Current Controversies in Sports, Media, and Society sheds light on how various issues, including racism, sexism, ageism, religion, politics, and more, are depicted in sports media. The text also demonstrates how sports media representation can influence both American culture and the individuals who consume said media. The book begins with an overview of the history of sports in American culture, the interplay of race, gender, media, and sport, and why we study sport and its role in society. Later chapters examine mass communication theories and approaches used in sports reporting and the obstacles athletes of color and women face in the world of sports media, including lack of representation, unequal media coverage, and the battle against prevalent social stereotypes. Readers learn the ways in which sports media influences our understanding of biological versus environmental influences on athletic performance, sexual orientation, and patriotism. Finally, the book analyzes modern sports journalism, exploring the causes and consequences of a lack of diversity in media and reporting. Written to spark discussion on ethics in sports journalism, media representation, and the role sports play in American culture, Current Controversies in Sports, Media, and Society is well suited for courses in mass communication, sports journalism, the sociology of sport, and race and gender studies. Dr. Cynthia M. Frisby is a full professor of strategic communication in the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. She earned her doctorate and master's degrees from the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Dr. Frisby is a nationally recognized author on media portrayals of minorities, athletes, women, and teens. She has previously investigated the sources of American viewers' fascination with reality television, the effects of idealized images on perceptions of body esteem among African American women, and race and gender representation in sports.

"In Changing the Playbook, Howard P. Chudacoff delves into the background and what-ifs surrounding seven defining moments that redefined college sports. These changes involved fundamental issues--race and gender, profit and power--that reflected societal tensions and, in many cases, remain pertinent today: the failed 1950 effort to pass a Sanity Code regulating payments to football players; the thorny racial integration of university sports programs; the boom in television money; the 1984 Supreme Court decision that settled who could control skyrocketing media revenues; Title IX's transformation of women's athletics; the cheating, eligibility, and recruitment scandals that tarnished college sports in the 1980s and 1990s; the ongoing controversy over paying student athletes a share of the enormous moneys harvested by schools and athletic departments. A thought-provoking journey into the whos and whys of college sports history, Changing the Playbook reveals how the turning points of yesterday and today will impact tomorrow."

This state-of-the-art Research Handbook provides a challenging and critical examination of the complex issues surrounding sports in contemporary societies. Featuring contributions from world-leading scholars, it focuses upon the impact of their research, together with significant social issues and controversies in sport.

This book examines the political debates over the access to live telecasts of sport in the digital broadcasting era. It outlines the broad theoretical debates, political positions and policy calculations over the provision of live, free-to-air telecasts of sport as a right of cultural citizenship. In so doing, the book provides a number of comparative case studies that explore these debates and issues in various global spaces.

Arguing that racism is evident throughout British sport, this book breaks new ground in showing how the discourses of race and nation continue to pervade our sporting life.

Media, Sports and Society provides a foundation for research on the communication of sports. The volume is framed by a seminal article outlining the parameters of the communication of sports and pointing to major issues that need to be addressed in the relationship between sports and media. Contributors examine the theoretical, cultural and historical issues, the production of media sports programming, its content and its audience. Individual chapters include a discussion of the spectacle of media sports, a comparison of Super Bowl Football and World Cup Soccer, a consideration of the spectators' enjoyment of sports violence, the rhetoric of winning and the American dream, and a fascinating examination of gender harmony and sports in

In this fully updated and revised new edition of his landmark study of violence in and around contemporary sport, Kevin Young offers a comprehensive sociological analysis of an issue of central importance within sport studies. The book explores organised and spontaneous violence, both on the field and off, and calls for a much broader definition of ‘sports-related violence’, to include issues as diverse as criminal behaviour by players, abuse within sport and exploitative labour practices. Offering a sophisticated theoretical framework for understanding violence in a sporting context and including new case studies and updated empirical data – from professional soccer in Europe to ice hockey in North America – the book establishes a benchmark for the study of violence within sport and wider society. Through close examination of often contradictory trends, from anti-violence initiatives in professional sports leagues to the role of the media in encouraging hyper-aggression, the book throws new light on our understanding of the socially-embedded character of sport and its fundamental ties to history, culture, politics, social class, gender and the law. This new edition also recognises burgeoning new literatures, such as research examining concussion and the link between sport and mental illness and includes student-friendly pedagogical aids, such as critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter. Sport, Violence and Society is a vital read for anyone studying or working in the areas of the Sociology of Sport, Sport Psychology, Ethics and Philosophy of Sport, Sport and Politics, Sports History, and Sport and the Media.