Strategic Sport Communication (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Strategic Sport Communication Brad Schultz Paul M. PedersenKimberly S. MilochPamela C. Laucella. Strategic Sport Communication. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2007. First of all, thanks to Paul Pedersen, Kimberly Miloch and Pam Laucella for undertaking the effort to produce Strategic Sport Communication. It almost goes without saying that sport is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that affects all areas of society, including communication. Understanding how sport communication works is something that has long deserved attention, as the authors rightly acknowledge in their preface. But there is more to like about this book than the effort; the end result is comprehensive, thorough, detailed and ideal for use in any course focusing on sport communication. One of the common ways to approach a very broad topic is to publish research pieces from the leaders in the field, such as was done with the Handbook of Sports Media, an excellent compendium of essays released in 2006. But Handbook works much better as a research tool than a textbook. Strategic Sport Communication can be effectively used to teach and understand sport communication in the classroom, because the authors systematically took a complex field and reduced it to digestible and understandable parts. The theoretical approach to the subject is sound — the view of sport communication as “process within context” (76) that can be [End Page 95] organized into coherent segments. The Strategic Sport Communication Model (SSCM) helps the reader understand the authors’ approach and serves as a logical organization for the text. The SSCM approaches sport communication from three perspectives — personal and organizational communication, mass media and advertising/promotion — and the authors do a commendable job in all areas. The section on personal/interpersonal communication includes helpful information on leadership styles and nonverbal communication. The mass media portion correctly underscores the importance of new media, and even presents a model for online sport communication. The advertising/promotion section gets into areas often overlooked, such as crisis management. The authors also devote chapters to the legal and sociological aspects of sport communication; areas that do not fit neatly into their overall approach, but which still deserve and receive extended analysis. All of the chapters are detailed and thoroughly supported with previous research. They also include a useful profile of a current sports communication professional from all areas of the industry, including promotions, new media, and research. Organizationally, the book is laid out fairly well, although the area which focuses on career advice and planning (Chapter Two) should come much later, while the chapter on history should probably be moved up. There are other areas that could be improved upon. A discussion of sport communication ethics is noticeably missing, and the text does not have a very strong finish. It just seems to ‘end’ on the discussion of legal issues. But again, these observations are relatively minor. At first glance, it would seem that this text tried to do too much by covering such a large field. But Pedersen, Miloch and Laucella have done an admirable job of bringing all the various facets of sport communication and tying them into a comprehensible whole. The result is a text useful for students, instructors and anyone else interested in this growing field. [End Page 96] Copyright © 2009 University of Nebraska Press