Examining Identity in Sports Media

Including the work of top sports communication researchers, Examining Identity in Sports Media explores identity issues, including gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability, as well as the intersections within these various identity issues. This co-edited, twelve-chapter book investigates how various identity groups are framed, treated, affected, and shaped by a ubiquitous sports media, including television, magazines, film, the Internet, and newspapers. While other books may devote a chapter or section to issues of identity in sports media, this book offers a complete examination of identity from cover to cover, allowing identity variables to be both isolated and intermingled to capture how identity is negotiated within sports media platforms. Far more than a series of case studies, this book surveys the current state of the field while providing insight on future directions for identity scholarship in sports communication.

Key Features

• Draws on both quantitative and qualitative approaches, including surveys, content analyses, and rhetorical approaches.
• Investigates the numerous ways print, electronic, and digital media present issues of identity in sports coverage
• Addresses media portrayals and/or cultural representations of one or more forms of identity (ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability, etc.) as they relate to sport
• Includes examples and illustrations of both explicit and implicit discriminatory practices appearing in the media
• Includes articles by a wide range of interdisciplinary contributors―both seasoned and up-and-coming scholars of sport―representing a diverse balance of intellectual ideologies
• Helps students understand how identity can be addressed through quantitative or qualitative approaches, critical/cultural scholarship, and rhetorical analyses

Examining Identity in Sports Media is ideal for undergraduate or graduate-level courses in Sports Communication, Sports Media, Media Criticism, Sports Sociology, Gender Communication, and Identity Politics.