Repairing the Athlete's Image

Studies in Sports Image Restoration

Edited by Joseph R. Blaney, Lance R. Lippert, Scott J. Smith

Publication date:

25 October 2012

Length of book:

424 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

237x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739138960

Repairing the Athlete’s Image: Studies in Sports Image Restoration, edited by Joseph R. Blaney, Lance Lippert, and J. Scott Smith, offers twenty-one case studies and conceptual frameworks about athletes and their organizations as they attempt to mitigate the effects of malfeasance. Employing traditional Image Restoration Theory (IRT) approaches to athletic communication (and other innovative approaches), the contributors to this volume add to our understanding of which communicative strategies work best for athletes when their reputations are sullied. This comprehensive text presents case studies of varying athletes, sports, and public relations scenarios with prescriptive advice for those attempting to repair athletic reputations. The contributors variously explore such controversies and mischief as the steroids accusations lobbed at Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the Michael Phelps marijuana controversy, the sexual misconduct of Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant, and other topical subjects in sports communication and image repair. While this book will be useful for athletes, coaches, managers, and agents in varying athletic endeavors and levels, it is also a dream collection for teachers and scholars of sports communication. The subjects examined in this study span country, gender, and popularity of sport (not to mention a healthy variety of types of accusations.) Repairing the Athlete’s Image is an essential resource for graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses in sports communication and popular culture.

Introduction
Part 1. Drugs
Chapter 1. From the Mitchell Report to Brian McNamee: Roger Clemen's Image Repair Discourse, J. Scott Smith
Chapter 2. "Big Mac" with a Side of Steroids: The Image Repair Strategies of Mark McGwire, John McGuire, Lori McKinnon, and Wayne Wanta
Chapter 3. Defense of an Anti-Hero: Barry Bonds' "State of the Great Address", J. Scott Smith
Chapter 4. The Image Repair Media Interview as Apologia and Antapologia: Marion Jones on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Michael R. Kramer
Chapter 5. The Michael Phelps Saga: From Successful Olympian, to Pot Smoker Caught on Camera, to Renewed Role Model and Brand, Rod Troester and Lindsay Johns
Part 2. Marital Infidelity and Sexual Misconduct
Chapter 6. Tiger Woods' Image Repair: Could He Hit One Out of the Rough?, William L. Benoit
Chapter 7. Power, Privilege, and the Surprising Absence of Repair: Kobe Bryant and Interest Convergence, Rachel Alicia Griffin
Chapter 8. Strategies of Silence: The John Terry Affair and the British Press
Part 3. Social Deviance and Integrity
Chapter 9. Bad Newz Kennels: Michael Vick and Dogfighting, J. Scott Smith
Chapter 10. The Failed Comedy of the NBA's Gilbert Arenas: Image Restoration in Context, Theodore F. Sheckels
Chapter 11. Plaxico Burress Takes His Best Shot, Mark Glantz
Chapter 12. In the Dark at Texas Tech: News Coverage Involving the Image Repair Discourse of Mike Leach and Adam James, Kevin Stein, Paul Turman, and Matthew Barton
Chapter 13. How Bobby Knight Changed His Bad Boy Image to Become a Media Darling, Ric Jensen
Part 4. On-Field Actions
Chapter 14. Belated Remorse: Serena Williams' Image Repair Rhetoric at the 2009 U.S. Open, LeAnn M. Brazeal
Chapter 15. Unsports(wo)manlike Conduct: An Image Repair Analysis of Elizabeth Lambert, the University of New Mexico, and the NCAA, Jordan L. Compton
Part 5. The Organizational Turn
Chapter 16. No Pepper: Apologia and Image Repair in the 2002 Labor Negotiations Between Major League Baseball and the Players Association, Kevin R. Meyer and Craig W. Cutbirth
Chapter 17. Giving Them the Ol' Misdirection: The NCAA and the Student-Athlete, Mike Milford
Chapter 18. A Death, a Family Feud, and a Merger: The Image Repair of Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt, Inc., by Angela Jerome
Chapter 19. The Puck Stops Here: The NHL's Image Repair Strategies During the 2004-2005 Lockout, by James DiSanza, Nancy J. Legge, H.R. Allen, and J.T. Wilde
Chapter 20. Celebrating Spectator Sports in America: The Centrality of Press Conferences and Media Interviews to Sports Image Repair, by Peter M. Smudde and Jeffrey L. Courtright
Research in Brief
Chapter 21. Reputation Differences between Mortification-Only and Mortification/Corrective Action Strategies Following a Transgression by a Professional Athlete, by John Twork and Joseph R. Blaney
Conclusion

In this ambitious. . . collection of 20 case studies, scholars (most from U.S. institutions) use William Benoit's theory of image restoration to analyze the image-repair discourse employed by sports figures and organizations. Blaney, Lippert, and Smith organize the collection according to the nature of the controversy (e.g., drugs) surrounding the individual in each case study. Four of the case studies focus on women, yet only Angela Jerome's study of Teresa Earnhardt (widow of race car driver Dale Earnhardt) specifically considers gender as a factor in public perception of the sports figure. Also flawed is J. Scott Smith's case study of Barry Bonds. To support his conclusion, Smith cites positive views toward Bonds and more negative views toward Mark McGwire in a poll of Hall of Fame voters. . . . Summing Up: Recommended.