This study explores how FoMO fosters sports fan attachment and enhances team identification in the context of online sports fandom. Grounded in social capital theory and social identity theory, this paper investigates how sports fans’ experiences with FoMO activate socially driven behaviors, particularly social media involvement, which build attachment to sports and deepen team identification. An online

Employing Discourse-Theoretical Analysis coined by Laclau and Mouffe, this multi-case study examines how talent is constructed in elite youth football academies in Sweden and Germany. Based on an analysis of sixteen semi-structured interviews with coaches, scouts and sporting directors, the study identified both distinctive and overlapping patterns, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of how

Capping off a series of responses to a systematic review of 10 years of Communication & Sport , this essay underscores a few common observations and offers a few concluding thoughts on the “messy scholarly playing field” that may characterize scholarship within the journal. In an effort to better unify those exploring the nexus of communication and sport, this essay calls for greater effort to present

This study explores the reactions of New England Patriots fans to a rookie player’s association with a far-right militia group and objectionable social media posts. Drawing on moral reasoning, team identification, and social identity theories, the cross-sectional survey examines how fans’ team identification and political ideology influence their moral decoupling, moral rationalization, and moral coupling

Motherhood forms part of the life trajectory of many Olympic athletes. In this context, numerous news articles have focused on the sport–motherhood dyad. This paper seeks to contribute to this field of study, particularly through the lens of countries in the Global South. It compares the coverage of Olympic athletes engaged in motherhood by the most accessed sports news portals in Brazil and Spain

This quantitative content analysis examines the framing of women’s sports in Iran by both mainstream and alternative media outlets and users’ comments on the posts. Data were collected in 2023 from Instagram pages representing mainstream (Varzesh3) and alternative (Iran International) media sources, yielding a sample of 149 posts and 14,442 user comments. The scheme code was executed based on data

Retirement from sport can be one of the most difficult transitions for athletes who must cope with the loss of athlete identity in redefining their purpose outside of sports. Prior research has indicated the life after sports phase can pose mental health challenges in terms of identity crisis, depression, and anxiety for former athletes who cannot successfully navigate this transition. Guided by the

Sport-concussion is an established concern amongst athletes, sports bodies, and the wider society. Many sports now have concussion-specific protocols, such as the Head Injury Assessment for suspected concussion (SC) in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL). Further focus on sport-concussion comes via live broadcasting, which exposes large audiences to concussion, including commentary about it

As name, image, and likeness (NIL) continues to be a fixture within conversations surrounding collegiate athletics, the present study sought to examine the manner in which local television media in the United States framed NIL during news broadcasts. Through the lens of media framing, researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of all local television broadcast content across the United States during

The present study aims to examine the determinants of users’ attitude and behavioral intention (BI) toward continuous usage of fantasy cricket apps (FCA) based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a research framework. Applying a non-probabilistic sampling technique, the survey data was collected through a structured questionnaire circulated to 320 users of fantasy cricket apps (FCA), just after

This study foregrounds the voices of Olympic refugee athletes by critically examining how they present themselves on Instagram. Using a mixed methods approach, this research analyzed 25 publicly accessible verified athlete accounts, including profile bios, captions, hashtags, emojis, images, and videos. The content analysis revealed that athletes predominantly identify as “Olympian” or “Athlete”. Moreover

When NBA 2K20 was released in 2019, it was the first time Women’s National Basketball Association players were included in the game. This study’s lead author conducted ethnographic fieldwork and 17 semi-structured interviews with American and Canadian NBA 2K players to explore how the presence or absence of female avatars influence male players’ perceptions of who plays the game, and in what ways NBA

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

This study offers a comparative quantitative analysis of media bias in the coverage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup by The Guardian and the New York Times versus Al Jazeera English . Utilizing a combination of sentiment analysis and topic modeling, the research assesses narrative tones and framing across these outlets during the Mega-event itself. The findings reveal that Western media consistently politicized

Louisiana State University (LSU) basketball coach Kim Mulkey held an unorthodox press conference in March 2024 to discredit The Washington Post , journalist Kent Babb, and the state of journalism while addressing an unreleased news article. Mulkey’s scripted moment was constructed as a mediated pseudo-event that positioned her and the newspaper in opposition through a crisis communication approach

Using Cummins and Hahn’s review of Communication & Sport as an invitation to consider future directions in research, this commentary suggests sport communication scholars can do more to engage with the contributions of rhetorical theory and criticism. While Cummins and Hahn rightly point to the field’s overall limited engagement with method and theory, they may miss the epistemological assumptions

In March 2022, Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania became the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship. Using Giddens’ structuration theory as a theoretical lens, this analysis employs Latent Dirichlet Allocation to examine how tweets about Thomas and transgender athletes contain toxic discourses based on established sports structures of fairness and sex separation

Digital disruption heavily impacts production, distribution and consumption of sport entertainment. The once symbiotic relationship between sport and linear TV faces far-reaching challenges. This applies also to the specific cooperation between niche sports and public service broadcasters (PSBs), which has evolved in Europe. In exchange for far-reaching mediatization efforts, winter sports gained considerable

In recent decades, the Paralympics have evolved into one of the largest and popular elite-level multisport global competitions. However, research has consistently highlighted issues with both – the quantity and quality of its media coverage. While the representation of the Paralympics in the media has been increasingly studied, there has been no study examining the relationship between the Paralympics

In this commentary, Antunovic and Bruce comment on the state of feminist sport media scholarship in Communication & Sport in response to Cummins and Hahn’s (2025) 10-year review. The journal has served as a “go to” space for feminist sport media studies scholarship. Hegemonic masculinity prevails as one of the most often referenced frameworks, but the journal’s publications have also engaged with a

This study examines fan cognitive and behavioral engagement on social media platforms, with a particular focus on professional team’s Twitter pages. By employing eye-tracking technology, we investigate the influence of content types and topics on visual attention, as well as the impact of team identification on engagement behaviors. Our findings indicate that visually compelling content, especially

In this brief essay, I will highlight and elaborate on some of the main reflections put forth by Cummins and Hahn in their recently published systematic review of 10 years of academic work in Communication & Sport (2013–2022). In the first part, I will elaborate on some of the shortcomings the authors identify in the use of theory in the sampled articles. In the second section, I will reflect on methodological

In response to Cummins & Hahn’s (2025) meta-analysis of the first 10 vol of Communication & Sport, this article advocates for greater methodology breadth in communication and sport research. It emphasizes the need to incorporate diverse data sources, experimental and longitudinal designs, and technology-enabled research methods. The article calls for increased methodological innovation, interdisciplinary

This article examines public attitudes towards the media coverage of women’s sport in a context of recent growth but also continued inequality in both quantity and quality of coverage. Drawing from literature on the role of gender ideology in underpinning the unequal media treatment of women’s sport, we focus on ‘gender essentialist’ ideology as a predictor of attitudes. We draw on 2023 survey data

This paper aims to investigate three pillars of social media sports marketing engagement (quantitatively and qualitatively): (i) engagement with a sports league (event), (ii) engagement with the celebrity athletes, and (iii) engagement with the sponsoring brands. To achieve these three objectives, several posts on Instagram were monitored: (i) 145 posts from the surf sports league to compare gender

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of media type (2D vs. VR) and signage location (center vs. periphery) on the cognitive processing of signage advertising during sporting events. The rapid growth of the virtual reality (VR) sports market has led to widespread integration of sports content into virtual reality services. Despite this, academic exploration of such services remains in

In this essay, the founding editor of Communication & Sport considers an important study by Cummins and Hahn of the first ten years of research published in the journal. In framing the essay, the larger enterprise of research at the nexus of communication is situated on the larger playing and more established playing fields of the social sciences and humanities. It is argued that the twin fields that

The ongoing development of extended reality (XR) technologies and the growing popularity of the esports industry suggest a future integration of XR in esports. However, research on the integration of the technologies in esport is sparse. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the opportunities and challenges of XR technologies in esports based on an explorative approach, relying on qualitative

Virtual reality (VR) enables the exploration of environments and situations that are otherwise inaccessible, making it particularly valuable for sports like diving. Virtual diving, as part of the metaverse, allows users to discover underwater worlds without the need to physically enter the water, providing benefits such as lower risks, a higher accessibility, and an easy introduction for non-divers

In September 2020, Deion Sanders was named head coach of the Jackson State University Tigers football team. The announcement marked his shift in public consciousness from “Prime Time” to “Coach Prime” and came as the country was reeling from the debilitating impacts of COVID-19, sustained calls for racial redress following a string of police-involved deaths, and new NIL developments in the NCAA. Turning

Women have been traditionally excluded from sport, and recent work has argued for the need to increase the visibility of both women’s sport and female athletes in order to secure public attention and commercial opportunities and encourage the next generation to participate. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the visibility bind to offer a more nuanced understanding of these debates. Here, we

With the rapid development of Metaverse technology, the sports industry has gradually integrated it to enhance event experiences and fan engagement. This study aims to explore the impact of event characteristics in Metaverse sports events on event immersion, event satisfaction, and team attitude. This study used questionnaire survey, collecting data from 1208 participants of the MZ generation (age

This study investigates how team identification, moral emotions, and moral decoupling influence fans’ punitive behaviors in response to sports-related crises. Using a sample of 437 sports fans, the researchers examined whether negative moral emotions (anger, contempt, and disgust) drive punitive behaviors and how team identification affects moral decoupling. Findings reveal that higher team identification

The role of female journalists in local television news is a tenuous space. Having women occupy jobs in traditionally hegemonically male roles enriches perspective and content. Simultaneously, the work environment can be challenging—often hostile—which leads to negative work experiences for female practitioners. The instability has led to an outflow of women opting out of the television news industry

Concerns over the short- and long-term health implications of concussions has led to a surge in concussion education materials, resources, and modalities to educate youth athletes as a first line of defense in injury prevention. In this paper, we argue that this over-emphasis on concussion education–and a reliance on static, sensationalized, and culturally disconnected messaging–fails to consider the

Despite a widespread belief that sports can build community and help lift people out of violence and poverty, scholars have yet to establish a definitive relationship between marginalized communities and sports fandom as a pathway to social inclusion. In this study, we examine publicity surrounding a series of “Super Soul parties,” Super Bowl parties for people experiencing homelessness, to show how

This study conducts a scoping review of the literature on athlete social media self-presentation (ASMSP), aiming to map the current state of research, identify gaps, and propose directions for future studies. The review of 99 journal articles reveals a significant expansion over the past two decades, with studies exploring diverse aspects such as difference comparing across athlete groups, identity

Two studies utilizing a repeated cross-sectional survey were conducted over a three-year period to measure the source credibility and media bias ratings of six sports media brands (i.e., NBC Sports, ESPN, FOX Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports). Study 1 found sports media brands’ source credibility has been rated more positively since 2021 and ratings of media bias have decreased since

The sports card industry boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic when sports fans lacked access to sporting events. Estimates now place the value of the sports card industry in the billions. Sports cards raise compelling questions concerning fan behavior: Why collect cardboard photos of athletes? This study examines fan motivations for collecting sports cards by examining comments on Reddit, a social media

With over four decades of scholarship assessing sports media coverage through the lens of hegemonic masculinity, this study poses counterpublics as a generative theoretical concept for telling stories about sport differently and locating instances of feminist resistance within sports media. To theorize the nature of a women’s sport counterpublic, this study turns to online women’s sports media organizations

This study examines danmu (bullet screens) as a form of parasocial audience engagement, focusing on two television interviews with women athletes. A textual analysis of 3513 comments identified five types of parasocial interactions: addressing the athletes, the host, other viewers, social issues, and the nation. Danmu fosters multidimensional engagement, enabling audiences to shift roles and adopt

On November 25th, 2020, Argentine icon Diego Maradona died, and the international press and governments wrote their obituaries. Unlike what happened with the Argentine media press, where almost no critical voice was raised to remember the controversial sides of the iconic footballer, both British and French media—despite the well-intentioned decolonising agenda of the last seven decades—could not avoid

In this article, we examine whether modes of representation that disrupt and defamiliarize the naturalized understandings fans share about the legitimacy and necessity of spectacular violence and sacrifice in sport can have the potential to reframe fan attitudes and investments. We explore the social cognitive and attitudinal shift towards traumatic brain injury (TBI) and injury more broadly in American

This study examines the use and effect of statistics in online social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) for the top five professional sports leagues in the U.S. (NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL) during 2023 for changes in engagement, enjoyment, and emotion. This study utilizes machine learning to code 49,455 X posts before employing AI-powered sentiment and emotion analysis tools, in conjunction with

This research applied a critical quantitative approach to the 247sports.com recruiting website to consider whether the “Black quarterback” label systematically rooted in sport persisted as a mediated form of racial stacking for high school football quarterbacks. A 20-year content analysis (2001–2020) examined race, position code, star value, and position ranking for 3448 high school quarterbacks. The

This study examines the dominant narratives and media frames surrounding the moment when football celebrity Lionel Messi wore a bisht during the World Cup 2022 crowning ceremony. Employing a frame analysis approach, the research seeks to uncover the discursive meanings tied to this moment, which is heightened by national identity and nationalism in the context of globalized sport across international

Inspired by the regular reflections and suggestions for the future that regularly appear within Communication & Sport, this paper reports the result of a systematic review of a sample of articles from the first 10 vol of the journal to document the most common methods, forms of data employed, theoretical frameworks (and how they are applied), and nationality of author affiliation. Results reflect that

There is evidence that online hate speech is increasing significantly on social media pages related to sport, but less research on how sport and media organisations are managing it. This research explored the management of content moderation in Australian sport media through qualitative interviews (16) with social media and communications staff in Australian sport and media organisations. It found

This article provides an original contribution to the field of sports fandom by investigating the experiences of women football supporters on X (formerly Twitter). Drawing on data from an online survey of 1624 women supporters of UK-based men’s football teams, the study examines their digital interactions, gendered challenges, and subsequent coping strategies. Significantly, this study is the first

The media portrayal of sports concussion (SC) contributes to community understanding of injury. However, this could be hampered by inaccurately framed (minimising) SC coverage. 157 volunteers were randomly allocated to one of six online survey conditions. The conditions used a brief written news sports report with a non-serious (MI) or serious (MA) SC frame. Additional conditions varied the injured

In 2020 the third-oldest racing team in Formula 1, Williams Racing, sold to Dorilton Capital, a global investment group. The change was a dramatic shift in the organization’s identity, from four decades of family ownership to a faceless global fund with no ties to racing. Drastic turns such as these are challenging for organizations. Shifts in identity generate uncertainty with stakeholders, a particular

Recent shifts in societal activism have prompted an exploration of athlete activism, particularly within higher education, where social media has become a pivotal platform for social impact. This paper investigates Division I college athletes’ engagement in athlete activism through the lens of self-authorship and self-presentation on social media for racial and social justice. Existing research underscores

Sports fans are often some of the most passionate groups of fans and the use of social media can intensify those feelings, both in expressing their feelings and consumption of content. Football fans are a unique group in American sports culture, but how much difference is there within that group in terms of these behaviors? Using a social identity approach, this manuscript analyzed the degree to which

Recognizing the pivotal role parents play in shaping their children’s attitudes and behaviors regarding sport-related concussions (SRCs), this study investigates message framing on parents’ intentions to discuss SRCs with their children. More specifically, parents were encouraged to talk to their children about the importance of recognizing SRCs and well as reporting them to their coach. In doing so

Despite the recent growth in Paralympic sport programming and viewership on social media, there remains a limited understanding of social media users’ motivations for consuming and engaging with Paralympic content. Drawing on Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the motivations of social media users for consuming Paralympic content and the relationship between

Sport-related concussions (SRC) are a significant health risk for athletes amalgamated by issues with underreporting. Coaches play a pivotal role in promoting safety and health, but coach-player SRC communication efforts have been insufficient at improving players’ reporting behaviors. This study considers coaches’ responses to a proposed mandate to engage in SRC communication with athletes via psychological