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This study of 261 Black and White participants determined how standard American English and Black English were perceived on 20 credibility measures. Results indicated that although standard American English was preferred by all participants on several key measures (including all measures of competence), speaker dialect did not alter perceived trustworthiness and likability. On measures of social distance, dialect played a secondary role to the race of the speaker, as White participants preferred White speakers and Black participants preferred Black speakers regardless of dialect.

In the final year of the 20th century, television's ESPN network conducted a survey that determined the 100 greatest athletes of the 1900s. Although any list can be critiqued for accuracy and fairness, noticeably absent were women athletes, who constituted just 8% of the list. Because ESPN's list shades the way future generations will characterize the 20th century, criticism of ESPN's list is of importance to sports scholars, historians, sports fans, and the American citizen as a whole. This article lists several possible reasons for the lack of women on the Top-100 list. However, the author ultimately argues that when analyzing history, the shaping of cultural events to fit collective memory often allows the person shaping the event to revert back to biases present in the day the events took place.

"When we think about the "pictures in our heads" that media create and perpetuate, what images are we truly referencing? Issues of media stereotypes and representation (both past and present) are crucial to advancing media literacy. Media Stereotypes: From Ageism to Xenophobia becomes one-stop shopping for synthesizing what we know within the composite of stereotyping research in the United States. Utilizing a cast of top American scholars with deep roots in asking stereotype-based questions, this book is essential reading for those wishing to understand what we know about past and present media representations as well as those wishing to take the baton and continue to advance media stereotyping research in the future"--

"Never before have we lived in a time in which sport and gay identity are more visible, discussed, debated--and even celebrated. However, in an era in which the sports closet is heralded as the last remaining stronghold of heterosexuality, the terrain for the gay athlete remains contradictory at best. Gay athletes in American team sports are thus living a paradox: told that sport represents the "final closet" in American culture while at the same time feeling ostracized, labeled a "distraction" for teams, dubbed locker room "problems," and experiencing careers which are halted or cut short altogether. Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports is the first of its kind, building upon the narratives of athletes and how their coming out experiences are shaped, transmitted and received through pervasive, powerful, albeit imperfect commercial media. Featuring in-depth interviews with out-athletes such as Jason Collins, Dave Kopay, Billy Bean and John Amaechi; media gatekeepers from outlets like ESPN and USA Today; and league representatives from Major League Baseball and the National Football League, the book explores one of the starkest juxtapositions in athletics: no active out players in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL, yet the number of athletes coming out at virtually every other level of sport is unprecedented. Interviews are fused with qualitative media analysis of coming out stories and informed by decades of literature on the unique intersection of sport, media, and sexual identity"--

Television is a cultural service and its national renderings of the Olympic Games contribute to the viewers' understanding of themselves and the world. This study examines the representation of nationality and gender within Slovenian broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Results show that evaluative commentary comprised as much as 44% of the dialogue. 'Home' athletes were given more prominence, while foreign athletes were largely portrayed through quantifiable features. Male athletes received more commentary than females. Announcers favoured analysing results and predicting outcomes for men, and resorted to personality and physicality depictions in women. A critical discourse analysis uncovered notions about gender and nationality that would be deemed inappropriate in many societies. Sports journalists and broadcasters at TV Slovenija do not have explicit editorial policies addressing chauvinistic dialogue. The absence of a policy is not perceived as an issue as individual announcers abide to their personal, at times conflicting, understandings of proper announcing.

This study examined Chinese and US newspaper coverage of the controversial performance of female Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen during 2012 London Summer Olympics. While Ye won two gold medals, the ease in which she did so led to doping suspicions in Western media. Analysis of 222 articles from the US and China revealed sharp differences between the two countries' amount of coverage about Ye, highlighting the valence and usage pattern of information sources as well. US coverage of Ye Shiwen was not as extensive as in China, and gender and nationality-based dialogues were present in newspaper reports. US coverage showed more skepticism on the doping issue; meanwhile, Chinese coverage exhibited a strong desire to protect its national image and national identity through defending Ye as unquestionably innocent. From a theoretical perspective, a framed "us versus them" dichotomy suggests that both countries' coverages were still strongly influenced by the hostile ideologies beyond mere Olympic performances.

Sports broadcasts showing national teams frequently have been found to engage in biased and patriotic coverage. However, little is known about the announcers' discourse in club franchise competitions. This study examines discursive framing of nationality within Slovenian broadcasts of international men's basketball and women's team handball matches. Results show that announcers devote Slovenian-based teams just under 60% of all team-related comments. Team affiliation significantly influences explanations of success and failure, as well as personality and physicality descriptions, and 'rival' teams were devoted significantly more positive attribution. Slovenian sports broadcasters emphasized national identity through differentiating team identification, overt cheering for Slovenian-based teams, and influencing the way results and performances are interpreted. Nation-centric discourse is thus applied even in professional sports involving city franchises, as club teams are perceived as year-round substitutes for national teams. This likely derives from the role attributed to sports franchises in federal Yugoslavia. In Slovenia, televised promotion of nationhood nurtures a sense of national identity in a country that lacks a long-standing tradition of sovereignty. Public service broadcasters inaccurately perceive this approach as universal.

Two key factors often influence the shaping of broadcast commentary: (a) if one of the teams portrayed is considered the sportscasters' 'home' team and (b) if one of the teams is viewed to be the superior or 'superstar' team. This analysis compares and contrasts these two factors by analyzing sportscaster portrayals of the United States 2002 World Cup team ('home' team) and the Brazilian 2002 World Cup team (champion/'superstar' team). Analysis of the preliminary games of both teams indicated that, while Brazil received a greater share of the comments about personality and creativity, the US team received the bulk of the overall commentary. Additionally, the US team was often portrayed as failing because of 'bad luck' rather than lack of athletic skill or other more immediate factors. Discussion and directions for further research are articulated.

"Mass communication theories were largely built when we had mass media audiences. The number of television, print, film or other forms of media audiences were largely finite, concentrating people on many of the same core content offerings, whether that be the nightly news or a popular television show. What happens when those audiences splinter? The Rise and Fall of Mass Communication surveys the aftermath of exactly that, noting that very few modern media products have audiences above 1-2% of the population at any one time. Advancing a new media balkanization theory, Benoit and Billings neither lament nor embrace the new media landscape, opting instead to pinpoint how we must consider mass communication theories and applications in an era of ubiquitous choice"

Introduction : for whom does the Indian stand? For whom does the mascot stand? -- Framing the mascot through self-categorization -- The Native American mascot in the western gaze : reading the mascot through a postcolonial lens -- Online debate on the acceptability of the Washington NFL mascot -- Deconstructing the mascot, part 1 : names and textual fields -- Deconstructing the mascot, part 2 : visual symbols -- Deconstructing the mascot, p art 3 : rituals and performances -- What Is lost? : the perceived stakes of recent and potential mascot removals -- W(h)ither the mascot? : pathways through the logics of Native American mascotting

The issue of Native American mascots in sports raises passions but also a raft of often-unasked questions. Which voices get a hearing in an argument? What meanings do we ascribe to mascots? Who do these Indians and warriors really represent? The authors go beyond the media bluster to reassess the mascot controversy. Their multi-dimensional study delves into the textual, visual, and ritualistic and performative aspects of sports mascots. Their original research, meanwhile, surveys sports fans themselves on their thoughts when a specific mascot faces censure. The result is a book that merges critical-cultural analysis with qualitative data to offer an innovative approach to understanding the camps and fault lines on each side of the issue, the stakes in mascot debates, whether common ground can exist and, if so, how we might find it. --