Fields in Vision: Television Sport and Cultural Transformation

Fields of Visionoffers a conclusive 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 reshaped sport in the context of the enterprise culture. Drawing on archival research, Whannel charts the development of the BBC Outside Broadcast department and the growing battle for dominance between the BBC and ITV, showing how sponsorship and the rising power of sports agents began, in the 1960s, to transform sport--not only in the UK but around the world. He examines the implications of this vast and escalating global network during the 1980s, analyzing the central role that stars and narratives began to play in television sport. Presenting case studies of major challenges in sport such as Coe versus Ovett, Decker versus Budd. His study also takes into account one of the more indirect, but no less significant resultsof international televised sport--the rise of aerobics, fitness chic, and the workout boom of the 1980s. Fields InVisionexplains 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 media industries.