Advocacy and Activism in Sports Podcasts: Expanding Journalistic Roles

Abstract

This article examines the political turn in sports podcasting, focusing on the blurring and evolving boundaries of journalistic roles. The US-based sports podcasts Social Sport, Burn It All Down, and Edge of Sports offer three case studies of how podcasting opens space for politicizing sports coverage beyond scores and highlights. Podcast coverage of sports has adapted by enhancing a focus on the political implications of athletes' personal stories. Analysis of episodic content and interview correspondence with podcast hosts focuses on how the podcast medium has opened new spaces advancing the cultural discourse on how issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion impact athletes' lives. Our results indicate the affordances unique to the podcast medium, like temporality, have enabled the expansion of journalistic roles and performance to include advocacy functions and leaning toward more socially progressive content than traditional media coverage has allowed.