T445 Sports and Television
Section 4521

Prerequisites: T205 or T207 or T271 or T274.

Course Objectives:  This course will explore various issues relating
to sports programming and coverage in all media.  We will examine
the relationships that exist among collegiate and professional
sports leagues, the Olympics, the athletes themselves, distributors
of sports programming such as broadcast and cable networks,
advertisers, institutions of higher education, the government, and
audiences.  We will also examine alternative viewpoints related to
distribution, content, and effects of sports programming.  The
primary objective of this course is to provide students with an
understanding of the complex social and economic relationships that
exist between sports and the media and the consequences that spill
over into everyday life.

Course Format:  The course will be medium in size.  Students’ input
will be highly valued.  Lectures and in-class discussions will
comprise the majority of class meetings.  Students will also be
expected to make one or two in-class presentations.

Requirements the course will meet:  This course is taught as part of
the Media and Society undergraduate major area.  It may count toward
COAS and / or Department of Telecommunications 300-400 level course
requirements.  The COAS bulletin lists this course as fulfilling
three credits of S & H requirements.

Required Texts:  In addition to class handouts and online reserves,
the class will use one text.  The reference for the text is:

Zimbalist, A. Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in
Big-Time College Sports.
Princeton University Press, 2001.




This course contains five sections.  The first introduces the many
stakeholders associated with sports and the media and covers the
financial elements of media/sports linkages.  The second focuses on
the content provided in sportscasts.  This will include a look at
sports journalism as well as charges that media coverage, at least
on occasion, has been racist and sexist.  The third segment of the
course examines the audiences for media sports. Here, we’ll describe
the audience, their motivations for viewing, and look at where
viewing occurs.  In the fourth section of the course, we’ll focus on
the effects of sports coverage.  This will range from effects on
individuals and families to those felt by organizations (i.e.,
colleges and universities) and society as a whole. This section will
include coverage of sports gambling.  The final section of the
course  looks at the future of sports and the media.  In this
section, we’ll look at new media outlets, new sports, and the
efforts underway to attract young audiences to sports on the media.