Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916 Book Reviews Sports media: Transformation, integration, consumption Andrew C. Billings (Ed.) Routledge, New York, 2011 $100.00 (hard), pp. 218 Reflecting on preparations for his 1989 review of existing sports media research, Lawrence A. Wenner notes that (at that time) ‘‘there were only about a dozen works by scholars that had communication or media studies as a home discipline’’ (1998, p. 7). Though subsequent decades saw sports media entrench themselves even more thor- oughly in our social and cultural fabric, major scholarly organizations have only recently made steps toward structural support for sport-oriented communi- cations research. Despite this arrival ‘‘after tip-off,’’ scholars pursuing sports media research agendas have contributed mightily to understandings of this quintessential entertainment/cultural institution, and, in doing so, commu- nicative social processes more generally. As Andrew C. Billings notes in his new edited book, Sports Media: Transfor- mation, Integration, Consumption, ‘‘the amount of seminal sport communication scholarship produced over the past three decades is astounding and, moreover, exceeds the overarching systemic struc- tures that should support it’’ (p. 181). Billings’ edited collection is the most recent work to contribute meaning- fully to this research agenda’s collective memory, intellectual development, and future trajectory. Sports Media’s 12 chapters are com- posed of papers from a 2010 Broadcast Educators Association symposium by the same title. Six are invited works (mostly essays) from researchers and theorists with considerable contributions to the ‘‘mediasport’’ (Wenner, 1998) research agenda. The subsequent four chapters are empirical and interpretive pieces com- petitively selected for the symposium. Billings offers introductory and conclud- ing essays bookending the text, with the latter providing reflection on and direc- tion for sports media research. Finally, the appendix is an instant ‘‘must-have’’ research tool for sports media scholars and those seeking to understand the research area: An 18-page, single-spaced bibliography titled, ‘‘Contributions to sports media scholarship: A compre- hensive reference list.’’ This appendix illustrates the research agenda’s quanti- tative volume; Sports Media’s selections highlight its qualitative depth and rigor. Where just a handful of chapters in Raney and Bryant’s (2006) collection addressed new media, the bulk of Sports Media’s selections tackle how social and ‘‘digital mediasport’’ (Meˆ an, p. 163) are transforming the production and consumption of mediated sport. The platforms, practices, and power rela- tions of digital mediasport’s expanding menu open opportunities for freshly constituting audiences, communities, and identities. But old media, discourses, Journal of Communication 61 (2011) E19–E25  2011 International Communication Association E19