How The United States of Sport Connects Sports, Media, and Identity

From the Super Bowl to the Olympics, sports provide some of the most powerful moments in American culture, fueling fanatical supporters and powering highlight reels and newspaper columns. Sports have even been used to advance American foreign policy goals during the Cold War¹ and as a proxy for the economic advances of globalization.²

Media coverage shapes the ways in which we think about sports, elevating heroes and nominating villains as part of the routine of turning box scores into compelling narratives.

That relationship between sports, culture, and media in the US is the subject of “The United States of Sport: Media Framing and Influence of the Intersection of Sports and American Culture,” by Joshua Dickhaus, Associate Chair and Professor, Sports Communications, at Bradley University, and coauthors, Kenon A. Brown and Mia Long Anderson.³The book looks at seminal moments in American sports history, like the 1958 NFL Championship game (“The Greatest Game Ever Played,” according to George R.R. Martin⁴) and Muhammad Ali’s protest against the Vietnam War, as it argues that in America, the sports media not only reports on cultural highlights but actively shapes the American identity.

This article will dig a little deeper into the ways the sports media shapes American identity, drawing on examples from Joshua Dickhaus’s United States of Sport book and other commentaries on American culture and society.

Understanding the Sports-Media-Identity Triangle

Sports journalism is largely about storytelling. Storytelling requires narrative, so journalism inherently gives shape and meaning to sporting events.

In “The United States of Sport,” Dickhaus et al. reference the three-way relationship that binds sports, media, and culture. Sports events get covered by the media, the public consumes that media, and over time, sports begin to be conflated with matters of identity and cultural meaning.

This relationship can be used to explain issues like sports and nationalism, or, as in Professor Dickhaus’s book, the way in which sports become a mirror of American values and conflicts. We often see cultural conflict played out in the sports media, sometimes in the form of explicit political protest, such as Ali’s anti-Vietnam sentiments, and sometimes in more insidious ways, such as the 90s portrayals of soccer as un-American.

Key Insights From “United States of Sport”

The authors of “United States of Sport” use Framing Theory, an academic theory of communication, to analyze media coverage of sports events and the effect of that coverage on broader American culture and identity.

Framing Theory suggests that media decisions over word choice and the thematic characterization of an issue shape the way in which audiences perceive it. In the book, Dickhaus et al. turn to landmark moments in American culture and history to illustrate their point.5 For example, a chapter on Colin Kaepernick’s public protest against racial injustice looks at the ways in which liberal and conservative media outlets covered the issue. Radically divergent views of the same event sparked a cultural “battle for redefined patriotism,” establishing a new fault line in the American cultural landscape.

Sports Media as Cultural Curator

The central role of sports media in American culture gives it the power to be a cultural curator. When sports media outlets choose to cover sports stories as “American stories,” the culture often absorbs concepts previously regarded as foreign.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this is the gradual mainstreaming of soccer, which arguably started with the iconic photo of Brandi Chastain celebrating winning the World Cup at the Rose Bowl in a full stadium in Pasadena in 1999. The iconic image and the media’s framing of the narrative as an American sports triumph, rather than a fringe event of limited appeal, accelerated the mainstreaming of women’s soccer in American culture.

Identity Formation Through Sports Narratives

As the “United States of Sport” describes with the Colin Kaepernick affair, media narratives anoint heroes and deride villains in reflection of societal values. In Kaepernick’s case, he was cast as both hero and villain by competing media narratives. And an individual’s political leanings could be inferred from their opinion of Kaepernick’s kneeling protest.

Issues like the Kaepernick debate highlight how sports coverage intersects with social issues. Sports become a proxy for race, class, and gender issues. For example, in another moment highlighted by “United States of Sport,” the 2017 NBA All-Star game was moved out of North Carolina as part of an ongoing debate over trans rights in the state and across the nation.

Through the teams we support and the issues that our sporting heroes promote or oppose, we find our identity being influenced by sports and sports media coverage.

Modern Applications and Future Implications

The massive growth of social media in the US means news and opinions travel further and faster than ever before. And a huge amount of the information we see and share daily is sports-related.

Platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat have reshaped sports-identity connections. We know more about the personal lives and preferences of sports stars than ever before. Sports media consumption has ballooned to encompass tunnel fits and athlete-led podcasts.

This has transformed the field of sports communication. Long gone are the days when sports comms principally consisted of press releases and post-game call-in shows. Today, leagues, teams, and players are all brands to be managed. And media coverage includes everything from Insta-style posts to feature-length interrogations of the professionalization of college sports.

Looking ahead, the next generation of sports comms professionals will need to tackle AI-generated misinformation as well as understand the positive ways AI can enhance sports media coverage.

Start Your Career in Sports Communication Today

Sports media continues to have a dominant cultural influence on American life. We routinely elect sports stars to political office, flock to the products they endorse, and seek out the mountains of content generated around the clothes athletes choose to wear or the people they are dating.

The near-universality of sport’s appeal drives its success as a business: We give sport our attention, and that attention draws advertisers and massive revenue. Entire industries, from sneakers to throwback jerseys to workout gear, are driven by trends emanating from the world of pro sports.

At the Charley Steiner School of Sports Communication at Bradley University, you can explore concepts like this under the direction of expert faculty like Professor Dickhaus. Bradley’s online Master’s in Sports Communication is designed to launch careers in sports media, communication, and the academic study of the intersection of sports and culture. Review our course requirements online, and when you’re ready to discuss advancing your career in sports communication, contact an Admission Advisor to discuss what Bradley University can do for you.

Sources

1. Retrieved on October 15, 2025, from oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-1095
2. Retrieved on October 15, 2025, from cato.org/publications/sports-globalization-go-hand-hand
3. Retrieved on October 15, 2025, from amazon.com/United-States-Sport-Communication-Society/dp/1433181738#
4. Retrieved on October 15, 2025, from nfl.com/100/originals/100-greatest/games-1 
5. Retrieved on October 15, 2025, from peterlang.com/document/1270149