Twelfth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

This paper uses ethnographic video analysis to evaluate the impact of commercialization in sport. I apply Krista Thompson’s economy of light framework to measure the ways in which institutional actors leverage their control over light and camera movement during the production of an NCAA basketball game. I do this in order to understand the political economy of the institution of sport (Thompson, 2012). What I found throughout the course of the ethnographic video analysis was an evident and repeated story woven together by commentators, in conjunction with the camera crew and production team, inviting the consumer’s gaze through a specific narrative. This paper argues that the commercialization of the institution of sport in higher education effectively skews reality toward the implicit needs of consumeristic spectators, thus providing timely insight into the political economy of Black bodily consumption within the institution of sport in higher education.