Sports Magazines Research Articles

TRAVELS INTO NATURE AND SOCIETY WITH ROD AND LINE

From its origins in Victorian Britain, freshwater game-angling for trout and salmon, mostly by fly-fishing, has spread to become a significant international tourism form. However, as the sport has travelled its traditional codes and values are challenged by the varied geographies, natures and cultures it meets. This paper examines the dynamics and tensions this sporting culture experiences as it attempts to exploit the opportunities of expansion that tourism affords while protecting game-angling’s sporting traditions from the ‘otherness’ that international tourism brings. Central cultural actors in this process are game-angling magazines who promote the sport’s commodification and global expansion but who also have vested interests in maintaining game-angling’s culture and heritage. To analyse how these magazines manage the potential contradictions between maintenance of the sport’s integrity and promoting its expansion through tourism a discourse analysis of three editions of three of the most important UK game-angling and field sports magazines is undertaken. This work is further triangulated by a content analysis of six editions of one of these magazines, Trout & Salmon magazine, which is the preeminent game-angling periodical in the UK. The case is made that angling tourism is having potentially major impacts on the sporting traditions of game-angling which are as yet unresolved and are in process, but to which these magazines, as important cultural brokers, are responding with some discursive vigour, albeit in very nuanced and subtle ways. Finally, avenues of future angling-related research are suggested that have the potential to make a significant contribution to the tourism and leisure literatures.

Using the Schema-Triggered Affect Model to Examine Disposition Formation in the Context of Sports News

The current study uses affective disposition theory and the schema-triggered affect model to examine the process of forming affiliations with media characters. In the current study, disposition formation was examined within the nonfiction context of sports news. Individual levels of sports fanship and religiosity were used to examine associations between existing cognitive schema and the disposition toward an unknown athlete and the appreciation of a sports news story. A sample of 195 individuals read a sports magazine article in which a fictitious athlete either expressed a religious affiliation or no religious affiliation. Respondents evaluated the article containing statements of religious affiliation more positively than the similar article containing no expression of religious affiliation. Compared to general and specific sport interest, religiosity was the best predictor of disposition formation toward the athlete and appreciation of the article. This study expands the disposition literature by examining media coverage surrounding sports events and extending our knowledge of how cognitive constructs are related to disposition formation and enjoyment.

Gender Differences in Adolescent Advertising Response: The Role of Involvement and Message Claim

This study investigates whether gender differences in adolescents’ advertising judgments and purchase intentions are due to their level of involvement with the advertised product, and with the claim made in the ad, i.e. whether evaluative versus factual message claims are used. Male (n = 115) and female adolescents (n = 127) were randomly assigned to a mixed design. They read either factual or evaluative ads (between-subjects variable) about a product within and about a product outside their area of interests (within-subjects variable). Results show that when an ad contained a description of a high involvement product (i.e. the youth magazine), adolescent females were persuaded most by factual information, whereas when the ad contained a description of a low involvement product (the sports magazine), they were persuaded more by evaluative information. Adolescent males overall indicated a more positive attitude towards a high involvement product, but were equally persuaded by evaluative and factual information. We conclude that gendered advertising responses do exist, and that the level of involvement with the product advertised determines which type of message claim—factual versus evaluative—is most effective for each gender. Discussion focuses on theoretical and practical implications of these results.

Estimating the Causal Effect of Gun Prevalence on Homicide Rates: A Local Average Treatment Effect Approach

ObjectiveThis paper uses a “local average treatment effect” (LATE) framework in an attempt to disentangle the separate effects of criminal and noncriminal gun prevalence on violence rates. We first show that a number of previous studies have failed to properly address the problems of endogeneity, proxy validity, and heterogeneity in criminality. We demonstrate that the time series proxy problem is severe; previous panel data studies have used proxies that are essentially uncorrelated in time series with direct measures of gun relevance.MethodsWe adopt instead a cross-section approach: we use US county-level data for 1990, and we proxy gun prevalence levels by the percent of suicides committed with guns, which recent research indicates is the best measure of gun levels for crosssectional research. We instrument gun levels with three plausibly exogenous instruments: subscriptions to outdoor sports magazines, voting preferences in the 1988 Presidential election, and numbers of military veterans. In our LATE framework, the estimated impact of gun prevalence is a weighted average of a possibly negative impact of noncriminal gun prevalence on homicide and a presumed positive impact of criminal gun prevalence.ResultsWe find evidence of a significant negative impact, and interpret it as primarily “local to noncriminals”, i.e., primarily determined by a negative deterrent effect of noncriminal gun prevalence. We also demonstrate that an ATE for gun prevalence that is positive, negative, or approximately zero are all entirely plausible and consistent with our estimates of a significant negative impact of noncriminal gun prevalence.ConclusionsThe policy implications of our findings are perhaps best understood in the context of two hypothetical gun ban scenarios, the first more optimistic, the second more pessimistic and realistic. First, gun prohibition might reduce gun ownership equiproportionately among criminals and noncriminals, and the traditional ATE interpretation therefore applies. Our results above suggest that plausible estimates of the causal impact of an average reduction in gun prevalence include positive, nil, and negative effects on gun homicide rates, and hence no strong evidence in favor of or against such a measure. But it is highly unlikely that criminals would comply with gun prohibition to the same extent as noncriminals; indeed, it is virtually a tautology that criminals would violate a gun ban at a higher rate than noncriminals. Thus, under the more likely scenario that gun bans reduced gun levels more among noncriminals than criminals, the LATE interpretation of our results moves the range of possible impacts towards an increase in gun homicide rates because the decline in gun levels would primarily occur among those whose gun possession has predominantly negative effects on homicide.

A Struggle for Identity

The success of the United States’ female athletes in the 1996 Olympics spawned immense public enthusiasm for women's sports in America. Along with nearly two decades of surging female athletic participation due to the effects of Title IX, a generation of young women had grown up as athletes — and a new magazine, Sports Illustrated Women (SIW), formed to compete in and capitalize on that new market. Although not the first women's sports magazine, SIW was the first women's sports title to be published by a major publishing company, Time Inc. By conducting interviews with some of the magazine's prominent editors, writers, and business managers and by analyzing the magazine's content, this study details the rise and fall of SIW and highlights reasons it and similar women's sports magazines have failed in recent years.

Considerações sobre a migração, a naturalização e a dupla cidadania de jogadores de futebol

The processes of migration, naturalization and dual nationality have been gaining visibility within the football universe. Although it is not a recent phenomenon, it is calling the attention to the proliferation and speed with which they have occurred in recent years. Thus, this article has as a central objective to map into these phenomena in the last two decades and look at some changes that are being producing in modern football. Through a qualitative methodology, we seek to map, interpret and analyze a series of data and information that we look for from different sources: newspapers, sports magazines, internet (websites sports), academic articles and picture books (albums of football cards). AS a conclusion of the study, we highlight that the multiplication of cases of dual nationality and naturalization of professional football players is part of the migratory movements that have been multiplying with a higher speed in recent years, tensing the territorial limits and the concept of nationality.

Czech and Polish Table Tennis Players of Jewish Origin in International Competition (1926-1957)

Czech and Polish Table Tennis Players of Jewish Origin in International Competition (1926-1957)The beginnings of the 18th century marked the birth of Jewish sport. The most famous athletes of those days were boxers, such as I. Bitton, S. Eklias, B. Aaron, D. Mendoga. Popular sports of this minority group included athletics, fencing and swimming. One of the first sport organizations was the gymnastic society Judische Turnverein Bar Kocha (Berlin - 1896).Ping-pong as a new game in Europe developed at the turn of the 20th century. Sport and organizational activities in England were covered by two associations: the Ping Pong Association and the Table Tennis Association; they differed, for example, in the regulations used for the game. In 1902, Czeski Sport (a Czech Sport magazine) and Kurier Warszawski (Warsaw's Courier magazine) published first information about this game. In Czech Republic, Ping-pong became popular as early as the first stage of development of this sport worldwide, in 1900-1907. This was confirmed by the Ping-pong clubs and sport competitions. In Poland, the first Ping-pong sections were established in the period 1925-1930. Czechs made their debut in the world championships in London (1926). Poles played for the first time as late as in the 8th world championships in Paris (1933). Competition for individual titles of Czech champions was started in 1927 (Prague) and in 1933 in Poland (Lviv).In the 1930s, Czechs employed an instructor of Jewish descent from Hungary, Istvan Kelen (world champion in the 1929 mixed games, studied in Prague). He contributed to the medal-winning success of Stanislaw Kolar at the world championships. Jewish players who made history in world table tennis included Trute Kleinowa (Makkabi Brno) - world champion in 1935-1937, who survived imprisonment in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, Alojzy Ehrlich (Hasmonea Lwów), the three-time world vice-champion (1936, 1937, 1939), also survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Ivan Andreadis (Sparta Praga), nine-time world champion, who was interned during World War II (camp in Kleinstein near Krapkowice).Table tennis was a sport discipline that was successfully played by female and male players of Jewish origins. They made powerful representations of Austria, Hungary, Romania and Czech Republic and provided the foundation of organizationally strong national federations.

Visuele stereotipering van sportvroue in die sportmedia

Despite various attempts at achieving gender equality in sport, the media is still dominated by stereotypical representations of sportswomen. The purpose of the present research was to describe gender subjectivity and gender stereotyping in the visual portrayal of sportswomen in one of the largest South African sports magazines, and to determine the value of vector analysis as a visual-grammatical analysis instrument in identifying and opposing dominant ideologies. A literature review of published research on under-representation and stereotyping of sportswomen in the media was undertaken. The theoretical and methodological framework was Critical Discourse Analysis and Kress and Van Leeuwen's (1996; 2006) 'visual grammar', with specific emphasis on vector analysis. The types of vectors operating in visual representations and their relationship to the stereotypical constructions of sportswomen in the media were determined. Five photographs were critically analysed, one example from each stereotypical construct: ‘Athletic’ (the positive stereotype) as opposed to ‘homosexual’, ‘loser’, ‘model’ and ‘sex object’ (negative stereotypes) were identified. The most important conclusions are that sportswomen were predominantly stereotyped negatively in the sports magazine under scrutiny, and that vector analysis is a useful heuristic tool in identifying and confirming visual subjectivity.Keywords: Women in sport; Critical discourse analysis; Gender stereotyping in sport; Gender inequality; Gender ideology; Vector analysis; Visual grammarArticle text in Afrikaans

Stereotypes of Race and Nationality: A Qualitative Analysis of Sport Magazine Coverage of MLB Players

Racial and nationality-based stereotypes of professional baseball players have been prominent in the U.S. media since the 1800s (Voigt, 1976). To determine the manner and extent to which such stereotypes exist in the media today, a qualitative document analysis was conducted on the nation’s top two general-interest sport magazines, Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine from 2000 to 2007. Based on framing theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what differences existed between the frames used to describe athletes of differing nationalities and races. The results revealed that stereotypes based on race and nationalities were maintained throughout the study in both publications, further perpetuating such stereotypes into the minds of readers. In addition, differences existed in portrayals of athletes of the same race but different nationalities. Implications for sport managers and suggestions for future research are addressed.

Marketing to Minority Groups through MLB Coverage: An Examination of Two U.S. Sport Magazines

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the most racially diverse professional sport league in the United States out of the three largest leagues (Lapchick, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c). The U.S. Census Bureau (2008) reports that the racial makeup of the U.S. is also becoming increasingly diverse, and according toFahmy (2010), m inorities continue to show increased buying power. Therefore, it is important to understand the extent to which sport media outlets are marketing to minority groups through their coverage of diverse athletes. This study employed a content analysis methodol ogy and examined MLB coverage in Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine over an eight - year time period. The findings revealed no statistically significant differences between the percentage of coverage given to White, Black, Latino, and Asian MLB players and the percentages of players from each race in the league, nor between the percentages of each race in the U.S. population. Both magazines exhibited a trend of focusing coverage on mostly White and Black MLB players over the last few years, however, and implications from the findings, limitations of the study, and ideas for future researchare explained in the discussion and conclusion sections.

Saudi EFL students’ reading interests

This study investigates the reading interests of Saudi EFL teacher–college students’ reading interests in English, the obstacles hindering their reading efforts, the persons who help them choose their reading materials, the factors which determine their choice of reading materials and the reasons why they read. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire returned by 460 respondents revealed that the students have a wide range of reading interests, the top of which are stories, adventure books, books about religion, magazines about the internet, newspaper world events, magazines about computer, magazines about new advances in technology, sports magazines, newspaper local interests, newspaper sports sections, books about the internet, picture magazines, books about computers, novels, poetry, and plays. On the other hand, they are found to dislike books about economics. The findings also showed that the obstacles that hinder their reading efforts are rare visits to the library, inability to get books quickly, unavailability of reading materials, time constraints, lack of local libraries, beliefs of having better things to do than reading, difficulty of reading materials provided by English departments, beliefs that improving reading is not as important as improving other language skills, beliefs that there is no relationship between reading and other language skills, and lack of family interests in reading. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the student choose their reading materials by interest, teacher’s request, the main character, length, literary quality, and cost. They also showed that the students read for improving their language, learning something, improving their academic achievements, keeping in touch with the local, economic, cultural, scientific, and political developments, improving their local status, keeping in touch with what is happening around the world, and entertainment. In addition, the students depend on themselves, their teachers, and their friends for choosing their reading materials.

User- Versus Mainstream-Media-Generated Content: Media Source, Message Valence, and Team Identification and Sport Consumers’ Response

Despite the growing interest in social media and user-generated content, both academics and practitioners are struggling to understand the value and consequences of social media (e.g., blogs). This study employed a 2 (media source: mainstream/ social media) × 2 (message valence: positive/negative) × 2 (team identification: high/low) between-subjects design on source credibility and attitude toward an article. Positive and negative messages about the university’s varsity men’s basketball team were presented in either the mainstream media (sport magazine) or a user-generated format (blog). The results revealed that message valence had a significant main impact on triggering biased source evaluation and attitude toward the message. In turn, media source had a significant main effect on source expertise, but no main effects were found for trustworthiness and attitude. Team identification moderated the effect of media source on cognitive processing, suggesting that highly identified fans evaluated mainstream content more favorably, whereas less identified fans preferred user-generated content.

The Orioles encyclopedia: a half century of history and highlights

The history of the Baltimore Orioles is filled with amazing achievements, inspiring efforts, hilarious antics, and some bitter disappointments. The Orioles Encyclopedia traces the history, triumphs, and follies of the team from 1954 to the present. Think you know everything about the Orioles? Test your knowledge with this exhaustive guide. The Encyclopedia includes nearly 400 player profiles from Bobo to Zupo, the results of every game since 1954, and short features on managers and coaches. Browse through the seasons chronologically or by the players alphabetically. This comprehensive information is brought to life with more than 350 rarely seen photographs-including 26 color plates-from the Baseball Hall of Fame and the old Baltimore News-American, along with classic photos from the pages of Sport magazine and Sports Illustrated. The Orioles Encyclopedia recounts the colorful history of this storied and beleaguered program. Perhaps some of the tales and memories found in these pages will inspire a conversation between a father and son, grandfather and granddaughter, boyfriend and girlfriend, old fan and new. With a foreword by Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson, The Orioles Encyclopedia is the ultimate companion for any baseball fan who wears orange and black.

The Panopticon of physical education: pretty, active and ideally white

Background: Recently, a growing number of researchers have explored students' social construction of the body in school settings. Young peoples' construction of the body, inextricably linked to dominant cultural discourses of the mass media, bears upon their identity and physical activity participation choices. Purpose: This study employed a qualitative research design in two public high schools to explore young people's social construction of the ideal body in physical education by using body images drawn from fitness and sport magazines. Participants: Participants were high school students, and formal interviews were conducted with 28 students. Students' construction of meanings about the ideal body were gendered and racialized. Conclusions: We conclude the paper by suggesting that further work on understanding girls' and boys' construction of the body is needed, especially regarding gender and race issues; and that the creation of pedagogical spaces in schools to destabilize and subvert the gendered, racialized social norms of the ideal body are necessary.

Basketball and Cultural Representations in the Media: An Analysis of the French Sport Magazine Maxi Basket

At the end of the 1980s, representations of French basketball underwent radical changes. Basketball games lost their small-town atmosphere and became theater: grandiose shows, dramatized by the media, which became a part of French public life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of American “basketball culture” on the representations of young French readers by analyzing the front covers of Maxi Basket, the magazine that has dominated the basketball press since it first appeared on newsstands in September 1982. The magazine clearly illustrates the movement of the French game of basketball toward theatricalization, commercialization, television coverage, and globalization, similar to the American game. The arrival of American basketball in France and its subsequent integration, a strong marker of the “Americamania” of the ’80s, was a symptom of the dialectical link that connected the manufacture of material goods with the production of cultural goods.

See a Different Mathematics

Sporting News, a popular sports magazine, runs certain stories under the heading of “See a different game.” These stories are in-depth analyses of strategy. The slogan means that if you know more about the strategy of the game, you will see the game differently. If students are pushed to think about mathematics more deeply and flexibly, they will, in effect, “see a different mathematics.” We can change our game plans by strategically posing mathematics problems so that students get that chance. As we add to our playbook of problem-posing strategies, our students will come to “understand a different mathematics.”

‘Stop the Game, You've Lost Your Ribbons, Miss!’

British newspapers in 1895 were divided along partisan political lines, primarily between Liberal and Conservative or branches within those parties. Sometimes newspapers within parties split over issues of the day, such as Irish Home Rule. Newspapers in the 1890s increased the number of sports they covered and the amount of space devoted to sport within the newspaper. Several sports magazines appeared. Coverage of the BLFC match at Crouch End was generally negative, although the two most positive newspapers were both Liberal. Most newspapers used words such as ‘joke,’‘farce,’ or ‘novelty’ to describe the match, and also focused on detailed descriptions of the players’ clothing and sarcastic descriptions of their appearance. A double-standard appeared in the coverage because when most of the women played poorly that was used to prove the rule that women could not play football, and when a few played well they were considered an aberration.

Performance assessment of the soccer teams in Brazil using DEA

In this paper we propose a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) based ranking for Brazilian soccer teams. Ranking is a major issue for the soccer clubs, either when looking for sponsorship or expanding their supportive group. We first include value judgements, applying a method to consolidate the results of the national and international matches. Then we use both aggregate results as outputs for applying the DEA model. Rankings published by the Brazilian Soccer Confederation (CBF) and 'Placar', a traditional sports magazine, do not give any credit to international titles and national cups, focusing only on the results in the National League. We compare the DEA ranking with the Federation's and the magazine's, raising some controversial issues and drawing unexpected conclusions.

The differential depiction of female athletes in judged and non-judged sport magazines

Sports magazines portrayal of female athletes over the past ten years, in terms of body size, age, and race was examined. Using the Contour Drawing Rating Scale (CDRS), estimated body size was obtained for cover models on a set of judged and non-judged sport magazines. The frequency with which the full bodies of models were depicted on the covers of these magazines was also investigated. Cover models on judged sport magazines were rated as significantly thinner than cover models on non-judged sport magazines. Judged sport magazines also displayed a higher number of full-body images than non-judged sport magazines. These findings suggest that individuals who read judged sport magazines are more likely to be exposed to thin media images than those reading non-judged sport magazines.

Sport and Health Magazines and Their Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising

Sport and Health Magazines and Their Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising