Mass Media in Sport
My future career will involve some form of communication and reputation management in sports. Ideally, I will work for a soccer club, but looking forward, I’ll be happy working for any sports team initially. Communications are a massive part of sports, generating the franchise’s statements, making sure players and staff are well versed in media-fluency, handling crises well, and more are all pertinent parts of sports communication. For this reason, I chose to read and deconstruct a scholarly article regarding communication in sports.
The academic journal entry I have chosen is Promotional Space or Public Forum: Protest Coverage and Reader Response in Team-Operated Media by Michael Mirer and Adrianne Grubic.
The journal article takes a look at how the sports industry has reemerged as a place for social protest. Focusing mainly on the National Football League (NFL) and its players’ protests against racial inequality, the article starts off by discussing President Donald Trump’s attack on these players.
The polarising president was quoted at a rally in Alabama as saying, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a b**** off the field right now, out, he’s fired, he’s fired” (Johnson, 2017).
At the time, this was the headline story for every news outlet. However, a lot of the coverage surrounding the on-field protests came from the in-house media teams managed by the football teams themselves.
The overall purpose of this journal article is to analyze how the media landscape has changed as teams have taken on more responsibility in disseminating news and content.
In the findings, despite the total of 1,304 pieces of content posted among the 32 NFL franchises, there was a breakdown of the manner in which the protests were addressed.
The following are percents of certain aspects being addressed in the 1,304 total pieces of published content:
- 11.8% addressed players’ involvement in protests
- 7.8% involved reporter-produced information related to activism
- 2.4% addressed “protest” in the headline
Touching on reader reaction to the aforementioned content, there was a vast divide of responses that were both in opposition and in support of the protests.
According to the research, “The positive coverage seemed not to sway these posters toward a more benevolent view of player activism (though perhaps it did have an effect on those not moved to post)” (Mirer & Grubic, 2019)
Ultimately, the study being conducted through the gathering of data regarding the posting and interactions following players’ activism showed that no matter how positive teams’ in-house media teams painted the protests, fans were still mostly negative in reaction online. Despite sports franchises’ efforts to provide content regarding social activism surrounding their teams, fans have the ability and power to oppose this content and have a great influence on the media space.
