Reflections on Communication and Sport

Abstract

In this essay, Raymond Boyle reflects on how the study of sport within media and communication studies has evolved in the United Kingdom over the last 20 years. The first part of essay comments on the cultural importance of communication and sport. The second section traces the influences on the author’s research agenda, particularly in the area of sport journalism and the structural changes brought to it by digital media. Here, Boyle comments on the most influential scholars and works on communication and sport. The focus section of the essay considers the evolution of sport journalism and the changing role of sports journalists. In this section, the author considers the nexus of marketization, commercialization, and the internationalization of sport journalism and comments on the rise of public relations and the synergies between the sports industry and the entertainment industries. The focus section further considers the real and projected effects of digital journalism and the potential of citizen journalists to transform sport journalism. The essay closes with consideration of future research that will be needed to help us understand the cultural impacts of technological change on the role of sport journalism.