Cultural Production in Sports Media

Media and sports combine to create unique forms of cultural identity. Sports media producers have evolved into being the cultural producers for many segments of society. As cultural producers, they influence how sports are received and interpreted by a market audience. The producers must be mindful of the social and political landscape while also managing economic constraints. They must satisfy local markets while simultaneously expanding markets. One example of a globalized sporting event that has a loyal following is ESPN’s College GameDay produced by Jim Gaiero. It is a pregame football show that takes place on NCAA Division I university campuses. However, not all sports media producers have such a broad cultural influence. For instance, Kevin Smith, Director of Athletic Communication at The College of Wooster, is a sports media producer who works in a smaller media ecosystem. Smith directs the media practices of the college, including the organization of media equipment and distribution of statistics to the media. Smith has experience working in collaboration with ESPN for large sporting events, but he prefers to produce at the NCAA Division III level. This paper reviews research focused on sports media production and compares ESPN’s College GameDay production to the production of sports at The College of Wooster.

Sports media production may be considered a cultural production in macro and micro scales. According to Vicki Mayer in the article, Bringing the “Social” back in Studies of Production Cultures and Social Theory, production case studies illuminate how social hierarchies and discrimination are reproduced by media production. She contends that macro forces and micro position connections should guide the interpretation of media and its impacts in the stratification of social groups based on race, class, and gender (Mayer et al., 2009, p. 1). Mayer argues that alienation of media workers on the lower echelons of production is a recurring social practice in media production  (p. 10). She believes that an increase in creativity and a decrease in the alienation of workers would occur if lower-level media workers were allowed to collaborate more on the production process (p. 4). A decrease in alienation amongst production workers may reduce the production content that marginalizes some people and reinforces social hierarchies. This cooperation is particularly important in sports media since it deals with a diverse audience and group of athletes. When media production unites the media labor force and the influential media executives, these cultural producers influence social equality and inclusivity.

Denise Mann asserts that cultural producers in television production are facing challenging demands to create multiple revenue streams for popular shows. The pressure to develop and launch digital content, merchandise opportunities, and spin-off shows has negatively impacted the production community. Thus, the writers and producers become less connected since middle managers are required in the manufacturing of supplementary products (Mann, 2009, p. 99-101). Middle managers are a common occurrence in sports media. For example, several media organizations are forced to work with the featured universities media deals. According to Kevin Smith, “Most Power 5’s have their own TV production operation within the athletic department” (K. Smith, personal communication, April 30, 2024). This phenomenon is utilized by conferences such as the Big Ten and the ACC (and formerly the Big East) (K. Smith, personal communication, April 30, 2024). Another example is ESPN’s practice of contracting local video production companies to “handle [many production responsibilities, like] behind the cameras, spotters for the announcers, and everything inside the production truck” (K. Smith, personal communication, April 30, 2024). Nonetheless, this middle management is a necessity for larger collegiate broadcasts.

Christine Cornea disagrees with Mann’s assessment of the pressure placed on the television production community to generate blockbuster shows that create multiple opportunities for advertisers to capitalize on a show’s popularity. She notes that British television production focuses on quality as opposed to special effects (Cornea, 2009, p. 116). She focuses on the low-budget BBC show, Dr. Who, to underscore that quality television can lead to spin-off shows. Moreover, it can lead to opportunities of viewer engagement without compromising the production community. She believes new global media television producers do not value high quality television (p. 120). This sentiment is also true in lower level collegiate productions. Both Division II and Division III productions uses limited equipment and staff to broadcast athletic events (K. Smith, personal communication, April 30, 2024).

Modern sports media producers also experience the tension to produce high revenue shows. The expansion of professional and college sports has been met with a boom in the growth of media coverage for these events. Sports participation and viewership has become an integral component of North American culture. Sut Jhally argues that despite sports prominent role in North American culture, sports institutions have not been examined as cultural producers from a critical perspective (Jhally, 1984, p. 41). He evaluates the critical theory of media in relationship to professional sports (p. 42). He notes that the sports/media relationship is inextricably intertwined. For instance, sports alter their rules regarding playing times to fulfill the needs of media producers to attract larger audiences (p. 50). Jhally states, “Sports are an explicit celebration of the idealized structures of reality – a form of capitalist realism. They mediate a vital social dialectic, providing both an escape from the alienated conditions of everyday life and a socialization into these very same structures” (p. 51). He concludes that professional sports teams’ relationship with media is a cultural norm that is grounded in capitalist ideology (p. 55).

Lawrence Wenner agrees with Jhally’s assessment of the relationship between sports and the media. He observes that media organizations commodify sports like other forms of entertainment in the United States. He notes that the audience is the commodity being exchanged with advertisers and not the playing of the sport. The sports team viewership opportunities are sold to broadcast media organizations. These sports media producers repackage and enhance the sport to acquire additional advertisers. Wenner suggests that this exchange of sports as a media commodity occurs with professional teams as well as collegiate level teams. Sports teams and the broadcast media organizations are institutions that impact culture in the United States (Wenner, 2021, p. 22). Wenner suggests, “To the degree that a unified mediated sports ideology, through its beliefs and values, becomes more widely known, enforced revered, internalized, inculcated in early life, and promotes conformity, there is evidence of cultural hegemony” (p. 23). However, even Wenner acknowledges that proving cultural dominance of the sports/media complex is challenging to researchers in the field (p. 23).

Wenner (2021) argues that the relationship between media, sports, and society is best examined through a transactional model (p. 26).  He expands on this model as he scrutinizes the mediated sports production complex at the collegiate level. He asserts that collegiate sports increase a higher education institution’s recognition in the “education marketplace” (p. 35). While sports teams are supposed to be secondary to the educational mission of colleges and universities, the media coverage of these sports teams affords them attention and notoriety (p. 35). Therefore, colleges and universities invest in sports programming to raise their profile in the marketplace. Furthermore, if sports teams can increase student involvement and identification at their college or university, alumni are more likely to make financial contributions (Christiansen et al, 2019, p. 16). Moreover, students and alumni are more likely to identify with a school if the athletic department maintains football gameday traditions and rituals (p. 21).

Richard Haynes also agrees with Jhally and Wenner that media sports is driven by capitalistic imperatives. He notes that often the capitalistic elements of media sports, although boldly apparent, are not the central focus of audiences and fans. Driven by media sports organizations, their focus is finding meaning and connection with a particular sport or organization. He claims that “media sport is key for meaning in many people’s lives, and these meanings are often differentiated by a range of social factors including age, gender, ethnicity, nation, region, and other more discreet demographics” (Haynes, 2015, p. 15).  Sports media producers decide how sports are presented to different segments of the population to create meaning within a cultural context. They decide the tone and configuration of the message and how the audience should consume their message (p. 15). He acknowledges that modern sports media producers are challenged to package their messages in ways that align with new technologies and the growth in social media. He argues that social media has changed the power relations between media producers, sports stars, audiences, fans, and sports journalists (p. 33). The rise in social media has created new streams of revenue. However, this revenue has instituted a shift in power that seems to be continuously negotiated depending on the sport, the sports star, social media influencers, the fans, and the sports producer.

David Rowe evaluates the effects of power structures in sports media in his book, Sport, Culture, and the Media. He states that “power is not necessarily a negative concept: it ranges in character from the exercise of the grossest and subtlest forms of oppression to the capacity to effect dramatic or cumulatively progressive change” (Rowe, 2003, p. 34). He notes that researchers would benefit from understanding how power structures in sports media influence cultural norms (p. 35). He suggests that cultural messaging insight is gained when one understands the ways that media companies and individual sports change direction in response to broadcasting rights, advertisers, fans, and event attendance. Rowe asserts that cultural messaging is shaped by the economic entities that provide the most revenue for sports media (p. 69). The power of increased revenue in sports media has cultural implications for an increasingly global community (p. 90).

David Rowe, in the article, Markets in Movement: Economic Dimensions of the Media, argues that social and cultural processes have been packaged using new technology to expand the reach of global media sport (Rowe, 2009, p. 14). Global media sports short circuits cultural processes of sports by quantifying the sports team and players performance. The quantification of sports further informs global media sports commoditization (p. 16). Rowe argues that sport is being packaged as local and global news (p. 22).  

College sports have been considered a part of the United States news landscape for many years. This landscape has expanded into the comprehensive media production of sports events that helps fans experience the sense of being in attendance (Lovett, 2007, p. 16).  One example of media framing a college sporting event is ESPN’s College GameDay. College GameDay is a televised media outlet that rivals most news casts. ESPN is a for profit media entity that produces College GameDay every Saturday during college football season. According to Melissa Lovette in her thesis, ESPN’s Ability to Get Fans ‘Inside Sports’: A framing Analysis of College Gameday, College Gameday frames college football at Division I schools using social and cultural themes of national identity, masculine identity, and nostalgia.  It provides viewers and participants with the cultural meaning of football. She asserts that College GameDay informs and brings together viewers from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, and regional boundaries. She observes that football has become a deeply ritualized tradition in United States culture through the broad reach of technologies (p. 15). This tradition is amplified by the media as they seek to garner larger audiences for greater advertising revenue.

David Shonk and others researched how ESPN’s College GameDay motivated students at James Madison University to attend a non-ticketed event on their campus. They utilized a cross-sectional survey and a convenience sample to research the psychological commitment and motivation of students who attended the event (Shonk et al, 2017, p. 147). They discovered that attendees were motivated by the entertainment factor of the experience. Some students commented that it might be a “once in a lifetime experience” (p. 157). The study revealed that College GameDay provides a unique and exciting opportunity for students to be active participants in a media production that they would usually observe from a distance. Thus, College GameDay, as a cultural producer, provides unique opportunities for fans to be engaged with football rituals in-person and at-a-distance.

The distinctive experiences that College Gameday provides also extend past student populations. One of the main audiences who attend these events are traveling sports fanatics. In fact, I have attended several of these events across multiple college campuses. I attended College Gameday at The Ohio State University on November 24, 2018, November 23, 2019, November 26, 2022, and October 21, 2023. Each of these events surrounded Ohio State playing one their two major rivals – Penn State University and the University of Michigan. Moreover, each of these football games featured highly ranked opponents. The 2018 contest saw the #3 Michigan Wolverines face the #10 Ohio State Buckeyes. In 2019, the #2 Ohio State Buckeyes played #8 Penn State Nittany Lions. The 2022 College GameDay appearance featured Ohio State’s archrival Michigan playing at Ohio State in a #2 versus #3 matchup. The most recent visit by College GameDay pitted #3 Ohio State Buckeyes against the #7 Penn State Nittany Lions (Football History, 2024). Each of these contests drew massive crowds and were widely advertised as “games of the year.” The frenzy of substantial crowds and the marketing hype allow College GameDay to capitalize on the environment. The inclusion of College GameDay, as a special event, adds to the festivities and creates a unique college football fan experience. Therefore, the combination of high-ranked contests, accelerated ticket sales, and entertainment value all aid in the scale and commodity of College GameDay.

The protracted impact and culture of College GameDay is also palpable on other university campuses. For example, the University of Michigan has hosted the ESPN television event several times on their campus. I attended one of these broadcasts on November 27, 2021. Once again, the game was between Ohio State and Michigan when both teams were ranked in the top ten of all NCAA Division I football programs. College GameDay was also advertised as an event for a “game of the year” sell out. This practice is displayed on past telecasts, too (Shonk et al, 2017, p. 157).

Although The College of Wooster utilizes telecasts to showcase their athletics, their productions encompass a far smaller footprint. Nonetheless, Kevin Smith still faces several challenges of media production. One of these challenges that Smith highlighted was their ability to cover multiple games simultaneously. He stated that sometimes the Sports Communication Office has to “go to coaches to be more creative with times and dates . . . to ensure that the games are covered” (K. Smith, personal communication, April 8, 2024). These broadcasts do not have the nationwide focus that ESPN possesses. Instead, they are “very student focused.” They do not have “the luxury of investing in broadcasts due to staff and budget limitations” (K. Smith, personal communication, April 8, 2024). This phenomenon can be seen in his “recaps” and “player of the week” sections of the college’s athletics website (K. Smith, personal communication, April 8, 2024). Furthermore, Smith provides unique opportunities for aspiring sports journalists and commentators through the Sports Communication Office (K. Smith, personal communication, April 8, 2024). I experienced the importance of written and statistical media while writing for The Wooster Voice, a student run newspaper on the campus of The College of Wooster. The focus points allow Smith’s entries to be more “recruit oriented” and more player-focused in comparison to other mainstream broadcasts (K. Smith, personal communication, April 8, 2024).

The ability to connect to multiple forms of sports media in separate ecosystems proved to be a major cornerstone for the comparison of two levels of collegiate athletics media production. A few case studies compare sports production at various levels, especially at the collegiate level. Despite these studies, the utilization of ethnographic data derived from personal experiences and observation provided unique research on cultural producers. While personal experiences are not forms of empirical data, they can serve to begin the conversation regarding the need for more data and research studies in the cultural production of sports. These ethnographic studies were also supplemented with various studies regarding production practices of media conglomerates and producers.

The study of the cultural production of sports requires further research in order to understand the multiple ways that the production influences the decision-making of the media, athletes, and consumers. Sports media producers should share information across all levels of sports to achieve higher standards for responsible media production. Furthermore, sports media has a moral obligation to uphold a proactive stance on the ways in which it influences issues surrounding race and ethnicity across cultures.

Works Cited

Christiansen, L. A., Greene, A., & Jones, C. W. (2019). College Football Revival: Analyzing the Impact of Marketing Efforts on Key Stakeholders at a Division I FCS Commuter School: Journal of Applied Sport Management. Journal of Applied Sport Management, 11(1), 14–23. https://doi.org/10.18666/JASM-2019-V11-I1-9182

Cornea, C. (2009). Showrunning the Doctor Who Franchise: A response to Denise Mann. In Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries (pp. 115–122). Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=446571

ESPN Press Room: Jim Gaiero. (2024). ESPN Press Room U.S. https://espnpressroom.com/us/bios/gaiero_jim/

Football History. (2024). [Historical]. Ohio State. https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/football/opponent-history

Haynes, R. (2015). Sport and the Media. Sport and Society, 3, 290–322. Stirling Online Research Repository.

Jhally, S. (1984). The Spectacle of Accumulation: Material and Cultural Factors in the Evolution of the Sports/Media Complex. Insurgent Sociologist, 12(3), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/089692058401200304

Lovette, M. (2007). ESPN’s Ability to Get Fans “Inside Sports: A Framing Analysis of College Gameday.” Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, 101. TRACE.

Mann, D. (2009). It’s Not TV, It’s Brand Management. In Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries (pp. 99–114). Routledge Handbooks Online; ProQuest. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wooster/reader.action?docID=446571&ppg=5

Mayer, V., Banks, M. J., & Caldwell, J. T. (2009). Bringing the Social Back In: Studies of Production Cultures and Social Theory. In Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries (pp. 15–24). Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=446571

Rowe, D. (2003). Sport, Culture and Media. McGraw-Hill Education. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=295456

Rowe, D. (2011). Markets in Movement: Economic Dimensions of the Media Sport Spectacle. In Global Media Sport: Flows, Forms, and Futures (pp. 12–33). Bloomsbury Academic; Bloomsbury Academic. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/58706/9781849666763.pdf?sequence=1

Shonk, D. J., Pate, J. R., Lee, C., & Bosley, A. T. (2017). Examining the Psychological Commitment and Motivation for Attending a Non-Ticketed Event: A Case Study of ESPN’s College GameDay. 10.

Smith, K. (2024). Wooster Athletics: Kevin Smith [Informational]. The College of Wooster. https://www.woosterathletics.com/information/directory/bios/Smith_Kevin

Smith, K. (2024, April 8). Sports Media at The College of Wooster [Audio Recording].

Smith, K. (2024, April 30). Production Practices: Kevin Smith [Written].

Wenner, L. A. (2021). Media, Sports, and Society. LMU Communication Studies Faculty Works, 1–14. LMU Digital Commons.