Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2015, Journalism

This thesis examines the comparative relationship between ESPN and Fox Sports One through the content of their original programming. A laboratory experiment showing participants stimuli from the ESPN program SportsCenter and the Fox Sports One program Fox Sports Live is used to generate statistical evidence that viewer attitudes of the two programs are equivalent. This finding is surrounded with a general analysis of the empirical components of the other original programming broadcast by both networks. The vast economic power of both entities are viewed through both competitive marketing theory and the lens of political economy to situate these findings within the economic sphere they reside in.

Committee: Carson Wagner Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Experiments

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2022, Honors

Each year social media usage increases which creates new opportunities for marketers to promote their products and brands. Sports teams and athletes are joining social media platforms and creating their own unique accounts (Cooper, 2015). Fans and followers, new and old, are discovering these teams and athletes while building relationships (Kentrin, 2020). Social media has also proven to be a useful tool in building two-way relationships between teams and spectators (Joanna & Zuzanna, 2020). This has also reigned true in building a team or personal athlete brand (Witz, 2020). Through different sports marketing social media strategies, marketers are learning how to engage fans, increase attendance, and stand apart from other teams (O'Hallarn et al., 2016). The manner in which a fan behaves and engages with different teams and athletes is influenced by social interactions, deals, promotions, giveaways, and relationships with teams and athletes (Fink et al., 2002; Perrault, 2016). Through new applications (apps), athletes and fans are spending more time online (Samet, 2020). These apps allow fans to witness new sides to athletes and teams through increased content which, consequently, helps form connections between fans and athletes (Sharpe et al., 2020). This research analyzed the relationships between teams' and leagues' social media presence on fan behavior by conducting in-depth one-on-one interviews with professionals working in the sports industry at the professional and collegiate levels. A total of eight professionals were interviewed from eight different sports. Questions asked specifically addressed how social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok have affected ticket sales, fan attendance/tune-in rates, engagement, brand loyalty, and merchandise purchases. Using content analysis, best practices were determined for increasing engagement and fan behavior and understanding the relationships crea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Julie Szendrey (Advisor); Nina Rytwinski (Committee Co-Chair); Patricia Berg (Other) Subjects: Marketing; Sports Management

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2013, Communication

The sports industry is an arena that offers scholars many different areas to explore and research. News framing by the sports media is prevalent as well as relevant within the sports industry. This qualitative study attempts to ascertain the coverage of the ultra popular yet polarizing N.F.L. football player, Tim Tebow. Three major U.S. newspapers were analyzed in their coverage of Tebow to see if he was framed in particular ways. Four dominant themes were found in the analyzing of the newspapers; Tebow’s Christian faith, his social media and television popularity, his overall marketability, and how he is portrayed as an N.F.L. football player. Understanding the role of the sports media in the formation of certain perceptions of sports issues as well as athletes is of utmost importance in today’s society.

Committee: Yang (Young) Lin Dr. (Advisor); Val Pipps Dr. (Committee Member); Heather Walter Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications; Religion

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Arts and Sciences: Sociology

The sporting world is one institution where gender differences are widely accepted as “natural,” and continue to be reaffirmed. The reaffirmation of these differences through the mass media that covers the sporting world has been well-researched. However, research on media forms created by sports organizations for distribution to mass media journalists, such as media guides and press kits, have been less researched. To my knowledge, just three studies examine the printed documents produced by sports organizations for distribution. This study fills a gap in research on materials produced by athletic organizations for distribution to the mass media. Studying these documents is important due to their use as credible sources within print and electronic media. This study explores the appearance of gender differences within the media guide profiles of athletes from the 2008 Olympic Games. In total, 635 U.S. athlete profiles from the 2008 Olympic Media Guide were analyzed, including the profiles of 326 male athletes and 309 female athletes, spanning 31 sports. This research shows that although there is not a significant difference in the length of male and female athlete's profiles, there is a significant difference in the amount of personal information contained within the profiles of female and male athletes, with female athletes generally having more personal information in their profiles than males. Additionally, there are significant differences in the amount of hobbies listed within that personal information, with female athletes having significantly more hobbies listed within their profiles, especially hobbies considered “feminine.”

Committee: David Maume PhD (Committee Chair); Erynn Casanova PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2012, Journalism (Communication)

This study looked at the effects fantasy sports participation has on media consumption and how it leads to social identity and media dependency via the uses and gratifications framework. The purpose of this exploratory research was to search for connections between the motivations of fantasy sports players, their social identity, and their potential for dependency upon mass media. By using correlations and ANOVAS, the results indicated that there is a strong relationship between media dependency and fantasy sports players' motivation to play in order to socialize. The results of this study suggest that further research can look deeper into how fantasy sports players use their cell phones and the Internet to play fantasy sports and to gather information about fantasy sports.

Committee: Hans Meyer PhD (Committee Chair); Patrick Washburn PhD (Committee Member); Michael Pfahl PhD (Committee Member); Roger Cooper PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2023, Honors Thesis

High school football rivalries are a quintessential part of adolescence and community life, although they are not often the focus of academic scholarship. This paper seeks to fill that void. Rivalries exist throughout the United States, but of focus is one of the most storied rivalries in Ohio between two perennial football state champions: Saint Ignatius High School and St. Edward High School. Saint Ignatius High School, an all-boy Catholic high school founded in 1886, is located in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood. St. Edward High School, situated in the nearby suburb of Lakewood and founded in 1949, is the second all-boys Catholic school in this classic rivalry. In 1952, the young football program for the St. Edward Eagles faced off against the much more experienced Saint Ignatius Wildcats on the gridiron for the first time. It was the first game in the rivalry – a rivalry that would bring together what could feel like the entire West Side of Cleveland for the yearly match-up. The annual game, played at least once a year every year since 1971, creates an atmosphere of high school football that few other high school football rivalries match. Details and outcomes of the games remain vivid in the memories of players and fans alike for generations, as fathers, sons, nephews, and friends replenish collective memory banks when they take their places on the field or in the bleachers. Alumni from both schools carry their reminiscences everywhere – from local boardrooms to conversations with passers-by in a grocery store. There is a sense of pride and purpose that continues from generation to generation, and the game, the rivalry, and the storied history spills over into every area of life. The players, the fans, and alumni celebrate each year's victory and vow to avenge any loss when the next match-up is scheduled. Such is the intensity of the competitiveness that exists between the St. Edward Eagles and the Saint Ignatius Wildcats. And this rivalry is rath (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jacalynn Stuckey (Advisor); Mark Bankert (Committee Member); Scott Waalkes (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Recreation; Sports Management

BA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Communication and Information / School of Communication Studies

This study explores how sports fans create and maintain parasocial relationships with professional athletes. A survey was conducted using participants from a Midwest state university to gather information about their thoughts and actions toward their favorite professional athletes. Furthermore, three individual interviews were conducted regarding the level of parasocial relationships the respondents experience with their favorite athletes. It was found that athletes who appear similar to the respondents resulted in higher parasocial relationships. The longer an athlete has been playing professionally contributed to higher levels of parasocial relationships. Fans who have high levels of parasocial relationships with professional athletes are more likely to follow those athletes on multiple social media platforms. However, there was not a correlation found between frequent social media posts from the athlete and high levels of parasocial relationships. Additional analyses did not find a difference in the level of parasocial relationships of males and females. Both genders were found to have strong parasocial relationships. Keywords: Parasocial relationships, sports communication, sports fans, social media

Committee: Paul Sommer Ph.D. (Advisor); Leslie Heaphy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts in Education, University of Akron, 2019, Physical Education-Sports Science/Coaching

Despite the unprecedented progress made during the last century in women's sport, there are clear patterns of how women's sports are portrayed by media. One pattern is women's sports are seriously underrepresented by media compared to their male counterparts. Another pattern identified is that women's sports are more sexualized by main stream media. Broadly speaking, this study is interested in seeing if these patterns exist through social media by looking at both male (U.S. men's national soccer team) and female (U.S. women's national soccer team) sport organizations' official twitter accounts. This study is particularly interesting in that the United States women's team has enjoyed much more success in the last few decades; they have won multiple tournaments to include the World Cup and the Olympics. The United States men's team, however, has enjoyed less success but, seemingly is able to get more media coverage than the women's team does. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is, first, to examine the types of contents that are generated by U.S. men's and women's national soccer teams in the context of relationship marketing. Secondly, this study is to investigate if there is any difference in the contents between two teams. The results of this study showed unique aspects of using twitter accounts to develop relationships with fanbases. Further discussion was made as well.

Committee: Seungbeum Lee (Advisor) Subjects: Social Research; Sports Management

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Music Ethnomusicology

The Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira has become an increasingly popular sport in the United States. Capoeira performances consist of a back-and-forth exchange of movements between two players in conjunction with a musical ensemble to accompany the physical display. Since the introduction of capoeira in the United States in the 1970s, capoeira has become the focus of various social institutions. The objective of this thesis is to acknowledge and problematize the impact American culture has made on capoeira aesthetics. The methods for this thesis included research in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, post-colonial theory, and transatlantic studies. Fieldwork was conducted to acquire first hand accounts of capoeira practitioners from the Michigan Center for Capoeira. Lastly, an analysis of the portrayal of capoeira in the media examines how capoeira is showcased to audiences in the United States. Historical accounts, academic discourse, capoeira practitioners, and popular culture reveal how American culture has received capoeira. My research has shown that capoeira culture is represented and interpreted by various groups, such as scholars, American capoeira academies, and the media. These different interpretations have resulted in the displacement, fragmentation, or misrepresentation of capoeira history in the context of American culture. I conclude that dominant social structures have inherently changed how capoeira is discussed in academia, practiced in American academies, and portrayed in the media. Dominant social structures in the United States favor product over process. For capoeira, valuing product over process means highlighting performance and devaluing various Afro-diasporic rituals and practices. My solution to avoid fragmentation and misinterpretation of capoeira culture is to reiterate the importance of the African diaspora to practicing capoeira students in the United States. Acknowled (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kara Attrep (Advisor); Megan Rancier (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Dance; Ethnic Studies; History; Latin American History; Latin American Studies; Music; Music Education

Master of Science in Sport Studies, Miami University, 2008, Physical Education, Health, and Sport Studies

This thesis contains a qualitative discourse analysis of U.S. and western sports media constructions of four African athletes, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tegla Loroupe, Christian Okoye, and Tamba Hali. These athletes were/are among the first and most dominant African athletes to professionally compete in their respective sports on the U.S./western stage. For the length of their respective athletic careers, this project examines the sport media constructions of race, nationalism, gender and sex for each athlete. While utilizing current research to ground the findings, this project focuses on the nuances and complexities in the representations for each athlete in order to gain greater insight into the treatment of African athletes and Africa in general by U.S./western sports media.

Committee: Othello Harris PhD (Advisor); Valeria Freysinger PhD (Committee Member); Mary McDonald PhD (Committee Member); Abdoulaye Saine PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Studies; Sociology

PHD, Kent State University, 2007, College of Communication and Information / School of Communication Studies

In this study, I examined whether the extent to which television viewers are fans of sports and their motivation for viewing sports affected judgments of anti-social behaviors demonstrated by athletes. The uses and gratifications theoretical framework guided exploration of possible predictors. The sample (n = 347) consisted of undergraduate students from two midwestern universities. Several instruments were used in this study. The questionnaire included measures of fandom, motives for watching televised sports (i.e., entertaining relaxation, etc.), affinity for watching televised sports, intention to watch televised sports, activities during exposure to televised sports, involvement with televised sports, exposure to televised sports, parasocial interaction with athletes, identification with athletes, and judgments of athlete behaviors (i.e., violent crime, drug use, forging checks/failing to keep promises, and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors). Results showed that fandom correlated significantly with affinity, motives, intention, involvement, exposure, parasocial interaction, and identification. Fandom was negatively related to judgments of violent crime behaviors and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors. Fandom was not related to judgments of drug use or forging checks. Results suggested that people who reported greater fandom were less likely than their counterparts to judge violent crime and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors negatively. Separate multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the contribution of the antecedent variables to predicting each behavioral judgment factor. Results of the regression analyses suggested that women who were engaged in other activities while viewing televised sports content were more likely to judge violent crime behaviors as most wrong, or negatively. Additionally, women were more likely to judge drug use and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors as most wrong, or negatively. Path analyses provided further evidence for links b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Haridakis (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Communications

Master of Arts in Education, Defiance College, 2005, Education

Eight small market newspapers with circulations of 20,000 or less per day in northern Ohio were surveyed about their coverage of local high school graduates participating in athletics at the collegiate level. The purpose of this project was to determine if the amount of print media published about the female varsity volleyball players at a small liberal arts college increased when the sports information office communicated updated information about the team via electronic media at least once per week to the players' hometown newspapers. Through this project this researcher learned that: (a) stewardship of positive relationships with journalists could lead to increased coverage by print media; (b) journalists embraced email and the Internet more and more as means of communication and research; (c) newspapers regularly covered high school graduates participating in sports at the collegiate level, mostly using materials submitted by sports information directors; and (d) coverage of the volleyball team increased considerably with the use of electronic press releases over research by the newspapers.

Committee: Tim Rickabaugh (Advisor); Suzanne McFarland (Committee Member) Subjects: Journalism; Physical Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2008, American Culture Studies/Ethnic Studies

The bodies of African American women athletes have historically constituted a site where the vast, and largely problematic, complexities of gender and race are revealed and contested. I approach this study through an interpretive textual analysis that examines how representations of black female sporting bodies – Wilma Rudolph in the early 1960s, Debi Thomas in the late 1980s, and last, Serena Williams in the late 1990s signify cultural messages. Specifically, I turn to mainstream media such as magazines, newspapers, and commercial advertisements to unpack the meanings constructed around their bodies and to interrogate dominant discourses about race and gender. Ultimately, this project argues that representations of Black female sporting bodies are sites of ideological conflict over the construction of social identities between dominant and historically marginalized groups: African American women. The significance of this study lies in how perceptions of the bodies of African American women athletes allow the therorizing of citizenship, race, gender and nation. By turning to representations of black female athletes, I examine how the intersection of race, gender, class, nation, and sexuality frames the black female subject and how these women constantly negotiate and navigate these discursive boundaries to make rightful claims to society resources. In negotiating space in American society, Black women have had to employ various strategies such as the politics of race and respectability. Individual Black women understood respectability in different ways depending on their social, political, and cultural context. The reconfiguration of the discourse of respectability speaks to the ways in which race and gender are rearticulated around the Black female sporting body throughout different historical moments.The two themes that have emerged and remained constant are the persistence of racism – blatant racism in the 1960s, color-blind racism in the 1980s, and commodity rac (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eithne Luibhéid Phd (Committee Chair); Ellen Berry Phd (Committee Member); Halifu Osumare Phd (Committee Member); Peggy Giordano Phd (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Studies; Mass Media; Womens Studies

Master of Fine Arts, University of Akron, 2011, Communication

This paper explores space allocated by daily newspapers to coverage of similar boys and girls high school sports. The study examines coverage in four daily newspapers of varying circulation. The sports (soccer, basketball and baseball/softball) were chosen because of their cross-gender similarity. The newspapers chosen are in the same market, Northeast Ohio, meaning they often had the same events from which to choose. Stories and photographs were counted and also measured in column inches. Other considerations were placement of stories and whether they were staff written or covered by stringers/freelance writers. To determine whether coverage was actually “equal,” the number of teams participating was considered. Similar studies have been conducted, with the universal conclusion that men's/boys sports receive more, often much more, coverage and/or space than women's/girls sports. The findings here are that in terms of the number of participating teams, boys get slightly more coverage, though not in all sports.

Committee: Kathleen Endres Dr. (Advisor); Val Pipps Dr. (Committee Member); Heather Walter Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, Mass Communication (Communication)

College athletic departments are expanding a trend of hiring professional journalists to improve their content and grow their audiences. This positioning of the professional journalist in the arena he used to cover creates unique dynamics for the professional journalist, for the department, and for the audience. This dissertation adds to the literature by identifying the dynamics, roles, and routines of an athletic department communication worker at a major athletic conference university. It examines how those dynamics, roles, and routines influence content for the department's website and how this content upholds the athletic department's position of political and economic power in its geographical region and sustains the cultural hegemony of college football. I employed a month-long observation prior to and at the start of the 2012 University of Washington Huskies football season. A mixed-methods approach generated ample empirical data as collection procedures included participant observation, unstructured interviews, and document review. The results of this dissertation find the athletic department communication worker negotiating three roles: The roles of "Traditional Journalist" of "PR Practitioner" and of "Subordinate." This structure ultimately is utilized to exploit college football players, to place material interests ahead of human interests, and to maintain and strengthen the cultural hegemony of big-time college football.

Committee: Aimee Edmondson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Courtney Cole Ph.D. (Committee Member); B. David Ridpath Ed.D. (Committee Member); Michael Sweeney Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism