Beschreibung
Sports stars are omnipresent icons of popular culture. In the global age of celebrity, few public personae enjoy greater popularity and recognition than professional athletes. Yet, beyond their sporting achievements, athletes – from stars with near-global appeal such as Muhammad Ali or Tiger Woods to local and national sporting heroes – embody and reflect key political, social, and cultural discourses of our time. This anthology investigates sports stardom in its global context across the spectrum of spectator sport: from the quest of Japanese star athletes to exorcise the cultural demons of postwar Japan, to the Mexican pitcher celebrating victory in the first major league baseball game played on Mexican soil; from the naturalization of a Croatian footballer in Israel, to the marginalization of Scottish women curlers at the Winter Olympics.
Reflecting this focus,
conceptualizes the discourses surrounding sports stars as part of an increasingly transnational and fragmented public sphere and thus traces the economic, social, and cultural roles of these discourses, ranging from nationalism and racism to foreign affairs and sexual politics.
Autorenportrait
Cornel Sandvoss is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey. He has published widely on media sport and fan audiences, including
(2003),
(2005), and
(2007). He is also coeditor of
.
Michael Real is Professor of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. His books include
(1996),
(1989), and
(1977). He has written scores of scholarly and general publications, directed local and international research projects, and hosted television and radio programs. The focus of his work is media, culture, and social responsibility.
Alina Bernstein is Senior Lecturer at the School of media studies, College of management academic studies (COMAS), Israel. Her main area of research, in which she has published several articles, is media and sport, including the coedited book (with Neil Blain)
(2002). She also wrote the «Representation, Identity and the Media» section in
(2002). She heads the Media and Sport section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).
Inhalt
Contents: Cornel Sandvoss/Michael Real/Alina Bernstein/Diana Beeson: Introduction: The Politics of Transnational Sports Stardom – Todd Joseph Miles Holden: Media Made: The Reinvention of Athletes as Heroes, Stars, and Celebrities in Contemporary Japan – Hugh O’Donnell: Scotland the We(e)?: A Small Country in a Large World at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics – John Harris: A New Prince of Wales? Long Live the King! – Alina Bernstein: «One of Us»: Construction and Israelification of a Soccer Star – Sam Ford: Mick Foley: Pro Wrestling and the Contradictions of a Contemporary American Hero – Mark D. Alleyne: Being «Like Mike» - The Utility of Black Sports Stars in American Racial Discourse – Nancy E. Spencer: Foot Fault! Interrogating Social Networking Coverage of Serena’s ‘Outburst’ at the 2009 U.S. Open – Michael Real/Diana Beeson: Globalization and Diversity in American Sports: The Meaning Behind «Fernandomania» – Lothar Mikos: National Heroes on the Global Stage: The 2002 Olympic Games and Football World Cup – Cornel Sandvoss: From National Hero to Liquid Star: Identity and Discourse in Transnational Sports Consumption. Inhaltsverzeichnis
