Two years ago, I spoke at the Sportsmanship Day Symposium at SUNY Oswego. It’s an annual event hosted by my amazing colleague Tim Delaney, and I’ve been fortunate enough to speak at it several times.
In 2018, I spoke about how sports journalists construct our ideas of sportsmanship, using the case of Canadian Olympic hockey player Jocelyne Larocque as the jumping off point.
Sports journalism and sports media have a complex relationship with sportsmanship. On one hand, it’s the platonic ideal — especially in the Olympics. On the other hand, sports journalists have adopted the “You Play To Win The Game” attitude inherent in sports as well. From the presentation:
Media’s complicated relationship with sportsmanship is at least partially responsible for our complicated relationship with sportsmanship.
Here’s the entire presentation:
Sportsmanship Day by Brian Moritz on Scribd