Once deemed an unworthy research endeavor, the study of sports fandom has garnered the attention of seasoned scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. Identity and socialization among sports fans are particular burgeoning areas of study among a growing cadre of specialists in the social sciences. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization, edited by Adam C. Earnheardt, Paul Haridakis, and Barbara Hugenberg, captures an eclectic collection of new studies from accomplished scholars in the fields such as communication, business, geography, kinesiology, media, and sports management and administration, using a wide range of methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, and critical analyses. In the communication revolution of the twenty-first century, the study of mediated sports is critical. As fans use all media at their disposal to consume sports and carry their sports-viewing experience online, they are seizing the initiative and asserting themselves into the mediated sports-dissemination process. They are occupying traditional roles of consumers/receivers of sports, but also as sharers and sports content creators. Fans are becoming pseudo sports journalists. They are interpreting mediated sports content for other fans. They are making their voice heard by sports organizations and athletes. Mediated sports, in essence, provide a context for studying and understanding where and how the communication revolution of the twenty-first century is being waged. With their collection of studies by scholars from North America and Europe, Earnheardt, Haridakis, and Hugenberg illuminate the symbiotic relationship among and between sports organizations, the media, and their audiences. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization spurs both the researcher and the interested fan to consider what the study of sports tells us about ourselves and the society in which we live.

Once deemed an unworthy research endeavor, the study of sports fandom has garnered the attention of seasoned scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. Identity and socialization among sports fans are particular burgeoning areas of study among a growing cadre of specialists in the social sciences. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization, edited by Adam C. Earnheardt, Paul Haridakis, and Barbara Hugenberg, captures an eclectic collection of new studies from accomplished scholars in the fields such as communication, business, geography, kinesiology, media, and sports management and administration, using a wide range of methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, and critical analyses. In the communication revolution of the twenty-first century, the study of mediated sports is critical. As fans use all media at their disposal to consume sports and carry their sports-viewing experience online, they are seizing the initiative and asserting themselves into the mediated sports-dissemination process. They are occupying traditional roles of consumers/receivers of sports, but also as sharers and sports content creators. Fans are becoming pseudo sports journalists. They are interpreting mediated sports content for other fans. They are making their voice heard by sports organizations and athletes. Mediated sports, in essence, provide a context for studying and understanding where and how the communication revolution of the twenty-first century is being waged. With their collection of studies by scholars from North America and Europe, Earnheardt, Haridakis, and Hugenberg illuminate the symbiotic relationship among and between sports organizations, the media, and their audiences. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization spurs both the researcher and the interested fan to consider what the study of sports tells us about ourselves and the society in which we live.

DESCRIPTION: ADVANCES IN THE HISTORY OF RHETORIC: THE FIRST SIX YEARS is a comprehensive collection of 29 scholarly essays published during the first phase of the journal's history. Research from prominent and developing scholars that was once difficult to acquire is now offered in a coherent and comprehensive collection that is complemented by a detailed index and unified bibliography. This collection covers a range of periods and topics in the history of rhetoric, including Greek and Roman rhetoric, rhetoric and religion, women in the history of rhetoric, rhetoric and science, Renaissance and British rhetorical theory, rhetoric and culture, and the development of American rhetoric and composition. The editors, Richard Leo Enos and David E. Beard, provide a preface and afterword that synthesize the mission and meaning of this work for students and scholars of the history of rhetoric. . . . ABOUT THE EDITORS: Richard Leo Enos is Professor and Holder of the Lillian Radford Chair of Rhetoric & Composition - History of Rhetoric at Texas Christian University. David E. Beard is Assistant Professor of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. . . . CONTRIBUTORS: John C. Adams, Lois Peters Agnew, Jacqueline Bacon, David E. Beard, Jerry Blitefield, Ferran Grau Codina, Janet B. Davis, Renu Dube, Richard Leo Enos, Robert Gaines, Beth L. Hewett, Davis W. Houck, Ulrike Zinn Jaeckel, Christopher Lyle Johnstone, Jameela Lares, Bohn D. Lattin, Ilon Lauer, Beth Innocenti Manolescu, Glen McClish, Mary Cecilia Monedas, Sara Newman, Sean Patrick O'Rourke, Terri Palmer, Valerie V. Peterson, Michael William Pfau, Robert Stephen Reid, Charlotte A. Robidoux, Gary S. Selby, and David Timmerman