Sports Journalism: A History of Glory, Fame, and Technology

Patrick S. Washburn and Chris Lamb tell the full story of the past, the present, and to a degree, the future of American sports journalism. Sports Journalism chronicles how and why technology, religion, social movements, immigration, racism, sexism, social media, athletes, and sportswriters and broadcasters changed sports as well as how sports are covered and how news about sports are presented and disseminated. One of the influential factors in sports coverage is the upswing in the number of women sports reporters in the last forty years. Sports Journalism also examines the ethics of sports journalism, how sports coverage frequently has differed from that of non-sports news, and how the internet has spawned a set of new ethical issues.

Patrick S. Washburn is a professor emeritus of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He is the author or editor of several books, including A Question of Sedition: The Federal Government’s Investigation of the Black Press during World War II. Chris Lamb is a professor of journalism at Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis. He is the author of several books, including Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball (Nebraska, 2012).