Immediately, a flood of news articles portrayed news headlines and images of Eliud Kipchoge crossing the finish line in 1st place with a new course record. Within seconds, I knew the results of the race with ease, able to watch videos of his triumphant finish and read about the details of the race, all within hours of the race happening on the other side of the world. Again, without media, none of this would be possible, and finding anything about the race would be nearly impossible.

When I opened Instagram, scrolling through the feed, dozens of posts from running accounts posted the results of the marathon, with thousands of people from around the world liking these posts and congratulating the amazing runner. Kipchoge himself posted a picture of himself winning the race in his Instagram account, also with thousands praising the man and congratulating him on his amazing feat. Media has definitely opened the door for so many people, events, and companies, the bridge for connecting our lives with the rest of the world. After the race, the media was flooded with videos and articles of the marathon, from post race videos, highlights of the race, and videos on the breakdown of his race. Through media, I have been able to become familiar with all the details of this prestigious running event, first handedly experiencing what it was like in London that morning, able to congratulate an amazing runner thousands of miles away on his record-breaking race.