Sport, journalism and social reproduction

Boyle, R. and Rowe, D. (2023) Sport, journalism and social reproduction. In: Wenner, L. A. (ed.) Oxford Book of Sport and Society. Series: Oxford Handbooks. Oxford University Press, pp. 1025-1043. ISBN 9780197519011

Abstract

Sports journalism mediates between sports organisations, sports fans and wider publics. Its remit ranges from basic reportage through celebrity gossip to serious critique of sport and its social implications. Sports journalists, as agents operating at the intersection of the sport and media fields, encounter conflicting demands to celebrate and scrutinise sport in highly commercialised and politicised environments. This chapter addresses sports journalism’s role in reproducing and contesting structures, practices and power relations within the institution of sport, and in explicitly and implicitly representing the relationships between sport and society. It analyses the ways in which sports journalism manages and promotes social mythologies and ideologies, including propositions that sport can be insulated from societal norms and, contrastingly, is merely a reflection of them. The chapter concludes by discussing the changes in sport media organisations and in communication technologies that are challenging the influence of traditional sports journalism on culture and society.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: Sports journalism, social reproduction, change, contestation, ideologies, publics, occupation, craft.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Boyle, Professor Raymond
• Authors: Boyle, R., and Rowe, D.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISBN: 9780197519011
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Oxford University Press
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher