Help needed: Nonverbal Sport Literature

This comes from Lynn Cockett at Juniata College. If you can help out, the contact information is below.
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Currently, I am teaching a nonverbal course at the undergraduate level. Students are required to videotape some naturally occurring interaction and then go to the literature to explain what is happening in the video. Two of my students train in different martial arts and regularly spar with one another. They want to tape themselves. GREAT. But, I'm struggling with a direction to send them in the sport/nonverbal literature. Can anyone provide brief advice? Reply to me, and if you're interested, I'll send back an email with all the suggestions I get.

Lynn Cockett

Juniata College

cockett@juniata.edu

Another One Bites the Dust

This article telling about another local television station dropping local sports (this time in Las Vegas) is not really surprising. The same thing has been happening at other stations for the past several years. It's even more pronounced when the economy is bad, as stations look to squeeze every penny out of local newscasts.

A lot of the blame lies with local sportscasters, many of whom are still creating sportscasts right from the 1970s with lots of national highlights. "I haven't broken it down to say sports is running the audience off," says news director Ron Comings of KLAS-TV (not the Vegas station to dump sports), "but some local sportscasters haven't adapted to the change in the media environment and turned enough attention to local sports, which won't be seen anywhere else."

Dr. Mary Lou Sheffer of Southern Mississippi and I have done some scholarly research in this area. In addition to what's online we can email you other papers if you are interested.

In Media Res

Sports researcher Michael Butterworth of Bowling Green (OH) has been involved with a project called In Media Res. You can read more about it here, but basically it's different forms of collaborative, online scholarship. Each day, a different scholar will curate a 30-second to 3-minute video clip/visual image slideshow accompanied by a 300-350-word impressionistic response.

Anyhow, to kick off the redesigned web page, this week's theme at In Media Res is sports research. You can access the schedule (what's already been posted and what's still to come) here.
For more information you can contact Michael at 419-372-8349 or mbutter@bgnet.bgsu.edu.

CFP: Sport Literature Association

Also a chance to see beautiful Ontario. I understand they have a snowball fight and igloo-building contest on the conference calendar ...
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The 26th annual conference of the Sport Literature Association will be held at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, June 25-28, 2009.

Paper proposals are due by April 24. For more information related to proposals contact conference manager, Dr. Mark Noe, Professor of English, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport, PA 17701. Email: mnoe@pct.edu. Phone 570-320-2400, x7508.

You can also contact the conference host, Dr. Don Morrow at donmor@uwo.ca or 519-661-4128.

CFP: Special Issue on Entrepreneurial Sports Brands

I had to double check my spelling of "entrepreneurial" a couple of times, but I think I got it right...
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Journal of Brand Management

Special Issue on Entrepreneurial Sports Brands

Brands are an important part of the sports industry, and as this industry has a multi-billion dollar global sales revenue, the entrepreneurial ways of utilizing brands in sport is crucial. Entrepreneurial sports brands are brands that have been innovative, risk taking or proactive in their approach to managing their brand. Innovative, risk taking and proactive entrepreneurial strategies appeal to sports companies, sports organizations and sport stars wanting to stay ahead of their competition. Additionally, entrepreneurial sports brands, in many cases, engage in philanthropic and social causes that differentiate them from other brands in the market. With sports television telecasts and sporting events attracting high numbers of worldwide audiences it is through innovative branding techniques (for example, the partnering with non-profit groups, such as the Nike and Lance Armstrong's Live Strong Campaign collaboration), that companies stay innovative. Other companies in the sports industry have been risk takers by entering niche markets such as snowboarding, as in the case of Oakley and Tag Heuer, in order to evolve and to become global brands that have a lifestyle appeal. Moreover, companies are often entrepreneurial by proactively hiring athletes that have an image that mirrors their brand (Yoon and Choi, 2005).

The entrepreneurial nature of sports brands means that, as they are constantly changing and evolving, they have triggered interest from complementary sectors in technology and education (Ross, 2007). There have been numerous studies examining branding in sports, such as brand loyalty in professional sports (Kaynak, Salman and Tatoglu, 2008), branding in college sports (Donavan, Janda and Suh, 2008) and branding in event sponsorship (Gwinner and Eaton, 1999). However, less is known about how entrepreneurship ties in with brand management. In particular, more academic and practitioner interest is required on how to utilize entrepreneurial strategies to build brands, and on the development of corporate and social entrepreneurship in managing sports brands.

This special issue aims to capture the entrepreneurial spirit of sporting brands by providing a forum of discussion of ideas across the spectrum of brand management. A mix of academic and practitioner orientated papers will be included in the special journal issue. In addition, it is hoped that papers will come from various geographic locations around the world. Examples of possible topics that can be included in the special issue are:

• Entrepreneurial drivers of sporting brand value
• How to utilize entrepreneurial branding in global sport companies portfolio management
• Entrepreneurial purchasing and sale of sporting brands
• Innovative marketing techniques of sport stars to become brands
• How visual aids can be used entrepreneurially in sports branding
• How to entrepreneurially manage sporting brands
• Examples of entrepreneurial sports brand experiences
• How innovative technology such as podcasts and interactive television have affected sporting brands
• The role of social entrepreneurial marketing in developing sports brands

All types of methodologies including qualitative and quantitative are welcome in this special issue. The deadline for papers is August 1^st 2009. All papers will be double blind peer reviewed and follow the Journal of Brand Management author guidelines found at www.palgrave-journals.com/bm.instructions.html. Any questions about the special issue can be directed to the guest editor. Submissions should be sent in a word document format to the guest editor:

Dr. Vanessa Ratten
Assistant Professor,
Palumbo Donahue School of Business
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA
Email: vanessaratten@gmail.com

SCCS Deadline Reminder

The deadline for the Call for Papers for the Scholarly Conference on College Sport is January 16. The conference takes place April 15-18 in Chapel Hill, NC. There is more information about the call and the conference from director Richard Southall at North Carolina--

Email all abstracts to: Blake Griffin (Graduate Research Coordinator - College Sport Research

Institute) at csri@unc.edu NOTE: All abstracts MUST be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word attachment. For more information regarding the conference, please

visit:http://www.unc.edu/csri

This year's conference promises to be an outstanding opportunity to discuss college-sport research and examine issues related to college sport. In addition to two days of research presentations, the conference's confirmed speakers include:

*Mr. Jeremy Bloom*

Bloom is a three-time World Champion, two time Olympian and National Champion snow skier. In 2005, he won a record six straight World Cup Races, the most in a single season in the sport's history. He also has played football in the NFL as a wide receiver and return specialist with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bloom is also a former collegiate football player at The University of Colorado.

*Mr. John Gerdy*

Gerdy is a former collegiate basketball player All-American from Davidson College. Gerdy also was drafted in the 3rd round of the NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets. He is author of a many books about sports, including: Sports: The All-American Addiction, and Air Ball: American

Education's Failed Experiment with Elite Athletics.

*Mr. Bernie Mullin*

Mullin is the former CEO of Atlanta Spirit, owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers. After leaving his position with the Spirit, Mullin created a sports consulting business, the Aspire Group. He and his partner signed the NHL and Major League Baseball's

Cleveland Indians as clients. The company deals with the business support side, marketing, improving fan satisfaction and other team-related services.

*Ms. Deborah Yow*

Yow is the Director of Athletics at the University of Maryland. In Yow's 15-plus years at Maryland, the Terrapins have won a remarkable 16 national championships and graduated student-athletes at an enviable rate as Maryland athletics has soared to sustained new heights among the nation's elite intercollegiate athletic programs.

*Mr. William Rhoden*

Rhoden has been writing about sports for The New York Times since March 1983. Previously, he was a copy editor in the Sunday Week in Review section since October 1981 when he joined the newspaper. Before joining The Times, Mr. Rhoden spent more than three years with The

Baltimore Sun as a columnist. Before that, he was associate editor of Ebony magazine from 1974 to 1978. Mr. Rhoden is also the author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves and Third and a Mile: The Trials and Triumph of the Black Quarterback.

We will also be hosting three panel discussions on Thursday April 16, 2009. Topics and panelists are:

* Dr. Richard Lapchick - Endowed Chair and Director, DeVos Sport Business Program, University of Central Florida.

* Dr. Pellom McDaniels - Assistant Professor, History Department at University of Missouri-Kansas City & Former NFL defensive end.

* Ms. Carrie Leger - Director of Academic Support Programs for Athletes at North Carolina State University.

* Dr. John Blanchard - Senior Associate Athletic Director at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

*ESPNification of College Sport

* Mr. Jay Bilas - Former Duke basketball player, Presently a lawyer and basketball analyst for ESPN

* Dr. Leonard Moore - Assistant Vice President for Pre-College Youth Development and Student Academic Success Initiatives at University of Texas-Austin

* Mr. Sonny Vaccaro - Former Sporting Marketing Executive with Nike, ADIDAS, and Reebok

*College Sport Arms Race: Is There an End in Sight?*

* Dr. Andrew Zimbalist - Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College

* Dr. Robert Malekoff - Professor and Coordinator of Sport Studies at Guilford College

* Mr. Dick Baddour - Athletic Director at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Out-Foxed

The BCS is (deservedly) taking a lot of heat for its (flawed) bowl pairings process, but there is absolutely no reason to think that things will change anytime soon. But in big time sports, money talks ... along with television ratings. This year's BCS ratings have been terrible, even though they may get bailed out by Texas-Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl and Thursday's 'national championship' game between Florida and Oklahoma.

On the subject of the BCS, Monday's Fiesta Bowl showed just why Fox getting out of the BCS was a good idea. The network simply has no idea how to televise a college football game. The announcers were sub-par (I'm assuming Fox's 'A-Team' will be working the Florida-OU game), there were several factual errors in the game graphics, and several plays were missed because Fox insisted on showing sideline/crowd shots (including overkill of Colt McCoy's parents) while Texas was running a hurry-up offense. Fox may do a decent job with the NFL, but it apparently doesn't have the savvy for big-time college football. Even the FSN college broadcasts during the regular season were better than what we've seen the past week.

It's New Year's Day and the JSM Blog is still officially on holiday. However, it's still a big sports day, especially for college football. Not only that, but there's a new addition to the sports media lineup. If you get DirecTV like I do, channel 213 is now offering MLB TV. It will be interesting to see what kind of programming MLB TV offers out of the gate. The official "sign on" doesn't take place until tonight, but the guess is it will be like NFL Network with a mix of old highlights, studio shows and breaking news. As of right now, MLB TV is free and available without an additional fee, also like NFL Network (but unlike the NHL and Tennis channels, although for some reason the NHL channel is free today).

By the way, it's the NFL Network on 212, MLB TV on 213, the NHL Network on 215 and the Tennis Channel on 217, and that's not counting all the ESPN channels. Is this a great country or what?