how the surf life saving movement has been turned into a commodity by the media we need to firstly define what a commodity is. According to the Concise Oxford dictionary the word commodity is "a useful thing; an article of trade, especially product as opposed to a service". Commodification is the process of turning something into a commodity. An analogy might be the turning of an actor into a package by the film studios and media, and that package being sold as a commodity, not a person. However, sports and sports events do not clearly fall into the category of a product or a service. (Stotlar, D. p21) So for the purpose of this assignment we will talk about whether surf life saving is used as a product/service by the media. To deduce whether this commoditfication has had a desirable or undesirable impact, we need to look at three aspects of the relationship between surf life saving and the media. These three are: the role of media in sports marketing (surf life saving), the role of the sponsors and their relationship with the media, and any strategies employed by the SLSA to increase its media and spectator appeal.
             The role of the media in sports marketing (lifesaving)
             "Sports marketing is simply any sales or publicity-related activity associated with an organised sporting event (or events), its personalities, or the celebrity lifestyle of its participants." (Schaaf, P. p22). Since the beginning of the surf lifesaving movement the media in its various forms has been involved in the marketing of the sport and the service. In the fifties and the sixties this was through newspaper and newsreels at the cinemas. While in the seventies and eighties most TV coverage of s
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