Sports Illusion, Sports Reality


Book Description

"If this isn't the best analysis of the professional sports business ever written, I'd like to see the book that beats it. . . . Should be read by every sports fan or -- for that matter -- social critic." --From a five-star review, West Coast Review of Books. "Explores its subject so thoroughly and demolishes so many commonly held assumptions that after reading it even the most knowledgeable fans (and some journalists) should feel like drunks who have suddenly been forced to sober up." -- Chicago Tribune "Required reading for anyone who calls himself a fan." -- Chicago Sun-Times "An invaluable contribution to sports literature." -- Howard Cosell




Sporting Realities


Book Description

Despite the increasing number of popular and celebrated sports documentaries in contemporary culture, such as ESPN's 30 for 30 series, there has been little scholarly engagement with this genre. Sports documentaries, like all films, do not merely showcase objective reality but rather construct specific versions of sporting culture that serve distinct economic, industrial, institutional, historical, and sociopolitical ends ripe for criticism, contextualization, and exploration. Sporting Realities brings together a diverse group of scholars to probe the sports documentary's cultural meanings, aesthetic practices, industrial and commercial dimensions, and political contours across historical, social, medium-specific, and geographic contexts. It considers and critiques the sports documentary's visible and powerful position in contemporary culture and forges novel connections between the study of nonfiction media and sport.




Strategic Sport Communication


Book Description

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.




King of the Court


Book Description

Bill Russell was not the first African American to play professional basketball, but he was its first black superstar. From the moment he stepped onto the court of the Boston Garden in 1956, Russell began to transform the sport in a fundamental way, making him, more than any of his contemporaries, the Jackie Robinson of basketball. In King of the Court, Aram Goudsouzian provides a vivid and engrossing chronicle of the life and career of this brilliant champion and courageous racial pioneer. Russell’s leaping, wide-ranging defense altered the game’s texture. His teams provided models of racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s, and, in 1966, he became the first black coach of any major professional team sport. Yet, like no athlete before him, Russell challenged the politics of sport. Instead of displaying appreciative deference, he decried racist institutions, embraced his African roots, and challenged the nonviolent tenets of the civil rights movement. This beautifully written book—sophisticated, nuanced, and insightful—reveals a singular individual who expressed the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. while echoing the warnings of Malcolm X.




Strategic Sport Communication


Book Description

"Strategic Sport Communication explores the multifaceted segment of sport communication. This text presents a standard framework that introduces readers to the many ways in which individuals, media outlets, and sport organizations work to create, disseminate, and manage messages to their constituents"--




Inside the Sports Pages


Book Description

The working world of contemporary sports journalism through the eyes of the reporters, editors, and athletes who inhabit it. An account and analysis of the ideology behind sports news.




Women, Media and Sport


Book Description

This book - the first to link feminism, sport and media theory - provides a broad cultural studies orientation. In addition to a theoretical analysis, it provides a practical look at models of sport, media effects and the construction of the sportswoman and women's sports. Divided into three parts, the book: provides an overview of the three areas; focuses on the print and broadcast media portrayal of women's sport, examining such issues as the relationship of sports promotion to media representations of women's sports and the ways in which sports reporting is taught to future journalists; and seeks to develop a new model for the future.




The Business of Professional Sports


Book Description

Beyond the highly publicized heroics and foibles of players and teams, when the grandstands are empty and the scoreboards dark, there is a world of sport about which little is known by even the most ardent fan. It is the business world of sport; it is characterized by a thirst for power and money, and its players are just as active as those on the professional teams they oversee. In this collection, some of the best scholars in the field use examples from baseball, football, basketball, and hockey to illuminate the significant economic, legal, social, and historic aspects of the business of professional sports. Contributors: Dennis A. Ahlburg, Rob B. Beamish, Joan M. Chandler, James B. Dworkin, Lawrence M. Kahn, Charles P. Korr, John J. MacAloon, David Mills, Roger G. Noll, Steven A. Reiss, Gary R. Roberts, Stephen F. Ross, Peter D. Sherer, Leigh Steinberg, and David G. Voigt,




Critical Readings: Sport, Culture And The Media


Book Description

Critical Readings: Sport, Culture and the Media contains a broad range of essays on the relationships between sport, culture and the media. Featuring a mixture of classic works and recent texts, the Reader provides students, lecturers and researchers with an essential core of readings on the topic. The readings examine media and sport in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Asia and Africa and explore topics such as: Sport as entertainment: the role of mass communications The manufacture of sports news for the daily press The televised sports manhood formula Women, sport and globalization Sport on the information superhighway Advertising sportswear to black audiences Mega-events and media culture: sport and the Olympics Designed to complement the key textbook in the area, Sport, Culture and Media, this collection of critical readings can also be used independently, ideally in undergraduate and postgraduate studies in culture and media, sociology, sport and leisure studies, communication, race, ethnicity and gender. Essays by: John Amis, David L. Andrews, Ketra L. Armstrong, Frank B. Ashley, Joan Chandler, George B. Cunningham, Michele Dunbar, Laurel Davis, John Goldlust, Darnell Hunt, Kyle W. Kusz, James F. Larson, Geoffrey Lawrence, Mark D. Lowes, David McGimpsey, Jim McKay, Miquel de Moragas Sp?, Michael A. Messner, Toby Miller, Robert E. Rinehart, Nancy K. Rivenburgh, David Rowe, Maurice Roche, Michael Sagas, Michael Silk, Trevor Slack, Deborah Stevenson, Brian Stoddart, Lawrence A. Wenner, Brian J. Wrigley




Strategic Sport Communication, 2E


Book Description

Strategic Sport Communication, Second Edition, presents a standard framework that introduces readers to the many ways in which individuals, media outlets, and sport organizations work to create, disseminate, and manage messages to their constituents.