Pub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1177/21674795251356927
Shannon Scovel, Kelli S. Boling
On August 30, 2023, the Nebraska women’s volleyball team played in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, breaking a record for the highest-attended women’s sporting event. Using hegemony and feminist standpoint theory, this study offers a feminist critical discourse analysis of 1,079 X posts published before, during, and after the game and addresses how fans discussed this landmark moment in women’s sports. This paper also identifies moments of feminist empowerment limited within a sporting system built around male athletes. The findings from this study contribute to understandings of women’s college sports fandom in the digital age.
{"title":"“Can You Believe This Was Once a Football School?:” Social Media Fan Discourse Before, During, and After Nebraska’s Record-Setting Volleyball Game","authors":"Shannon Scovel, Kelli S. Boling","doi":"10.1177/21674795251356927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251356927","url":null,"abstract":"On August 30, 2023, the Nebraska women’s volleyball team played in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, breaking a record for the highest-attended women’s sporting event. Using hegemony and feminist standpoint theory, this study offers a feminist critical discourse analysis of 1,079 X posts published before, during, and after the game and addresses how fans discussed this landmark moment in women’s sports. This paper also identifies moments of feminist empowerment limited within a sporting system built around male athletes. The findings from this study contribute to understandings of women’s college sports fandom in the digital age.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578838","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 : 2025-06-25DOI: 10.1177/21674795251356405
Katherine L. Lavelle
Health promotion sporting events have increased fundraising and promoting awareness for many conditions. While a variety of causes are connected to sports via Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), those linked to a specific person can bring even more attention. In women’s college basketball, the annual Play4Kay games are held honoring the late Coach Kay Yow to fundraise for breast cancer research and education. In this essay, I examine how the February 5, 2024 television broadcast of the Play4Kay game between Louisville and North Carolina State University uses Coach Kay Yow as a heroic figure for health promotion. This game emphasizes the connected values of success in basketball, inner strength, early testing for breast cancer, and finding a cure. This textual analysis examines game coverage which uses connected values to promote support for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. The broadcast of the game emphasizes the legacy of Coach Yow, the tyranny of cheerfulness, the mission of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, and how we fundraise in sporting events.
{"title":"“Let it Kick You Forward” and Health Promotion: Coach Kay as a Hero in Cancer Fundraising","authors":"Katherine L. Lavelle","doi":"10.1177/21674795251356405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251356405","url":null,"abstract":"Health promotion sporting events have increased fundraising and promoting awareness for many conditions. While a variety of causes are connected to sports via Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), those linked to a specific person can bring even more attention. In women’s college basketball, the annual Play4Kay games are held honoring the late Coach Kay Yow to fundraise for breast cancer research and education. In this essay, I examine how the February 5, 2024 television broadcast of the Play4Kay game between Louisville and North Carolina State University uses Coach Kay Yow as a heroic figure for health promotion. This game emphasizes the connected values of success in basketball, inner strength, early testing for breast cancer, and finding a cure. This textual analysis examines game coverage which uses connected values to promote support for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. The broadcast of the game emphasizes the legacy of Coach Yow, the tyranny of cheerfulness, the mission of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, and how we fundraise in sporting events.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144513339","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 : 2025-06-13DOI: 10.1177/21674795251351725
Andrew C. Billings
{"title":"Echoes and Evolutions: Reflecting on the Past to Shape the Future of Sports Communication","authors":"Andrew C. Billings","doi":"10.1177/21674795251351725","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251351725","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144296109","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 : 2025-05-29DOI: 10.1177/21674795251346506
Soyon Michelle Choi, Natalie Brown-Devlin, Eunjoo Jin
This study explores how FoMO fosters sports fan attachment and enhances team identification in the context of online sports fandom. Grounded in social capital theory and social identity theory, this paper investigates how sports fans’ experiences with FoMO activate socially driven behaviors, particularly social media involvement, which build attachment to sports and deepen team identification. An online survey of 451 U.S. based participants revealed that FoMO strongly correlates to social media involvement, which in turn enhances sports attachment and team identification; additionally, a moderating effect was observed among sports fans with moderate to high levels of bridging social capital, suggesting that fans with broader weak-tie networks gain more from FoMO-driven engagement. These findings reframe FoMO as a prosocial motivator within digital fan communities. The research also provides theoretical insights into FoMO’s role in identity-building and recommends practical approaches for sports organizations to boost long-term fan engagement.
{"title":"Connecting Through Fear of Missing Out (FoMO): Social Media Involvement and Team Identification Among Sports Fans","authors":"Soyon Michelle Choi, Natalie Brown-Devlin, Eunjoo Jin","doi":"10.1177/21674795251346506","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251346506","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores how FoMO fosters sports fan attachment and enhances team identification in the context of online sports fandom. Grounded in social capital theory and social identity theory, this paper investigates how sports fans’ experiences with FoMO activate socially driven behaviors, particularly social media involvement, which build attachment to sports and deepen team identification. An online survey of 451 U.S. based participants revealed that FoMO strongly correlates to social media involvement, which in turn enhances sports attachment and team identification; additionally, a moderating effect was observed among sports fans with moderate to high levels of bridging social capital, suggesting that fans with broader weak-tie networks gain more from FoMO-driven engagement. These findings reframe FoMO as a prosocial motivator within digital fan communities. The research also provides theoretical insights into FoMO’s role in identity-building and recommends practical approaches for sports organizations to boost long-term fan engagement.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144193317","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 : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1177/21674795251347533
Leah M. Monsees
Employing Discourse-Theoretical Analysis coined by Laclau and Mouffe, this multi-case study examines how talent is constructed in elite youth football academies in Sweden and Germany. Based on an analysis of sixteen semi-structured interviews with coaches, scouts and sporting directors, the study identified both distinctive and overlapping patterns, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of how discursive practices shape, reinforce, and challenge conceptions of (football) talent. These dynamics are evident in the construction of the constitutive other, the repetition and reinforcement of hegemonic beliefs and power structures. The study underscores how talent functions as an empty signifier rather than a fixed or universally agreed-upon concept, which is continuously (re)negotiated through discursive struggles and marked by power and exclusion. Moreover, and with discourse-theoretical analysis being a valuable yet underutilize approach within research on communication and sport, the study also expands the theoretical and methodological scope of the field by offering a novel perspective. While offering nuanced insights into how talent is constructed and communicated, this post-structuralist study should be viewed as a context-sensitive interpretation of two specific settings, rather than a universally generalizable account.
{"title":"Talent Constructions in German and Swedish Academy Football: A Discourse-Theoretical Approach","authors":"Leah M. Monsees","doi":"10.1177/21674795251347533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251347533","url":null,"abstract":"Employing Discourse-Theoretical Analysis coined by Laclau and Mouffe, this multi-case study examines how talent is constructed in elite youth football academies in Sweden and Germany. Based on an analysis of sixteen semi-structured interviews with coaches, scouts and sporting directors, the study identified both distinctive and overlapping patterns, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of how discursive practices shape, reinforce, and challenge conceptions of (football) talent. These dynamics are evident in the construction of the constitutive other, the repetition and reinforcement of hegemonic beliefs and power structures. The study underscores how talent functions as an empty signifier rather than a fixed or universally agreed-upon concept, which is continuously (re)negotiated through discursive struggles and marked by power and exclusion. Moreover, and with discourse-theoretical analysis being a valuable yet underutilize approach within research on communication and sport, the study also expands the theoretical and methodological scope of the field by offering a novel perspective. While offering nuanced insights into how talent is constructed and communicated, this post-structuralist study should be viewed as a context-sensitive interpretation of two specific settings, rather than a universally generalizable account.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"128 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144165146","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 : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1177/21674795251346987
R. Glenn Cummins, Dustin Hahn
Capping off a series of responses to a systematic review of 10 years of Communication & Sport , this essay underscores a few common observations and offers a few concluding thoughts on the “messy scholarly playing field” that may characterize scholarship within the journal. In an effort to better unify those exploring the nexus of communication and sport, this essay calls for greater effort to present our scholarship in a way that is accessible to all publishing in Communication & Sport and beyond.
{"title":"Finding Teammates on a Messy Playing Field: Continued Thoughts on 10 Years of Theory & Method in Communication & Sport","authors":"R. Glenn Cummins, Dustin Hahn","doi":"10.1177/21674795251346987","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251346987","url":null,"abstract":"Capping off a series of responses to a systematic review of 10 years of <jats:italic>Communication & Sport</jats:italic> , this essay underscores a few common observations and offers a few concluding thoughts on the “messy scholarly playing field” that may characterize scholarship within the journal. In an effort to better unify those exploring the nexus of communication and sport, this essay calls for greater effort to present our scholarship in a way that is accessible to all publishing in <jats:italic>Communication & Sport</jats:italic> and beyond.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144165145","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 : 2025-05-26DOI: 10.1177/21674795251345054
Caroline Patatt, Micaela Cabral, Carla Cerqueira
Motherhood forms part of the life trajectory of many Olympic athletes. In this context, numerous news articles have focused on the sport–motherhood dyad. This paper seeks to contribute to this field of study, particularly through the lens of countries in the Global South. It compares the coverage of Olympic athletes engaged in motherhood by the most accessed sports news portals in Brazil and Spain. The corpus of analysis comprises articles published by the leading sports websites in Brazil and Spain — GE and MARCA, respectively — between January 2021 and August 2024, spanning the Tokyo and Paris Olympic cycles. The methodology combines thematic content analysis and interviews. The findings reveal a shared journalistic tendency to frame the topic through narratives of difficulty and exceptionality, often romanticising the subject and marginalising its athletic dimension. Notwithstanding the pervasive bias that subordinates athletes' professional achievements to their personal lives, there has been a growing space for politicised debates on the sport–motherhood intersection, contributing to positive developments — particularly influenced by maternal activism.
{"title":"Motherhood in the Olympic Context: An Analysis of News Published on the Most Accessed Sports Websites in Brazil and Spain","authors":"Caroline Patatt, Micaela Cabral, Carla Cerqueira","doi":"10.1177/21674795251345054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251345054","url":null,"abstract":"Motherhood forms part of the life trajectory of many Olympic athletes. In this context, numerous news articles have focused on the sport–motherhood dyad. This paper seeks to contribute to this field of study, particularly through the lens of countries in the Global South. It compares the coverage of Olympic athletes engaged in motherhood by the most accessed sports news portals in Brazil and Spain. The corpus of analysis comprises articles published by the leading sports websites in Brazil and Spain — GE and MARCA, respectively — between January 2021 and August 2024, spanning the Tokyo and Paris Olympic cycles. The methodology combines thematic content analysis and interviews. The findings reveal a shared journalistic tendency to frame the topic through narratives of difficulty and exceptionality, often romanticising the subject and marginalising its athletic dimension. Notwithstanding the pervasive bias that subordinates athletes' professional achievements to their personal lives, there has been a growing space for politicised debates on the sport–motherhood intersection, contributing to positive developments — particularly influenced by maternal activism.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144145560","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 : 2025-05-26DOI: 10.1177/21674795251344047
Stephen Warren
This study explores the reactions of New England Patriots fans to a rookie player’s association with a far-right militia group and objectionable social media posts. Drawing on moral reasoning, team identification, and social identity theories, the cross-sectional survey examines how fans’ team identification and political ideology influence their moral decoupling, moral rationalization, and moral coupling. Findings reveal that as team identification increases and political ideology becomes more conservative, fans are more likely to engage in moral decoupling and rationalization. However, the relationship between team identification and moral reasoning is moderated and weakened by political ideology. Die-hard Patriots fans, regardless of political ideology, equally engaged in moral decoupling and rationalization, while conservatives among slight fans are significantly more likely to do so compared to liberals.
{"title":"Sports Fan Moral Reasoning Strategies in Response to an Athlete’s Controversial Political Associations","authors":"Stephen Warren","doi":"10.1177/21674795251344047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251344047","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the reactions of New England Patriots fans to a rookie player’s association with a far-right militia group and objectionable social media posts. Drawing on moral reasoning, team identification, and social identity theories, the cross-sectional survey examines how fans’ team identification and political ideology influence their moral decoupling, moral rationalization, and moral coupling. Findings reveal that as team identification increases and political ideology becomes more conservative, fans are more likely to engage in moral decoupling and rationalization. However, the relationship between team identification and moral reasoning is moderated and weakened by political ideology. Die-hard Patriots fans, regardless of political ideology, equally engaged in moral decoupling and rationalization, while conservatives among slight fans are significantly more likely to do so compared to liberals.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144145564","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 : 2025-05-25DOI: 10.1177/21674795251343267
Mahdi Latififard, Michael Mirer
This quantitative content analysis examines the framing of women’s sports in Iran by both mainstream and alternative media outlets and users’ comments on the posts. Data were collected in 2023 from Instagram pages representing mainstream (Varzesh3) and alternative (Iran International) media sources, yielding a sample of 149 posts and 14,442 user comments. The scheme code was executed based on data using quantitative content analysis and did not rely on previous research’s codebook. Media frames were categorized into seven thematic areas, while user responses were coded across eight distinct framing categories. Statistically significant differences emerged in some media frames. Significant differences in user framing were observed for all categories except one. Additionally, certain specific distinctions were observed in the framing of some media posts. User framing broadly reflected media-driven political orientations. The observed discrepancies between media and user framing underscore the critical role of the political information environment in shaping media consumption and production within both mainstream and alternative media contexts, suggesting that sports media can convene counter publics even in highly controlled media systems.
{"title":"Alternative Versus Mainstream Media: Representing of Women’s Sport in Iranian Sports News and Users’ Comments","authors":"Mahdi Latififard, Michael Mirer","doi":"10.1177/21674795251343267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251343267","url":null,"abstract":"This quantitative content analysis examines the framing of women’s sports in Iran by both mainstream and alternative media outlets and users’ comments on the posts. Data were collected in 2023 from Instagram pages representing mainstream (Varzesh3) and alternative (Iran International) media sources, yielding a sample of 149 posts and 14,442 user comments. The scheme code was executed based on data using quantitative content analysis and did not rely on previous research’s codebook. Media frames were categorized into seven thematic areas, while user responses were coded across eight distinct framing categories. Statistically significant differences emerged in some media frames. Significant differences in user framing were observed for all categories except one. Additionally, certain specific distinctions were observed in the framing of some media posts. User framing broadly reflected media-driven political orientations. The observed discrepancies between media and user framing underscore the critical role of the political information environment in shaping media consumption and production within both mainstream and alternative media contexts, suggesting that sports media can convene counter publics even in highly controlled media systems.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144133691","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 : 2025-05-08DOI: 10.1177/21674795251341309
Elisabetta Zengaro, Heather J. Carmack
Retirement from sport can be one of the most difficult transitions for athletes who must cope with the loss of athlete identity in redefining their purpose outside of sports. Prior research has indicated the life after sports phase can pose mental health challenges in terms of identity crisis, depression, and anxiety for former athletes who cannot successfully navigate this transition. Guided by the Meaning Making Model, the following qualitative study adds to the literature by exploring how former NCAA and NAIA collegiate athletes describe their identity and how their experiences shaped their attitudes of mental health during life after sports. This research followed a narrative inquiry approach based on individual semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a total of 25 former collegiate athletes enrolled at various NCAA and NAIA institutions. Results led to an overall narrative that is presented in the analysis, “Life After Sports: Navigating Identity and Mental Health After Sports.” Results indicated participants’ difficulty in navigating life after sports, along with a new awareness of mental health once removed from competition, the implications of which are discussed.
{"title":"“It’s Your Whole Life:” Navigating Identity and Mental Health in Life after Sports","authors":"Elisabetta Zengaro, Heather J. Carmack","doi":"10.1177/21674795251341309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251341309","url":null,"abstract":"Retirement from sport can be one of the most difficult transitions for athletes who must cope with the loss of athlete identity in redefining their purpose outside of sports. Prior research has indicated the life after sports phase can pose mental health challenges in terms of identity crisis, depression, and anxiety for former athletes who cannot successfully navigate this transition. Guided by the Meaning Making Model, the following qualitative study adds to the literature by exploring how former NCAA and NAIA collegiate athletes describe their identity and how their experiences shaped their attitudes of mental health during life after sports. This research followed a narrative inquiry approach based on individual semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a total of 25 former collegiate athletes enrolled at various NCAA and NAIA institutions. Results led to an overall narrative that is presented in the analysis, “Life After Sports: Navigating Identity and Mental Health After Sports.” Results indicated participants’ difficulty in navigating life after sports, along with a new awareness of mental health once removed from competition, the implications of which are discussed.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143927320","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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