ABSTRACT
The importance of the role of sport in public life in Australia, and how sporting narratives are mediated, is emphasized by Zion et al. (2011) who point out the ‘proliferation of sport across our television stations, daily newspapers, news websites, radio stations and magazines’ and cite the large number
of Australian sports journalists compared to political reporters as one facet of the obsession the country has with sports. ‘There are 760 accredited media for the AFL, but less than a quarter that number in the Canberra press gallery. Is football really so important? The simple answer is “yes”’ (Zion et al. 2011: 80). The dichotomous nature of the importance of sports journalism within the media is the focus of a study by Rowe (2007), which explores how, traditionally, sports reporting has been viewed as the frivolous, unimportant but crucial younger sibling within the newsroom family; its content draws audiences just as its motivations and the perceived quality of its publications or broadcasting invites dismissal by ‘serious’ journalism. However, that is not to say that the intersection of sport with cultural or social issues (and the reporting of sporting events that draw on these issues) is non-existent; rather sports journalism often covers on-field incidents in which cultural and social issues play an important role within the narrative of the story, including cases (or allegations) of racism, sexism or homophobia (Zion et al. 2011).
