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Televised Sport • 71

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• Television uses five channels of communication simultaneously to render
the experience of sport: graphics, image, voice, sound effects and music
• Clarity and banter are elements of ‘masculine style’ in televised sport, but
other elements, such as the use of close-ups, are associated with programme
types traditionally associated with female viewers
• Despite technological innovations, conventions in the televising of sport
appear resistant to change, indicating their connotative value in construct-
ing the way sport is viewed
• Sport megaevents are staged specifically for television, and sport spectacle

is a central way for nations to present historical, political and economic
narratives of themselves for consumption by a global audience

Suggestions for Analysis

Some sports, particularly those where action is fast and space confined, like Ameri-

can football or the Olympic 100-metre final, seem to translate better to television than
others. Sports that take place over a large area, such as cross-country, cricket, surfi ng
or the Tour de France, arguably create more of a challenge for television. Select an
international event and consider the ways that television’s fi ve channels of commu-
nication (graphics, image, voice, sound effects and music) are used to construct the
spectacle of sport. How are other aspects of the sport media, such as newspapers and
the Internet, intertextually referenced in the televising of the event?

Further Reading

Bignell, J., and Orlebar, J. (2005), The Television Handbook (Media Practice), Lon-
don: Routledge.
Buscombe, E., ed. (1975), Football on Television, London: BFI.
Criswell, A. (2006), A Study of Modern Television: Thinking inside the Box, Basing-
stoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Duncan, M., and Hasbrook, C. (1988), ‘Denial of Power in Televised Women’s
Sports’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 15: 1–21.
Hills, L., and Kennedy, E. (2006), ‘Space Invaders at Wimbledon: Televised Sport
and Deterritorialization’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 23: 419–37.
Hogan, J. (2003), ‘Staging the Nation: Gendered and Ethnicized Discourses of Na-
tional Identity in Olympic Opening Ceremonies’, Journal of Sport and Social
Issues, 27: 100–23.
Kennedy, E. (2000), ‘Bad Boys and Gentlemen: Gendered Narrative in Televised
Sport’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 35: 59–73.