This study compared the motives and media consumption behaviours of American and South Korean spectators of Mixed Martial Arts. Significant cross-national differences were noted in sport interest, vicarious achievement, aesthetics, national pride and violence. Backward regression analyses indicated that sport interest, fighter interest and drama predicted media consumption at the American event, while sport interest, drama and adoration were significant predictors at the Korean event.
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Many members of the LGBT community have viewed the Gay Games as an opportunity to challenge dominant ideologies concerning sexuality and sport participation. Members of the mass media, however, play a potentially important role in how the event is perceived by the general public. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study was to examine how the Gay Games have been framed in newspaper coverage. A total of 646 articles published in the United States covering the eight Gay Games events held during the 32-year period of 1980 to 2012 were analyzed in terms of three aspects of framing: (1) the types of issues highlighted, (2) the sources of information cited, and (3) the manner in which either episodic or thematic narratives were employed. The results of the current study revealed that issues of identity and optimism were most commonly highlighted, LGBT participants were most frequently cited as sources of information, and thematic framing was most commonly employed in newspaper coverage of the Gay Games.
Few areas have received more frequent scholarly attention in the business literature than leadership. However, insufficient attention had been paid to the study of leadership in a sport context. Therefore, this study examined the direct effects of transformational leadership on sport employee job satisfaction and levels of commitment (to the athletic department and athletic director). Also examined were the mediated effects of both commitment foci on the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Participants included 325 athletic department employees in a NCAA BCS football conference. Through CFA and SEM, the direct and mediated effects of transformational leadership on sport employee commitment and job satisfaction were explored. Limited support was found for a direct effect of transformational leadership on job satisfaction. However, the results indicated support for transformational leadership directly influencing organizational- and individual-level commitment. Commitment to the athletic department also mediated the transformational leadership-job satisfaction relationship.
Competitive balance is important because it enhances outcome uncertainty and therefore it promotes spectator interest, and encourages government investment in a sport. This article analyses the distribution of gold medals, medals, medal points and top eight points amongst nations in table tennis from 1988 to 2016 at the Olympic Games and the World Championships respectively. A normalised version of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and a coefficient of variation are calculated for each nation's share of these performance indicators. The key findings are that China dominates both events, with successful female players being more dominant than their male counterparts. The competitive balance for gold medals has declined, whilst there is a trend towards improved competitive balance for top eight points for women, suggesting that more teams are featuring in the top eight (but not necessarily the top three) placings. This research has implications for the development of table tennis competitions. Compared to other racket sports, the issue of competitive imbalance in table tennis is particularly thorny, which threatens the long-term development of this sport. Accordingly, some measures are recommended for the International Olympic Committee and the International Table Tennis Federation to propel a more balanced development of international table tennis.
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