Replication Study: Dominant Themes of Sports Texts

Sports Talk Radio and Me

Like many people who live in the northeast corridor, I spend about 25% of my workday commuting.  As I drive the same route five days a week, I listen to Sports Talk Radio; I learn background details about the New England professional sports teams, their strategies, players, coaches, and controversies.  I must admit it:  I really enjoy listening to Sports Talk Radio.  It is entertaining information.

My fascination with Sports Talk Radio had a practical application this week.  My Gender and Sport undergraduate class had just completed a webquest on Title IX, that small and simple legislation that had such ramifications for females and males in the U.S.

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Now my students and I wanted to see to what degree the sports media representations of females had changed over the last decade plus.  

Gender in Sports Texts
We read "Masculinity as Portrayed on Sports Television," by Messner, Dunbar, and Hunt and learned that patterns emerged in the sports texts these researchers consumed.  Messner is a sports sociologist at the University of Southern California whose interests include  gender and sports and gender and violence. Here are the themes that the researcher team uncovered.

10 Dominant Themes in Televised Sports 
according to Messner, et al
 
1) White males are the voice of authority.
2) Sport is a man's world.
3) Men are foregrounded in commercials.
4) Women are sexy props for men's successful sports performance.
5) Whites are foregrounded in commercials.
6) Aggressive players get the prize; nice guys finish last.
7) Boys will be (violent) boys.
8) Give up your body for the team.
9) Sports is war.
10) Show some guts!

My Gender and Sport students planned a collective survey of sports media texts, opting to include multimodal sports texts of all kinds, not just television, to see if Messner, et al's results were still prevalent in the 2013 sports media world.  One of the driving questions for our course is, "How can sport be a mechanism to improve society?" While our study wouldn't directly replicate Messner, et al's data sample, we did hope that we would find that society had evolved so that gender-directed messages might be more fluid, optimistic, and freeing.

I like to complete assignments alongside my students.  I feel it helps me to understand the experiences that they undergo in the process of learning, and it deepens my knowledge of the topic at hand.  I decided to draw upon my practice of listening to Sports Talk Radio by analyzing one hour each of two of my favorite shows: Dennis & Callahan on and Mustard & Johnson on WEEI. 

Dennis & Callahan
 John Dennis & Gerry Callahan have been on the WEEI airwaves from 6 a.m. -10 a.m. since October 6, 1997.  Dennis was a television sports broadcaster at Boston's WHDH/ Channel 7 for two decades before joining WEEI. Callahan is a former Sports Illustrated writer and is now a contributing writer for the Boston Herald.  I listened to a weekday hour on a Friday morning from about 6:15- 7:15 a.m.

Discussion Topics

“May-December Marriage” was a sustained topic.  The hosts discussed males who had married females who were considerably younger than they were.  Dennis & Callahan questioned whether anyone was “older than Clint Eastwood,” wondering if such men were "still active."  They listed males they understood to be fathers of multiple children: "Hugh Hefner," "Charlie Sheen," "Keith Richards." Callahan added, "We know Steven Tyler has been with like a million broads."  The hosts decried male who "likes to smack her around... that would be the worst." They referred to a “bad girl” who “swaps clothes and hair products.”  A "Zumba child... did about 100 guys," and the hosts announced that "they were talking about porn in court."

Next, they turned to the subject of fighting in professional hockey and the Boston Bruins on-ice fight the previous evening.  Shawn Thornton, in a post-game press conference, allowed that "Mr. Erskine" had asked him to fight, and he "obliged" him.  Referring to the former Boston Bruins enforcer, Lyndon Byers, who is also a morning talk show host on another area morning radio program, Callahan said, "I don't want LB to beat me up" if he disagreed with the topic of fighting in hockey. Dennis discussed "containment" as a goal of fighting on the ice and added "there's something to be said for biting."

 
Mustard & Johnson
Craig Mustard & Larry Johnson have been on WEEI weekends --- on and off--- since the 1990s.  Mustard is also a full-time high school English teacher, and Johnson is a celebrated cartoonist and artist.  The show I listened to was on Saturday from 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Like Dennis & Callahan, Mustard & Johnson are veterans of the sports talk radio world in the Boston market.  Unlike Dennis & Callahan, they are part-time: their show airs one day per week only, and it is on the weekend, when there is a smaller audience share.  They also have been, admittedly, fired and rehired by the WEEI management group several times.

 Discussion topics

Tom Brady, the long-time quarterback of the New England Patriots professional football team, had just completed contract negotiations with the Kraft ownership group.  Calling to mind the comments of other sports texts composers who had reported on the story earlier in the week, both Mustard and Johnson concurred that Tom Brady's salary should not be discussed in conjunction with his supermodel wife, Giselle Bundchen's salary.

The hosts disagreed, however, as to whether Brady should have held out for the highest possible salary. Johnson felt strongly that Brady had set a role model example for others in professional football and professional sports, while Mustard felt that Brady had done other players a disservice.  Listeners texted in and added their opinions, largely siding with Mustard, saying that "Tom Brady was jeopardizing the contracts of other players."  Both Mustard & Johnson did indicate that "times had changed" and that "confidentiality" of contract negotiations was no longer the norm for players.


Another topic of conversation surrounded Doc Rivers, the coach of the Boston Celtics professional basketball team, and how Rivers handled himself with the press in the post-game conference.  Rivers had talked about the growth and evolution of several players, and Johnson repeated several times that Doc River's presentation of self was "authentic."  Both hosts agreed that the recent success of the Celtics following the season-ending injury of point guard Rajon Rondo was due to Rivers' demeanor with and about the players.


A third topic of conversation was Manti Te'o, the University of Notre Dame linebacker.  Te'o, who was involved in a fake girlfriend hoax over the previous few months, continued to be analyzed nationally by sports text composers due to the upcoming NFL draft.  Mustard decried writers who suggest that Te'o's draft status "would not have any effect" as a result of "his fake girlfriend." Mustard called such announcers "Pollyannas" and argued that Te'o's "performance at the Combine was, of course, affected by his 4.81" 40-yard dash.  Johnson reminded Mustard of other difficulties that had emerged at previous drafts, including "one interviewer who asked a player if his mother was a prostitute." Johnson said he "hoped the NFL would fine" another interviewer for a comparable question in future drafts.

Analysis of Dennis & Callahan
Because the texts I chose to study were not identical texts to any of those that Messer, et al chose, this could not truly be called a section of a replication study.  However, Dennis & Callahan did mirror several of the Messer, et al study themes; for example, both  hosts are white males, and no female athletes were discussed.

Ironically, the full-time sports talk show hosts, Dennis & Callahan, talked less about sports in total than did the part-time sports talk show hosts, Mustard & Johnson.  On the D & C show, women became sexy props for men's general successful performance, not just in the world of sports.  Indeed, a male's sexual prowess was a central focus, and the hosts commended older males who were able to have sexual relations with multiple females. Conversely, when a female's multiple sexual partners became the topic of conversation, her actions were referred to as "porn."

In the segment portion that did finally refer to sports, aggression, violence, and sacrificing one's body became prevalent themes, as they were in the Messner, et al study. Thornton was celebrated for his wherewithal to engage in physical alterations with opponents (he had just returned from a concussion from a previous fight), and Byers continued to claim a position of awe from the hosts due to his previous fighting career. 

Analysis of Mustard & Johnson
Mustard & Johnson, through years of partnering, execute a point-counterpoint debate on most issues.While both are males, Johnson is a person of color.  Moreover, each host has other, full-time careers that augment financial needs.

All three topics of conversation --- Brady's salary, Rivers' deportment, and Te'o's draft potential --- were issues contained within the world of sports.  Johnson, particularly, took ethical positions about the role of consumerism in sport, empowering ways to treat others, and the dignity with which young athletes should be treated.  

Conclusion
The Mustard & Johnson hour-long segment was entirely different than that of the Dennis & Callahan segment: the former was a series of sports-centered debates embedded with ideologies around values and cultural nuances; the latter was a sensationalized, celebrity-oriented diatribe in which both hosts concurred politically and philosophically.  Does the need to entertain during every weekday commute supercede the potential for introspection and analysis?  Perhaps.  But the difference in hosts reaches beyond positioning in particular markets.  Mustard is an educator, and Johnson is an artist and spiritual guide.  Neither offered themes that paralleled those of the Messner, et al study, so, while they do not achieve full-time compensation for their sports talk radio performances, Mustard & Johnson do offer balanced and insightful discussions that extend beyond the dominant themes that Messner, et al revealed.
 
And that distinction gives us hope for the ways that sport can be a mechanism to improve society.  If some sports talk composers can transcend decades of dominant themes, maybe they can serve as role models for other, up-and-coming sports commentators.  Just don't fire them again!