Sport is a universal feature of global popular culture. It shapes our
identities, affects our relationships, and defines our communities. It
also influences our consumption habits, represents our cultures, and
dramatizes our politics. In other words, sport is among the most
prominent vehicles for communication available in daily life.
Nevertheless, only recently has it begun to receive robust attention in
the discipline of communication studies. The Handbook of Communication
and Sport attends to the recent and rapid growth of scholarship in
communication and media studies that features sport as a central site of
inquiry. The book attempts to capture a full range of methods, theories,
and topics that have come to define the subfield of "communication and
sport" or "sports communication." It does so by emphasizing four primary
features. First, it foregrounds "communication" as central to the study
of sport. This emphasis helps to distinguish the book from collections
in related disciplines such as sociology, and also points readers beyond
media as the primary or only context for understanding the relationship
between communication and sport. Thus, in addition to studies of media
effects, mediatization, media framing, and more, readers will also
engage with studies in interpersonal, intercultural, organizational, and
rhetorical communication. Second, the handbook presents an array of
methods, theories, and topics in the effort to chart a comprehensive
landscape of communication and sport scholarship. Thus, readers will
benefit from empirical, interpretive, and critical work, and they will
also see studies drawing on varied texts and sites of inquiry. Third,
the Handbook of Communication and Sport includes a broad range of
scholars from around the world. It is therefore neither European nor
North American in its primary focus. In addition, the book includes
contributors from commonly under-represented regions in Asia, Africa,
and South America. Fourth, the handbook aims to account for both
historical trajectories and contemporary areas of interest. In this way,
it covers the central topics, debates, and perspectives from the past
and also suggests continued and emerging pathways for the future.
Collectively, the Handbook of Communication and Sport aspires to provide
scholars and students in communication and media studies with the most
comprehensive assessment of the field available.
