Off for the Holidays

Assuming the family car can make it to Chicago, we're off for the holidays. If I see something interesting I might get the urge to post, but being away from the computer makes it more difficult (sorry, no laptop).

From everyone at the Journal of Sports Media, have a happy and safe holiday season!

Brad Schultz

Holiday Odds and Ends

A couple of things as we get ready for Christmas (only a week away!):

1. From Michael Pfahl at Ohio University--

A colleague and I are searching for scholars with an interest in motorsport. We are hoping to put together an event or conference and wish to reach out to anyone who conducts research in this area. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please let me know--pfahl@ohio.edu

Dr. Michael E. Pfahl
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Grover E176
School of Recreation and Sport Sciences
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio 45701 U.S.A.740-597-3108

2. An update on the previously-mentioned BPSA Conference in Scotland--

As a result of numerous requests and interest in the conference, we have agreed to a second deadline for abstracts. Abstracts must now be submitted electronically to BPSA Vice-Chair Dr Andrew Edgar <edgar@cardiff.ac.uk> by Friday 23 January 2009. Conference details, including information on abstract submission, are available.

We are pleased to announce that Professor David Carr has agreed to deliver the opening keynote address. David is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Edinburgh. He is author of Educating the Virtues (1991), Professionalism and Ethics in Teaching (2000) and Making Sense of Education (2003), as well as of many philosophical and educational papers. He is also editor of Education, Knowledge and Truth (1998), co-editor (with Jan Steutel) of Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (1999), and (with John Haldane) of Spirituality, Philosophy

and Education (2003). Further news is that Louise Martin CBE has agreed to formally open the conference. Louise is Chair of sportscotland, and led the successful bid to bring the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Glasgow.

Please visit the link for further conference information.

Professor Steve Olivier

Head of the School of Social and Health Sciences University of Abertay

Dundee Bell Street, Dundee

DD1 1HG

Scotland

Conference: European College of Sport Science

If you're going to this conference, don't forget to try the Lutefisk ...

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14th Annual ECSS Congress 2009 ­ Oslo, Norway

Dear Colleague,

We have opened the registration for the 15th annual congress of the European College of Sport Science to be held in Oslo, Norway, June 24th-27th 2009. The four-day congress will include approximately 1200 oral and poster presentations, highlighted by 4 plenary sessions and 36 invited symposia. For online registration and further information including the scientific programme, click here.

Important dates

Opening registration: 15th of December 2008
Early bird registration: until 15th of February 2009
Abstract submission: 1st of January until 15th of February 2009
Notification to authors: 1st of April 2009
Please remember the deadline for abstract submission: February 15th 2009.

Welcome to Oslo in June 2009!
Yours sincerely,

Sigmund Loland
Congress President

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Michael Malec
Dept. of Sociology
402 McGuinn Hall
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone: (617)552-4131
Fax: (617)552-4283
http://www2.bc.edu/~malec

Help needed: sport rhetoric course

The following comes from Karen Hartman at Ashland University in Ohio. If you have anything that might help you can contact her directly from the information below:
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I am putting together a course on Sport Rhetoric and would love any advice you might have on formulating the course. I'm currently grappling with how to set it up (focus on rhetorical periods or rhetorical concepts?). If you have taught a similar course, or simply have advice on how you would set it up, please email me back at either karen_hartman24@hotmail.com or khartma2@ashland.edu. Thanks so much and I look forward to the responses.

Karen

Dr. Karen L. Hartman

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Communication Arts
Ashland University
419-289-5748
khartma2@ashland.edu

We're happy to pass along this note from Anthony Moretti regarding a panel at next year's BEA convention. There's more information about the Sports Division of BEA here.
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Hello BEA Sports Division members, One of our division's offerings at the 2009 convention will be an invited paper session exploring aspects of media coverage of the 2008 Beijing Games. If you are doing research in this area and would like to be considered for this session, please get in touch with me. You can use either of the following e-mail addresses: amoretti@pointpark.edu OR morettiphd@yahoo.com Thanks...and I look forward to hearing from you.

Anthony Moretti

Missing it already

This time of year always makes me a little sad. I love fall and college football, and now both are about to end. The world goes a little colder and darker after the first week of January.

It's funny, but when ESPN was televising a college game every night (except Monday) during the fall I occasionally tuned in, but never sat and watched the entire game. But it was just knowing that the game was on that gave me comfort. Kind of like having a pair of warm hunting socks in the drawer. You seldom use them, but it's nice to know they're there if you need them.

I'm sure there's some kind of media theory for this (uses and gratifications?). Anybody have any idea?

More Sport Scholarship

Another journal I didn't even know existed ...

The Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports is published by Berkley Electronic Press, and from the look of the articles there is some heavy numbers crunching going on. (Maybe the BCS gurus could have used this article to prevent some of the current mess).

According to the journal, "Articles come from a wide variety of sports and perspectives and deal with such subjects as tournament structure, frequency and occurance of records and the optimal focus of training for decathlons. Additionally, the journal serves as an outlet for professionals in the sports world to raise issues and ask questions that related to quantitative sports analysis."

The guide for contributors can be found here. It appears to be an online journal only, which might cause some to doubt its importance. But given the growth in new technologies along with a downturn in the journal publishing business, I truly believe online journals will become more and more accepted.