The editorial house Sage has just begun publishing a new journal titled Communication & Sport that covers one of the most important topics in sports studies. Simply put, the development of modern sports would not have been possible without the role played by newspapers, magazines, radio, television and now online communications media.
The first issue of the journal consists of seventeen essays introducing several themes in the study of sports from the perspective of media studies.
Below are the titles of a few articles that I strongly recommend because they cover some of the major issues that we will study in this seminar.
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David Rowe, “Reflections on Communication and Sport: On Nation and Globalization,” Communication & Sport, 1:1-2 (2013): 18-29.
Abstract: In this essay, David Rowe reflects on how the nexus of sport and communication has affected national and global sensibilities. Sport contests take place at particular times in specific places, usually in a stadium setting, but not all who desire to watch can be present in the stadium. Without mediated communication, the vast edifice of contemporary sport would have remained largely localized, segmented activities. Progressively under modernity, print media could discuss and interpret sport for those who were far distant; electronic media brought the sights and sounds of the unique event to them in real time, and much else besides; and now online media enable people all over the world to communicate with each other about sport. Communication and sport are, then, demonstrably indissoluble and of intrinsic importance as a focus of sociocultural organization, activity, identity, and affect as well as of capital accumulation. Mediated sport is thereby carried into virtually every other sociocultural domain. Understanding the dynamics of communication and sport is, therefore, an essential capability for anyone who wishes to function as an engaged, knowledgeable citizen of a sport-saturated world that they may not have made but must nonetheless inhabit.
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Michael Real, “Reflections on Communication and Sport: On Spectacle and Mega-Events,” Communication & Sport, 1:1-2 (2013): 30-42.
Abstract: In this essay, Michael Real reflects on why communication about sport is of cultural importance and worthy of critical study. The early part of the essay reflects on challenges faced in the development of the study of communication and sport and the author‚’s involvement in that development. The author reflects on his choice to focus on spectacle and mega-events, such as media treatment of the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games. The essay traces significant influences and ‘schools’ of critical approaches to communication and sport, from small beginnings in the 1970s through rapid expansion of topics and methods in the 1980s and since. Key historic contributions that have influenced research on communication and sport are examined along with conflicts about how to best approach this subject. The focus section of the essay assesses a number of broad theoretical lenses that have value in studying mediated sport‚’s mega-events as spectacle. Considered here [is an] . . . approach [developed by anthropologist Clifford Geertz for] ritual analysis, [French philosopher Guy] Debord‚’s [concept of the] society of the spectacle, and [sociologist Maurice] Roche‚’s theory of mega-events. The essay closes with comment on the road ahead for scholarly research on communication and sport.
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David L. Andrews, “Reflections on Communication and Sport: On Celebrity and Race,” Communication & Sport, 1:1-2 (2013): 151-63.
Abstract: In this essay, David Andrews examines the intriguing nexus of celebrity and race in the context of mediated sport. As a suggestive, rather than comprehensive examination of the study of sport, celebrity, and race, the treatment attempts to illuminate the derivation, complexities, and absences within this field of intellectual inquiry. After a brief discussion of why the relationship between communication and sport matters in social and cultural terms, insight is given to the author‚’s engagement with celebrity- and race-focused research. This is followed by a brief overview of the celebrity and race research, highlighting its genesis, major themes, and foci. Paying particular attention to the U.S.-based studies, this discussion provides a rationale for the intensification of sport, celebrity, and race research in the late 1980s and early 1990s, draws attention to studies representative of the major strands of inquiry, and highlights heretofore understudied areas. Finally, the prospects and directions for further inquiry on the nexus of celebrity and race in the context of mediated sport are briefly considered.
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Arthur A. Raney, “Reflections on Communication and Sport: On Enjoyment and Disposition,” Communication & Sport, 1:1-2 (2013): 164-75.
Abstract: In this essay, Arthur Raney reflects on how decades of media scholarship have explored the importance of affective dispositions toward teams and contest outcomes to viewer enjoyment of live televised sport events. The introduction to the essay focuses on personal experiences that shaped his interests in understanding how spectator responses to mediated sport were culturally and psychologically significant. Raney reflects on his studies and collaboration with many of the scholars who were foundational in understanding how the role of affective disposition and enjoyment relates to sport media consumption. Throughout this essay, key themes emerging from empirical studies examining sports media enjoyment are identified. Further consideration is given to how new media technologies might impact sports enjoyment in the future.
