Sports and Communication
Communication and Sport delves into the study of communication in the context of sports. The course covers a wide range of topics, including interpersonal communication, organizational communication, and communication through traditional and new media. Throughout the course we explored various concepts such as identity, fan cultures, sports media, politics, nationalism, and crisis communication in sports.
I was introduced to core concepts and vocabulary of communication and sport, and learned how to examine the major approaches to the study of communication in sport contexts. This course allowed me to be exposed to various communication theories and principles which equipped me with the knowledge and skills needed to analyze communication messages in traditional and new media campaigns and create effective interpersonal and mediated sport message campaigns using communication theories and research findings.
The course helped me understand the significance of media representation in shaping national narratives of identity and culture. Through studying fan cultures, sports media, politics, and nationalism, I gained insights into how media representation shapes our perceptions and attitudes towards various groups. This helped me when researching my specific case of media underrepresentation of Copts. I chose this picture because throughout this course I researched the impacts of gender inequality at length, and one of the main issues concerning gender in sports in coverage and representation. Firstly, we explored the issue of underrepresentation of female athletes and sports in media. Secondly, we explored the issues that were raised when female athletes were presented. Most reporting and media coverage is done by men in the industry which is slightly problematic considering they do not understand the female athletes beyond a surface level and will posses biases. However, limiting female reporters to only reporting on women's sports is also problematic because it limits their careers and promotes further inequality.