Nicky Lewis co-authors 5th edition of sports media textbook
Media School associate professor Nicky Lewis, BS’06 (sport communication), MA’12, PhD’15, explores sports communication theory and sports media in the fifth edition of “Communication and Sport: Surveying the Field.” Lewis co-authored the textbook, which was published in July, alongside IU and Media School alums Andrew Billings, BS’94 (education), MA’96 (speech communication), PhD’99; and Michael Butterworth, PhD’06.
Lewis’ main contribution to the book included a complete chapter dedicated solely to sports communication theory, which is new to the fifth edition. She also assessed the influence of legacy and social media.
“Kind of this relationship between old and new media, what’s considered to be complementary, what’s considered to be competitive,” Lewis said. “Just really grappling with the fact that maybe in sports media, compared to other genres of content, that the live broadcast still means an incredible amount to audiences and fans and consumers.”
Lewis also discussed interpersonal relationships within sports, from interactions between players and coaches, players and players, and players and families.
“Understanding those relational dynamics and communication dynamics and presenting that in the book was a key part, as well,” she said.
While Lewis has published single book chapters and peer reviewed research articles, this is her first time co-authoring a larger body of work. During the writing process, Lewis was focused on ensuring her writing would be digestible to her audience of college students.
“I’ve been doing research long enough in this space that I was comfortable pulling those more academic ideas down and then turning them into real world examples,” she said. “Like, what is something that would relate to a college undergraduate that’s just realizing, ‘oh, I can study this.’”
Lewis said the fifth edition of “Communication and Sport” is one of the most approachable texts to understanding how society thinks about sport and society and emphasized that the text lays out information for the reader in a friendly, digestible format.
“The content is super interesting and approachable for understanding all the ways that sport influences and affects our lives,” Lewis said, “from politics to media to ideas of how play informs the way that we become competitive and all the different ways that we can think about sport and its role in society or its role overall in our lives.”
The fifth edition of “Communication and Sport: Surveying the Field” is available to purchase online at Sage College Publishing and Amazon. The e-book costs $59.85 and the paperback edition costs $156.