This book provides important new insights into the interplay between gender, technology, sport, and media in the Nordic context, offering a deeper understanding of how digitalization affects sports practices, values, and structures.
Bringing together leading experts and a mix of young and senior scholars from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, this book presents new empirical research and critical theoretical perspectives on topics ranging from athletes' self-presentation and community building in social media to technological innovation and changing working conditions in the sports sector. Despite the famously high scores for gender equity and digitization across society within the Nordic countries, Nordic women actors in sport still face serious challenges being embedded in historically shaped structures of inequality and hegemonies of masculinity dominant in sport. This book looks at how waves of mediatization are affecting different groups of women sports professionals: athletes, coaches, referees, and journalists. Drawing on work from sociology, media and communication studies, cultural studies and gender studies, this book considers the processes by which new technologies and digital media are saturating everyday sporting practices and shaping the professional lives and careers of women in sport. It expands our understanding of sport and social issues in Nordic society, of the Nordic model of sport, and of how intersections of gender, digital technology and media impact on sport everywhere.
This is essential reading for all researchers, students and sports practitioners interested in sport, gender, media, technology and society.
Anne Tjønndal is a Professor of Sociology of Sport in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway. Her research encompasses a wide range of topics within the sociology of sport, including innovation and sports technology, esports, women's participation in male-dominated sports, coaching and leadership, and the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion in sports participation.
Riikka Turtiainen is a university lecturer in Digital Culture at the University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests focus on the equality of media sports, particularly representations of female athletes, social media and gender in the context of team sports, and athlete activists. Her field of expertise also includes digital ethnography, and online research ethics. Along with these topics, Turtiainen has published research about CrossFit culture, fitness influencers, gamification of exercise, sportification of esports, equality of tennis, sport journalism in Finland and use of different social media platforms.
Kirsten Frandsen is a Professor in Media Studies in the Department of Media and Journalism Studies, School of Culture and Communication at Aarhus University, Denmark. She has published on varying aspects of sports in the media including theoretical conceptualizations and studies of production of televised sports, globalization, mediatization, historical developments of sports broadcasting and sports journalism in general, audience studies and sports broadcasters', fans', athletes' and sports organizations' use of digital platforms.
Egil Trasti Rogstad is an Associate Professor in Journalism in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Nord University, Norway. His research expertise encompasses a variety of fields including esports, gender, social inequality, social media, and sports journalism. In his role at Nord University, Rogstad is dedicated to weaving these diverse and contemporary themes into journalism education, highlighting their relevance and impact in today's media landscape.
