Communication, Sport, and Society – serie

Each year, millions of youth athletes participate in organized sport under the guidance of a coach, who is entrusted with overseeing their development and performance, as well as providing a safe environment. A communicative approach to coaching recognizes that the skills, lessons, values, and experiences that athletes gain are determined by how coaches interact with athletes and structure their sporting environments. Athletic Coaching: A Communication Perspective provides a foundation for a communicative perspective of coaching in an effort to better understand and promote coach effectiveness. As part of this effort, this book conceptualizes coaching as a communicative endeavor, provides a framework from which to understand coaching effectiveness, and explicates four common perspectives (i.e., instructional, organizational, group, and interpersonal) utilized by communication scholars to examine coaching. Moreover, this book forwards a scholarly agenda for building a holistic framework of coaching and increasing the applied value of coach communication scholarship via methodological and theoretical considerations. Athletic Coaching is of benefit to many audiences, including communication students and scholars who are developing their understanding of coaching literature, interdisciplinary scholars who seek a representation of a communicative perspective of coaching, and coaches who may use this text as a self-reflective tool for pedagogical refinement.

Each year, millions of youth athletes participate in organized sport under the guidance of a coach, who is entrusted with overseeing their development and performance, as well as providing a safe environment. A communicative approach to coaching recognizes that the skills, lessons, values, and experiences that athletes gain are determined by how coaches interact with athletes and structure their sporting environments. Athletic Coaching: A Communication Perspective provides a foundation for a communicative perspective of coaching in an effort to better understand and promote coach effectiveness. As part of this effort, this book conceptualizes coaching as a communicative endeavor, provides a framework from which to understand coaching effectiveness, and explicates four common perspectives (i.e., instructional, organizational, group, and interpersonal) utilized by communication scholars to examine coaching. Moreover, this book forwards a scholarly agenda for building a holistic framework of coaching and increasing the applied value of coach communication scholarship via methodological and theoretical considerations. Athletic Coaching is of benefit to many audiences, including communication students and scholars who are developing their understanding of coaching literature, interdisciplinary scholars who seek a representation of a communicative perspective of coaching, and coaches who may use this text as a self-reflective tool for pedagogical refinement.

Sex and gender are interconnected, conflated, different, and complex. Arguably, there is no cultural arena more affected by the complexity of sex/gender than sport, where the presumed need for a male/female binary is personalized, medicalized, and politicized. Gender Defenders of the Sport Binary considers how medical, policy, and media discourses shape understanding of nonbinary athletes, and more broadly cultural understandings of gender as chosen and sex as biologically measurable.Tracing discourse across more than 100 years of media coverage, decades of medical debate, and overlapping sport regulatory policies, this book considers how the force of cisgender ideology creates a singular narrative centered on fairness that dominates transgender and intersex women and erases them from elite sport. This book traces the influence of powerful contexts such as language and masculinity in constructing boundaries around who can and cannot fit in women’s sport."In Gender Defenders of the Sport Binary, Bell and Osborne offer a compelling and incisive critique of how sport, medicine, and the media converge to police gender under the guise of fairness. In a time of global debates on gender and athleticism, this thought-provoking book unpacks the exclusionary frameworks that elite sport uses to marginalize transgender and intersex athletes, revealing the deep entanglements between gender ideology and power. Using meticulous research and sharp analysis, the authors challenge us to reconsider the boundaries of inclusion, presenting a vital call to reimagine sport as a space where diversity is not disciplined, but celebrated."—Anna Baeth, Ph.D., Director of Research, Athlete Ally

Sex and gender are interconnected, conflated, different, and complex. Arguably, there is no cultural arena more affected by the complexity of sex/gender than sport, where the presumed need for a male/female binary is personalized, medicalized, and politicized. Gender Defenders of the Sport Binary considers how medical, policy, and media discourses shape understanding of nonbinary athletes, and more broadly cultural understandings of gender as chosen and sex as biologically measurable.Tracing discourse across more than 100 years of media coverage, decades of medical debate, and overlapping sport regulatory policies, this book considers how the force of cisgender ideology creates a singular narrative centered on fairness that dominates transgender and intersex women and erases them from elite sport. This book traces the influence of powerful contexts such as language and masculinity in constructing boundaries around who can and cannot fit in women’s sport."In Gender Defenders of the Sport Binary, Bell and Osborne offer a compelling and incisive critique of how sport, medicine, and the media converge to police gender under the guise of fairness. In a time of global debates on gender and athleticism, this thought-provoking book unpacks the exclusionary frameworks that elite sport uses to marginalize transgender and intersex athletes, revealing the deep entanglements between gender ideology and power. Using meticulous research and sharp analysis, the authors challenge us to reconsider the boundaries of inclusion, presenting a vital call to reimagine sport as a space where diversity is not disciplined, but celebrated."—Anna Baeth, Ph.D., Director of Research, Athlete Ally

ESPN and the Changing Sports Media Landscape considers the ways the network is reinventing itself as it enters its fifth decade. In their previous book, The ESPN Effect (2015), the editors made the observation that ESPN was a pervasive branded-content provider across multiple media platforms, delivering programs and information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to influence how sports fans think and feel about the people who play and control these games. ESPN and the Changing Sports Media Landscape asks whether that will hold true in the 2020s and beyond. The past decade has seen momentous changes in the sports media landscape, among them the massive proliferation of mobile platforms as a major source of sports content, astronomical growth in fantasy sport and esport industries, and the increasing entanglement of sports media in contentious sociopolitical debates. The contributors to this book analyze how ESPN has navigated the shifting playing field and speculate on what the next decade might bring for ESPN and the global sports media industry.

ESPN and the Changing Sports Media Landscape considers the ways the network is reinventing itself as it enters its fifth decade. In their previous book, The ESPN Effect (2015), the editors made the observation that ESPN was a pervasive branded-content provider across multiple media platforms, delivering programs and information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to influence how sports fans think and feel about the people who play and control these games. ESPN and the Changing Sports Media Landscape asks whether that will hold true in the 2020s and beyond. The past decade has seen momentous changes in the sports media landscape, among them the massive proliferation of mobile platforms as a major source of sports content, astronomical growth in fantasy sport and esport industries, and the increasing entanglement of sports media in contentious sociopolitical debates. The contributors to this book analyze how ESPN has navigated the shifting playing field and speculate on what the next decade might bring for ESPN and the global sports media industry.

Never before have we lived in a time in which sport and gay identity are more visible, discussed, debated—and even celebrated. However, in an era in which the sports closet is heralded as the last remaining stronghold of heterosexuality, the terrain for the gay athlete remains contradictory at best. Gay athletes in American team sports are thus living a paradox: told that sport represents the "final closet" in American culture while at the same time feeling ostracized, labeled a "distraction" for teams, dubbed locker room "problems," and experiencing careers which are halted or cut short altogether.Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports is the first of its kind, building upon the narratives of athletes and how their coming out experiences are shaped, transmitted and received through pervasive, powerful, albeit imperfect commercial media. Featuring in-depth interviews with out-athletes such as Jason Collins, Dave Kopay, Billy Bean and John Amaechi; media gatekeepers from outlets like ESPN and USA Today; and league representatives from Major League Baseball and the National Football League, this book explores one of the starkest juxtapositions in athletics: there are no active out players in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL, yet the number of athletes coming out at virtually every other level of sport is unprecedented. Interviews are fused with qualitative media analysis of coming out stories and informed by decades of literature on the unique intersection of sport, media, and sexual identity.

Never before have we lived in a time in which sport and gay identity are more visible, discussed, debated—and even celebrated. However, in an era in which the sports closet is heralded as the last remaining stronghold of heterosexuality, the terrain for the gay athlete remains contradictory at best. Gay athletes in American team sports are thus living a paradox: told that sport represents the "final closet" in American culture while at the same time feeling ostracized, labeled a "distraction" for teams, dubbed locker room "problems," and experiencing careers which are halted or cut short altogether.Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports is the first of its kind, building upon the narratives of athletes and how their coming out experiences are shaped, transmitted and received through pervasive, powerful, albeit imperfect commercial media. Featuring in-depth interviews with out-athletes such as Jason Collins, Dave Kopay, Billy Bean and John Amaechi; media gatekeepers from outlets like ESPN and USA Today; and league representatives from Major League Baseball and the National Football League, this book explores one of the starkest juxtapositions in athletics: there are no active out players in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL, yet the number of athletes coming out at virtually every other level of sport is unprecedented. Interviews are fused with qualitative media analysis of coming out stories and informed by decades of literature on the unique intersection of sport, media, and sexual identity.

Serving Equality: Feminism, Media, and Women’s Sports offers a much-needed methodological innovation to sports media research by expanding the focus beyond traditional sports media outlets to examine the diversity of media outlets writing about sports. In doing so, Serving Equality draws analytical attention to the ways in which feminism and feminist principles such as equality, progress, empowerment, and intersectionality shape media narratives of women’s sports. With a focus on networked sports media spaces, including news coverage, promotional cultures, and sports films, chapters examine narratives of Title IX, the Olympics, the treatment of women sports journalists, the activism of women athletes, the routine coverage of the sports world, as well as the COVID-19 global pandemic. Serving Equality illustrates how feminism informs not only the media narratives of women’s sports, but how women’s sports contribute to and mobilize feminism in networked media spaces. Serving Equality ultimately encourages students, instructors, researchers, athletes, sport media content producers, and those in the sports industry to consider the ways we can tell stories differently about sportswomen and women’s sports.

Serving Equality: Feminism, Media, and Women’s Sports offers a much-needed methodological innovation to sports media research by expanding the focus beyond traditional sports media outlets to examine the diversity of media outlets writing about sports. In doing so, Serving Equality draws analytical attention to the ways in which feminism and feminist principles such as equality, progress, empowerment, and intersectionality shape media narratives of women’s sports. With a focus on networked sports media spaces, including news coverage, promotional cultures, and sports films, chapters examine narratives of Title IX, the Olympics, the treatment of women sports journalists, the activism of women athletes, the routine coverage of the sports world, as well as the COVID-19 global pandemic. Serving Equality illustrates how feminism informs not only the media narratives of women’s sports, but how women’s sports contribute to and mobilize feminism in networked media spaces. Serving Equality ultimately encourages students, instructors, researchers, athletes, sport media content producers, and those in the sports industry to consider the ways we can tell stories differently about sportswomen and women’s sports.

Communication and Contradiction in the NCAA: An Unlevel Playing Field is a critical examination of the contradictory nature of the NCAA, and how the inherent contradictions impact the communication activities of its constituents, supporters, and challengers. At the heart of the NCAA is the student-athlete, born out of an idealistic collection of communal values that is often at odds with institutional practices. The rhetorical negotiation of the student-athlete’s identity informs and confuses communication practices on a number of levels, from interpersonal interactions to organizational apologia. Because the student-athlete is critical to maintaining the collegiate athletics orientation, the NCAA works overtime in promoting, maintaining, and defending it in the face of public scrutiny. The NCAA and its member institutions, like any organization, are compelled to answer public accusations, often working to defend inconsistent policies to an increasingly hostile audience. In an effort to solidify its power, the NCAA uses public discourse to maintain its position by establishing and enforcing proper codes of conduct for participants, and rationalizing unfair labor practices, athletics budgets, and rising tuition costs designed to boost athletics. In response they often rely on familiar rhetorical and organizational practices, such as branding, mascots, and heroic stories of student-athletes, all of which come with issues of their own. All of these communication phenomena, from interpersonal support-seeking to organizational scapegoating, are informed by the central student-athlete mythos. This puts the NCAA at a contradictory crossroads as they work to reconcile inconsistent practices and messages.

Communication and Contradiction in the NCAA: An Unlevel Playing Field is a critical examination of the contradictory nature of the NCAA, and how the inherent contradictions impact the communication activities of its constituents, supporters, and challengers. At the heart of the NCAA is the student-athlete, born out of an idealistic collection of communal values that is often at odds with institutional practices. The rhetorical negotiation of the student-athlete’s identity informs and confuses communication practices on a number of levels, from interpersonal interactions to organizational apologia. Because the student-athlete is critical to maintaining the collegiate athletics orientation, the NCAA works overtime in promoting, maintaining, and defending it in the face of public scrutiny. The NCAA and its member institutions, like any organization, are compelled to answer public accusations, often working to defend inconsistent policies to an increasingly hostile audience. In an effort to solidify its power, the NCAA uses public discourse to maintain its position by establishing and enforcing proper codes of conduct for participants, and rationalizing unfair labor practices, athletics budgets, and rising tuition costs designed to boost athletics. In response they often rely on familiar rhetorical and organizational practices, such as branding, mascots, and heroic stories of student-athletes, all of which come with issues of their own. All of these communication phenomena, from interpersonal support-seeking to organizational scapegoating, are informed by the central student-athlete mythos. This puts the NCAA at a contradictory crossroads as they work to reconcile inconsistent practices and messages.

Tifo refers to the artistic renderings that supporters at football/soccer matches perform. This can involve large banners, coordinated mosaic displays, and pyrotechnics. Originating in Europe, the tradition has spread across the world and to other sports. Tifos vary in size, content, and execution, but all emerge from the desire supporters have for signaling and displaying their collective community, specific identities, and extensive devotion to their clubs. Fans fashion tifos to communicate publicly about identity, sense of place, past success, politics, and heated rivalries. Their assorted content makes tifos a distinctive form of fan-generated communication. Traditionally, supporters display tifos only momentarily before football/soccer matches. Yet they have become increasingly complex, sophisticated, and competitive—requiring dozens of people to create them, financial investments usually from fans to procure the materials needed to finance them, and on-site, in-stadium coordination to display them. These factors contribute to a unique, complex, and globalized form of fan communication that captures not only the obvious and intended messages of tifos, but also demonstrates the effort and devotion needed to execute them. This book examines the history and evolution of tifos, their social significance for clubs, places, and communities, the identities and associated affiliations they discursively perform, and the explicit and implicit symbolism they contain. Given the demanding practices surrounding the development and execution of tifos, and their overall captivating nature, this book should appeal to a broad audience including students and scholars working in sport as well as fans of it.

Tifo refers to the artistic renderings that supporters at football/soccer matches perform. This can involve large banners, coordinated mosaic displays, and pyrotechnics. Originating in Europe, the tradition has spread across the world and to other sports. Tifos vary in size, content, and execution, but all emerge from the desire supporters have for signaling and displaying their collective community, specific identities, and extensive devotion to their clubs. Fans fashion tifos to communicate publicly about identity, sense of place, past success, politics, and heated rivalries. Their assorted content makes tifos a distinctive form of fan-generated communication. Traditionally, supporters display tifos only momentarily before football/soccer matches. Yet they have become increasingly complex, sophisticated, and competitive—requiring dozens of people to create them, financial investments usually from fans to procure the materials needed to finance them, and on-site, in-stadium coordination to display them. These factors contribute to a unique, complex, and globalized form of fan communication that captures not only the obvious and intended messages of tifos, but also demonstrates the effort and devotion needed to execute them. This book examines the history and evolution of tifos, their social significance for clubs, places, and communities, the identities and associated affiliations they discursively perform, and the explicit and implicit symbolism they contain. Given the demanding practices surrounding the development and execution of tifos, and their overall captivating nature, this book should appeal to a broad audience including students and scholars working in sport as well as fans of it.

Whether it’s the Roosevelt administration’s impact on the formation of the NCAA, the protest of the Vietnam War by Muhammad Ali, or the rise of rap and hip-hop in the 90s and its penetration of the NBA’s image, American culture and politics have intersected regularly with sports. The impact of American politics and culture on the sports industry, and vice versa, is evident throughout the halls of history and, in particular, the 20th and 21st centuries mark an interesting period of time to explore this relationship. One avenue to be considered during this time is the amplification and growth of mass media and its role in framing these intersections of American pop culture, politics and the sports industry. Many of the values that Americans hold dear to their identity, such as activism and protest, capitalism, freedom of expression, and competition, are permeated through the history of collegiate and professional sports in the United States, and the media has played a role in shaping those opinions and values among Americans through its various outlets. The United States of Sport looks at how media outlets portrayed several of these intersections in politics, culture and sports, with each chapter highlighting a moment or phenomenon in American history and its direct or indirect impact on some aspect of the sports industry through the eyes of newspapers, magazines, television, radio and online news outlets.

Whether it’s the Roosevelt administration’s impact on the formation of the NCAA, the protest of the Vietnam War by Muhammad Ali, or the rise of rap and hip-hop in the 90s and its penetration of the NBA’s image, American culture and politics have intersected regularly with sports. The impact of American politics and culture on the sports industry, and vice versa, is evident throughout the halls of history and, in particular, the 20th and 21st centuries mark an interesting period of time to explore this relationship. One avenue to be considered during this time is the amplification and growth of mass media and its role in framing these intersections of American pop culture, politics and the sports industry. Many of the values that Americans hold dear to their identity, such as activism and protest, capitalism, freedom of expression, and competition, are permeated through the history of collegiate and professional sports in the United States, and the media has played a role in shaping those opinions and values among Americans through its various outlets. The United States of Sport looks at how media outlets portrayed several of these intersections in politics, culture and sports, with each chapter highlighting a moment or phenomenon in American history and its direct or indirect impact on some aspect of the sports industry through the eyes of newspapers, magazines, television, radio and online news outlets.

We are witnessing a sea change regarding mental health in sports media, led in part by professional athletes such as Michael Phelps, Kevin Love, Naomi Osaka, and Simone Biles, who are sharing their own experiences with mental illness, bucking stereotypes in which people experiencing mental health issues are condemned to unfulfilling lives. From quarterbacks to pitchers, power forwards to Olympic swimmers, athletes are increasingly using the mass media—including social media—to share their experiences with depression, anxiety, and other disorders. Head Game: Mental Health in Sports Media uses interviews with key athletes, leading journalists and sportscasters, and organizational and league leaders to show how media has been used—and could be used in the future—to advance greater understanding of mental health. Professional athletes describe their own experiences with mental illness, including the challenges and opportunities they encountered in the locker room, field of play, and mass media. The athletes, who represent a spectrum of professional sports, describe their decisions to disclose as well as their recommendations for current and future generations of athletes. Head Game highlights the crucial importance of such disclosures in challenging the context of professional sport where athletes are trained to be "tough" from a young age and any mental illness could translate into reduced playing time and even harassment. "Head Game represents the first book of its kind to tackle one of today’s most pressing public health crises, one that has been forced into the shadows for far too long, through the lens of sport. Billings and Parrott explore the key media moments in this movement, the storytellers who shaped them, the institutional response from leagues and teams, and the first-hand accounts of elite athletes who have struggled to bring mental health awareness to the forefront—all of which has come to shape how we talk about mental health today. This timely, well-researched and expansive volume offers a powerful compilation of perspectives from prominent athletes like Olympians Michael Phelps and Gracie Gold, to the NFL’s Brandon Bostick, to the NHL’s Corey Hirsch. In combating the silence, stigma, stereotypes and prejudice that have often plagued discussions of mental health, Head Game tracks the modern movement for mental health advocacy within the world of sport and beyond. I highly recommend this book to anyone teaching courses in communication, sport and society, as students will undoubtedly find the material engaging and relatable, as well as to any reader interested in mental health portrayals in the media. I suspect everyone who reads Head Game will find a story within it that they can connect to."—Leigh Moscowitz, Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina "For too long the discourse of ‘mental toughness’ has dominated sports culture, from the way we coach and train athletes to how athletes are covered in the media. Through interviews with elite/professional athletes who have publicly disclosed mental health issues, the sports journalists who cover their stories, and sports organizations’ own efforts to address mental health, Head Game dissects how dangerous this discourse has been, and creates much-needed awareness on an issue that has been stigmatized in our culture. Head Game humanizes athletes, reminding readers that gold medals, championships, million-dollar salaries, corporate endorsements, or super star celebrity do not immunize athletes against mental health struggles. Sadly, what is at stake is a matter of life or death. Head Game is required reading for all athletes, coaches, journalists, sports fans, or anyone who cares about the mental health and well-being of athletes."—Cheryl Cooky, Professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Purdue University

Warren Buffett once opined that "only when the tide rolls out do you discover who’s been swimming naked." In a similar vein, American Sport in the Shadow of a Pandemic focuses on how communication practices, structures, and principles change when a key locus—sport—has much of its cultural and political-economic power disrupted. How intertwined is the economic viability of an American collegiate institution to the communicative enactment of the regular staging of collegiate sports? What proportion of a sports media contract is for the competition itself, as opposed to the documentation of fans being "fanatic" as they witness contests live and in-person? Who and what is deemed most disposable, and how do such decisions play out for athletes of different genders, races, and abilities? Questions such as these form the core foci of this volume. As many have observed, out of crisis comes opportunity. In this instance, this volume provides an opportunity for leading scholars of communication and sport to consider which principles should be rethought or reconceptualized based on the effects of the pandemic on our culture, politics, and economy.

Taking the global sport of Formula 1 (F1) motor racing as a sustained case study, Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry examines how the relationship between the sport and the media has evolved in this new digital environment. Starting with a map of the political economy of F1 and its complex commercial relationship with sponsors, investors, and the media, shows how new media owners have aimed to use social and digital media strategies to deepen the global reach of a television sport previously thought of by many as in decline.Drawing on original interviews with key stakeholders across the media and sports industry, including journalists, broadcasters, and those working within F1, this book places the sport within its broader historical context, identifying the central role that the media, particularly television has played in its history, structure, and governance. This book also explores the range of media representations and key narratives that the sport offers and how its relationship with other television genres, such as the Netflix series Drive to Survive is impacting the nature of the sport and its audience.As sport enters a new age of digital engagement, this investigation of the intense relationship between F1 and the creative industries shows us not just how the media are changing, but also that what we understand by the term "sport" is also being altered."This is a penetrating case-study of media-sport relations in the context of major technical, cultural, and economic change. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Boyle and Haynes offer a hugely informative but also enjoyable account of the challenges and the opportunities surrounding Formula 1 as it undergoes inter-related shift s in the terms of its organization and in the scale and character of its media visibility. The authors get ‘inside’ their topic with clarity and depth."— John Corner, Professor of Communications, University of Leeds"Formula 1 has witnessed a huge transformation in recent years. Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry successfully unpicks the way in which the changing global media landscape has both shaped and communicated the sport’s growth. Whether through the Netflix Effect or social media’s ability to turn any fan into a pundit, influencer or content creator, this book explores the complex factors impacting the way in which the narratives and storylines around Formula 1 are built. Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry makes essential reading for any student of global sports media or Formula 1. Uniquely, it explains the media revolution which has taken place in one of world most sophisticated sporting competitions."— Mark Gallagher, Formula 1 Executive and Managing Director, Performance Insights

Taking the global sport of Formula 1 (F1) motor racing as a sustained case study, Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry examines how the relationship between the sport and the media has evolved in this new digital environment. Starting with a map of the political economy of F1 and its complex commercial relationship with sponsors, investors, and the media, shows how new media owners have aimed to use social and digital media strategies to deepen the global reach of a television sport previously thought of by many as in decline.Drawing on original interviews with key stakeholders across the media and sports industry, including journalists, broadcasters, and those working within F1, this book places the sport within its broader historical context, identifying the central role that the media, particularly television has played in its history, structure, and governance. This book also explores the range of media representations and key narratives that the sport offers and how its relationship with other television genres, such as the Netflix series Drive to Survive is impacting the nature of the sport and its audience.As sport enters a new age of digital engagement, this investigation of the intense relationship between F1 and the creative industries shows us not just how the media are changing, but also that what we understand by the term "sport" is also being altered."This is a penetrating case-study of media-sport relations in the context of major technical, cultural, and economic change. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Boyle and Haynes offer a hugely informative but also enjoyable account of the challenges and the opportunities surrounding Formula 1 as it undergoes inter-related shift s in the terms of its organization and in the scale and character of its media visibility. The authors get ‘inside’ their topic with clarity and depth."— John Corner, Professor of Communications, University of Leeds"Formula 1 has witnessed a huge transformation in recent years. Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry successfully unpicks the way in which the changing global media landscape has both shaped and communicated the sport’s growth. Whether through the Netflix Effect or social media’s ability to turn any fan into a pundit, influencer or content creator, this book explores the complex factors impacting the way in which the narratives and storylines around Formula 1 are built. Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry makes essential reading for any student of global sports media or Formula 1. Uniquely, it explains the media revolution which has taken place in one of world most sophisticated sporting competitions."— Mark Gallagher, Formula 1 Executive and Managing Director, Performance Insights

This book rethinks the discussion of sport as a cinematic subject. Arguing for the vitality of the sports film as distinctively ‘modern’ genre, the book looks at its innovative potential to capture twentieth- and twenty-first-century sport in all its complexity. Written in an accessible style and illustrated throughout, the book integrates work and ideas from film studies with thinking from sports psychology, philosophy, data theory and ecocriticism. In its detailed analyses of a wide-ranging group of films, the book shows how film, from fictional works to biopics to experimental documentaries, can illuminate individual sporting experience, as well as sport’s wider place in modern life.

This book rethinks the discussion of sport as a cinematic subject. Arguing for the vitality of the sports film as distinctively ‘modern’ genre, the book looks at its innovative potential to capture twentieth- and twenty-first-century sport in all its complexity. Written in an accessible style and illustrated throughout, the book integrates work and ideas from film studies with thinking from sports psychology, philosophy, data theory and ecocriticism. In its detailed analyses of a wide-ranging group of films, the book shows how film, from fictional works to biopics to experimental documentaries, can illuminate individual sporting experience, as well as sport’s wider place in modern life.

To offer a comprehensive overview of the current and perceived future state of sports journalism competition, this book draws on insight from 100 qualitative interviews with sportswriters working within five unique subsets of written content (daily newspapers, team-run media, The Athletic, Substack newsletters, and SB Nation blogging).Using four main communication concepts (gatekeeping, niche gratification, diffusion of innovations, and journalistic boundary work) as the guiding framework, this book examines how various disseminators of written sports information are able to coexist in the modern sports journalism ecosystem by catering to the niche.