This book offers a helpful introduction to the practice of critical media literacy (CML). The anthology is intended for an audience of secondary school teachers, youth coaches, and general readers who consume sport media and may wonder about what is missing and why. The first chapter provides an excellent overview of CML while also outlining a clear, practical application of the concept and related analysis to the media representations of Colin Kaepernick's activism during the performance of the US national anthem throughout the 2016 National Football League season.... Another chapter creatively approaches representations of diabetic athletes using a CML lens.... Overall, this is a helpful introductory text that is well suited for its target audience. Recommended.

Choice Reviews

As voracious consumers of popular culture, our society clearly determines what it values by the narratives constructed and propagated in media spaces, none more so than sport. This collection of essays brilliantly highlights the importance of teaching and using critical media lenses to recognize the influence of the sport narratives explicitly told in popular culture, while also acknowledging the implicitly hidden and ignored narratives intentionally excluded from public consumption and consideration. Representation matters, and context is everything.

Shelbie Witte, Oklahoma State University

This book cured whatever smugness I might have felt as a researcher and teacher of critical media literacy. Although I consider sport a text to be read, much as I do a novel, documentary, comedy show, or class discussion, it is clear after reading this book that I had simply looked in all the wrong places for concepts in need of critique. Beginning with the book’s foreword and continuing throughout, previously missed opportunities for examining media production, consumption, and dissemination fairly jump off the pages. This is a must-read in an era where crowdsourcing can easily bury micro-aggressions, leading to bullying or worse.

Donna Alvermann, University of Georgia

This book collects the work of leading thinkers on critical media literacy and sports, providing countless ways in for educators (or teacher educators) trying to find the right approach to engage their students in becoming critical consumers and creators in the world as they find it. What is on one hand intimidating and amazing is how much work there is to do in this focus area, and just how much potential it contains for justice work to happen in America’s classrooms.

Christian Z. Goering, University of Arkansas