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.

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.

 

 

 

Heather L. Hundley (Ph.D., University of Utah, 1999) is a Professor at California State University, San Bernardino. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in mass media including media history, media and culture, media law, interpretative approaches, seminar in mass media, and digital culture. Her research interests range from issues of gender, feminism, sport, pop culture, law, and health related issues such as portrayals of alcohol consumption, cancer, and sexual promiscuity. Hundley has published in scholarly journals such as Visual Communication Quarterly, Communication Reports, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Men’s Studies, The Journal of Intergroup Relations, Journal of Popular Film and Television and American Behavioral Scientist. She has book chapters in Critical Approaches to Television, Transmitting the Past: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Broadcasting, and Critical Thinking about Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media: Media Literacy Applications. Dr. Andrew C. Billings (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1999) is the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting, Executive Director of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication, and Professor in the Department of Journalism & Creative Media at the University of Alabama. His research interests lie in the intersection of sport, mass media, and consumption habits. With 20 books and over 200 journal articles and book chapters, he is one of the most published sports media scholars in the world. His books include Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television (Routledge, 2008), Mascot Nation: The Controversy Over Native American Mascots in Sports (with Jason Edward Black, University of Illinois Press, 2019), Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports (with Leigh M. Moscowitz, Peter Lang, 2019) and The Rise and Fall of Mass Communication (with William L. Benoit, Peter Lang, 2020).  His journal outlets include the Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Communication & Sport, Mass Communication & Society, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. His writings have been translated into five languages. He has lectured in nations around the world, from Spain to China to Austria. He serves as Associate Editor for both Communication & Sport and Journal of Global Sport Management as well as a book series, “Communication, Sport, and Society” with Peter Lang Press. His work in the classroom has also earned him many teaching awards. He has been interviewed over 600 times by media outlets ranging from The New York Times to The Los Angeles Times to ESPN. Billings has also consulted with many sports media agencies and is a past holder of the Invited Chair of Olympism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Before joining the faculty at Alabama, he was at Clemson University (1999-2001). He is an avid Green Bay Packers fan and pop culture watcher.