A Media Analysis of a Sport Celebrity: Understanding an Informal ``Team
Psychology of Sport and Exercise 13 (2012) 26e35 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychsport A media analysis of a sport celebrity: Understanding an informal “team cancer” role as a socio-cultural construction Kerry R. McGannon a,*, Matt D. Hoffmann a, Jennifer L. Metz b, Robert J. Schinke a a School of Human Kinetics, Ben Avery Building, 935 Ramsey Lake Rd., Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada b Department of Kinesiology, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA article info abstract Article history: Objectives: Negative informal roles in sport such as a “team cancer” warrant further attention because of Received 17 June 2011 the association with athletes’ negative psychological experiences, impaired team processes, and reduced Received in revised form performance. The purpose of the current study is to extend understandings of the team cancer role by 26 July 2011 analyzing the socio-cultural context (i.e., sport media narratives surrounding a sport celebrity and key Accepted 1 August 2011 media incident) within which one “team cancer” was constituted in a professional sport context. Available online 11 August 2011 Method: National Hockey League (NHL) star Sean Avery was the sport celebrity of interest. The key media incident was the “sloppy seconds” comment made by Avery regarding his former girlfriend. The comment Keywords: ’ Sport psychology was an attack towards the opposing team s defenseman, who was dating her. Newspaper representations ¼ Informal team roles of the comment (n 62) were explored via ethnographic content analysis (see Altheide, 1996). Media analysis Results: It was found that the depiction of the team cancer emerged differently depending on two paradoxical discourses found within the media: a hockey moral code as truth vs.
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