1st Edition
Sports Media History Culture, Technology, Identity
This research collection explores the ongoing interaction between sports, media, and society throughout important periods in history, from the nineteenth century to the present day. It examines both historical moments and broader trends in sports, with an emphasis on the media’s role.
Encompassing a variety of research approaches and perspectives, the book looks at the individuals, mass media outlets and communication technologies that have affected societies on a global scale, including print, photography, broadcast (radio and television), Internet-based media, and public relations/marketing. It presents fascinating new case studies covering topics as diverse as sports journalism and the Third Reich, Argentina at the Mexico World Cup, post-9/11 sports reporting, Martina Navratilova and women’s tennis, the growth of fantasy sport, and the significance of Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson in the history of US sports reporting.
This is essential reading for any researcher, student or media professional with an interest in the relationships between sports, culture, and society or in the history of media, culture, or technology.
Introduction
Part I: Early influences, early developments
1. Curiosity shop, toy department, and beyond: The development of visual baseball journalism in Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper
Scott D. Peterson
2.The photo-finish and sport media
Jonathan Finn
3. Hawking kings of the diamond: How specialty sports magazines sold the national pastime, its stars, and its audience fables of manliness
Amber Roessner
4. Joe Louis: The first Black White hope
Mark A. Mederson
Chapter 5- Dizzying Up the Broadcast Booth: The Player-Broadcaster in the Early Years of Televised Baseball
Elizabeth O’Connell Gennari
Part II: Sports, media, and evolving identity issues
6. ‘Do tennis-girls make good wives?’: Exploring media representations of women’s sport in interwar Britain
Fiona Skillen
7. From base paths to bylines: Jackie Robinson’s prodigious career in journalism
Brian Carroll
8. Major League Baseball and the development of Spanish-language radio broadcasts
Patrick J. McConnell and Roberto Avant-Mier
9. Defying race ideology in the South: Print media’s role in the erosion of the unwritten rules in college basketball
Christie M. Kleinmann
10. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Super Bowl as a narrative for civil rights
Ralph E. Hanson
11. Martina Navratilova: Out in the (relative) open
William P. Cassidy
Part III: The global reach of sports and media’s influence
12. Sport journalism in wartime: Orders of worth and the Third Reich
Christian Tolstrup Jensen
13. Trapped in America: How the Masanori Murakami debacle redefined U.S.-Japan baseball relations
John Carvalho
14. Argentina in the Soccer World Cup Mexico 1971: A collaborative approach in building a theoretical landmark
Ildefonso Apelanz
15. For profit or for country? The Daily Mail and the Zola Budd affair
Toby C. Rider and Matthew P. Llewellyn
Part IV: A first look at emerging sports media history topics
16. Labor’s denial: A case study of how labor used the media and public relations to block the first NBA-ABA merger attempt
William Anderson
17. Clyde Lear and the Learfield Sports empire
John McGuire
18. Remembering NCAA v. Board of Regents: The Supreme Court foundation of a mediated college football cartel
Travis R. Bell
19. The ultimate value-added proposition: How fantasy sport evolved to accommodate the changing social needs of sports fans
Brody J. Ruihley, Andrew C. Billings, and Nick Buzzelli
20. Covering terror: The New York Times’ post-9/11 sports reporting
Timothy Mirabito and Robin Hardin
Biography
John Carvalho is a professor of journalism at Auburn University, USA. His academic career as a sports media historian has focused mainly on sports celebrities with strong media ties.
