Abstract

This chapter considers sport communication as an integral part of consumer culture. A basic function of sport communication is that it facilitates sport being consumed and drives marketplace value.Thus, understanding how we communicate in and through a sport marketplace that is huge and expanding is important both to those who seek leverage in sport management and to scholars who wish to understand how sport exerts social and cultural influence. This chapter examines how understanding consumer culture has become foundational to understanding sport communication. The chapter is framed by a brief introduction to the study of consumer culture, some basic tensions in understanding the consumer and fan, and the importance of the consumer-fanship link in understanding sport communication’s promotional role. These considerations provide context for the body of the chapter that summarizes a recent series of studies examining the narrative characterization of consumption and the casting of sport consumer as fan in television advertising. Aus dem Text