TuTh, 9:30 AM-10:45 AM, TE F256
Required film screening: W, 7:00 PM-10:30 PM, TE F256
Fulfills COLL S&H Requirement
Fulfills COLL Culture Studies Requirement (List A)

Instructor: Matt Guschwan
E-Mail: mguschw@indiana.edu
Office: Mottier Hall 252
Phone: 855-0844

The overall aim of this course is to introduce students to the
fundamental processes of globalization and to consider how sport
media is involved in these trends.

Sport transcends geographic, linguistic, cultural and religious
barriers around the world.  The nearly universal appeal of sport
gives it tremendous leverage in the media marketplace.  This course
will consider the ways in which sport is packaged, sold and used by
media corporations to further economic, political and social
purposes.

We will start the course by defining globalization and then
considering what role sport media has in this process.  We will then
consider case studies drawn from multi-national corporations
operating in Western Europe and the USA.

Key questions we will ask include: What affect does sport media have
on the formation of a diversified media landscape?  What affect does
sport media have on local cultures?  How might sport media affect
democratic processes?

We will look at the Olympics and the World Cup as examples of truly
global media events that attract billions of viewers, and therefore,
billions of dollars.

We will consider the ways in which multi-national corporations, such
as Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp, are using televised soccer to
challenge the role of state run television corporations in England
and Italy.

We will examine the ways in which global media has created
international stars (and salesmen) such as Michael Jordan and David
Beckham.

We will consider the ways in which clothing manufacturers, Nike and
Adidas have become truly international brands through their close
association with sports media and advertising.