September 2014 – Marcus Leung's Blog

Football’s Image, Once the Crux of “Americanism,” In Steady Decline

The NFL is one of America’s professional sports leagues which has come under fire in the past year for questionable moral conduct.

The NFL, America’s beloved sports league, and a league traditionally known for its famously marketable athletes, is now ironically under fire for its image problems. Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, two of the league’s most prominent stars, have both been indefinitely suspended in separate incidents, following the discovery of their respective domestic violence incidents.

In recent years, activist groups ranging from Aboriginal tribes to Women’s Rights Organizations have all made their case as to why in some shape or form, the NFL is not doing an adequate job in maintaining moral and off-field behavioural standards.With public awareness at an all-time high due to the likes of social media and an increasingly connected populace, professional sports entities need to be more cautious than ever regarding their actions on and off the “field.” The NFL’s sponsors have yet to cut their ties, as the NFL is America’s most profitable professional sports entity, but at some point questions of social responsibility will come to surface. The images of professional sports athletes are buy-and-large in a gradual decline, and it may only be a matter of time before image issues translate into issues of profitability.

Sources

Gordon, Jeremy. “The Image Conscious NFL Has an Image Problem.” The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Image was also found at the article source.

Chinese Tech Manufacturer’s Labour Violations Add Fuel To The Stigma

Foxconn, a major contractual electronics manufacturer, had recently come under fire for repeated violations of labour laws in China. The high-profile company, which frequently collaborates with global tech-giants such as Apple and Dell, has constantly found itself under public scrutiny for its questionable employment practices. With the article in question, Foxconn was found violating labour laws concerning the treatment of student interns, making the individuals in question work both night shifts as well as overtime. Another alarming practice was the report that students at a nearby technology institute were refused the privilege to graduate if they did not participate in a internship program at Foxconn.

Parallels can be drawn from Foxconn’s inability to enforce Chinese labour laws to several instances in the preparation reading which specify that in ideal free markets “no individual can coerce any other, all cooperation is voluntary.” (Friedman, 178) Several times within the article a Foxconn representative insisted that student-intern participation according to their own company policy is strictly voluntary, and that the events that occurred were the result of management oversight. However, those issued statements seem questionable at best, and quickly prompt questions regarding whether corporations in China, such as Foxconn, are truly “stay(ing) within the rules of the game.” (Friedman, 178)

Image source (1) & source (2)