This book is about how new media, and in particular, digital and social media, has changed the world of sports forever. The way fans receive information, communicate and form communities now predominantly lives online. But perhaps even more significant is the evolution of the sports media industry, where digital media has impacted the broader media industry, stimulated new media organisations, changed old media organisations and altered old conventions of journalism in equal measure. Drawing on the expertise of academics, scholars, experts and professionals at the forefront of the sports, media, and journalism fields, the book suggests that new media has turned the sports industry on its head with profound implications – both exciting and disturbing.

This book is about how new media, and in particular, digital and social media, has changed the world of sports forever. The way fans receive information, communicate and form communities now predominantly lives online. But perhaps even more significant is the evolution of the sports media industry, where digital media has impacted the broader media industry, stimulated new media organisations, changed old media organisations and altered old conventions of journalism in equal measure. Drawing on the expertise of academics, scholars, experts and professionals at the forefront of the sports, media, and journalism fields, the book suggests that new media has turned the sports industry on its head with profound implications – both exciting and disturbing.

Ramifications of the convergence of sports and digital technology, from athlete and spectator experience to the role of media innovation at the Olympics. Digital technology is changing everything about modern sports. Athletes and coaches rely on digital data to monitor and enhance performance. Officials use tracking systems to augment their judgment in what is an increasingly superhuman field of play. Spectators tune in to live sports through social media, or even through virtual reality. Audiences now act as citizen journalists whose collective shared data expands the places in which we consume sports news. In Sport 2.0, Andy Miah examines the convergence of sports and digital cultures, examining not only how it affects our participation in sport but also how it changes our experience of life online. This convergence redefines how we think of about our bodies, the social function of sports, and the kinds of people who are playing. Miah describes a world in which the rise of competitive computer game playing—e-sports—challenges and invigorates the social mandate. Miah also looks at the Olympic Games as an exemplar of digital innovation in sports, and offers a detailed look at the social media footprint of the 2012 London Games, discussing how organizers, sponsors, media, and activists responded to the world's largest media event. In the end, Miah does not argue that physical activity will cease to be central to sports, or that digital corporeality will replace the nondigital version. Rather, he provides a road map for how sports will become mixed-reality experiences and abandon the duality of physical and digital.

This book outlines the effects that technology-induced change will have on sport within the next five to ten years, and provides food for thought concerning what lies further ahead. Presented as a collection of essays, the authors are leading academics from renowned institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Cambridge, and practitioners with extensive technological expertise. In their essays, the authors examine the impacts of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and robotics on sports and assess how they will change sport itself, consumer behavior, and existing business models. The book will help athletes, entrepreneurs, and innovators working in the sports industry to spot trendsetting technologies, gain deeper insights into how they will affect their activities, and identify the most effective responses to stay ahead of the competition both on and off the pitch.

This first book in the Journalism Insights series examines the major practical and ethical challenges confronting contemporary sports journalists which have emerged from, or been exacerbated by, the use of digital and social media. Combining both quantitative and qualitative research and contributions from industry experts in sports reporting across Europe, America and Australia, the collection offers a valuable look at the digital sports reporting industry today. Issues discussed in the text include the ethical questions created by social media abuse received by sports journalists, the impact of social media on narratives about gender and race, and the ‘silencing’ of journalists over the issue of trans athletes, as well as the impact on ‘traditional’ aspects of sports journalism, such as the match report. The book features first-hand accounts from leading sports reporters and scholars about how these changes have affected the industry and sets out what ‘best practice’ looks like in this field today. This book will be a useful resource for scholars and students working in the fields of journalism, media, sports and communication, as well as for current sports journalism practitioners interested in the future of a changing industry.

As the funding of journalism moves centre stage as a driver in shaping the new trajectories of journalism in the digital age, this book focuses on how those working in sports journalism have had to adapt and re-invent themselves. Running through this international collection are key themes related to sports journalism in the digital environment. These include aspects of disruption to: established norms of journalistic practice; institutional allegiance; the authority and primary definer role of journalism; and the career structure and development for journalists writing about sport. The book draws on empirically-led research that mixes qualitative and quantitative approaches and seeks to better understand and position what is going on across contemporary sports journalism. In so doing, this collection identifies change, but also areas of continuity as well as new opportunities for journalists. This book was originally published as a special issue of Digital Journalism.

The Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication is the only book to offer a fully comprehensive and in-depth survey of the contemporary discipline of sport communication. It explores communication within, through, and for sport in all its theoretical, conceptual, cultural, behavioral, practical and managerial aspects, tracing the contours of this expansive, transdisciplinary and international discipline and demonstrating that there are few aspects of contemporary sport that don’t rely on effective communications. Including contributions from leading sport media and communications scholars and professionals from around the world, the book examines emerging (new and social) media, traditional (print, broadcast and screen) media, sociological themes in communication in sport, and management issues, at every level, from the interpersonal to communication within and between sport organisations and global institutions. Taking stock of current research, new ideas and key issues, this book is an essential reference for any advanced student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in sport communication, sport business, sport management, sport marketing, communication theory, journalism, or media studies.