{"title":"“Why You Speakin’ for Me?”: Hip-Hop Epistemology, Discursive Continuity, and Black Athlete-Led Media as Resistance to Hegemonic Whiteness","authors":"Sayvon J. L. Foster","doi":"10.1177/21674795261441547","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261441547","url":null,"abstract":"Hip-hop serves as a Black cultural form that explains the Black experience, condition, and communicative patterns using language, imagery, and critique. Grounded in hip-hop epistemology (HHE) and hip-hop theorization (HHT), this study explores the discursive continuity of Black resistance to hegemonic whiteness by aligning GZA’s 1995 song, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Labels,</jats:italic> with commentary made by Black athlete-led media (BALM) contributors. With attention to Black athletes in the Men’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), this study positions their perspectives regarding sport media as central sites of contemporary Black cultural resistance. Using a parallel thematic content analysis, the findings revealed three connected themes - <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Why You Speakin’ for Me?</jats:italic> , <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Everybody Eats but the Chef,</jats:italic> and <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">No Label, No Filter</jats:italic> – that expose a persistent refusal of white hegemonic control across time, industry context, and space. The shared discourse outlines the persistence of narrative control, theft of Black cultural labor, and the reclamation of Black voice. The discursive continuity highlights the embedded and expansive nature of Black resistance – with emphases on narrative, voice, and authority. The researcher asserts that BALM is not a fleeting trend, but the result of longstanding exclusion and manipulation of Black athletes by white-dominant media spaces.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147635901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Illusion of Interaction: How Emotional Connection, Not Functional Engagement, Drives Viewer Loyalty in Social Sports Broadcasting","authors":"Jing Li","doi":"10.1177/21674795251415295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795251415295","url":null,"abstract":"Sports broadcasters invest heavily in interactive features on social media, assuming that functional engagement (likes, shares, comments) builds viewer loyalty. This study challenges that assumption. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) on survey data from 450 active sports viewers, we test a model that separates the effects of functional, emotional, and communal engagement on loyalty, mediated by social presence and channel commitment. Results reveal that functional engagement significantly enhances social presence but fails to translate into loyalty, as higher perceived social presence is associated with lower channel commitment. Instead, viewer loyalty is strongly and significantly driven by channel commitment, which itself is primarily fostered by emotional connection and, to a lesser extent, communal engagement. Theoretically, this study demonstrates the primacy of affective bonds over transactional interactions in the contemporary sports media economy and provides empirical evidence that questions the utility of Social Presence Theory as a direct predictor of loyalty in this context. The findings suggest a critical re-evaluation of how audience engagement is conceptualized and measured by both scholars and practitioners.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147586574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mapping East Asian Sport Scholarship: A Review of Communication and Sociology of Sport Literature, 2000–2024","authors":"Sitong Guo, Kelsey Slater, Hokeun Choi, Dunja Antunovic","doi":"10.1177/21674795261435094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261435094","url":null,"abstract":"While large-scale assessments of North American and Europe-based sport journals have been conducted, a specific look at how East Asia is explored in sport scholarship is lacking. To access knowledge domains of the region where the three consecutive Olympic and Paralympic Games (2018, 2020, 2022) were held, this study reviews 206 research articles published in five leading sport communication and sociology of sport journals to explore the publication trend, authorship, sport context, theoretical framework, and methodological approaches reflected in studies of East Asian sport from 2000–2024. Results indicated that the publications dramatically increased since 2019, and scholars from the U.S. still dominate the field. With respect to theoretical frameworks, nationalism, framing, and globalization are the top three most cited theories/organizing concepts. While most references were used as guiding frameworks, few articles expanded or developed the theories. For methodological approach, qualitative studies dominated four out of the five journals, especially in the sociology of sport field, while content analysis was the most common method. Notably, experiments were the least used method. This study offers suggestions for enhancing theoretical and methodological approaches and calls for more “localized studies” to advance diversity within the field.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147454648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Public Discourse on Doping Scandals in Sport: A Multi-Method Analysis of YouTube Comments in the Digital Public Sphere","authors":"Nastasya Mamonova, Oxana Mikhaylova","doi":"10.1177/21674795261433589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261433589","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates how publics interpret and debate doping scandals in sport within YouTube’s communicative environment. It draws on theories of deviant behavior, labeling, moral panic, the digital public sphere, and McLuhan’s insight that media formats shape meaning. The study conceptualizes YouTube comments as a site where narratives of fairness, responsibility, and institutional trust are constructed. The empirical material comprises 1,304 comments under three types of sport-related videos: a news report, a documentary, and an athlete interview. A multimethod design integrates automated text and sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and network analysis. The findings reveal a predominantly neutral, analytical tone and low levels of meaningful interaction despite high formal connectivity, alongside a fragmented discourse in which politicized, scandal-oriented narratives overshadow medical and technical interpretations of doping. The article’s primary contribution is theoretical: it introduces fragmented rationality, which refines public sphere theory for digital environments, and routinized deviance, which extends moral panic theory to explain discursive fatigue under continuous scandals. It also offers a methodological contribution by combining computational text analysis, network modeling, and qualitative interpretation to understand audience fragmentation on digital platforms.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147393719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"There is, Indeed, Much Ado About Sport-Based Social Media Research","authors":"Andrew C. Billings","doi":"10.1177/21674795261432235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261432235","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147393301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sports Reporting, Reporter Sex, and Perceived Credibility: After 30 Years, What Do We Know?","authors":"R. Glenn Cummins","doi":"10.1177/21674795261428470","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261428470","url":null,"abstract":"Perceptual biases surrounding the credibility of female sports reporters has been a robust area of research for decades, taking on many methodological forms. One vein of this research has been experimental designs where reporter sex is systematically manipulated to examine impacts on perceived credibility. Despite remarkable similarities in overall study design, findings from these studies have been mixed, variably demonstrating biases against female reporters, in favor of female reporters, or no biases at all. This paper reports results of a systematic review of this literature, highlighting differences in stimuli (e.g., medium, visual prominence of reporters), theoretical mechanisms, and measures employed in order to illuminate possible reasons for these varied findings.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"104 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147393300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How do Fans Respond to Athlete Migration in Social Media? The Cases of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo","authors":"Lydia Yun, Yong Jae Ko, Junho Kim, Dongkyu Hwang","doi":"10.1177/21674795261431275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261431275","url":null,"abstract":"Due to the globalization of the major spectator sports, athletes have frequently moved across borders, seeking opportunities in diverse aspects. This long-term relocation is called athlete migration. However, athlete migration has been a significant emotional challenge for sports fans. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to explore fans’ emotions and attributions towards athletes’ migration on the YouTube platform by identifying (1) salient topics discussed about the migration of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and (2) primary contributors of fans’ sentiment on the players’ migration. The authors conducted topic modeling, sentiment analyses, and regression using 7,687 comments regarding Messi and 7,807 comments regarding Ronaldo. The results of topic modeling suggested that financial benefit, an internal attribution topic, emerged in Ronaldo’s case, while family and team condition, external attribution topics, emerged in Messi’s case, which yielded more engagement from fans (i.e., pressing “like”). The sentiment analyses showed that Ronaldo’s positive keywords were related to his performance, while Messi’s positive keywords were related to fans’ affection, admiration, and favorable personality. Sadness, disappointment, and anger were keywords contributing to the negative sentiment in both cases. The results make unique theoretical and methodological contributions to sport fan behavior and athlete brand management literature.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147358792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Competent Singles and Warm Teams: The Congruence Effect of Endorser Type and Advertising Appeal in Sport Advertising Communication","authors":"Shengru Ren, Sheng Bi","doi":"10.1177/21674795261429929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261429929","url":null,"abstract":"Athlete endorsement is a widely used strategy in marketing, yet little is known about how the design of advertisements should vary depending on whether the endorser is a single athlete or a sports team. Drawing on meaning transfer theory and processing fluency theory, we propose the congruence effect between endorser type (single athlete vs. sports team) and advertising appeal (competent vs. warm) on brand attitude. Specifically, single-athlete endorsements align more congruently with competent appeals, while sports-team endorsements align more congruently with warm appeals. This congruence effect is mediated by processing fluency and moderated by consumers’ thinking styles—it is more pronounced among holistic thinkers than analytic thinkers. We conducted four studies to test our hypotheses and found convergent support. Our findings contribute to the literature on advertising communication and brand endorsement, and offer actionable guidance for marketers on tailoring advertising appeals to endorser types to maximize impact.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"43 4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147319903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuxi He, Shu Yang, Zepei Wang, Ke Zhang, Aocheng Zhou, Yu Zou
{"title":"How to Calm the Storm and Recover Reputation? A fsQCA Analysis of Public Relations Effectiveness in Sports Organizations","authors":"Yuxi He, Shu Yang, Zepei Wang, Ke Zhang, Aocheng Zhou, Yu Zou","doi":"10.1177/21674795261428589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261428589","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the growing frequency of negative events in global sports has made crisis communication a critical issue for maintaining the credibility of sports organizations. Drawing on the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and employing fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), this study investigates 25 international sports crises to explore the multidimensional mechanisms influencing the effectiveness of sports public relations. Public relations effectiveness is conceptualized across two dimensions: reputation recovery and attention containment. And six key conditions are identified: crisis type, crisis severity, and prior reputation as crisis situational factors, and crisis response strategies, response speed, and information transparency as crisis communication factors. The findings reveal a multi-path structure: high reputation recovery is achieved through either the Attribution buffer Type or Transparency Repair Type mechanisms, while high attention containment emerges through the Strategy-Transparency Closure Type and Low-Severity Auto-Decay Type mechanisms. Among these, information transparency consistently serves as a core driver, whereas high prior reputation may trigger reputation backfire and sustained public scrutiny in high-responsibility and low-transparency contexts. This study offers a configurational perspective on crisis communication grounded in SCCT and provides empirical and practical insights for public relations in sports organizations.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147287341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sean R. Sadri, Amanda L. Sams, Jason A. Cain, Feiyun Deng
{"title":"Skating, Loss, and Solidarity: Examining Media Framing of Post-Tragedy Figure Skating News Coverage","authors":"Sean R. Sadri, Amanda L. Sams, Jason A. Cain, Feiyun Deng","doi":"10.1177/21674795261430906","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795261430906","url":null,"abstract":"In January 2025, a Blackhawk helicopter and American Airlines flight collided above the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing all 67 passengers aboard both aircraft. Most adversely affected by this tragedy was the figure skating community, which had 11 youth figure skaters, four coaches, and 13 family members returning from a national development camp. Through the theoretical lens of framing theory, quantitative content analysis was employed to identify the most prevalent sources and frames used in national and international newspaper coverage of the Potomac River mid-air collision. Utilizing a LexisNexis database, relevant news articles published during the immediate aftermath of the incident were analyzed ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">N</jats:italic> = 388). Study findings revealed that the individuals quoted or mentioned most frequently were figure skating coaches, athletes, and U.S. President Donald Trump. When examining framing, the most prevalent frames were human interest, unity, responsibility, and systemic failure; all appeared in at least 9% of the coded articles. Study findings provide insight into evolving media discourses that manifest in the wake of sports tragedies and the frames that characterize the incident and communities affected. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147287342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}