Communication and Sport

Dr. Andrew C. Billings (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1999) is the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting, Executive Director of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication, and Professor in the Department of Journalism & Creative Media at the University of Alabama. His research interests lie in the intersection of sport, mass media, and consumption habits. With 20 books and over 200 journal articles and book chapters, he is one of the most published sports media scholars in the world. His books include Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television (Routledge, 2008), Mascot Nation: The Controversy Over Native American Mascots in Sports (with Jason Edward Black, University of Illinois Press, 2019), Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports (with Leigh M. Moscowitz, Peter Lang, 2019) and The Rise and Fall of Mass Communication (with William L. Benoit, Peter Lang, 2020). His journal outlets include the Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Communication & Sport, Mass Communication & Society, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. His writings have been translated into five languages. He has lectured in nations around the world, from Spain to China to Austria. He serves as Associate Editor for both Communication & Sport and Journal of Global Sport Management as well as a book series, "Communication, Sport, and Society" with Peter Lang Press. His work in the classroom has also earned him many teaching awards. He has been interviewed over 600 times by media outlets ranging from The New York Times to The Los Angeles Times to ESPN. Billings has also consulted with many sports media agencies and is a past holder of the Invited Chair of Olympism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Before joining the faculty at Alabama, he was at Clemson University (1999-2001). He is an avid Green Bay Packers fan and pop culture watcher.

Dr. Michael L. Butterworth (Ph.D., Indiana University, 2006) is the Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media, the Governor Ann W. Richards Chair for the Texas Program in Sports and Media, and Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores the connections between rhetoric, democracy, and sport, with particular interests in national identity, militarism, and public memory. He is the author of Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity during the War on Terror, co-author (with Andrew Billings and Paul Turman) of Communication and Sport: Surveying the Field, editor of Sport and Militarism: Contemporary Global Perspectives, and co-editor (with Daniel A. Grano) of Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle. Dr. Butterworth's essays have appeared in journals such as Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Communication and Sport, Communication, Culture & Critique, Critical Studies in Media Communication, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the Journal of Communication, the Journal of Sport & Social Issues, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Rhetoric & Public Affairs. Dr. Butterworth serves as Vice Chair of the Sports Communication Interest Group for the International Communication Association. He previously served as the Chair of the Communication and Sport Division for the National Communication Association and was the Founding Executive Director of the International Association for Communication and Sport. Dr. Butterworth earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Indiana University-Bloomington and has an M.A. in Communication and a B.A. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University. He is an avid Chicago Cubs fan and can easily be distracted with conversations about sports, politics, and music.