MEDIA-SPORT COMMUNITY: GOING BEYOND AN AD-HOC COMPLICITY
MEDIA-SPORT COMMUNITY: GOING BEYOND AN AD-HOC COMPLICITY

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to address the media-sport nexus in terms of the interaction contexts and social practices that define the relationship between the journalists and the sport actors. In questioning the idea of a "media-sport community" we have focused on three dimensions that attest to the dialectical nature of this relationship: collaborative versus conflictive ends, in-group versus out-group identification, professional versus personal engagement. Each of these dimensions covers a complex process of symbolic negotiation between the media and the sport actors, revealing both ritualized practices, as well as some structuring effects of the celebrity media logic that the sport field has entered within. We argue that the media-sport community is a very debatable concept, as it brings along both convergent and disruptive forces in terms of the identification mechanisms, goals and corollary socio-professional practices. Moreover, the mixture of professional and personal grounds in building the relationships between the journalists and the sport actors makes them engage in a form of role-play complicity, which brings along important face management challenges. Despite the consistent interaction contexts and common experiences, we are rather speaking about a conventional community of action, mainly defined by an instrumental connectivity than an organic in-group belonging feeling. In addressing this inside-out resistance to the media-sport community identification, some of the ideas we have looked into are supported by the findings we have come across during a qualitative study that covered 23 in-depth interviews with Romanian handball coaches.

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