Raymond Boyle, Sports Journalism: Context and Issues London: Sage Publications, 2006. 198pp, ISBN 1-4129-0798-5 Raymond Boyle’s study of the practices and conventions of sports journalism is based upon his long-standing grasp of the nature of contemporary sport media, and his balanced concern with both the interpretive scrutiny of journalistic texts and output, and the nature… Continue reading Book Review: Raymond Boyle, Sports Journalism: Context and Issues
Author: alangtomlinson
Olympic Survivals: The Olympic Games as a Global Phenomenon
You can also download a pdf version of this article In this paper I do three things. First, I review come commentaries on globalization and culture, and globalization and sport. Second, I offer some selective reflections on the history of the Olympic Games, casting an analytical, periodizing eye over the 24 (Summer) Games, warning against… Continue reading Olympic Survivals: The Olympic Games as a Global Phenomenon
The commercialization of the Olympics: Cities, corporations and the Olympic commodity
You can also download a pdf version of this article Introduction: the mixed economy and the nascent commercialization of the Olympic Games The Olympics has become such a high-profile global phenomenon that it attracts some of the world’s most prominent cities and capitals to bid for the prize of hosting a Games, particularly the Summer… Continue reading The commercialization of the Olympics: Cities, corporations and the Olympic commodity
Book Review: David Conn, The Football Business: Fair Game in the ‘90s
David Conn, The Football Business: Fair Game in the ‘90s, Edinburgh, Mainstream, 1997; The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football, London, Yellow Jersey Press, 2004. David Conn, Britain’s outstanding investigative football journalist, has combined his literary and legal trainings in a distinctive contribution to the investigative journalist’s art. Conn sub-titles his second book… Continue reading Book Review: David Conn, The Football Business: Fair Game in the ‘90s
Theorising a Critical Politics of Sport
Text of oral presentation at Political Studies Association Inaugural Sport Group Meeting, University of Reading April 6 2006 Opening comments In the book Power Games: A Critical Sociology of Sport (2002) critical sociology is presented, by John Sugden and myself, as one of six overlapping elements characteristic of our sociological approach to researching sport: its… Continue reading Theorising a Critical Politics of Sport
Book Review: Niall Quinn – The Autobiography
Niall Quinn - The Autobiography (London, Headline Book Publishing, 2002) Niall Quinn played football for Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland, a career spent almost wholly in the top flight of the English game, from 1983, when signed by Arsenal and brought over to London from the Republic of Ireland, to 2002, when he retired after… Continue reading Book Review: Niall Quinn – The Autobiography
Away from the Heart of the Matter: the Little Olympics
Sydney 2000 was the Bumper Summer Olympics. It welcomed more than 11,000 athletes, several thousand officials and coaches, and as the 16 days whizzed by estimates of the number of mediafolk in town reached 21,000, although official estimates had been initially put at around 15,000. Athens 2004 plans to cater for 18,000 media. The Main… Continue reading Away from the Heart of the Matter: the Little Olympics
The Emergence and Development of UK Leisure Studies
This address was first delivered as the opening presentation at Leisure Studies 25 (September 21, 2006), a symposium to celebrate a quarter of a century of success of the Leisure Studies Association's journal Leisure Studies. The presentation is also to be reproduced in the Leisure Studies Association's Newsletter in the Autumn of 2006. Opening Comments… Continue reading The Emergence and Development of UK Leisure Studies
Summer back then: waiting for football
I wonder why I’m not at a game today. It’s Saturday at the start of another football season. But I remember discussing the overkill of boom-time sport with the old Labour Minister Denis Howell, just before he died. He agreed that the solipsistic sloshings of money in the game, the media saturation of coverage, bordered… Continue reading Summer back then: waiting for football
Istanbul, May 2005
Another airport again, sitting looking out at concrete runways through characterless glass panes. The check-in and passport controls and security checks and duty-frees and toilets could be at any airport on any continent. There’s something both comforting and frightening about this: the processes become familiar, the environment spookily déjà vu. You’ve done all that travel… Continue reading Istanbul, May 2005
Professor Alan Tomlinson - Research 