39 Ghosted gods: commodifying celebrities, decrying wraiths, and contesting graven images
-
Amber Roessner
Abstract
Contemporary athletes have turned to social media and digital sites such as the Players’ Tribune in ways that have revived the practice of ghostwriting, raising questions about journalism ethics and the potential of (un)filtered material to offer critical insights into problematic behind-the-scenes conditions in professional baseball. This study analyzes archival materials and ancillary primary sources related to ghosted material in the first half of the 20th century in top-circulating US sports magazines, newspaper sports sections, and the industry trade press. It explores the evolution of ghostwriting in baseball journalism and autobiographies throughout the course of the 20th century and focuses special attention on three interrelated developments - the commodification of celebrity images through ghostwriting; the debate over the ethics of ghostwriting in sports journalism amid industry professionalization and credibility crises; and the practice of deploying ghostwriting to contest dominant narratives in sports journalism and to critique problematic behind-the-scenes conditions in Major League baseball. While ethical considerations should remain at the center of the century-long debate over ghostwriting in journalism, collaborations between star ballplayers and sports journalists that once offered symbiotic financial gain to newspaper publishers, sportswriters, and celebrity-athletes remain a productive means to contest dominant narratives in sports journalism and to expose problematic conditions in professional baseball.
Abstract
Contemporary athletes have turned to social media and digital sites such as the Players’ Tribune in ways that have revived the practice of ghostwriting, raising questions about journalism ethics and the potential of (un)filtered material to offer critical insights into problematic behind-the-scenes conditions in professional baseball. This study analyzes archival materials and ancillary primary sources related to ghosted material in the first half of the 20th century in top-circulating US sports magazines, newspaper sports sections, and the industry trade press. It explores the evolution of ghostwriting in baseball journalism and autobiographies throughout the course of the 20th century and focuses special attention on three interrelated developments - the commodification of celebrity images through ghostwriting; the debate over the ethics of ghostwriting in sports journalism amid industry professionalization and credibility crises; and the practice of deploying ghostwriting to contest dominant narratives in sports journalism and to critique problematic behind-the-scenes conditions in Major League baseball. While ethical considerations should remain at the center of the century-long debate over ghostwriting in journalism, collaborations between star ballplayers and sports journalists that once offered symbiotic financial gain to newspaper publishers, sportswriters, and celebrity-athletes remain a productive means to contest dominant narratives in sports journalism and to expose problematic conditions in professional baseball.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface to Handbooks of Communication Science series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
-
I Introduction to communication and sport
- 1 Communication and sport: an emergent field 1
- 2 Playing on the communication and sport field: dispositions, challenges, and priorities 23
-
II Communication studies of sport
- 3 Through the kaleidoscope: all the colors of sports fanship 45
- 4 Moving beyond the local: media, marketing, and “satellite” sports fans 65
- 5 The organizational processes of athletic coaching 83
- 6 Are children getting outplayed? Examining the intersection of children’s involvement in physical activity, youth sports, and barriers to participation 103
- 7 From the living room to the ball field: a communicative approach to studying the family through sport 121
- 8 The sports interpreter’s role and interpreting strategies: a case study of Japanese professional baseball interpreters 137
- 9 The ethos of the activist athlete 161
- 10 Forgivable blackness: Jack Johnson and the politics of presidential clemency 179
- 11 Haram hoops? FIBA, Nike, and the hijab’s half-court defense 199
- 12 “Ideology in practice”: conceptualizing the NCAA’s <student-athlete> as an ideograph 217
- 13 Connecting local and global aspirations and audiences: communication in, around, and about Football Club Barcelona 235
-
III Sport and media
- 14 MediaSport: over production and global consumption 255
- 15 Uber-sport 275
- 16 Sport, media and the promotion of militarism: theoretical inter-continental reflections of the United Kingdom and South Korea 293
- 17 Football, gender, and sexism: the ugly side of the world’s beautiful game 313
- 18 Communication, sport, disability, and the (able)national 333
- 19 NBC’s diversity Olympics: promoting gay athletes in PyeongChang 351
- 20 Greening media sport: sport and the communication of environmental issues 369
- 21 Legitimizing and institutionalizing eSports in the NBA 2K League 387
-
IV Communicating nationalism(s) in sport
- 22 The biggest double-edged sword in sport media: Olympic media and the rendering of identity 405
- 23 “For the good of the world”: the innovations and influences of the UK’s early international televizing of sport 421
- 24 Sports and the media in Germany: lessons in nationhood and multiculturalism 441
- 25 Sport celebrity and multiculturalism in South Korea during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games 459
- 26 Communication and sport in Japan 477
- 27 Communicating Igbo sports nationalism under military dictatorship and democracy 495
- 28 Sport communication and the politics of identity in the MENA region 515
- 29 “Even when the angel of death will come I will still wear yellow-blue”: Israeli soccer fans’ chants as a window for understanding cultural and sports reality 527
- 30 Colombian football: a national popular of pleasure, violence, and labor 543
- 31 Football, television, and the state in Argentina: a tale of monopolies, patrimonies, and populisms 561
-
V Communicating in applied sport contexts
- 32 Crisis communication and sport: the organization, the players, and the fans 579
- 33 Communicating fantasy sport 597
- 34 The contemporary use of social media in professional sport 615
- 35 Social media and sport marketing 633
- 36 Sport media, sport journalism, and the digital era 651
- 37 The male and female sports journalists divide on the Twittersphere 669
- 38 #Rio2016 and #WorldCup2018: social media meets journalism 693
- 39 Ghosted gods: commodifying celebrities, decrying wraiths, and contesting graven images 709
- Contributors to this volume 729
- Index 737
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface to Handbooks of Communication Science series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
-
I Introduction to communication and sport
- 1 Communication and sport: an emergent field 1
- 2 Playing on the communication and sport field: dispositions, challenges, and priorities 23
-
II Communication studies of sport
- 3 Through the kaleidoscope: all the colors of sports fanship 45
- 4 Moving beyond the local: media, marketing, and “satellite” sports fans 65
- 5 The organizational processes of athletic coaching 83
- 6 Are children getting outplayed? Examining the intersection of children’s involvement in physical activity, youth sports, and barriers to participation 103
- 7 From the living room to the ball field: a communicative approach to studying the family through sport 121
- 8 The sports interpreter’s role and interpreting strategies: a case study of Japanese professional baseball interpreters 137
- 9 The ethos of the activist athlete 161
- 10 Forgivable blackness: Jack Johnson and the politics of presidential clemency 179
- 11 Haram hoops? FIBA, Nike, and the hijab’s half-court defense 199
- 12 “Ideology in practice”: conceptualizing the NCAA’s <student-athlete> as an ideograph 217
- 13 Connecting local and global aspirations and audiences: communication in, around, and about Football Club Barcelona 235
-
III Sport and media
- 14 MediaSport: over production and global consumption 255
- 15 Uber-sport 275
- 16 Sport, media and the promotion of militarism: theoretical inter-continental reflections of the United Kingdom and South Korea 293
- 17 Football, gender, and sexism: the ugly side of the world’s beautiful game 313
- 18 Communication, sport, disability, and the (able)national 333
- 19 NBC’s diversity Olympics: promoting gay athletes in PyeongChang 351
- 20 Greening media sport: sport and the communication of environmental issues 369
- 21 Legitimizing and institutionalizing eSports in the NBA 2K League 387
-
IV Communicating nationalism(s) in sport
- 22 The biggest double-edged sword in sport media: Olympic media and the rendering of identity 405
- 23 “For the good of the world”: the innovations and influences of the UK’s early international televizing of sport 421
- 24 Sports and the media in Germany: lessons in nationhood and multiculturalism 441
- 25 Sport celebrity and multiculturalism in South Korea during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games 459
- 26 Communication and sport in Japan 477
- 27 Communicating Igbo sports nationalism under military dictatorship and democracy 495
- 28 Sport communication and the politics of identity in the MENA region 515
- 29 “Even when the angel of death will come I will still wear yellow-blue”: Israeli soccer fans’ chants as a window for understanding cultural and sports reality 527
- 30 Colombian football: a national popular of pleasure, violence, and labor 543
- 31 Football, television, and the state in Argentina: a tale of monopolies, patrimonies, and populisms 561
-
V Communicating in applied sport contexts
- 32 Crisis communication and sport: the organization, the players, and the fans 579
- 33 Communicating fantasy sport 597
- 34 The contemporary use of social media in professional sport 615
- 35 Social media and sport marketing 633
- 36 Sport media, sport journalism, and the digital era 651
- 37 The male and female sports journalists divide on the Twittersphere 669
- 38 #Rio2016 and #WorldCup2018: social media meets journalism 693
- 39 Ghosted gods: commodifying celebrities, decrying wraiths, and contesting graven images 709
- Contributors to this volume 729
- Index 737
