Lesson 2 Overview

 

Introduction

Welcome to the second lesson for COMM 412: Sports, Media, and Society. Last week, the aim was to help you consider the idea that sports are “more than a game.” They have strong cultural and political impact—directly and indirectly. They reflect and help shape our societal values. They are important beyond the fields, gyms, tracks, and stadia.

But now we need to address a much more elementary question: What is “sport”? How do we decide whether an activity is a sport?

This lesson is going to help lay the groundwork we need and help us continue to grapple primarily with our first big question for this course: What has been the function of spectator/mediated sport in American culture?

We’ll also start to think about the relationship between how we define sport and how we use sport to support our cultural values. The two activities are related, as you’ll discover.

Objectives

Here are the objectives for this lesson.

• Define sport.
• Describe what makes an activity a sport.
• Discuss why it is important to define sport. And, consider what is at stake in our decision about whether an activity is a sport.
• Identify the functions of those activities we deem sports. (We’ll start this line of discussion and then continue it next week.)

Lesson Readings & Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.