ABSTRACT

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.

 

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

part I|71 pages

Early influences, early developments

chapter 1|13 pages

Curiosity Shop, Toy Department, and Beyond

The development of visual baseball journalism in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

chapter 2|17 pages

The photo-finish as sports media

chapter 3|15 pages

Hawking kings of the diamond

How specialty sports magazines sold the national pastime, its stars, and its audience fables of manliness

chapter 4|15 pages

Joe Louis

The first black white hope

chapter 5|9 pages

Dizzying up the broadcast booth

The player-broadcaster in the early years of televised baseball

part II|84 pages

Sports, media, and evolving identity issues

chapter 6|13 pages

“Do tennis girls make good wives?”

Exploring media representations of women’s sport in interwar Britain

chapter 7|13 pages

From base paths to bylines

Jackie Robinson’s prodigious career in journalism

chapter 9|14 pages

Defying race ideology in the South

Print media’s role in the erosion of the unwritten rules in college basketball

chapter 11|13 pages

Martina Navratilova

Out in the (relative) open

part III|49 pages

The global reach of sports and media’s influence

chapter 12|11 pages

Sports journalism in wartime

A case of sports journalism in the Third Reich

chapter 13|8 pages

Trapped in America

How the Masanori Murakami debacle redefined U.S.-Japan baseball relations

chapter 14|15 pages

Argentina in the Women’s World Cup Mexico 1971

A collaborative approach to building a theoretical landmark

chapter 15|13 pages

For profit or for country?

The Daily Mail and the Zola Budd affair

part IV|62 pages

A first look at emerging sports media history topics

chapter 16|11 pages

Labor’s denial

A case study of how labor used the media and public relations to block the first NBA-ABA merger attempt

chapter 18|13 pages

Remembering NCAA v. Board of Regents

The Supreme Court foundation of a mediated college football cartel

chapter 19|11 pages

The ultimate value-added proposition

How fantasy sport evolved to accommodate the changing social needs of sports fans

chapter 20|13 pages

Covering terror

The New York Times’s post–9/11 sports reporting