Warren Buffett once opined that "only when the tide rolls out do you discover who's been swimming naked." In a similar vein, American Sport in the Shadow of a Pandemic focuses on how communication practices, structures, and principles change when a key locus-sport-has much of its cultural and political-economic power disrupted. How intertwined is the economic viability of an American collegiate institution to the communicative enactment of the regular staging of collegiate sports? What proportion of a sports media contract is for the competition itself, as opposed to the documentation of fans being "fanatic" as they witness contests live and in-person? Who and what is deemed most disposable, and how do such decisions play out for athletes of different genders, races, and abilities? Questions such as these form the core foci of this volume. As many have observed, out of crisis comes opportunity. In this instance, this volume provides an opportunity for leading scholars of communication and sport to consider which principles should be rethought or reconceptualized based on the effects of the pandemic on our culture, politics, and economy.

This book explores the biggest sporting event in the world through the lens in which most people witness it: the media. Traversing nations and media formats, contributors offer insights into the manner in which the Olympics is conveyed to the masses and the impact arising from the mass consumption of Olympic media in its plethora of dimensions. The book gleans insight from past Olympic media analyses, but focuses on the role media played within the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Using a variety of methodologies, the book underscores how the Olympic Games are more than just a sporting event but should be understood a vast mosaic of images and events that shape public understandings of nations, society, and the values that undergird such renderings. This book was published as a special section in Mass Communication & Society.

New media technologies have become a central part of the sports media landscape. Sports fans use new media to watch games, discuss sports transactions, form fan-based communities, and secure minutiae about their favorite players and teams. Never before have fans known so much about athletes, whether that happens via Twitter feeds, fan sites, or blogs, and never before have the lines between producer, consumer, enactor, fan and athlete been more blurred. The Internet has made virtually everything available for sports media consumption; it has also made understanding sports media substantially more complex. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media is the most comprehensive and in-depth study of the impact of new media in sport ever to be published. Adopting a broad, interdisciplinary approach, the book explores new media in sport as a cultural, social, commercial, economic, and technological phenomenon, examining the profound impact of digital technologies on that the way that sport is produced, consumed and understood. There is no aspect of social life or commercial activity in general that is not being radically influenced by the rise of new media forms, and by offering a "state of the field" survey of work in this area, the Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media is important reading for any advanced student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in sports studies, media studies or communication studies.

New media technologies have become a central part of the sports media landscape. Sports fans use new media to watch games, discuss sports transactions, form fan-based communities, and secure minutiae about their favorite players and teams. Never before have fans known so much about athletes, whether that happens via Twitter feeds, fan sites, or blogs, and never before have the lines between producer, consumer, enactor, fan and athlete been more blurred. The Internet has made virtually everything available for sports media consumption; it has also made understanding sports media substantially more complex. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media is the most comprehensive and in-depth study of the impact of new media in sport ever to be published. Adopting a broad, interdisciplinary approach, the book explores new media in sport as a cultural, social, commercial, economic, and technological phenomenon, examining the profound impact of digital technologies on the way that sport is produced, consumed and understood. There is no aspect of social life or commercial activity in general that is not being radically influenced by the rise of new media forms, and by offering a "state of the field" survey of work in this area, the Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media is important reading for any advanced student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in sports studies, media studies or communication studies.