Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Sport, the Media and Popular Culture
- 2 All Our Yesterdays: A History of Media Sport
- 3 A Sporting Triangle: Television, Sport and Sponsorship
- 4 Power Game: Why Sport Matters to Television
- 5 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Media Sport and Stardom
- 6 The Race Game: Media Sport, Race and Ethnicity
- 7 Playing the Game: Media Sport and Gender
- 8 Games Across Frontiers: Mediated Sport and National Identity
- 9 The Sports Pages: Journalism and Sport
- 10 Consuming Sport: Fans, Fandom and the Audience
- 11 Conclusion: Sport in the Digital Age
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Sport, the Media and Popular Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Sport, the Media and Popular Culture
- 2 All Our Yesterdays: A History of Media Sport
- 3 A Sporting Triangle: Television, Sport and Sponsorship
- 4 Power Game: Why Sport Matters to Television
- 5 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Media Sport and Stardom
- 6 The Race Game: Media Sport, Race and Ethnicity
- 7 Playing the Game: Media Sport and Gender
- 8 Games Across Frontiers: Mediated Sport and National Identity
- 9 The Sports Pages: Journalism and Sport
- 10 Consuming Sport: Fans, Fandom and the Audience
- 11 Conclusion: Sport in the Digital Age
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Sport is at once both trivial and serious, inconsequential yet of symbolic significance … Sport in many cases informs and refuels the popular memory of communities, and offers a source of collective identification and community expression for those who follow teams and individuals.
(Sugden and Tomlinson, 1994: 3)… where Il Sole was available most of the prisoners, including politicals, read La Gazzetta dello Sport.
(Observations made while in prison in Milan by Antonio Gramsci, in Forgacs, 1988: 376)Introduction
Without question one of the great passions of the twentieth century has been sport. The opening decade of the twenty-first century suggests that this passion remains unabated. Sport continues to matter to thousands of players and fans across the globe, with differing sports playing a particularly important role in the cultural life of countries and people. While football is the global game, other sports such as baseball occupy a central position in American popular culture, cricket and Aussie Rules in Australian life, Gaelic games in Ireland, cricket and basketball in Caribbean culture, while rugby union is important in constructions of Welsh and New Zealand national identities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Power PlaySport, the Media and Popular Culture, pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2009