ABSTRACT
In this chapter we critically examine the practice of studying sport and exercise media. We do so by first asking what (sport) media research is in the first place – an important question in a time of proliferating technologies for representing sporting experience. We then ask why one would study sport and exercise media. This is a complex question too, and one that we answer by pointing to the role of media in shaping social norms and impacting on people’s sense of identity. Our third question is the ‘how’ question: How do researchers go about studying media once it has been established that this type of work is important? Finally, we conclude this chapter with reflections on the challenges and rich opportunities that lie in the practice of sport and exercise media studies at the current moment in time.
