Tag: The Velvet Light Trap

The Velvet Light Trap #87 seeks to deepen media studies understandings of sports. Given our current era of destabilization (of texts, genres, technologies, industries, distribution models, franchises, policies, etc.), sports undoubtedly remains a stimulus of—and, at times, barrier to—change in the media industries. We invite a variety of media scholars—not just those who specialize in sports media—to reconsider and engage with sports in new and dynamic ways.

Historically, studies of performance have often been tied to star images, focusing on issues of celebrity in professional, public, and private spaces. As a result, a large body of research has explored how the star is constructed through extratextual discourses and how this off-screen persona may shape perceptions of on-screen performance. However, scholarly attention to performers has been shifting...