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This paper explores how in-house sports reporters—those who write for team- and league-branded websites—locate themselves within the sports media production complex. It builds from perspectives on professionalism that view it as a dynamic... more
This paper explores how in-house sports reporters—those who write for team- and league-branded websites—locate themselves within the sports media production complex. It builds from perspectives on professionalism that view it as a dynamic process of defining boundaries and building relationships between systemic stakeholders. The interview data presented here find that in-house reporters accentuate professional similarities to beat reporters and use this identity to build unique roles in sports organizations’ corporate structures. This push to define themselves as a distinct job category within the constellation of sports media professions speaks to the active work occupational groups engage in, and is reshaping the media system. The paper argues for a broader reconsideration of professional definitions, actors, and relationships within the sports media system as digital technology and other changes have altered preexisting relationships.
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This paper explores how in-house sports reporters—those who write for team- and league-branded websites—locate themselves within the sports media production complex. It builds from perspectives on professionalism that view it as a dynamic... more
This paper explores how in-house sports reporters—those who write for team- and league-branded websites—locate themselves within the sports media production complex. It builds from perspectives on professionalism that view it as a dynamic process of defining boundaries and building relationships between systemic stakeholders. The interview data presented here find that in-house reporters accentuate professional similarities to beat reporters and use this identity to build unique roles in sports organizations’ corporate structures. This push to define themselves as a distinct job category within the constellation of sports media professions speaks to the active work occupational groups engage in, and is reshaping the media system. The paper argues for a broader reconsideration of professional definitions, actors, and relationships within the sports media system as digital technology and other changes have altered preexisting relationships.
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Sports leagues and teams have entered the media industry, producing news content about themselves for broad consumption. The content producers behind these stories still largely position themselves as journalists, despite their lack of... more
Sports leagues and teams have entered the media industry, producing news content about themselves for broad consumption. The content producers behind these stories still largely position themselves as journalists, despite their lack of independence. They do so by engaging in boundary work, a process in which professional authority is won by enlisting other stakeholders in recognizing an occupational group’s jurisdiction over a societal task. While much of the debate over in-house reporting focuses on acceptance within the journalistic community, readers are also an important and underexplored stakeholder. This textual analysis of reader response to in-house coverage of athlete protest suggests that fans may respond to this content in ways that contest the commercial mission of a team website. As such, readers may be drawing their own boundaries in a media system with in-house content producers, and scholars should explore these questions.
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As sports reemerge as a site for social protest, league- and team-controlled media are a new forum for the spread and consideration of political messages. In-house sites challenge established boundaries between journalism and promotional... more
As sports reemerge as a site for social protest, league- and team-controlled media are a new forum for the spread and consideration of political messages. In-house sites challenge established boundaries between journalism and promotional content, but they seek to engage readers by establishing themselves as credible sources, although judgments about credibility are ultimately up to the audience. This content and textual analysis uses social protest by athletes following comments by President Donald Trump about National Football League (NFL) players in September 2017 as a means of exploring the terms of engagement in team media between site producers and audience. In content produced about the protest, writers for NFL team sites stressed the ideas of unity and collaboration expressed by players and executives. Fan response on Facebook was harshly critical toward the protesting athletes, teams, and NFL. These findings suggest in-house media may amplify messages of social protest, but ...
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As sports reemerge as a site for social protest, league-and team-controlled media are a new forum for the spread and consideration of political messages. In-house sites challenge established boundaries between journalism and promotional... more
As sports reemerge as a site for social protest, league-and team-controlled media are a new forum for the spread and consideration of political messages. In-house sites challenge established boundaries between journalism and promotional content, but they seek to engage readers by establishing themselves as credible sources, although judgments about credibility are ultimately up to the audience. This content and textual analysis uses social protest by athletes following comments by President Donald Trump about National Football League (NFL) players in September 2017 as a means of exploring the terms of engagement in team media between site producers and audience. In content produced about the protest, writers for NFL team sites stressed the ideas of unity and collaboration expressed by players and executives. Fan response on Facebook was harshly critical toward the protesting athletes, teams, and NFL. These findings suggest in-house media may amplify messages of social protest, but fans use their power in this space to contest those messages. At the same time, the use of in-house spaces as equivalent to newspaper comment sections further casts team media content as less overtly promotional.
Team-and league-operated media play a growing role in the sports media system. Few have looked at how audiences perceive the credibility of in-house content, which regularly mimics traditional sports journalism. An experimental analysis... more
Team-and league-operated media play a growing role in the sports media system. Few have looked at how audiences perceive the credibility of in-house content, which regularly mimics traditional sports journalism. An experimental analysis finds that even among fans, independent media content is rated more credible than that produced in-house. Fans view stories accusing their team of wrongdoing as biased even as they find them credible. A fter months of frenzied news coverage, accusations of wrongdoing and punishments , a federal judge overturned an National Football League (NFL)-imposed four-game suspension for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on
As sports reemerge as a site for social protest, league-and team-controlled media are a new forum for the spread and consideration of political messages. In-house sites challenge established boundaries between journalism and promotional... more
As sports reemerge as a site for social protest, league-and team-controlled media are a new forum for the spread and consideration of political messages. In-house sites challenge established boundaries between journalism and promotional content, but they seek to engage readers by establishing themselves as credible sources, although judgments about credibility are ultimately up to the audience. This content and textual analysis uses social protest by athletes following comments by President Donald Trump about National Football League (NFL) players in September 2017 as a means of exploring the terms of engagement in team media between site producers and audience. In content produced about the protest, writers for NFL team sites stressed the ideas of unity and collaboration expressed by players and executives. Fan response on Facebook was harshly critical toward the protesting athletes, teams, and NFL. These findings suggest in-house media may amplify messages of social protest, but fans use their power in this space to contest those messages. At the same time, the use of in-house spaces as equivalent to newspaper comment sections further casts team media content as less overtly promotional.
The concession and victory speech is a ritual in American politics, described by Corcoran as a "rite of capitulation," in which both candidates at the end of an election sanction the legitimacy of the process, agree on the outcome, and... more
The concession and victory speech is a ritual in American politics, described by Corcoran as a "rite of capitulation," in which both candidates at the end of an election sanction the legitimacy of the process, agree on the outcome, and start the political transition. Concession and victory speeches emerged as a distinct convention in the television era, but as web services like Twitter take on a larger role in electoral politics, traditions like the concession are being adapted to new formats. The literature has identified a series of substantive and procedural conventions for conceding and claiming victory, but it is unclear how these conventions hold up as technology evolves. An examination of 200 Twitter feeds from congressional, senatorial, and gubernatorial candidates during the 2010 midterm elections shows that while candidates touch some of the traditional concession themes, the procedural rules to concession have not migrated unchanged to the online world. American elections unfold in a series of rituals. From town halls to convention speeches to televised debates, the media and voters evaluate candidates, at least in part, by how