The Sociology of Sports-Talk Radio is the latest sports-media scholarship from the author of How Postmodernism Explains Football and Football Explains Postmodernism, winner of the 2017 Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association ’s Communication and Sport Division. The book provides a descriptive analysis of the social interaction transpiring in what the author has conceptualized as the “the hyper-mediated marketplace of sports narratives.” It examines the social structures and processes that make sports-talk radio such a vibrant societal milieu, and seeks to identify the essential sociological dynamics that make all that endless chatter so vital to listeners. A qualitative, descriptive analytical focus on this remarkable platform—where people come together to interact insistently, colorfully, and often with stunning ferocity—highlights key processes by which human communicators construct meaning.
This third edition takes a fresh approach to the study of sport, presenting key concepts such as socialization, race, ethnicity, gender, economics, religion, politics, deviance, violence, school sports and sportsmanship. While providing a critical examination of athletics, this text also highlights many of sports' positive features. This new edition includes significantly updated statistics, data and information along with updated popular culture references and real-world examples. Newly explored is the impact of several major world events that have left lasting effects on the sports realm, including a global pandemic (SARS-CoV-2, or Covid-19) and social movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too. Another new topic is the "pay for play" movement, wherein college athletes demanded greater compensation and, at the very least, the right to profit from their own names, images and likenesses.
Beer, Babes, and Balls explores the increasingly popular genre of sports talk radio and how it relates to contemporary ideas of masculinity. Popular culture plays a significant role in fashioning identities, and sports talk radio both reflects and inspires cultural shifts in masculinity. Through analysis of the content of sports talk radio as well as interviews with radio production staff and audience members, scholar and avid sports talk radio listener David Nylund sheds light on certain aspects of contemporary masculinity and recent shifts in gender and sexual politics. He finds that although sports talk radio reproduces many aspects of traditional masculinity, sexism, racism, and heterosexism, there are exceptions in these discourses. For instance, the most popular national host, Jim Rome, is against homophobia and racism in sport, which indicates that the medium may be a place for male sports fans to discuss gender, race, and sexuality in consequential ways. Nylund concludes that sports talk radio creates a male bonding community that has genuine moments of intimacy and connection, signifying the potential for new forms of masculinity to emerge, while simultaneously reproducing traditional forms of masculinity.
This undergraduate text, written by key writers, lecturers and academics in the field, covers the key, current issues in the field of sociology of sport and physical education.
In ten original essays, Danish music and media scholars discuss aspects of music on the radio from the 1920s until today. Understanding music radio as a distributed phenomenon or as a multiplicity, the authors draw upon anthropology, cultural studies and media studies along with sociological and historiographical theory. The intention is to further develop interdisciplinary approaches that may grasp the complex interrelations between radio as an institution and as practices on the one hand and music, musical practices, and musical life on the other. The essays' examples and cases are all related to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) and offer a music radio production perspective. They span the period from when broadcast music was only live to today where almost all of it is prerecorded and digitized. Some of the essays approach broad topics like early music radio's contributions to the regulation of national centres and peripheries, the debates on music radio as mechanical music, and the general changes in music repertoires and in the status of the institution's live ensembles. Music radio's roles as gatekeeper through automatic music programming are discussed in several articles as are the many ways music genres and radio formats interact. Some of the authors turn to detailed analyses at programme level in order to explain aspects of modern music radio and to suggest analytical models. The essays come with an introduction consisting of an extended overview of international music radio studies since the 1930s, and overview of the development of Danish music radio, and a theoretical preamble.
Winner of the 2018 Early Career Gender Scholar Award from the Sociologists for Women in Society-South Girls and young women participate in soccer at record levels and the Women’s National Team regularly draws media, corporate, and popular attention. Yet despite increased representation and visibility, gender disparities in opportunity, compensation, training resources, and media airtime persist in soccer, and two professional leagues for women have failed since 2000. In Kicking Center, Rachel Allison investigates a women’s soccer league seeking to break into the male-dominated center of U.S. professional sport. Through an examination of the challenges and opportunities identified by those working for and with this league, she demonstrates how gender inequality is both constructed and contested in professional sport. Allison details the complex constructions of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the selling and marketing of women’s soccer in a half-changed sports landscape characterized by both progress and backlash, and where professional sports are still understood to be men’s territory.
Sexual Sports Rhetoric: Historical and Media Contexts of Violence deals with controversies surrounding the notion of sport violence added to the equation of gender and language. Topics discussed range from hooliganism, spousal abuse, and racial and/or gender orientation issues to literary, televised, filmic and photographic (pornographic?) images of sports violence. The sports represented include ice hockey, stock car racing, football, body building, baseball, boxing, rugby, wrestling, and pool.
"This undergraduate textbook provides students with the information and skills needed to be a well-rounded sports television or radio broadcaster. Students will learn how to write for broadcast, shoot and edit video, and prepare for all the additional tasks needed along the way"--
Strategic Sport Communication, Third Edition, presents a comprehensive examination of the evolving field of sport communication. With a complete approach to the multifaceted and interrelated applications of sport communication, this text will help the reader understand modern trends and industry demands. The book’s topics align with the Common Professional Component topics outlined by the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA). Organized into three parts for easy understanding, part I familiarizes students with the field by defining sport communication, presenting historical analysis, and providing an extensive discussion of career opportunities. Part II focuses on the elements of the Strategic Sport Communication Model (SSCM). This model details the three main components of sport communication: personal and organizational aspects of communication, mediated communication in sport, and sport communication services and support systems. Students will understand how each component plays an integral role in sport management, sport marketing, and operational goals at all levels of sport organizations. Part III examines legal aspects and critical sociological and cultural issues. Significant updates throughout the third edition capture the evolution of sport communication: A look at emerging communication platforms and modern technologies such as fantasy sports and online gambling New content covering the cutting-edge topics of customer-centric marketing, influencer marketing, the rise of digital media in integrated marketing, and the use of data analytics in marketing communication A new discussion of digital public relations tools and new examples of crises in sport, including a case study that provides a real-world example of a crisis in sport communication Learning aids—including key terms, chapter objectives, and chapter wrap-ups with review questions and individual exercises—provide for an engaging and focused learning experience. Updated for this edition, Sport Communication at Work sidebars feature industry experts applying chapter content, and Profile of a Sport Communicator sidebars highlight professional opportunities. In Strategic Sport Communication, Third Edition, students will develop a thorough understanding of the vast and varied field of sport communication. As the exciting field of sport communication continues to present new challenges, the analysis provided within this text will provide the foundational and theoretical understanding necessary for aspiring sport communication professionals to succeed.
