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Journalism Studies

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“Stick to Sports” is Gone: A Field Theory Analysis of Sports Journalists’ Coverage of Socio-political Issues

Ryan Broussard

To cite this article: Ryan Broussard (2020) “Stick to Sports” is Gone: A Field Theory Analysis of Sports Journalists’ Coverage of Socio-political Issues, Journalism Studies, 21:12, 1627-1643, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2020.1785323

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1785323

Published online: 30 Jun 2020.

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“Stick to Sports” is Gone: A Field Theory Analysis of Sports Journalists’ Coverage of Socio-political Issues Ryan Broussard

Department of Mass Communication, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA

ABSTRACT Sports journalists in the ‘60s and ‘70s had a seat to sports icons who changed the social status quo and some reporters wrote freely about those issues. But as top athletes took a nearly 40-year hiatus from standing for socio-political causes, sports journalism, too, became apolitical. Now with the re-introduction of activist- athletes, how sports journalists cover these issues can affect how society views these social and political causes. Using Bourdieu’s field theory, this study examined why sports journalists cover these social and political topics, and the contexts and conditions that make this reporting more or less likely to happen. Responses show they want to be seen as more than a sports reporter, cover these topics when they occur on the beat, cultural capital is a predictor in how much they cover the topic, and sports reporters appear to be moving towards an issue-based approach to coverage. A lack of resources may hinder their efforts to cover these topics.

KEYWORDS Sports media; field theory; interviews; Bourdieu; habitus; capital

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, and Billie Jean King battled rivals on the field of play, and socio-political matters off those fields of play (Cooky 2017; Coombs and Cassilo 2017). But the next roughly 40-year period saw stars like O.J. Simpson, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods abandon those social and political platforms. Some argue laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s lessened the overt racism subsequent athletes faced, negating the need for activism (Cunningham and Regan 2012), while others say those athletes discarded their “blackness” to monetize their star power with cor- porate endorsements (Bryant 2018). Whatever the reason, many sports journalists returned their gaze to the games (Coombs and Cassilo 2017).

However, events like the spate of unarmed black men killed by police officers, such as Trayvon Martin in Florida 2012 and Eric Garner in New York in 2014, and ensuing public confrontations between activists and law enforcement amplified by social media (Cooky 2017; Zirin 2013) brought sports journalists’ gaze back to socio-political issues related to sports. Black athletes LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick took public stands to spotlight those killings (Bryant 2018; Zirin 2013). James and his Miami Heat teammates in 2012 wore hoodies, which became a symbol of Martin following his death, for a social media photo. In 2016, Kaepernick sat, and later knelt, during the national anthem to protest the treatment

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CONTACT Ryan Broussard [email protected]

JOURNALISM STUDIES 2020, VOL. 21, NO. 12, 1627–1643 https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1785323

of black people in America and police brutality of black people (Wyche 2016). This new age of athlete activism and growing emphasis on social and political topics in sports means the routines and ways in which sports journalists cover sports, athletes, and sports leagues may be changing. This study aims to uncover why and how sports journalists are entering this territory.

Sports journalists are charged with covering sports events. They are in position to observe any and all activities taking place during these events—whether within the boundaries of what they have traditionally defined as “sports” (the game itself, the score, the key plays, etc.) or outside of those boundaries (a protest during the anthem). This can present sports journalists with a normative conflict: Do they report what they see, and if so, how do they report it? Alternatively, do they ignore the activities apart from the game or let non-sports journalists report that aspect? Understanding this conflict and the reasons behind their decision-making processes are important in recog- nizing why we get the news we do from sports journalists.

The goals of this study are to: (1) Identify the shifting cultural, political, and journalistic contexts shaping how sports journalists cover sports and sporting events in which athletes participate in political and social protests and (2) help understand how these contexts may be shaping the decisions the sports journalists make in how they cover sports and sporting events in which athletes participate in political and social protests. To achieve this, the author interviewed 20 journalists using questions built around Bourdieu’s (1983, 1986, 1988, 2005) field theory concepts of habitus, forms of capital, poles, and boundaries. Bour- dieu’s approach helps explain boundary conflicts and negotiation likely to arise in the current era in which the political field overlaps the sports field.

Field Theory and the Journalistic Field

Field theory is a theoretical framework with a critical orientation that helps explain both change and stasis in social space; a field structures the accepted way of doing things. It was conceptualized by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Webb, Schirato, and Danaher (2002) define fields as “a series of institutions, rules, rituals, conventions, categories, des- ignations and appointments which constitutes an objective hierarchy, and which pro- duces and authorises certain discourse and activities” (x).

A rising number of scholars have employed field theory in studies of journalism and journalism practices (Benson 2006, 2013; English 2014, 2016), but little research is available on how sports journalists cover socio-political issues related to sporting events, athletes, and other aspects of sports using field theory.

Bourdieu’s field theory is composed of numerous concepts intertwined to create a metaphorical social world that describes society’s social relationships. One field theory concept is habitus, defined as a “matrix of schemes, judgements, and behaviours, and thus is an organizing principle of practices” (Neveu 2007, 339) people accumulate and keep through their lives (Webb, Schirato, and Danaher 2002). Habitus is shaped through a person’s socialization—i.e., the interactions with others and with social structures— but habitus also guides decisions and behavior as people recreate social structure. The process of socialization for the formation of habitus begins with the family and continues through each level of education the agent completes (Benson and Neveu 2005). An agent needs a habitus to enter a particular field.

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Another concept used in this study is capital, a resource that comes in various forms, including cultural, economic, and symbolic capital. Cultural, economic and symbolic capital have received the most attention in Bourdieu’s work and in field theory studies of journalism (Benson 2013), and received the focus in this study. Cultural capital derives from familiarity with the “rules of the game.” It can be acquired through early child- hood education; from knowledge constructed through cultural production; and through education at colleges and universities (Bourdieu and Nice 1977; Siisiainen 2003) Economic capital is money and financially based commodities (English 2016). Symbolic capital is reward for success in one’s field, such as peer recognition, awards and esteem (Webb, Schirato, and Danaher 2002; Willig 2013). The capital of one field may be recognized as less or more valuable within another field (Webb, Schirato, and Danaher 2002). In the jour- nalism field, capital is the resources and forces journalists and news organizations can deploy in the field, which are recognized by other journalists as valuable. The race to gain economic capital controls the sports journalism field (English 2016). Legacy insti- tutions in the field with large amounts of economic and symbolic capital dominate as the field’s gatekeepers. They set the rules to which other agents and institutions adhere (Benson 2006), encouraging internal homogeneity in the field.

A third concept is boundaries. Each field is dynamic and interacts with, and puts pressure on other fields and their boundaries. However, all structures and institutions in fields are social—in other words, they are produced by people, and therefore they can be reshaped by people. This allows the groups in the field to confront and negotiate with each other about where one boundary begins and another ends. The societal hierar- chies in a field also help create and maintain boundaries for the field (Ryfe 2016).

The final concept employed here are poles on opposite sides of the field. The tension in the journalistic field comes between the heteronomous and autonomous poles. The het- eronomous pole, called the market pole by English (2016), represents forces exerting external pressures, such as economic pressures, that result in commercial concerns for news outlets. The autonomous pole, English’s pure pole, is where journalists who cover “serious” public-issue news, like politics and crime, and newspapers with public-issue jour- nalism sit. Bourdieu believed the journalistic field is sits close to the heteronomous pole because its agents work regularly around agents with large amounts of capital within the field of power, the combined economic and political (realm of government) fields (Benson 2013). Prior research shows economic and political power and influence play a role in sports media organizations’ decisions on what type of stories to cover (Lowes 1999; English 2016; Weedon and Wilson 2017).

Sports Journalism and Social Issues

The institution of sports reinforces American values and the divisions in those values, as well as the dominant social structure in American society (Trujillo and Ekdom 1985). Those values are also present in sports journalism, long a popular and important form of cultural storytelling, especially in the United States (Brennen and Brown 2016). Sports media have historically proffered a socially conservative perspective (Serazio and Thorson 2017) and white perspective that serves the social status positions of white people to the detriment of minority readers and viewers (van Sterkenburg and Knoppers 2012). Thus, sports media play an important role in maintaining preserving white cultural

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power and social privilege (Hartmann 2007), and promoting sports moral ideology (Brennen and Brown 2016). An example of the latter is the continued argument among sports executives and media in several Western countries, including the United States, that sports are a meritocracy, a level playing field for hard workers, regardless of racial and social inequalities (Buffington and Fraley 2008; van Sterkenburg, Peeters, and van Amsterdam 2019).

Those racial and social inequalities have generally not been covered by sports media until recently, but themes of racism and the use of racist ideology still exist in sports media (Brennen and Brown 2016; Bruce 2004). Sports commentators continue to draw on racial ideologies produced by socially dominant groups (Bruce 2004). Examples include the continued discourses in multiple countries of black athletes being more ath- letic than their white counterparts, who in turn are mentally superior than their black col- leagues (Eastman and Billings 2001; van Sterkenburg, Peeters, and van Amsterdam 2019). Even when commentators are aware of the use of racial stereotypes and the research sur- rounding their continued use, they still employ those same stereotypes, especially in bas- ketball (Bruce 2004). Those stereotypes are then replicated by fans in daily sports discussions (van Sterkenburg, Peeters, and van Amsterdam 2019). However, minority broadcasters have been found to mitigate the use of loaded phrases (Eastman and Billings 2001) because they and media policy makers may be more sensitive to racial and ethnic topics (van Sterkenburg and Knoppers 2012).

There is also the idea among sports media professionals that female sports are inferior to (Hardin and Shain 2005) and not as popular as male sports (Knoppers and Elling 2004). Even college journalism textbooks paint sports and sports journalism as a male realm, even down to the large disparity in male and female journalists and athletes presented in those books (Hardin, Dodd, and Lauffer 2006). Even today, coverage of women’s sports lags behind coverage of men’s sports (Schmidt 2018). This thinking reinforces the misogynistic culture in sports media (Knoppers and Elling 2004). Some female sports reporters have noted how they were sexually harassed more in their newsroom, which have a “male locker room atmosphere” (Miller and Miller 1995, 888), than in actual locker rooms.

Not wanting to rock the boat, sports journalists have historically failed to uphold the ethical and journalistic standards of conducting investigative reporting on social and pol- itical issues (Brennen and Brown 2016; Oates and Pauly 2007) and avoided socially critical comments so they do not offend readers or advertizers (Trujillo and Ekdom 1985). When that investigative reporting on social and political matters related to sports is conducted, women are generally not assigned those stories, which can lead to promotions and better jobs (Schmidt 2018). This leads to a cycle in which men are promoted to managerial roles and women are kept out of decision-making roles (Schmidt 2018), which in turn forces some women to leave the field after hitting the “glass ceiling” (Hardin and Shain 2005).

Whoever those decision-makers are, Lowes (1999) argued they have been too cozy with the sports leagues and have a vested interest in the success of those leagues to the point in which they avoid critical stories that might negatively influence the sport entertainment industry while staying true to their job as “head cheerleaders for major-league sports business” (104). That may also be because journalists, generally white men, do not want to lose their position in the sports world’s “boy’s club” (Hardin, Zhong, and Whiteside 2009). That may be changing as young sports journalists are separating themselves from the older generations by embracing public-issue journalism (Hardin, Zhong, and

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Whiteside 2009). Schmidt (2018) called 2016 a “turning point” for sports journalism because issues trending upward in the public consciousness while receiving attention by activists, such as racial injustice and domestic violence garnered greater coverage in sports media than regular news media.

Research Questions

The following research questions set the stage for an exploration of the conditions within which sports journalists are likely (or not likely) to pursue socio-political reporting, and the nature of such reporting. Investigation of these research questions was guided by field theory concepts (Bourdieu 1983, 1986, 1988, 2005) reviewed in the literature: the econ- omic and political poles, habitus, different forms of capital, and boundary negotiation. Through interview questions with journalists, these concepts should shed light on reasons sports journalists may, or may not, report on social and political issues in sports.

And as noted in the prior literature review section, sports journalism as a profession has had a troubling history with racism and misogyny, from putting forth a socially conserva- tive and white perspective (Hardin and Shain 2005; Knoppers and Elling 2004; Serazio and Thorson 2018; van Sterkenburg and Knoppers 2012) and eschewing critical and investiga- tive reporting on social and political topics related to sports (Brennen and Brown 2016; Oates and Pauly 2007; Trujillo and Ekdom 1985), while reinforcing negative racial and gender stereotypes (Brennen and Brown 2016; Bruce 2004).

With that in mind, the author puts forth the following research questions:

RQ1: How likely is it that sports journalists will pursue socio-political reporting in their sports coverage?

RQ2: What are the factors, contexts and conditions that could determine whether sports jour- nalists report on socio-political issues related to sports?

Method

To understand how likely it is sports journalists will pursue socio-political reporting and in what conditions and contexts will that reporting occur, the author employed in-depth, semi-structured interviews in late 2018 and early 2019 with 20 working journalists: 17 sports journalists and sports editors working both full-time and freelance for U.S. media outlets, and three political reporters working full-time in the U.S. These selections were guided by contexts likely to offer meaningful variation in the study of social and political issue reporting in sports journalism: sports-only outlets vs. general news outlets; small vs. large outlets, local vs. national outlets, and variation in topics covered. These different con- texts offer potential for finding differences in the nature of, and the dynamics of, the field —in other words, habitus for sports journalists, different kinds of capital available, different relationships between sports journalism and traditional journalism, and different kinds of political and economic influences.

To find interviewees, the author reached out to colleagues in the industry to identify possible interviewees and used snowball sampling following their suggestions. The author asked each respondent if they would recommend a journalist or editor for the author to interview. Three non-sports reporters were chosen for interviews to explore

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the contested boundaries of the fields and six editors (managers) were interviewed to explore hierarchical power structures. Most scholars agree there is no set, agreed-upon number, but 20–25 in-depth interviews falls within an average range of commonly rec- ommended numbers (Baker and Edwards 2012).

Of the 20 journalists and editors interviewed, 13 were men and seven were women. Fourteen were white, three were black, two were of Middle Eastern descent and one was Asian American. Eleven worked as sports reporters, six are sports editors, two are politi- cal reporters, and one is a culture reporter. They averaged 21.5 years of experience in journalism, with a range of seven to 45 years. The sample is geographically diverse with seven working in the Northeast, four in the South, three along the East Coast, two each in the Midwest and Southwest, and one each on the West Coast and in Canada.

IRB approval was obtained prior to securing the interviews. The interviews ranged from 27 to 64 min and were recorded, with interview respondents’ permission. The interviews were semi-structured with open-ended questions, so the process was both inductive and deductive. The pre-planned questions allowed the interviewer to ask questions guided by the study’s aims and conceptual framework, and unscripted questions and follow-up ques- tions were used based on the interviewee’s responses (Creswell 2009).

Interview questions were crafted around the main field theory concepts discussed in the literature review: habitus, various forms of capital, boundaries and the poles. The con- cepts of habitus and boundaries are latent concepts, meaning they are socially invisible, for the most part. The researcher approached these questions by asking about challenges to boundaries or to the normal “rules of the game.” Challenging or violating latent con- cepts allows the concepts, their meaning and their impact to come to light, and to become evident.

Once the interviews were completed, they were transcribed and coded. In addition, the transcripts were coded for possible emergent codes, in an inductive rather than deductive process. A second coder was taught the codebook and analyzed the transcripts based on the predetermined codes—the deductive process—and coded every transcript to ensure “trustworthiness” of the coding, the qualitative version of reliability (Guba 1981).

Results

Relevant and Meaningful Coverage

RQ1 asked how likely is it that sports journalists will pursue socio-political reporting in their sports coverage. Most respondents said they regularly report on social and political stories and view that reporting in a favorable light. On one end of the spectrum was one reporter claiming to cover those topics when they occur on his beat, but not searching them out, and the other end of the spectrum was a few reporters who said their entire sports report- ing portfolio consists of covering socio-political matters. There was no difference in the likelihood of reporters covering social and political issues between small newspapers, large newspaper and national sports publications, or in different parts of the country. Most writers interviewed who work mostly on a freelance basis said they had trouble finding a home for articles veering into political territory, and one freelancer said he was told “no more political articles” by management at a prominent national sports outlet.

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Multiple editors and reporters said about 20–30 years ago, those questions would have been moot because most of the stories involving athletes off the court, like arrests or stories about athletes giving back to their community, never made it to the sports desk. One longtime national NFL reporter said reporters used to travel, eat, drink and play cards with the players and team personnel, so there was no demarcation line between the personal and professional lives of reporters and players. Thus, there was no impetus for sports reporters to report anything controversial about those players. A sports editor at a small Southern newspaper said when he started covering sports 30 years ago, stories like players getting arrested would have never made it to his desk because that was viewed as a news story, not a sports story. However, that changed dra- matically, he believes, when players started making exponentially more money, and earning more fame. He mentioned the story of Kareem Hunt, an NFL running back caught on video allegedly pushing and kicking a women in a hotel, as an example of an event that never would have made it into sports news during prior generations, but is now drawing more interest and reporting on the topic of violence against women because of Hunt’s job and fame. “Before, you would say, ‘Oh, it’s just a running back for an NFL team.’ Now, it’s ‘Oh my gosh! It’s a running back for an NFL foot- ball team and this happened,” he said.

One veteran national columnist said he was told 20–30 years ago to remember his audi- ence when he began writing social and political stories related to sports, meaning people reading the sports section wanted to just read about sports, not social or political issues related to sports. He said today, generally the biggest sports story of any given year after who wins the Super Bowl, March Madness or World Series is something that bleeds off the sports page into other parts of the news cycle. In 2018, he surmised that story was the trial of Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually assaulting hundreds of girls while at Michigan State University and with USA Gymnastics.

Multiple respondents also talked about how they find covering sports-related socio-pol- itical stories meaningful and relevant. One national sports columnist said he became a journalist to cover those topics and applied that critical lens to sports. An editor at a small newspaper in the South said he would rather his reporters spend extra time on sports-related socio-political stories than stories people can read at a dozen other outlets. This shows how the “national trajectory” of the sports journalism profession bends toward an acceptance of sports stories of a social and political nature—a marked change from 20–30 years ago, respondents noted. This could mean the overall habitus of sports journalism as a profession is changing, following this national trajectory. This movement also follows the sports media literature (i.e., Brennen & Brown,2016; Bruce 2004) that racial and social inequalities have been basically ignored by sports media until recently.

Multiple Factors at Play

RQ2 asked in what factors, contexts and conditions could determine whether sports jour- nalists report on socio-political issues related to sports. Answers varied, but important themes emerged: they cover those matters because they happen on the reporter’s beat; newsroom structure means the story is taken by reporters in other beats, which are a structured area in which the reporter covers everything that occurs; time and

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financial constraints hinder their ability to cover social and political topics related to sports; and reporters want to be seen as more than simply a sports reporter.

Because It Happens On Their Beat One sports editor at a small newspaper in the South said socio-political reporting by sports writers is the next evolution in sports journalism, because sports figures are increasingly placing themselves in the political and social realms. Many news organizations assign reporters to cover a beat. Seven of the sports editors and journalists interviewed, as well as two of the three non-sports reporters, noted how reporters generally cover sports-related social and political stories if an incident or event occurred on their beat or involved players, coaches, teams, and leagues on their beat. As one sports editor at a small newspaper said, “Things that happen on your beat need to be covered, good and bad.” A few referred to beat writers covering the San Francisco 49ers when Colin Kaeper- nick began his protests. “It’s not like they’re choosing to necessarily write about it. It’s just this is a thing happening on their beat and they write about it, just as if the quarterback broke his leg or something,” noted a sports writer at a national newspaper. “How can I stick to sports if I’m the 49ers beat reporter and covering Colin Kaepernick is part of my job as that beat reporter?” asked a third respondent, a one sports editor at a small newspaper. Another national sports reporter echoed that sentiment, saying NFL reporters had to cover Kaepernick:

The national anthem story had to be reported because it had to do with football. It may have had to do with declining ratings. It may have had to do with people turning away from going to the games and becoming disaffected with the sport itself. Whether you believe that has any place in the reportage of football, I would argue it does, so you have to report on it. I don’t think there are any pros and cons, anything like that. It’s just part of your job.

The news reporting habitus is evident here—the socialization and taken-for-granted fol- lowing of the journalistic structure of beats influences whether or not the respondent is comfortable covering those types of stories. It also suggests that economic capital, influenced by economic and political elite, has shaped this habitus. Beats are generally built around powerful institutions in a coverage area—government agencies, political offices, police departments, courts, large corporations—and the idea that the ways beats and news coverage are organized should correspond with these is taken for granted by most journalists (Tuchman 1973). Sports teams and leagues are also powerful entities. In their education and career development, as reporters develop the journalistic habitus at each rung on the socialization ladder because they need that habitus to enter the field (Benson and Neveu 2005), journalists typically see these coverage divisions as natural, as some respondents expressed.

Of the 17 sports journalists and editors interviewed, only one—a sports reporter at a national sports magazine—said he only covered social and political issues related to sports when they occurred on his beat and did not necessarily go out of his way to report and write about that topic. “It’s just one of the sensitive matters I guess I would rather avoid, but sometimes you can’t,” he added.

An editor at a national sports publication said he believes more sports reporters are “delving into that cross section between politics and sports, not because it’s something they want to do, but because that’s sort of the national trajectory.” And a sports editor

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at a small newspaper said he believes some news outlets are discouraging sports reporters from covering that cross section of sports and politics, as opposed to the reporters simply avoiding those topics.

Unspoken in this line of thinking is that much of the news media is homogenous, as Bourdieu stated (Webb, Schirato, and Danaher 2002). When one news organization breaks a big story, other beat reporters rush to publish it on their website and post to their social media accounts. Furthermore, if reporters are socialized to cover everything on their beats, they may rush to cover a socio-political story they otherwise would not have written. One editor at a national sports publication said the old system of working a beat for a few years before moving onwards and upwards to better beats and larger pub- lications is not the only way sports reporters can advance their careers now. He said writing fearlessly, showcasing your work through social media and pitching ideas to sports publications can help get a foot in the door.

Journalists today also undergo more formal training through colleges and universities than their predecessors from 30–40 years ago. This may affect the newer generations of sports reporters and their willingness to pursue social and political stories, as opposed to the “sportainment” model of reporting their predecessors generally practiced to avoid upsetting the boss (Weedon and Wilson 2017). That formal training becomes part of their habitus and in turn, their habitus helps shape the rest of the field. This means as some journalists see their counterparts at other news organizations dive into these stories, they may feel the need to follow suit. That could lead to the overall change of habitus in the sports journalism field.

Passing the Story to Other Reporters Some respondents said they don’t cover social and political issues because those stories are routinely handled by political, culture and police reporters. The respondents’ answers varied on when and why a reporter outside of sports would handle a socio-pol- itical story related to sports. One of the key factors was who or what is the story’s focus. One sports reporter at a large newspaper with a national platform said stories about pro- tests during the anthem in which the main characters are players, an owner or GM will stay a sports story. However, if that story becomes about what a congressman or local politician says, then it becomes a political story.

“Things get passed [along] according to where the story is going and who the people are and how well the reporters know those people. I can’t tell you how many times it always comes down to that,” he added. One example was when President Donald Trump criticized NFL players in 2017 for kneeling. A few respondents said that story was probably handled by political reporters because Trump was the main focus. Another example used was player arrests, which some respondents said would likely be handled by the organization’s police reporter with assistance from the sports desk or the beat reporter. “Is this more of a crime story that happens to involve a player, then I think it’s a news story,” an editor at a large Midwestern newspaper said. “If it is a sports story that has a news element to it, but it’s surrounding a sports event or a sports player, then it goes to sports.”

The beat structure that is part of the journalistic habitus encourages the outcome that sometimes reporters in other parts of the newsroom handle stories with a social or political bent when the main subject is the arrest of a politician or an athlete. Some sports reporters

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cover these stories, but this likely happens if they have the skillset to understand a police report and have the appropriate source connections. Once again, the changes in the reporters’ habitus can in turn change the habitus of the field as they recreate the social structure.

A national sports reporter at a large newspaper in the Northeast said another factor is the size and resources of the newsroom. His organization has a “robust political desk” whose reporters handle stories in the sports arena in which Trump or another prominent political figure is the focus. Another national sports reporter at a competing national news- paper echoed that assessment, adding there were about 20–25 reporters covering the story at its zenith after Trump made his comments about NFL players in Alabama.

The responses of the three hard news reporters varied in their responses on this topic. One veteran culture reporter on the East Coast said she is called to assist sports reporters when the topic or event leaves the field or court for the real world. She added that she believes most sports stories that happen off the field or court could be covered by a culture or feature reporter because she views sports as a microcosm of society. Conversely, one political reporter in the South said whether or not the story is passed off to another reporter depends on who has time to cover the story. She said she offers to help because a story that veers into the political arena may be easier for her to track down because of her connections. A political reporter in the Southwest said she believes whether the story is passed off depends on the news organization. She also echoed the notion that it depends on the focus of the story and said she has offered to handle political stories that feature a sports aspect because she has the connections and sources that the sports reporter or another reporter may not have.

The comments above suggest each journalistic subfield sits in some relative proximity to the others and the agents within the fields negotiate the boundaries by what constitu- tes a sports story, political story, cop story, etc. This is the “stake of struggles.” The journal- ists answers indicate not necessarily a competition by agents to define the boundaries at the stake of struggles, but that this determination could be made largely via the beat system of coverage in newsrooms and which reporter has the knowledge of the subject —or cultural capital—to cover the story. Therefore, in the case of stories on social and pol- itical issues related to sports, the boundaries are ever changing and constantly moving based on the focus of the story.

Also from this section, thematter of “connectionsandsources”mentionedbyat least three respondents also touches on a fourth form of capital not explored so far in this study, social capital. Social capital is definedbyBourdieu (1986) as capital accruedbyamemberof a group, andhesays a social agent’s social capital is valuedby thenumberofnetwork connections that agent has. The reporters who accrue social capital are the ones with the ability to call any numberof sources for a given story. In this instance,findings suggest thenon-sports reporters have the social capital—sourceconnections—in addition to the cultural capital—knowledge, background andexpertise—to call anynumber of political, cultural or business sourceswhen a sports-related socio-political story touches those specific areas.

Constraints Sports Reporters Face One factor that plays a role in whether reporters cover socio-political issues, according to several respondents, is that most newsrooms are not likely structured to pursue significant sports-related social or political reporting. Newsrooms are shrinking, and reporters and

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editors are expected to do more with less. Several sports reporters and editors interviewed noted the time it takes to properly report and write about complex social and political topics may not be there—especially in-season for beat reporters who are asked to write 12–15 stories weekly, one national sports reporter said. Routine stories can be told easier and quicker than a socio-political story that takes deeper reporting and requires more care and scrutiny than the routine story. He added:

If you’re writing more than once a day, like what does that do to the quality of your reporting on certain issues? Those are always concerns that you have, and you have to understand that if it becomes something that is the intersection of politics and race and culture and sports, that’s different than if the Nats (MLB’s Washington Nationals) are going to sign this second baseman and there is mutual interest… The concern is are you just going to look at yourself as a sports writer and do the bare minimum. And what’s your workload like?

One sports editor at a small daily newspaper in the South covered a title-winning pro- fessional sports team in the ‘90s. He spoke with pride about writing roughly 15 stories per week during the season, from training camp to the title game, but added that the grind led him to feeling overworked to the point of leaving the beat. However, he admitted he would try to set aside time during that frenetic weekly pace to work on one or two project stories he believed had a chance to be good.

Economics also shapes the ways newsrooms’ sports operations are structured for pro- ducing socio-political reporting. One veteran newspaper sports reporter said the econ- omics of the news business are different in 2018 compared to three or four years ago, and greatly different from 10 to 20 years ago. He travels for much of his beat and said it is harder to get trips approved to cover events or games. He pointed to the increase in data-driven analytics editors and executives use, saying those executives can now make decisions on trips based on whether they get an expected return on investment or expenditure via the amount of page views or news engagement each story generates. Moreover, an editor at a national sports publication said the availability of travel funds, or lack of funds, means sometimes they have to write stories based on what they know without being there physically or scrap the story.

These accounts suggest the economic field, part of the field of power, exerts pressure on these news organizations, which are inherently heteronomous because of the outside forces exerting pressure on them (Hesmondhalgh 2006). They are subject to the needs of advertizers and the judgments of corporate owners (via online analytics, for example), and are weakly autonomous or buffered from this power. Therefore, they have little authority to justify reporting on social or political matters. Some respondents provided evidence that some powerful institutions in the field—teams, leagues, conferences and adverti- zers—exerted pressure on their organizations to “stick to sports” or stay away from "stories that divide us", as one editor at a national sports publication said. Upholding the journalistic legacy of critical and investigative reporting may not be the most profitable reporting for news organizations (Champagne 2005). English (2016) posited that sports departments sit closer to the field’s market pole than the pure journalism pole, and there- fore are more vulnerable to pressure from the economic field. The respondents’ answers provided support for this idea.

Responses also suggested that covering sports stories with a social or political topic requires strong relationships with players and coaches—the requisite cultural and social

JOURNALISM STUDIES 1637

capital—to the point where key figures are comfortable discussing sensitive matters. One sports editor at a national sports publication said it is difficult to get people to be “honest on demand” about complex topics because it can take hours with older players who have informed opinions on these topics to get the answers reporters seek. “It’s pretty tough to just dial up every woke rookie and expect them to be as thoughtful as Barack Obama on these issues,” he said.

This highlights the importance of reporters having cultural and social capital, not only within the profession, but also with athletes, coaches and teams they cover. That capital comes with having interacted with these athletes and building relationships. The strength of those relationships is critical because the reporter may be more likely to continue reporting on sports-related social and political matters as more athletes are willing to tell those types of stories, which runs counter to the desire of powerful institutions and advertizers that sports reporters “stick to sports.”

A related finding: Some respondents highlighted the need for diversity in the news- room, saying black reporters are sometimes able to connect with black athletes more than white reporters. One black national columnist said this era of socio-political reporting in sports began in the ‘90s when black reporters began becoming columnists and taking on systemic political and societal issues.He added:

For too long, white sports writers and white columnists had interpreted the actions and beha- viors and thoughts of black athletes who have slowly but surely come to dominate the major sports of basketball and football, and they didn’t always do a very good job of that,

An editor at a national sports publication agreed with part of that assessment, saying it is difficult to send an old white guy to talk to young black athletes about making progress on the socio-political front in this country. “Colin Kaepernick, when he gives his first big sit- down interview, it’s not going to be to Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes,” he added.

One reporter, a woman of Middle Eastern descent, said she believes minority reporters may handle social or political issues related to sports easier than white reporters because these topics are not political to the minorities. She cannot separate from her writing nor opt out of the fact that she is a Muslim woman, she said, before adding:

People who think it’s political are those who come from privilege. I’ve never heard someone who’s black or who’s queer or who’s Muslim or who’s Latino or Latina say, ‘I don’t want pol- itical,’ because we don’t have a choice. Sports writers and journalists from marginalized com- munities don’t have that option to opt-out of politics or social realities or challenges. That’s part of our existence… To you it’s liberal. To me, it basically who I am.

These findings underline the need for news organizations to hire more men and women of color for sports jobs. Those reporters of color have the cultural capital because they under- stand how the world works for people who look like them. These statements fall in line with sports media literature (Eastman and Billings 2001; van Sterkenburg and Knoppers 2012) that shows people of color in positions of power tend to be more sensitive to racial and social issues.

More Than a Sports Reporter Multiple respondents acknowledged the need to be considered “more than a sports repor- ter” as one reason they or their colleagues report on social or political topics related to

1638 R. BROUSSARD

sports. A few said sports reporters are generally Swiss Army knives with knowledge in several fields—including medicine, business and criminal justice—because all those fields touch aspects of sports. One reporter based in the Midwest said he likes to tell people “sports journalism is no different than journalism” and “journalism is journalism, I just write about sports.” One editor at a national sports publication said he often jokes with family members, some of whom are doctors and lawyers, that he can do their jobs because he and his reporters have to know medicine and law, among other things. “I think it’s unfair, and I think it has changed quite considerably, that sports journalists are considered sports journalists. I think we’re just journalists.”

A national sports reporter based in the Northeast said covering socio-political stories allows sports writers to “stretch their wings” more than a game story; they can show off a little or bring their own experiences into the narrative—a point echoed by other repor- ters and editors. One national columnist working in the Northeast said he views himself as a journalist, first and foremost, who just happens to cover sports:

It’s not ‘I’m a sports writer.’ I’m a writer comma sports. I’m a journalist comma sports. I’m a columnist comma sports. I would like to think I can cover the State of the Union address just as well as I can cover the (Washington) Redskins beating the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Another veteran sports columnist at a national news organization said journalists should and need to have the tools to cover social and political topics that enter the sports world because avoiding those issues would be a “dereliction of duty.” She added:

When Donald Trump enters the sports world, I’m a sports columnist, so I take that very seriously. You would never know my opinion of Donald Trump, I never do that. I am a sports journalist, so anytime you see Donald Trump and my name, if I write about him, it’s because he’s entered the sports arena. He does that a lot and so there’s plenty to talk about and it’s often very controversial.

These answers about wanting to be more than a sports reporter speaks to the pull between the two poles. Sports departments wanting to cover serious topics like social or political matters might move those departments more to the autonomous pole, or pure pole, and away from the heteronomous, or market pole (English 2014, 2016) where sports departments has historically sat. Bourdieu believed the journalistic field as a whole sat closer to the heteronomous pole because of its reliance on agents with capital in the field of power. But journalists who focus more on watchdog and investigative reporting may focus more on agents outside the field of power who may not have large amounts of capital and bring to light matters those agents feel are important. Covering these issues could also mean a loss of advertising revenue, which could also move the sports journalistic field away from the market pole.

Moving to capital, several respondents viewed coverage of these socio-political stories as admirable and good journalism. When sports reporters report on a social or political issue in a professionally appropriate manner, other reporters read it, state their respect for the reporter for understanding the “rules of the game,” and discuss how they enjoyed the piece. That reporter, in turn, gains cultural capital. The desire to be more than a sports reporter and the ability to report and write about social or political topics can lead to symbolic capital for the reporter, and perhaps enhance their cultural capital in this area. Benson and Neveu (2005) said successful agents and institutions are successful

JOURNALISM STUDIES 1639

at transforming one type of capital into another. Bourdieu theorized cultural capital could transform into economic capital (Benson 2006). Some respondents reinforced that idea, saying some sports reporters could turn an ability to properly report on and write socio-political stories into better, higher-paying jobs, a form of economic capital. In turn, that cultural capital could also lead athletes and coaches to trust the reporter, feed that reporter information, and open up about their opinions on socio-pol- itical topics.

The phrase “stick to sports,” often hurled at athletes and sports journalists who share their opinion on social or political matters, was also mentioned several times in the context of the claim that “stick to sports” is dead. “People want to keep sports and political and sociological issues aside, keep them separate. Stick to sports, right. It’s crap. It can’t happen,” a sports editor at a large newspaper in the Midwest said. One editor at a small newspaper in the South said it is hard to gain or keep a sports reporting job if you stick strictly to sports and ignore stories outside the arena. An editor at a national sports pub- lication said sports writers who stick to sports will end up on the wrong side of history. He will not hire anyone who wants to stick to sports because “I don’t think there’s much of a growth path for the stick to sports journalist.” He added:

I’m absolutely looking for an expanded mind who looks to expand the perspective of sports fans beyond the game. The last time I had a legit headcount open, there were people from traditional publications who would send me idea memos full of stories about coaches and championships and without fail, I turned them down in favor of people who were looking to tell stories about human beings, women and the impact of athleticism on society.

Whether the reporter gains cultural capital from reporting on social or political issues related to sports may depend on who reads the article or series. The reporter may be nega- tively affected from a segment of the population who believes sports and politics should remain separate, particularly on social media—this collective within the field, perhaps a subfield, may act as a boundary patrol to enforce their norm of keeping sports and politics separate. Conversely, the reporter may gain cultural capital from reporters and editors in the sports journalism field for the reporting. Some respondents noted how they believe sports journalists cannot “stick to sports” in the current social climate, so reporting on socio-political topics could lead to the accumulation of cultural capital. That capital could also lead to economic capital, as a few editors noted, in terms of better jobs or simply keeping a job in sports journalism.

Discussion

As stated in the introduction, the goals of this study were to: (1) Identify the shifting cul- tural, political and journalistic contexts shaping how sports journalists cover sports and sporting events in which athletes participate in political and social protests and (2) help understand how these contexts may be shaping the decisions the sports journalists make in how they cover sports and sporting events in which athletes participate in politi- cal and social protests.

This interview responses illustrate four major conclusions. First, most of the respon- dents said they enjoy covering social or political issues related to sports, with a few said covering those topics is why they got into journalism. This could point to a changing habitus in the sports journalism field after decades of scholars criticizing the quality of

1640 R. BROUSSARD

journalism coming from sports departments, which included not upholding the journal- istic standard of reporting on social or political issues (Forde and Wilson 2018; Lowes 1999; Oates and Pauly 2007). Second, Bourdieu’s (1986) concept of cultural capital—one of two forms of capital around which the social world revolves (Benson 2006)—the need to acquire it and the benefits of having it, plays a role in the degree to which sports reporters cover sports-related socio-political stories. Reporters want recognition, especially among their peers and perhaps even unconsciously, as someone worth reading and to whom others should pay attention.

Third, the lack of time and resources in today’s economic climate play large roles in whether reporters cover sports-related social and political stories, and what type of stories they write. Shrinking newsrooms mean fewer reporters to cover daily news, which leaves less time for longform journalism, many of which touch on social and pol- itical issues. The economic pressures from the field of power, which can curtail socio-pol- itical reporting efforts, reinforce the notion that the journalistic field abuts the heteronomous, or market, pole (Benson and Neveu 2005; English 2016; Hesmondhalgh 2006). Fourth, athletes today are again becoming activist-athletes, so sports journalists are following them into that territory and covering those topics more frequently today than any other point in the last 30-40 years. Reporters are covering these stories as part of their beat and trying to become “more than a sports reporter.” Therefore, it appears the “rules of the game” appear to be changing in sports journalism. After decades of sticking to sporting events and people in sports, sports journalists may be moving toward an issue-based approach to covering beats—how reporters in other parts of the newspaper work their beat. This move could signal a shift in how sports jour- nalists view their profession after more than a century of focusing on the athlete and game.

Limitations and Future Research

This study has a few limitations. First, one cannot generalize the interview findings. These findings do not represent all sports journalists, but unearth meanings about how 20 reporters and editors feel covering sports-related social and political topics. Second, the author could not reach any black female sports editors or journalists. These women have a unique viewpoint about sports in society and their contributions would have enriched this study.

Future research could focus on building off these interview results to see why and how sports editors and reporters across the country cover socio-political issues related to sports. That survey would provide a generalizable data set upon which to make more con- crete assumptions about changes in the sports journalism field.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Ryan Broussard http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9687-6303

JOURNALISM STUDIES 1641

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