Pub Date : 2026-02-06DOI: 10.1177/21674795261424395
Brigid McCarthy
This study examined coverage of 42-year-old professional basketball player Diana Taurasi during her final WNBA season. Age remains an underexplored element of identity in sports media research. An analysis informed by intersectionality found that media discourse made age meaningful through gendered norms of athletic value, constructing Taurasi through narratives of both exceptionalism and decline. This was produced through portrayals of Taurasi as both past her prime and as resisting ageing through bodily discipline. It also observed how some coverage amplified social media discourse of intergenerational rivalry and logics of succession, casting Taurasi and older players as jealous and as taking opportunities from incoming star players. This paper situates this coverage within the context of a league where Black and/or LGBTQIA women have traditionally excelled but have also been marginalised by discourses shaped by racism, misogyny and homophobia. It also argues for further research that considers how some sports storytelling practices might contribute to online harm, in this case by perpetuating misogynistic and racist commentary that surged alongside increased WNBA viewership in 2024. The study’s findings also underscore the need for intersectional approaches that consider age in feminist sports media analysis.
{"title":"From Seasoned Vet to Space-Taker: Gendered Ageism in Coverage of Professional Basketball Player Diana Taurasi’s Final Season","authors":"Brigid McCarthy","doi":"10.1177/21674795261424395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261424395","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined coverage of 42-year-old professional basketball player Diana Taurasi during her final WNBA season. Age remains an underexplored element of identity in sports media research. An analysis informed by intersectionality found that media discourse made age meaningful through gendered norms of athletic value, constructing Taurasi through narratives of both exceptionalism and decline. This was produced through portrayals of Taurasi as both past her prime <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">and</jats:italic> as resisting ageing through bodily discipline. It also observed how some coverage amplified social media discourse of intergenerational rivalry and logics of succession, casting Taurasi and older players as jealous and as taking opportunities from incoming star players. This paper situates this coverage within the context of a league where Black and/or LGBTQIA women have traditionally excelled but have also been marginalised by discourses shaped by racism, misogyny and homophobia. It also argues for further research that considers how some sports storytelling practices might contribute to online harm, in this case by perpetuating misogynistic and racist commentary that surged alongside increased WNBA viewership in 2024. The study’s findings also underscore the need for intersectional approaches that consider age in feminist sports media analysis.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146129365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-06DOI: 10.1177/21674795261423077
Michael Mirer
A boundary object is an item or idea or that solidifies relationships between stakeholders in a social system. A boundary object has local meaning within a single group and maintains relationships between actors. Using textual and secondary analysis, this paper argues that the formulation of the newspaper box score during the late 19th century created a boundary object that helped bring the sports media system into coherence. In its earliest days, the nascent sports reporting profession used data to define a professional identity and then enroll media organizations, sports organizations, and readers into what we understand as the sports media system. This understanding of the history of sports journalism has important implications for the study of the changing media system within sports and beyond.
{"title":"The Box Score as Boundary Object: How a Data Table Built the Sports-Media System","authors":"Michael Mirer","doi":"10.1177/21674795261423077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261423077","url":null,"abstract":"A boundary object is an item or idea or that solidifies relationships between stakeholders in a social system. A boundary object has local meaning within a single group and maintains relationships between actors. Using textual and secondary analysis, this paper argues that the formulation of the newspaper box score during the late 19th century created a boundary object that helped bring the sports media system into coherence. In its earliest days, the nascent sports reporting profession used data to define a professional identity and then enroll media organizations, sports organizations, and readers into what we understand as the sports media system. This understanding of the history of sports journalism has important implications for the study of the changing media system within sports and beyond.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146129364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-03DOI: 10.1177/21674795261422138
Travis Richardson, Grant Chesbro, Lisa De Stefano, Rebecca Larson, Michael Wenger, Daniel J. Larson
Studies focusing on brain imaging (EEG), neuromarketing, sports, and suspense and surprise have all been executed in limited combinations; however, no apparent studies combine all these aspects with sport media viewing. This study used EEG to measure brain activity stimulated by suspense and surprise in sports entertainment. Twenty-one subjects (mean age, 21.8 yr) viewed a stratified random selection of 8 out of 32 suspenseful and/or surprising sports video clips, 2 each of 4 categories: High Suspense and High Surprise (HH), High Suspense and Low Surprise (HL), Low Suspense and High Surprise (LH), and Low Suspense and Low Surprise (LL). EEG frequency bands (θ, α, β, and γ) and the α asymmetry index in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were examined. Across video classifications, main effects were found for α activity in the Left-PFC and for PFC α asymmetry (F 3,60 = 5.298, p = 0.003). Further factorial analyses suggest that suspense and surprise have independent influences on brain activity and there were no apparent interactions between the factors. This provides evidence of the distinct effects that suspense and surprise, anticipatory versus outcome-driven emotions, have on a sports viewer’s brain and offers early insights into the impact of potentially modifiable elements of media for practitioners.
专注于脑成像（EEG）、神经营销、体育、悬念和惊喜的研究都以有限的组合进行；然而，没有明显的研究将所有这些方面与体育媒体观看结合起来。本研究利用脑电图测量体育娱乐中悬念和惊喜刺激的脑活动。21名受试者（平均年龄21.8岁）观看了分层随机选择的32个悬疑和/或令人惊讶的体育视频片段中的8个，每2个类别：高悬念和高惊喜（HH），高悬念和低惊喜（HL），低悬念和高惊喜（LH），低悬念和低惊喜（LL）。观察脑电θ、α、β、γ频带和前额叶皮层α不对称指数。在视频分类中，主要影响因素是左PFC的α活性和PFC α不对称（f3,60 = 5.298, p = 0.003）。进一步的因子分析表明，悬念和惊喜对大脑活动有独立的影响，因素之间没有明显的相互作用。这为悬念和惊喜、预期情绪和结果驱动情绪对体育观众大脑的不同影响提供了证据，并为从业者提供了关于媒体潜在可修改元素影响的早期见解。
{"title":"Neural Effects of Suspense and Surprise in Sports Media","authors":"Travis Richardson, Grant Chesbro, Lisa De Stefano, Rebecca Larson, Michael Wenger, Daniel J. Larson","doi":"10.1177/21674795261422138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261422138","url":null,"abstract":"Studies focusing on brain imaging (EEG), neuromarketing, sports, and suspense and surprise have all been executed in limited combinations; however, no apparent studies combine all these aspects with sport media viewing. This study used EEG to measure brain activity stimulated by suspense and surprise in sports entertainment. Twenty-one subjects (mean age, 21.8 yr) viewed a stratified random selection of 8 out of 32 suspenseful and/or surprising sports video clips, 2 each of 4 categories: High Suspense and High Surprise (HH), High Suspense and Low Surprise (HL), Low Suspense and High Surprise (LH), and Low Suspense and Low Surprise (LL). EEG frequency bands (θ, α, β, and γ) and the α asymmetry index in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were examined. Across video classifications, main effects were found for α activity in the Left-PFC and for PFC α asymmetry (F <jats:sub>3,60</jats:sub> = 5.298, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">p</jats:italic> = 0.003). Further factorial analyses suggest that suspense and surprise have independent influences on brain activity and there were no apparent interactions between the factors. This provides evidence of the distinct effects that suspense and surprise, anticipatory versus outcome-driven emotions, have on a sports viewer’s brain and offers early insights into the impact of potentially modifiable elements of media for practitioners.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146115678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-03DOI: 10.1177/21674795261423074
Kelsey Slater, Noah Backes, Timothy Ford Bryson
Joel Embiid, the 2023 National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player, born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, competed and won a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics with Team USA. However, his decision to play for Team USA was not without controversy. Embiid also became a naturalized French citizen in 2022, meaning he could have played for the host nation at the Olympics. He also always had the option to compete for Cameroon, his country of birth. This article examined how media in Cameroon, the United States, and France framed Embiid’s naturalization and national identity. Although Embiid’s status as a native Cameroonian was highlighted across the three different national press samples, his decision to embrace his American citizenship for the Olympics was characterized as primarily athletically motivated. The media also focused on his connection to the U.S., noting his migration to America at 16 and his subsequent residence in the country as an NBA player. Additional implications related to his citizenship and national identity are discussed.
{"title":"Basketball Without Borders: Comparative Media Analysis of Joel Embiid’s Choice to Represent Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games","authors":"Kelsey Slater, Noah Backes, Timothy Ford Bryson","doi":"10.1177/21674795261423074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261423074","url":null,"abstract":"Joel Embiid, the 2023 National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player, born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, competed and won a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics with Team USA. However, his decision to play for Team USA was not without controversy. Embiid also became a naturalized French citizen in 2022, meaning he could have played for the host nation at the Olympics. He also always had the option to compete for Cameroon, his country of birth. This article examined how media in Cameroon, the United States, and France framed Embiid’s naturalization and national identity. Although Embiid’s status as a native Cameroonian was highlighted across the three different national press samples, his decision to embrace his American citizenship for the Olympics was characterized as primarily athletically motivated. The media also focused on his connection to the U.S., noting his migration to America at 16 and his subsequent residence in the country as an NBA player. Additional implications related to his citizenship and national identity are discussed.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"287 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146115679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-30DOI: 10.1177/21674795261420270
Jan Boehmer, Kyriaki Kaplanidou
Both sport and media have been ascribed the power to affect human behavior. With streaming platforms creating a worldwide audience for sport docuseries, these two forces might combine to create wide-ranging effects. How this plays out on a large scale, however, has not been studied extensively. We contribute to this growing area of inquiry by investigating the social and economic impact of “Welcome to Wrexham”, a popular sport docuseries chronicling the purchase of Welsh soccer club Wrexham A.F.C. by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Using causal impact modeling, we find a significant increase in employment and per capita GDP in the city, alongside mental health benefits. As such, our results establish the real-world implications of a “Netflix Effect” in the realm of sport, exemplifying how sport media cannot only grow the following of clubs and athletes, but also affect society.
{"title":"Did Deadpool Save a City? The Social and Economic Impact of “Welcome to Wrexham”","authors":"Jan Boehmer, Kyriaki Kaplanidou","doi":"10.1177/21674795261420270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261420270","url":null,"abstract":"Both sport and media have been ascribed the power to affect human behavior. With streaming platforms creating a worldwide audience for sport docuseries, these two forces might combine to create wide-ranging effects. How this plays out on a large scale, however, has not been studied extensively. We contribute to this growing area of inquiry by investigating the social and economic impact of “Welcome to Wrexham”, a popular sport docuseries chronicling the purchase of Welsh soccer club Wrexham A.F.C. by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Using causal impact modeling, we find a significant increase in employment and per capita GDP in the city, alongside mental health benefits. As such, our results establish the real-world implications of a “Netflix Effect” in the realm of sport, exemplifying how sport media cannot only grow the following of clubs and athletes, but also affect society.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"180 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146089846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1177/21674795251412781
Kim Toffoletti, Caitlin McGrane, Sarah Reddan
Online abuse directed toward elite athletes is a recognised problem, with research beginning to document its gendered impacts. While much of the debate about online abuse in sport focuses on identifying abusive behaviours, the perspectives of athletes themselves remain under examined. This article investigates the experiences of professional and elite women’s sport athletes exposed to online harm, with the aim of understanding their experiences and foregrounding athlete voice. Survey ( n = 138) and in-depth interview ( n = 8) responses were thematically analysed to understand how Australian athletes competing in women’s sport experience and respond to online harm and its effects. Taking an approach informed by feminist theories of embodiment, we identify several major areas of concern raised by athletes, including the extent of online harm, reporting pathways, and limited support. Findings indicate that online harm is a serious workplace issue with impacts on the wellbeing, performance and economic opportunities for athletes competing in women’s sport. We advocate for greater inclusion of athlete voice for improving supports and protections for athletes experiencing online harm.
{"title":"Not Just Trolls: The Experiences and Effects of Online Harm on Elite Women’s Sport Athletes","authors":"Kim Toffoletti, Caitlin McGrane, Sarah Reddan","doi":"10.1177/21674795251412781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251412781","url":null,"abstract":"Online abuse directed toward elite athletes is a recognised problem, with research beginning to document its gendered impacts. While much of the debate about online abuse in sport focuses on identifying abusive behaviours, the perspectives of athletes themselves remain under examined. This article investigates the experiences of professional and elite women’s sport athletes exposed to online harm, with the aim of understanding their experiences and foregrounding athlete voice. Survey ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 138) and in-depth interview ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 8) responses were thematically analysed to understand how Australian athletes competing in women’s sport experience and respond to online harm and its effects. Taking an approach informed by feminist theories of embodiment, we identify several major areas of concern raised by athletes, including the extent of online harm, reporting pathways, and limited support. Findings indicate that online harm is a serious workplace issue with impacts on the wellbeing, performance and economic opportunities for athletes competing in women’s sport. We advocate for greater inclusion of athlete voice for improving supports and protections for athletes experiencing online harm.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145968409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-03DOI: 10.1177/21674795251405474
Andrew C. Billings
{"title":"Communication and Sport in Times of Rapid Expansion: Caveats and Opportunities via Globalization","authors":"Andrew C. Billings","doi":"10.1177/21674795251405474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251405474","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"31 1","pages":"3-4"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145893710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-27DOI: 10.1177/21674795251411316
Merve Altun Ekinci, Canan Koca
With the momentum of the TOKYO Olympics, there has been an increase in corporate, media, and business interest in women athletes and sports events. Using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA), we examine the visual and verbal content of Instagram posts from 47 Olympic athletes to understand how women construct their self-brand within the framework of postfeminist agendas and Türkiye’s socio-political environment. Drawing from analysis, we conceptualise “Strong Turkish Women” to illustrate how athletes embody multiple identities, blending athleticism with cultural and historical memory, demonstrating strong physical and mental resilience, while respecting religious sensitivities, and serving as role models for women and girls. The knowledge emerging from this study reveals a form of branding that has developed in Türkiye, where women athletes negotiate both post-feminist empowerment narratives focused on individual achievement and local cultural norms as agents of collective resistance to women’s rights. This comprehension may elucidate the self-branding literature of women athletes from both secular and religious national perspectives.
{"title":"Self-Branding of Women Olympic Athletes on Instagram: An Analysis of Post-Feminism and the Socio-Political Context of Türkiye","authors":"Merve Altun Ekinci, Canan Koca","doi":"10.1177/21674795251411316","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251411316","url":null,"abstract":"With the momentum of the TOKYO Olympics, there has been an increase in corporate, media, and business interest in women athletes and sports events. Using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA), we examine the visual and verbal content of Instagram posts from 47 Olympic athletes to understand how women construct their self-brand within the framework of postfeminist agendas and Türkiye’s socio-political environment. Drawing from analysis, we conceptualise “Strong Turkish Women” to illustrate how athletes embody multiple identities, blending athleticism with cultural and historical memory, demonstrating strong physical and mental resilience, while respecting religious sensitivities, and serving as role models for women and girls. The knowledge emerging from this study reveals a form of branding that has developed in Türkiye, where women athletes negotiate both post-feminist empowerment narratives focused on individual achievement and local cultural norms as agents of collective resistance to women’s rights. This comprehension may elucidate the self-branding literature of women athletes from both secular and religious national perspectives.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145836025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-13DOI: 10.1177/21674795251403942
Paul Ian Campbell, Allison Thompson
This article is the first to examine how praise comments and narratives within women’s soccer matchday commentary differ for Black and White female footballers and the ways these mediated framings reproduce the misogynoir logics that shape Black and White women’s experiences within the sport. It draws on approximately 4,800 minutes of matchday-commentary gleaned from the 52 televised matches at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals (on the British Broadcasting Corporation and Independent Television Channels), to conduct a systematic exploration of the variations in verbiage used by commentary-teams to praise and describe the on-field actions, performances, behaviours, talent, and physical appearances of women soccer players from different racialised backgrounds. Findings show: (1) clear differences in the ways in which visibly Black and White women soccer players were praised and discussed, which aligned with ‘natural athlete’ discourse. (2): That natural athlete framings became more pronounced when Black and White women played alongside each other. (3) The natural athlete frame when applied to women extended to include talk about perceived inherent emotional dispositions, that were demarcated by race. (4) The othering of Black women footballers, and football, also occurred via a consistent over-celebration of aspects of Black sports-womanhood and sporting culture as ‘exotic’.
{"title":"She Plays ‘With a Bit of Anger!’: Natural Athleticism and Misogynoir Stereotypes Within Mediated (re)Constructions of Black and White Women Footballers in Soccer Matchday Commentary","authors":"Paul Ian Campbell, Allison Thompson","doi":"10.1177/21674795251403942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251403942","url":null,"abstract":"This article is the first to examine how praise comments and narratives within women’s soccer matchday commentary differ for Black and White female footballers and the ways these mediated framings reproduce the misogynoir logics that shape Black and White women’s experiences within the sport. It draws on approximately 4,800 minutes of matchday-commentary gleaned from the 52 televised matches at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals (on the British Broadcasting Corporation and Independent Television Channels), to conduct a systematic exploration of the variations in verbiage used by commentary-teams to praise and describe the on-field actions, performances, behaviours, talent, and physical appearances of women soccer players from different racialised backgrounds. Findings show: (1) clear differences in the ways in which visibly Black and White women soccer players were praised and discussed, which aligned with ‘natural athlete’ discourse. (2): That natural athlete framings became more pronounced when Black and White women played alongside each other. (3) The natural athlete frame when applied to women extended to include talk about perceived inherent emotional dispositions, that were demarcated by race. (4) The othering of Black women footballers, and football, also occurred via a consistent over-celebration of aspects of Black sports-womanhood and sporting culture as ‘exotic’.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"168 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145746667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1177/21674795251407063
Robert Boucaut, Alexander Beare
Australian Rules Football’s (AFL) 2024 season saw multiple uses of on-field homophobic slurs receiving national media attention, with sanctions handed to coach Alastair Clarkson and player Jeremy Finlayson. This study analyses reportage on these incidents to consider how homophobia in the AFL is mediated. We identified the tribunal—the league’s pseudo-legal structure for reviewing on-field misconduct—to be of profound discursive significance, despite these matters being non-tribunal in nature. Reportage privileges discursive themes of ‘precedent’ and ‘fairness’, which work to construct homophobic abuse as a relative hierarchy so that harm and significance can be quantified into ‘weeks of suspension’. The context of the use of antigay slurs received outsized attention, which individualises the incidents and obscured the broader perception of an institutional culture of homophobia in the AFL. Mediating a cultural problem through such themes, we contend, ultimately imagines homophobia in the AFL as something to be fixed through punishment. This article therefore argues the discursive significance of the AFL tribunal on circulating media and considers how such reporting frameworks obscure cultural challenges while exonerating the League from meaningful accountability.
{"title":"Conduct Unbecoming: Masculinity and Punishment in Media Coverage of Homophobia in the Australian Football League (AFL)","authors":"Robert Boucaut, Alexander Beare","doi":"10.1177/21674795251407063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251407063","url":null,"abstract":"Australian Rules Football’s (AFL) 2024 season saw multiple uses of on-field homophobic slurs receiving national media attention, with sanctions handed to coach Alastair Clarkson and player Jeremy Finlayson. This study analyses reportage on these incidents to consider how homophobia in the AFL is mediated. We identified the tribunal—the league’s pseudo-legal structure for reviewing on-field misconduct—to be of profound discursive significance, despite these matters being non-tribunal in nature. Reportage privileges discursive themes of ‘precedent’ and ‘fairness’, which work to construct homophobic abuse as a relative hierarchy so that harm and significance can be quantified into ‘weeks of suspension’. The context of the use of antigay slurs received outsized attention, which individualises the incidents and obscured the broader perception of an institutional culture of homophobia in the AFL. Mediating a cultural problem through such themes, we contend, ultimately imagines homophobia in the AFL as something to be fixed through punishment. This article therefore argues the discursive significance of the AFL tribunal on circulating media and considers how such reporting frameworks obscure cultural challenges while exonerating the League from meaningful accountability.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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