Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Keywords
in-house reporters, team media, field theory, peripheral actors, audiences, sports communication
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5010014
Abstract
In recent years, the sports communication landscape has seen changes in terms of who occupies the role of sports reporter. In-house reporters, or sports communicators employed by specific clubs, teams, or leagues, now contribute content to the sports media landscape. This study explores the complicated relationship between in-house reporters’ self-perceived professional identities and in-houses reporters’ perceptions of their audiences through the lens of Bourdieusian field theory. As such, it sees in-house reporters as peripheral actors negotiating the boundaries of the sports journalism field. Through semi-structured interviews with 28 in-house sports reporters from the United States and Austria, our findings suggest that in-house reporters conceive of themselves both in relation to professional journalism and as members of the sports establishment. Furthermore, they note an ambiguous relationship to their audience, which is both reliant upon the reporters’ work, and, at times, highly critical of it.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journalism and Media, v. 5, issue 1, p. 203-218
Scholar Commons Citation
Perreault, Gregory P.; Nölleke, Daniel; Crawford, Monica; and Hackett, Ella, "“Part of the Team”: In-House Sports Reporters Navigating the Journalistic Periphery" (2024). School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications. 92.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/com_facpub/92
