Contents for SER Issue 3:1
| SER 3.1 Authors: Khalid Ballouli, Chad Seifried, Michael A. Odio, Emma Sherry |
| Abstract: Sport & Entertainment Review, Volume 3, No. 1, February 2017. |
| Sound Affects: How Music Transforms the Way We Consume Sport Authors: Khalid Ballouli |
| Abstract: During my fifth year as a professional baseball player, my career would end on a Friday night in Montgomery, AL, where I was a starting pitcher in a weekend series opener against the Montgomery Biscuits, the Class AA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They had just completed building a new baseball stadium in Montgomery, and the atmosphere at the park that night was electric for a minor league baseball game. In the bottom half of the first inning, a sellout crowd had risen to its feet and began singing and clapping in unison as Biscuits’ leadoff batter Johnny Raburn strode to the plate to his walkout song If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band) by Alabama. With the homage song blaring through stadium speakers, I will admit even my body moved to the rhythm. The crowd would continue standing and that level of energy would remain high throughout the entire at-bat until finally Johnny singled to centerfield for the first hit of the game. What happened next was more than interesting. The second hitter in the Biscuits’ lineup, Elijah Dukes, started to make his way to the plate and fan morale seemed at once deflated. It was not because Elijah was a bad player; he was in fact a tremendously talented player. What I observed in that moment was Elijah had selected to walk up to the plate to a song by the Hot Boys entitled Neighborhood Superstar, a song that had been “chopped and screwed.” This is a song editing technique popular among rap producers where by a song is slowed as if it were being dragged on a record player. The fans that were jubilant just moments before were no longer singing and clapping, but rather they seemed disassociated and disengaged the remainder of the inning until another familiar and stirring song returned to the stadium speakers. |
| Make Use of History! Advice on What Practitioners Can Do Authors: Chad Seifried |
| Abstract: Sport and entertainment organizations regularly engage in activities that center on securing and maintaining a competitive advantage. In recent years, some work that I have been involved with (e.g., Seifried, 2012, 2014; Seifried & Katz, 2015; Seifried, Katz, & Pfleegor, 2015; Seifried & Meyer, 2010; Seifried & Pajoutan, 2014; Soebbing, Seifried, Walker, & Pfleegor, 2016) highlighted and/or demonstrated the contribution and appreciation of history as a special source of competitive advantage. Externally, evidence for this practice is strong across multiple sport and entertainment organizations and within a variety of areas (e.g., marketing, communications, facilities management, development/fundraising). As an example, several marketing and consumer behavior scholars (e.g., Funk & James, 2006; Goulding, 2001; Pascal, Sprott, & Muehling, 2002) recognized history as capable of motivating customers to buy specific products and/or services. Moreover, they identified history as a useful tool to improve and shape their brand image (Seifried & Meyer, 2010). |
| Managing Internships in Sport and Entertainment: Law, Ethics, and Practice Authors: Michael A. Odio |
| Abstract: In 2011 Eric Glatt may have made himself the most famous intern in the entertainment industry. He led a recently settled class-action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight over his experience as an unpaid intern for the film “Black Swan” that brought a lot of media attention and a national discussion about wage issues for interns. Seventeen years before Glatt tested the legality of an unpaid internship, another unpaid intern’s lawsuit also brought attention to a more troubling issue. Bridget O’Connor sued the psychiatric center where she was an unpaid intern alleging sexual harassment from her supervisor. The court dismissed the case on the basis that as an unpaid intern, she did not qualify for the employee sexual harassment protections offered by the Civil Rights Act (Hickman & Thompson, 2013). These cases are arguably the inevitable result of the rapid growth in internships across industries that have outpaced labor laws and managerial practice. |
| Sport-for-Development Authors: Emma Sherry |
| Abstract: Sport has the power to change the world” states the famous Nelson Mandela quote. As sports academicians, fans, practitioners, and participants, we instinctively know the veracity of such a pronouncement, but how do we know? There is a growing body of research that investigates how sport may be used for development outcomes. Indeed, a growing number of academicians and practitioners alike are developing an interest in or focus on the use of sport for development as they identify sport and active recreation programs as effective mechanisms for achieving social change—change for individuals and change for communities—with the aim to change broader society. |
