ABSTRACT
Introduction At the end of the twentieth century Real (1998:15) noted that ignoring sport media in contemporary society ‘would be like ignoring the role of the church in the Middle Ages or ignoring the role of Art in the Renaissance’. In other words, sport media is an omnipresent feature of contemporary societies and without the ability to analyse sport media we cannot hope to understand the societies in which we live. Real also argued that the saturation of media sport makes it difficult to analyse. Thus, the paradox is that understanding sport media is crucial to an understanding of broader society, but its place in society makes it almost impossible to do so. Because we are bombarded with images and sounds from sporting events and contests of the past, present and future, we are in a difficult, if not impossible place from which to establish a reference point. Often, and this is particularly true for people engaged in the study of sport or who are employed within the sport industry, people grow up immersed in sport and have been inculcated into sport’s particular and peculiar rituals and routines from an early age, by family, friends and peers. For many, sport and sport media have become important vehicles for creating and understanding a series of individual and collective identities. These identities make it difficult to analyse sport media, but all the more important to develop the skills to understand sport media texts.
