Fields in Vision: Television Sport and Cultural Transformation (Communication and Society)

Fields in Vision offers a comprehensive and analytical study of the international phenomenon of television sports coverage. Garry Whannel considers the historical development of sport on television, the growth of sponsorship and the way that television and sponsorship have re-shaped sport in the context of the enterprise culture. Drawing on archival research, Whannel first charts the development of the BBC Outside Broadcast department, and the growing battle for dominance between BBC and ITV, showing how sponsorship and the rising power of sports agents began to transform sport - not only in the UK but across the world - in the 1960s. He goes on to examine the implications of this vast and escalating global network during the 1980s by analysing the central role that stars and narratives began to play in television sport, presenting case studies of major contests such as Coe versus Ovett and Decker versus Budd. His study also takes into account one of the more indirect, but no less significant results of international televised sport - the rise of popular fitness chic and the American monopoly of the workout boom of the 1980s. Fields in Vision explains the development of television sport by linking its economic transformation with the cultural forms through which it is represented, offering a study encompassing not simply the sports world, but our relationship with television and the media industries as a whole. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 7 List of Illustrations......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 List of Abbreviations......Page 12 Sport, television and culture......Page 15 National events and the authority of the BBC......Page 25 Production practices and professional ideologies......Page 37 BBC v. ITV competition......Page 56 Made for television: sponsorship and the rise of the sports agent......Page 77 Analysing television sport: transformations of space and time......Page 95 Assemblage and framing......Page 112 Stars, narratives and ideologies......Page 128 The case of athletics......Page 155 The road to globalisation......Page 167 Field of representations......Page 184 Audiences and pleasures......Page 196 Final thoughts......Page 205 Appendix......Page 211 Notes......Page 213 Bibliography......Page 225 Index......Page 236 __Fields in Vision__ Drawing on archival research, Whannel first charts the development of the BBC Outside Broadcast department, and the growing battle for dominance between BBC and ITV, showing how sponsorship and the rising power of sports agents began to transform sport - not only in the UK but across the world - in the 1960s. He goes on to examine the implications of this vast and escalating global network during the 1980s by analysing the central role that stars and narratives began to play in television sport, presenting case studies of major contests such as Coe versus Ovett and Decker versus Budd. His study also takes into account one of the more indirect, but no less significant results of international televised sport - the rise of popular fitness chic and the American monopoly of the workout boom of the 1980s.__Fields in Vision__ 'Fields in vision' offers a comprehensive and analytical study of the international phenomenon of television sports coverage. Contents: 1. Sport, television and culture PART I: INSTITUTIONS, PRACTICES AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS 2. National events and the authority of the BBC 3. Production practices and professional ideologies 4. BBC v. ITV competition 5. Made for television: sponsorship and the rise of the sports agent PART II: SPORT ON TELEVISION 6. Analysing television sport: transformations of space and time 7. Assemblage and framing 8. Stars, narratives and ideologies PART III: CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS 9. The case of athletics 10. The road to globalisation 11. Field of representations 12. Audiences and pleasures 13. Final thoughts. Television sports coverage is examined in the first study of its kind. Whannel considers the historical development of sport on television and the way that sponsorship and television have re-shaped sport.