Strategic Communication Studies Faculty Publications

‘Brett Favre is a God’: Sports Fans' Perpetuation of Mythology on Newspaper Websites

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2013

Disciplines

Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sports Studies

Abstract

Book description:
The study of sports fandom has garnered the attention of seasoned scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. Identity and socialization among sports fans are particular burgeoning areas of study in the social sciences. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization captures an eclectic collection of new studies from scholars in fields such as communication, business, geography, kinesiology, media, and sports management and administration, using a wide range of methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, and critical analyses.

In the communication revolution of the twenty-first century, the study of mediated sports is critical. As fans use all media at their disposal to consume sports and carry their sports-viewing experience online, they are seizing the initiative and asserting themselves into the mediated sports-dissemination process. They are occupying traditional roles of consumers/receivers of sports, but also as sharers and sports content creators. Fans are becoming pseudo sports journalists. They are interpreting mediated sports content for other fans. They are making their voice heard by sports organizations and athletes. Mediated sports, in essence, provide a context for studying and understanding where and how the communication revolution of the twenty-first century is being waged.

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