Repairing the Athlete's Image: Studies in Sports Image Restoration

(Paperback)

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Repairing the Athletes Image: Studies in Sports Image Restoration, edited by Joseph R. Blaney, Lance Lippert, and J. Scott Smith, offers twenty-one case studies and conceptual frameworks about athletes and their organizations as they attempt to mitigate the effects of malfeasance. Employing traditional Image Restoration Theory (IRT) approaches to athletic communication (and other innovative approaches), the contributors to this volume add to our understanding of which communicative strategies work best for athletes when their reputations are sullied. This comprehensive text presents case studies of varying athletes, sports, and public relations scenarios with prescriptive advice for those attempting to repair athletic reputations. The contributors variously explore such controversies and mischief as the steroids accusations lobbed at Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the Michael Phelps marijuana controversy, the sexual misconduct of Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant, and other topical subjects in sports communication and image repair. While this book will be useful for athletes, coaches, managers, and agents in varying athletic endeavors and levels, it is also a dream collection for teachers and scholars of sports communication. The subjects examined in this study span country, gender, and popularity of sport (not to mention a healthy variety of types of accusations.) Repairing the Athletes Image is an essential resource for graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses in sports communication and popular culture.

Reviews

In this ambitious. . . collection of 20 case studies, scholars (most from U.S. institutions) use William Benoit's theory of image restoration to analyze the image-repair discourse employed by sports figures and organizations. Blaney, Lippert, and Smith organize the collection according to the nature of the controversy (e.g., drugs) surrounding the individual in each case study. Four of the case studies focus on women, yet only Angela Jerome's study of Teresa Earnhardt (widow of race car driver Dale Earnhardt) specifically considers gender as a factor in public perception of the sports figure. Also flawed is J. Scott Smith's case study of Barry Bonds. To support his conclusion, Smith cites positive views toward Bonds and more negative views toward Mark McGwire in a poll of Hall of Fame voters. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
Repairing the Athletes Image will intrigue the multiple groups interested in the relationship between the media and the sports industry. Whether you are an educator, journalist, public relations practitioner, or in a position of responsibility within a sports organization, this text has something for you. * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly *
Dr. Blaney successfully applies rhetorical theory to sports discourse, and in doing so legitimizes sports as a worthy subject of academic inquiry . . . and it's about time! This should be required reading in rhetoric and sports communication programs alike. -- Paul Gullifor, Bradley University

Author Bio

Joseph R. Blaney is associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of communication at Illinois State University. Lance R. Lippert is associate professor of communication at Illinois State University. J. Scott Smith is a PhD student at the University of Missouri.