Reflections on Communication and Sport

Abstract

In this essay, David Andrews examines the intriguing nexus of celebrity and race in the context of mediated sport. As a suggestive, rather than comprehensive examination of the study of sport, celebrity, and race, the treatment attempts to illuminate the derivation, complexities, and absences within this field of intellectual inquiry. After a brief discussion of why the relationship between communication and sport matters in social and cultural terms, insight is given to the author’s engagement with celebrity- and race-focused research. This is followed by a brief overview of the celebrity and race research, highlighting its genesis, major themes, and foci. Paying particular attention to the U.S.-based studies, this discussion provides a rationale for the intensification of sport, celebrity, and race research in the late 1980s and early 1990s, draws attention to studies representative of the major strands of inquiry, and highlights heretofore understudied areas. Finally, the prospects and directions for further inquiry on the nexus of celebrity and race in the context of mediated sport are briefly considered.