Abstract
Researchers have paid close attention to the subject of sports media. Their studies, however, tend to focus on production, coverage, promotion, sports management (Raney and Bryant, 2006; Schultz and Arke, 2015), fans consumption (Billings, 2011; Kim and Mao, 2021), the history of TV broadcasting to multiple media platforms (Deninger, 2022), and sports mediatization (Frandsen, 2020). In his most recent book, Jason Kido Lopez investigates how sports media capitalize on the epistemic uncertainty of sports to create their own genre.
Epistemic uncertainty is the belief that the final outcome of a sporting event is never known to anyone. Even though sports are mediated by the media, the genre is known as live and real competition. However, sports media in this context is more than just mediated sports. Through the genre of “live and real competition” (p. 5), they construct a definition of sport to be articulated along the communicative chain from production, messages, and emotions to societal acceptance. As a result, the definition of sport will never be definite. This book is divided into an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion that discuss the importance of live and real competition in the formation, maintenance, and intersection of sports media with other genres.
The first chapter discusses how the sports media industry creates and commodifies the live and real competition genre. The initial investigations focused on sports leagues and events. Through competition in the field, the organizing institution develops the genre of live and real competition. Meanwhile, through rules and punishments, epistemic uncertainty is maintained to create competitive contests. Following that, sports journalism and broadcasting explored the genre’s expression. Then, to meet these expectations, sports documentaries, reality TV shows, commentators, and advertisements are broadcast. As a result, the multimedia complex capitalizes on and strengthens this genre.
The second chapter addresses the relationship between general expectations of live and real competition and the “hegemonic ideologies” (p. 37) used throughout the sports media landscape. An example of validated hegemonic ideologies is identity discrimination, such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and nationality. Through the generic marker of sport, which is the expectation of physical competition, these discriminatory and even racist behaviors are normalized. As a result, men are thought to be more superior and agile than women, and heterosexual men are always portrayed as stars. Another instance is a meritocracy, which is a strengthened hegemonic ideology in which inequality is seen as normal because everyone’s success is determined by individual efforts. This is known as “The Great Sports Myth” (GSM), and it refers to the “belief in the inherent purity and goodness of sports” (p. 39). The GSM operates in a competitive dichotomy in sports, so that any hegemonic and meritocratic ideology is acceptable to be represented, even if it oppresses other parties. Consequently, in sports media, identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality must be acknowledged not only as a categorical variable but also as an unequal power relationship.
The third chapter demonstrates how athletes’ expressions can send “a counter-hegemonic message” to sports media (p. 58). If the message is delivered by a well-known athlete, his every move and word is scrutinized and widely discussed. Hence, athletes’ expression in live and real competition can be both a benefit and a drawback for sports media companies. This is where the chasm can be exploited to combat the hegemonic ideology propagated by the sports media industry. Therefore, this chapter describes the company’s efforts to shape how athletes communicate while remaining “live and real” for the industry’s benefit. This section also discusses activism efforts in and through sports media against racism and other social injustices by utilizing live and real-world situations.
Chapter 4 investigates how fans form opinions about sports media in terms of live and real competition. Nonetheless, fandom is not deterministically opposed to sports media; rather, fandom, in collaboration with the sports media industry, creates broad expectations for sports media. This suggests that fandom may either dismiss or embrace the construction of sports media ideas; therefore, the sports media industry accommodates fandom’s participation in the construction of live and real competition.
The preceding chapters investigate how the live and real competition genres are constructed and represented in the sports media industry, as well as athlete expression, identity representation, and fandom. Chapter 5 explores sports games that use general sports expectations to be closely related to sports aspects. These games make use of the live and real competition genre as an appeal. They include “fantasy sports, sports betting, video games, and esports” (p. 90). Each game takes advantage of one or more aspects of the genre in its own unique way. Sports video games develop into simulation variants of the liveness and realness of sports, whereas gambling games rely on the epistemic uncertainties of sports. Esports do not simply adopt as they become more like sports in general. Physical competition is valued in sports when performing extraordinary feats. Similarly, esports value athletes’ speed of action, response, and coordination.
The distinction between esports and sports is a fandom. Esports’ fandoms can use distinct methods of identification because they frequently play games that esports athletes do as well. Lopez additionally asserted that the nature of the genre is so fragile that sports frequently intersect with other genres, such as “reality TV, game shows and even scripted television” (p. 109). In other words, genres can mutually adopt each other, making importing aspects from one another unavoidable.
In conclusion, this book defines genres and expectations for live and real competition in the context of sport as a mediated entertainment product. This common sports marker cannot be distinguished from others. For this reason, in order to maintain epistemic uncertainty, sports shape and are shaped by other genres. With this viewpoint provided, this book is excellent and helpful for media and cultural studies. The genre-specific conventions investigated provide a new foundation for comprehending and researching sports media. Even the methods of analysis presented can be used to analyze media that is not even related to sports. Meanwhile, in the hegemonic ideologies of the sports media genre, the side that needs further elaboration is the counter-hegemonic opportunity to voice injustice in both sports and social life. As a consequence, it appears that further investigation is required for each type of sports media.
