Addressing the 37 Percent: A Call for Using More Human Subjects in Empirical Sport Communication Studies

A key observation from Cummins and Hahn’s (2024) systematic review of the first ten volumes of Communication & Sport is that there is a lack of studies that employ human subjects. In response to this finding, this essay makes a case to consider using methodologies that employ human subjects more frequently to further advance the field of sport communication. The essay begins by exploring some of the reasons studies using human subjects are avoided, followed by a discussion about barriers that can be difficult to navigate when conducting studies using human subjects. This leads into recommendations that might be useful to those who see value in employing methodologies that rely on human subjects more in their work.