What is Sports Journalism? How COVID-19 Accelerated a Redefining of U.S. Sports Reporting

Gregory P. Perreault; Daniel Nölleke

doi:10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237

What is Sports Journalism? How COVID-19 Accelerated a Redefining of U.S. Sports Reporting

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic placed sports journalism in a vulnerablestate, which necessitated a reconsideration of what it means toconduct sports journalism. Through the theoretical framework ofmetajournalistic discourse, the present study reports on a two-step discourse analysis of metajournalism on U.S. sportsjournalism (n= 166) published during the coronavirus pandemic.We argue that journalism vigorously defended the sportsjournalism subfield in the expectation that it would once againbecome newsrooms’economic engine. While historicallydenigrated as the“toy department,”sports journalism herereflected on this designation in a positive light: after all, aren’ttoys what bring people together? Even without live sports, sportsjournalism was still perceived as a specialty emphasizing socialcohesion.

Original language	American English
Journal	Journalism Studies
Volume	23
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237
State	Published - Jan 1 2022
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Metajournalistic Discourse
Sports Journalism
COVID-19
Definition Making
Discourseanalysis
Lifestyle Journalism

Access to Document

10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237License: CC BY

https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237

Cite this

@article{0c95d83372884966b686738ede59b62f,

title = "What is Sports Journalism? How COVID-19 Accelerated a Redefining of U.S. Sports Reporting",

abstract = " The coronavirus pandemic placed sports journalism in a vulnerablestate, which necessitated a reconsideration of what it means toconduct sports journalism. Through the theoretical framework ofmetajournalistic discourse, the present study reports on a two-step discourse analysis of metajournalism on U.S. sportsjournalism (n= 166) published during the coronavirus pandemic.We argue that journalism vigorously defended the sportsjournalism subfield in the expectation that it would once againbecome newsrooms{\textquoteright}economic engine. While historicallydenigrated as the“toy department,”sports journalism herereflected on this designation in a positive light: after all, aren{\textquoteright}ttoys what bring people together? Even without live sports, sportsjournalism was still perceived as a specialty emphasizing socialcohesion.",

keywords = "Metajournalistic Discourse, Sports Journalism, COVID-19, Definition Making, Discourseanalysis, Lifestyle Journalism",

author = "Perreault, {Gregory P.} and Daniel N{\"o}lleke",

note = "This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journalism Studies on 6 Sep 2022, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237.",

year = "2022",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237",

language = "American English",

volume = "23",

journal = "Journalism Studies",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - What is Sports Journalism? How COVID-19 Accelerated a Redefining of U.S. Sports Reporting

AU - Perreault, Gregory P.

AU - Nölleke, Daniel

N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journalism Studies on 6 Sep 2022, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237.

PY - 2022/1/1

Y1 - 2022/1/1

N2 - The coronavirus pandemic placed sports journalism in a vulnerablestate, which necessitated a reconsideration of what it means toconduct sports journalism. Through the theoretical framework ofmetajournalistic discourse, the present study reports on a two-step discourse analysis of metajournalism on U.S. sportsjournalism (n= 166) published during the coronavirus pandemic.We argue that journalism vigorously defended the sportsjournalism subfield in the expectation that it would once againbecome newsrooms’economic engine. While historicallydenigrated as the“toy department,”sports journalism herereflected on this designation in a positive light: after all, aren’ttoys what bring people together? Even without live sports, sportsjournalism was still perceived as a specialty emphasizing socialcohesion.

AB - The coronavirus pandemic placed sports journalism in a vulnerablestate, which necessitated a reconsideration of what it means toconduct sports journalism. Through the theoretical framework ofmetajournalistic discourse, the present study reports on a two-step discourse analysis of metajournalism on U.S. sportsjournalism (n= 166) published during the coronavirus pandemic.We argue that journalism vigorously defended the sportsjournalism subfield in the expectation that it would once againbecome newsrooms’economic engine. While historicallydenigrated as the“toy department,”sports journalism herereflected on this designation in a positive light: after all, aren’ttoys what bring people together? Even without live sports, sportsjournalism was still perceived as a specialty emphasizing socialcohesion.

KW - Metajournalistic Discourse

KW - Sports Journalism

KW - COVID-19

KW - Definition Making

KW - Discourseanalysis

KW - Lifestyle Journalism

UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/com_facpub/58

UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237

U2 - 10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237

DO - 10.1080/1461670X.2022.2117237

M3 - Article

VL - 23

JO - Journalism Studies

JF - Journalism Studies

ER -

What is Sports Journalism? How COVID-19 Accelerated a Redefining of U.S. Sports Reporting

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Cite this