Sports, Media & Society: The (virtual) reality: Our changing definitions of sports

Friday, January 19, 2007

The (virtual) reality: Our changing definitions of sports

Early in the spring semester, I talk to my Sports, Media and Society class about the definition of sports. Yesterday, after my class wrestled with whether poker, hunting and fishing, and competitive ballroom dancing are sports, I caught a piece on NPR's Marketplace about another potential "sport" with its own superstar athletes: video gaming, which, as an industry, has more revenues than the NFL, NBA and MLB combined.

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Marie Hardin is an associate professor of journalism and associate director of the Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State University. She teaches a class, "Sports, Media & Society," and directs various research projects.

Malcolm Moran is the inaugural Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society in the College of Communications and director of the Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State. In his distinguished and diversified career as a sports journalist, Moran has covered 26 bowl games with national championship implications, 26 men’s basketball Final Fours, 16 World Series, 11 Super Bowls, several NCAA conventions and two Olympic Games. In 2007, Moran was awarded the annual Curt Gowdy Media Award presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame for print journalism.

Erin Whiteside is an assistant professor of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee where she teaches courses in sports journalism and media and diversity. Her research uses feminist approaches to explore the relationship between sports, sports media and culture. Much of her work has specifically critiqued the practices, ethics and culture of sports media workplaces.

Thomas F. Corrigan (T.C.) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Penn State's College of Communications, and has worked as a research assistant on several projects for the Curley Center for Sports Journalism over the past three years. He received his undergraduate and masters degrees from Florida State. His research interests are generally within Critical/Cultural Studies of the Media, with specific interests in Political Economy and Sports & Media. T.C. is currently teaching the College's Sports, Media, & Society course.

Melanie Formentin is a 1st year Ph.D. student in Penn State's College of Communications and a research assistant in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. She received undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on strategic sports communications, with a particular interest in the NHL's branding and communication strategies.

Lori Shontz, a senior editor at The Penn Stater alumni magazine and an adjunct instructor of journalism, spent more than 17 years as an award-winning sports writer and editor for the Petersburg Progress-Index, The (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Miami Herald. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Penn State, she wrote her honors thesis on the beginning of women's varsity sport at the University.

Bu Zhong is an assistant professor of journalism and senior research fellow of the Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State University. His research covers decision making, social networking, media ethics and judgment in news and sports information use. His research has been published in Journal of Communication and International Journal of Sports Communication. His professional experience includes working more than 10 years for CNN Washington Bureau in D.C., CNN Center in Atlanta, and China Daily in Beijing.

Dunja Antunovic is a second-year Ph.D. student in the College of Communications. She comes to Penn State from DePaul University where she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Journalism with a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies while playing on the university’s women’s tennis team and coaching for two years. Dunja uses feminist theoretical frameworks in her research focusing on gender representation, Title IX coverage and the construction of bodies in sports media.

Brett Sherrick is a second-year Ph.D. student in the College of Communications and research assistant with the Center for Sports Journalism. He completed an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Comm. at UNC-Chapel Hill and a masters degree in English at UNC-Wilmington. His research interests are in understanding the convergence of strategic communication and journalism in different arenas of entertainment, particularly sports and video games.

Steve Bien-Aime is a second-year Ph.D. student in the College of Communications. He received bachelor’s degrees in journalism, political science and economics in 2004 from Penn State. After graduation, he worked at The News Journal in Delaware starting as a news copy editor, and later writing a business column and serving as night online update editor. He next went to The Baltimore Sun where he served as a sports copy editor. Following that, he moved on to FOXSports.com in Los Angeles where he was the boxing/mixed martial arts editor and later deputy NFL editor.

Sports, Media & Society

Friday, January 19, 2007

The (virtual) reality: Our changing definitions of sports

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