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Communication and Sport
Surveying the Field
Fifth Edition
- Andrew C. Billings - University of Alabama, USA
- Michael L. Butterworth - University of Texas at Austin, USA, University of Texas at Austin
- Nicky Lewis - Indiana University
August 2025 | SAGE Publications, Inc
Communication and Sport: Surveying the Field examines a wide array of topics necessary for students to understand sports media, rhetoric, culture, and organizations from micro to macro-level issues. Everything from youth to amateur to professional sports is addressed through varied useful lens such as mythology, community, and identity.
Communication and Sport introduces readers to the traditions and vocabulary found in communication scholarship as it then explains what distinguishes communication from related disciplinary approaches, such as sociology, anthropology, history, and cultural studies. Subsequent chapters explore such issues as: fan cultures; racial identity and gender in sports media; politics and nationality in sports; parent/child relationships and player/coach interactions in sports; sports and religion; and crisis communication in sports organization. In response to changes in the sporting landscape, the Fifth Edition features an extensive structural change and reorganization with newly designed units and chapters in addition to introducing a new coauthor Nicky Lewis.
Communication and Sport introduces readers to the traditions and vocabulary found in communication scholarship as it then explains what distinguishes communication from related disciplinary approaches, such as sociology, anthropology, history, and cultural studies. Subsequent chapters explore such issues as: fan cultures; racial identity and gender in sports media; politics and nationality in sports; parent/child relationships and player/coach interactions in sports; sports and religion; and crisis communication in sports organization. In response to changes in the sporting landscape, the Fifth Edition features an extensive structural change and reorganization with newly designed units and chapters in addition to introducing a new coauthor Nicky Lewis.
Preface
About the Book
New for the Fifth Edition
Features of the Book
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction to Communication and Sport
Chapter 2: Theoretical Approaches to Communication & Sport
Chapter 3: Interpersonal Interactions
Chapter 4: Small Group and Team Interactions
Chapter 5: Legacy Media Interactions
Chapter 6: Social and User-Generated Media Interactions
Chapter 4: Small Group and Team Interactions
Chapter 5: Legacy Media Interactions
Chapter 6: Social and User-Generated Media Interactions
Chapter 7: Sports Storytelling
Chapter 8: Sport and Mythology
Chapter 9: Media Representations of Sports Identity
Chapter 10: Performing Identity in Sports
Chapter 11: Sport and Politics
Chapter 12: Sport & National Identity
Chapter 13: Commericalism and Sport
Chapter 14: Reputation and Crisis Management in Sport
Chapter 15: Sports Gaming
This textbook is the standard for communication and sports courses. The authors interweave the key theories and principles of the discipline with the current trends in sport in ways that my students can understand.
Auburn University
The essential text to introduce students to the centrality of communication in sport - the authors discuss the crucial role that sport plays in the cultural foundations of modern society. The text doesn't hesitate to offer criticism of these foundations and offer communicative pathways to improve culture through sport.
Campbell University