How Canadians Communicate V Sports

edited by David Taras and Christopher Waddell

Fewer Canadians than ever are lacing up skates, swimming lengths at the pool, practicing their curve ball, and experiencing the thrill of competition. However, despite a decline in active participation, Canadians spend enormous amounts of time and money on sports, as fans and followers of sporting events and sports culture. Never has media coverage of sports been more exhaustive, and never has it been more driven by commercial interests and the need to fuel consumerism, on which corporate profits depend. But the power plays now occurring in the arena of sports are by no means solely a matter of money. At issue as well in the media capture of sports are the values that inform our daily lives, the physical and emotional health of the population, and the symbols so long central to a sense of Canadian identity.

Writing from a variety of perspectives, the contributors to this collection set out to explore the impact of the media on our reception of, and attitudes toward, sports—to unpack the meanings that sports have for us as citizens and consumers. Some contributors probe the function of sports as spectacle—the escalation of violence, controversies over drug use, and the media’s coverage of tragic deaths—while others shed light on the way in which the media serve to transform sports into a vehicle for the expression of identity and nationalism. The goal is not to score points but to prompt critical discussion of why sports matter in Canadian life and culture and how they contribute to the construction of identity.

About the Editors

David Taras holds the Ralph Klein Chair in media studies at Mount Royal University. He served as an expert advisor to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and is the co-author of The Last Word: Media Coverage of the Supreme Court of Canada. Christopher Waddell is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University, where he holds the Carty Chair in business and financial journalism. He was formerly national editor for the Globe and Mail and parliamentary bureau chief for CBC television news.

Table of Contents

  1. Power Plays: Communication and Control in Canadian Sports / David Taras
  2. PART I. The Medium Is the Money
    1. 1. Troubles in the Toy Department: Conflicts of Interest, the Triumph of Trivia, and the Changing Face of Sports Journalism / Roy MacGregor
    2. 2. The Hall of Mirrors / Christopher Waddell
    3. 3. The End of CBC Sports? / Jay Scherer
    4. 4. Playing Make-Believe: How Fantasy Leagues Have Changed Sports / Derrick Newman
  3. PART II. Searching for Heroes in the New Media World
    1. 5. Questioning Assumptions: A Comparison of Canadian and American University Sports / Duane Bratt
    2. 6. Of Home Teams and Visiting Players: Imports and Substitutions in Canadian Professional Sports / Ira Wagman
    3. 7. The Changing World of Sports in Québec / André Richelieu
    4. 8. The Olympics as an Iconic Event: The Question of National Unity and the Vancouver 2010 Games / Harry Hiller
    5. 9. Debating Disability: Paralympic Athletes and the Media / David Legg
  4. PART III. Hockey Night in Canada
    1. 10. Hockey, Concussions, and the Media / Tom Maloney
    2. 11. The Hockey Calgary Body-Checking Vote: Colliding Views / Janice Paskey
    3. 12. Goodbye, Gordie Howe: Sport Participation and Class Inequality in the “Pay for Play” Society / Richard Gruneau
    4. 13. Cultivating Distinction Through Hockey as Commodity / Peter Zuurbier
    5. 14. Hockey Art as Visual Communication: Insights from Oral Culture / Chaseten Remillard
  5. PART IV. Drugs, Violence, and Death
    1. 15. The Kayfabe Era: Early Professional Wrestling in Canada / Glenn Ruhl
    2. 16. “The UFC Is Selling Wolf Tickets”: Sport and Fiction in the Ultimate Fighting Championship / Bart Beaty
    3. 17. On the Temptations of Doping: Moral Relativism and the Tour de France / Angela J. Schneider
    4. 18. An Insider’s Look at the Vancouver 2010 Luge Tragedy / Regan Lauscher
    5. 19. Communicating Tragedy: The Death of Nodar Kumaritashvili at the Vancouver Olympics / Jeremy Berry
    6. 20. The Half a Mile of Heaven’s Gate / Aritha van Herk
  6. List of Contributors / Index

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.

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