Evolution of the Sportscast Highlight Form: from Peep Show to Pathé to Pastiche
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: EVOLUTION OF THE SPORTSCAST HIGHLIGHT FORM: FROM PEEP SHOW TO PATHÉ TO PASTICHE Raymond W. Gamache, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Maurine Beasley This dissertation traces the evolution of the sportscast highlight form. The highlight form emerged as the dominant technique of sportscasts as a result of the technological, economic and social changes that impacted media systems. Changes in technologies do not provide the entire account of the highlight form’s development and deployment, so this study also explicates the importance of the protocols that express the intricate relationships between media producers, sports leagues and organizations, and audiences. It argues that the sportscast highlight form is not a recent development, given its prominent use within a news context in every medium from early news film and newsreels to television and new media. As an example of media history, this project explicates each medium’s contributions, not so much as discrete phenomenon, but as the relational totality which the term implies. Such macro-level histories necessarily take a more long-term view of the processes of historical change. Additionally, this methodology utilizes intertextuality as an analytical strategy to question whose interests were served from the evolution and deployment of this form, who benefited from the narratives represented through the form, and whose interests were consolidated from the commodification of the form. This study analyzes primary and secondary sources related to sportscasts, including early sport films, newsreels, network and cable programming, and new media content. The significance of this study stems from the prominent position sports media in general and sports journalism in particular occupy within the political and cultural economy of late capitalism. The significance of this project is also evidenced in the considerable impact the national and regional sports networks have had on the proliferation of sportscasts. Lastly, this study analyzes the impacts electronic sports journalists have had in influencing and reflecting trends in race, gender, and ethnic relations, as well as political, economic and international affairs. EVOLUTION OF THE SPORTSCAST HIGHLIGHT FORM: FROM PEEP SHOW TO PATHÉ TO PASTICHE By Raymond W. Gamache Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2008 Advisory Committee: Professor Maurine Beasley, Chairperson/Advisor Professor David L. Andrews Professor Lee Thornton Associate Professor Chris Hanson Dr. Kalyani Chadha © Copyright by Raymond W. Gamache 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the staff of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism for their patient and kind service. To the administration of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism for providing me with the means to accomplish my goals. To members of my cohort—Eric Easton, Andrew Kaplan, Shuling Huang, Wenjing Xie, and Rafael Lorente, who shared so many ideas and kept me tied to the mast. A special thanks goes to A. R. Hogan, who provided me with a wealth of materials gleaned from the television archives at the Library of Congress. To my “other” cohort in the Department of Kineseology’s Physical Cultural Studies program, who welcomed me and taught me to speak in a new language. To faculty members Haynes Johnson, who allowed me to germinate the idea for this work in a seminar paper; and to John Newhagen, with whom I fleshed out the initial idea. To my committee members, whose guidance and insights helped me through the process. To Dave Andrews, who challenged me to stake out my own ontological and epistemological ground. To the late Michael Gurevitch, a giant on whose shoulders so many of us have stood and seen new theoretical perspectives. To Maurine Beasley, whose tireless encouragement, consideration and attentiveness made the experience so rewarding. To my mother, Rachel, and sister, Aline, for encouraging me to set sail on this adventure and whose love guided me to new shores. To Jane, my guiding light and love, without whom none of this would matter. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..i Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………ii List of Illustrations………………………...………………………………………...……iii Chapter 1: The Highlight Form……………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: Knockout Rounds and Rounding Marks……………………………………..35 Chapter 3: The Habit of Highlights………………………………………………...……89 Chapter 4: A Dream of Carnage and the Electronic Monster……………………..……143 Chapter 5: The Agony of Defeat and the Ecstasy of Communication………………….191 Chapter 6: Sports Junkies, Junk Journalism and Cathode Ray Sterilization…………...244 Chapter 7: The Little Shop of Highlights………………………………………………298 Chapter 8: The Real Virtuality for an Audience of One………………………………..336 Chapter 9: Significance of Findings………………………………………….…...……379 Appendix…………………………..……………………………………………………399 Selected Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..416 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 2.1: Illustrations from the Police Gazette 2.2 Edison boxing films from 1891-1892 2.3 Photograph and drawing of the Black Maria studio 2.4 New York Sun illustration of film projection 2.5 Clipper advertisement 3.1 Zev-Papyrus display advertisement 3.2 Lewis Tewanima’s “War Dance” 4.1 Photograph of images capture on television in the Zworykin laboratory 4.2 Display ad for Gillette Cavalcade of Sports World Series broadcast 4.3 NBC display ad for the Louis vs. Walcott championship fight 4.4 Photograph of the Stratovision, a B-29 Superfortress 4.5 A television map of the United States from 1949 4.6 NBC letterhead design of press releases for college football broadcasts 5.1 Ampex Corporation’s Mark IV Prototype Video Tape Recorder 5.2 Scotch Magnetic VR Tape 5.3 Schematic drawing of Syncom III’s synchronous orbit 6.1 The number of U. S. homes with cable television in 1980 iv CHAPTER ONE: THE HIGHLIGHT FORM Thematic Statement The purpose of this study is to trace the developments that contributed to the evolution of the sportscast highlight as an aesthetic form. In this regard the term aesthetics refers to those visual and audio techniques and conventions that contribute “to establishing the meaning and validity of critical judgments concerning works of art, and the principles underlying or justifying such judgments.” 1 As a form, the sportscast highlight has been used to communicate narratives about sporting events and the athletes who compete within them. In this sense, the highlight does not refer to specific content but to the form within which the visual images and audio commentary are presented. Although sportscasters use the term highlights in referring to content, that undifferentiated usage raises the question of what constitutes a sportscast highlight: Is it footage that captures an historic achievement (e.g., world’s record), or is it footage that captures individual or team athleticism (e.g., slam dunk), or is it an oddity that defies categorization? The images that largely derive their meaning from the context are referred to in semiotics as syntagmatic. For example, the “highlight” selected as the greatest in a 2007 Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) contest of the “100 Greatest Highlights” was Mike Eruzione’s game-winning goal in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Games. Although the goal-scoring sequence offered neither outstanding athleticism, nor compelling visuals, it captured a significant sporting moment for an American audience, namely, victory over the highly favored hockey team from the Soviet Union. Not knowing the context of Eruzione’s goal dilutes its meaning. Conversely, 1 images whose meaning is less dependent on the context of surrounding images are paradigmatic. 2 For example, Lynn Swann’s acrobatic catch in Super Bowl X was a great individual play regardless of the game’s outcome. No context is necessary to appreciate the catch, and the images can be appreciated for the grace and beauty of the athleticism. To trace the evolution of the highlight form as it was developed and deployed within sportscasts, it is necessary to differentiate between the two main types of sportscasts: 1) the live coverage (i.e., accounts and descriptions) of a sporting event and 2) news-oriented programming of sporting events. The former category includes all the national and international, professional and collegiate sporting events (e.g., Olympics, World Cup Football, Wimbledon, Kentucky Derby, NFL, etc.) that are disseminated live via an electronic delivery system. 3 The latter includes all emanations of sports news— film actualities, newsreel sports segments, televised sports news programming, Web site content, and content delivered via mobile devices. The two main sportscast genres have been communicated by a variety of delivery systems. While the changes in delivery systems, or technologies, constitute an important aspect of this study, they represent only one part, for as Henry Jenkins posits, “Delivery systems are simply and only technologies; media are also cultural systems.” 4 Jenkins also points out that while delivery systems come and go, “media persist as layers within an ever more complicated information and entertainment stratum.” 5 Those layers include not only the delivery systems that disseminate content, but also what Lisa Gitelman refers to as set protocols or social and cultural practices. “Protocols express a huge variety of social, economic,