Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization: Exploring the Fandemonium - Softcover

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.

After years of unexplained oversight, scholars now recognize the pervasiveness and significance of mediated sports. This collection pulls together research that will engage and open the eyes of anyone who has read a sports page, watched a Super Bowl, owned a fantasy team, or known someone who has. Read this book and you’ll learn more about yourself, your friends, and the world we inhabit. (Jay Coakley, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, author of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies)

Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization is a welcome addition to the growing scholarship in communication and sport. This edited volume features an impressive lineup of emerging and established scholars, drafted from a variety of disciplinary interests, including business, media studies, psychology, public relations, rhetoric, and sports management. What makes the book such a success is that it presents a broad range of methodological perspectives and addresses sports fanship across multiple sports, sites, and contexts. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization is required reading for anyone interested in the attitudes, behaviors, and motivations of contemporary sports fans. (Michael L. Butterworth, Bowling Green State University)


Identity and socialization among sports fans are burgeoning areas of study among a growing cadre of scholars in the social sciences and beyond. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization, edited by Adam C. Earnheardt, Paul Haridakis, and Barbara Hugenberg, is an eclectic collection of new studies from accomplished and emerging scholars in the fields of communication, business, geography, kinesiology, psychology, and more, who employ a wide range of methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, and critical analyses.