ABSTRACT
By selecting the title, Defining Sport Communication, the editor of this volume charged contributors with what might appear to be a fairly specific, even mundane task. In retrospect, however, the editor’s charge has proven more taxing than I had anticipated. First, I was forced to make explicit what I had taken for granted about sport, about communication, and about the intersection of the two. Surfacing taken-for-granted assumptions is always a challenge. In addition, I have discovered that perhaps the only task as challenging as defining ‘sport communication’ is positing a rationale for how to conduct meaningful research for much of what resides at that intersection. Those of us who have played sport or studied sport realize that how fans, commentators, critics, writers, and myriad support personnel talk about sport, and how participants communicatively engage in sport is not always easily measured or readily observable.
