Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization

Adam C. Earnheardt is associate professor of communication studies and basic course director at Youngstown State University. Earnheardt was named a Distinguished Professor at Youngstown State in 2010. He is executive director of the Ohio Communication Association and incoming chair of the National Communication Association Mass Communication Division. Earnheardt has published three books including Judging Athlete Behaviors (VDM Verlag), Sports Mania (co-edited with Hugenberg & Harida-kis; McFarland) and The Modern Communicator (co-authored with O'Neill; Kendall Hunt/GRT). He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters. His scholar-ship has appeared in Psychology Today,Playboy, and several newspapers including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Canton Dailey Ledger where he served as an expert source on stories related to LeBron James and Ben Roethlisberger. Earnheardt is a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins fan, and an admitted Pittsburgh Pirates loyalist.
Paul M. Haridakis is professor and interim director of the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University. His research interests include media use and effects, sports communication, new communication technologies, freedom of speech, political communication and media history. He is a co-author of Communication Research: Strategies and Sources (7th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning. He is co-editor of War and the Media: Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture (McFar-land & Co.); and co-editor of Sports Mania: Essays on Fandom and the Media in the 21st Century (McFarland & Co.).
Barb S. Hugenberg serves as a consultant to the basic communication course at Kent State University. She previously served at Kent State as assistant professor and basic course director. She is an active member of the National Communication Association's Basic Course Division and has served as co-coordinator of Basic Course Director's Conference (Cleveland, OH) and the Fourth Summit on Sport and Communication (Cleveland, OH). Hugenberg is the coeditor of the multi-volume Teaching Ideas for the Basic Communication Course (Kendall/Hunt) and War and the Media: Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture (McFarland & Co.). Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Popular Culture and Communication Education.