Short description:

Digital Media Sport analyzes the intersecting issues of technological change, market power, and cultural practices that shape the contemporary global sports media landscape. The complexity of these related issues demands an interdisciplinary approach that is adopted here in a series of thematically organized essays by international scholars working in media studies, Internet studies, sociology, cultural studies, and sports studies.?

Long description:

Live broadband streaming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics accounted for 2,200 of the estimated 3,600 total hours shown by the American NBC-Universal networks. At the 2012 London Olympics, unprecedented multi-platforming embraced online, mobile devices, game consoles and broadcast television, with the BBC providing 2,500 hours of live coverage, including every competitive event, much in high definition and some in 3D. The BBC also had 12 million requests for video on mobile phones and 9.2 million browsers on its mobile Olympics website and app. This pattern will only intensify at future sport mega events like the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, both of which will take place in Brazil. Increasingly, when people talk of the screen that delivers footage of their favorite professional sport, they are describing desktop, laptop, and tablet computer screens as well as television and mobile handsets.

Digital Media Sport analyzes the intersecting issues of technological change, market power, and cultural practices that shape the contemporary global sports media landscape. The complexity of these related issues demands an interdisciplinary approach that is adopted here in a series of thematically-organized essays by international scholars working in media studies, Internet studies, sociology, cultural studies, and sport studies.

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"Digital Media Sport is an enjoyable read and relatively accessible for scholars and students, offering an informative text that traces some of the key contemporary digital sport transformations from diverse theoretical perspectives. This work could usefully complement screened/ digital examples, and offers an invaluable resource for contemporary sport, media and internet researchers." ? Damion Sturm, University of Waikato

"In sum, this edited collection is a timely and much needed publication. The chapters, on the whole, effortlessly join together as the discussion builds step by step. The work is broad and offers a holistic picture of digital media sport, as researchers in this field continue to engage with contemporary challenges in a position of uncertainty and change...The book is well worth a read and would certainly be of use to media, cultural and journalism students as well as those with a broad interest in cyberculture and sport." ?Daniel Kilvington, Leeds Beckett University, UK in Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction: Sport in the Network Society and Why it Matters Brett Hutchins & David Rowe Part One: Evolving Technologies, Platforms and Markets 2. Sport and the Rise of Mobile Media Gerard Goggin 3. Desktop Day Games: Workspace Media, Multitasking and the Digital Baseball Fan Ethan Tussey 4. "SporTV": The Legacies and Power of Television Ben Goldsmith 5. The Struggle for Platform Leadership in the European Sports Broadcasting Market Tom Evens & Katrien Lefever 6. The Challenge of Unauthorized Online Streaming to the English Premier League and Television Broadcasters Andrew Kirton & Matthew David Part Two: Users, Audiences and Identities 7. Online Belongings: Female Fan Experiences in Online Football Forums Deirdre Hynes & Anne-Marie Cook 8. Eye Candy and Sex Objects: Race and Sport on YouTube David J. Leonard 9. Facebook, Twitter, and Sports Fans: Identity Protection and Social Network Sites in US Sports Jimmy Sanderson 10. Fan Movements in the Network Society: Project, Resistance and Legitimizing Identities among Manchester United Supporters Pete Millward 11. ?Born on Swan Street Next to the Yarra?: Online Opinion Leaders and Inventing Commitment Andy Ruddock Part Three: Content Ecologies, Social Software and Games 12. New Media Technologies in Lifestyle Sport Paul Gilchrist & Belinda Wheaton 13. Blogging the Beijing Olympics: The Neoliberal Logic of Chinese Web 2.0 Haiqing Yu 14. Sports Journalism and Social Media: A New Conversation? Raymond Boyle & Richard Haynes 15. Carnival Mirrors: Sport and Digital Games Steven Conway & Mark Finn 16. Privileged Men and Masculinities: Gender and Fantasy Sports Leagues Luke Howie & Perri Campbell