scholarly journals Can ESports Unseat the Sports Industry? Some Preliminary Evidence from the United States

CHOREGIA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Candela1 ◽  
◽  
Keith Jakee ◽  
Author(s):  
Vida Abedi ◽  
Oluwaseyi Olulana ◽  
Venkatesh Avula ◽  
Durgesh Chaudhary ◽  
Ayesha Khan ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundThere is preliminary evidence of racial and social-economic disparities in the population infected by and dying from COVID-19. The goal of this study is to report the associations of COVID-19 with respect to race, health and economic inequality in the United States.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study of the associations between infection and mortality rate of COVID-19 and demographic, socioeconomic and mobility variables from 369 counties (total population: 102,178,117 [median: 73,447, IQR: 30,761-256,098]) from the seven most affected states (Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts).FindingsThe risk factors for infection and mortality are different. Our analysis shows that counties with more diverse demographics, higher population, education, income levels, and lower disability rates were at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. However, counties with higher disability and poverty rates had a higher death rate. African Americans were more vulnerable to COVID-19 than other ethnic groups (1,981 African American infected cases versus 658 Whites per million). Data on mobility changes corroborate the impact of social distancing.InterpretationThe observed inequality might be due to the workforce of essential services, poverty, and access to care. Counties in more urban areas are probably better equipped at providing care. The lower rate of infection, but a higher death rate in counties with higher poverty and disability could be due to lower levels of mobility, but a higher rate of comorbidities and health care access.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hung-Bin Sheu ◽  
Jennifer J. Bordon

Since its introduction in 1994, social cognitive career theory (SCCT) has attracted attention from researchers and practitioners in the United States and other countries. This article provides a review of selected research performed outside the United States regarding SCCT’s interest, choice, performance, and satisfaction models. Results of a database search identified 37 studies, which contained 41 independent samples from 21 countries and were published in the English language. The majority of these studies were conducted in Asian (e.g., China and Taiwan) and European (e.g., Portugal, Germany, and Italy) countries and tested the interest/choice and satisfaction models in adolescent and college student samples who were enrolled in courses or majors related to the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM; or Holland’s Investigative and Realistic themes). Existing international SCCT research offers robust evidence for the mediating role of self-efficacy, but less consistent support for that of outcome expectations, in the relations of proximal contextual factors to outcomes of interest, choice goals or goal progress, and academic or job satisfaction. Additionally, this review provides preliminary evidence for mastery experience and physiological state as two key sources of efficacy beliefs and for the effects of personality traits (e.g., positive affect and emotional stability) on academic or job satisfaction. Results of a recent meta-analysis are also summarized to offer an empirical synthesis of international SCCT research testing the choice model. Based on this review, directions for future international SCCT research are highlighted, and suggestions for career counseling are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Anderson ◽  
Adrian Lueders ◽  
Sindhuja Sankaran ◽  
Eva Green ◽  
Emanuele Politi

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented threat for individuals worldwide. This paper reports the initial psychometric properties for the recently developed COVID-19 Multifaceted Threat Scale. Across three studies the construction and initial psychometric evidence is presented. In Study 1 (n = 194, 11 national groups), we adopted an inductive qualitative methodology to elicit participants’ concerns, worries, or fears about the corona pandemic. A thematic analysis revealed 10 consistent themes around threat, from which we constructed a pool of 100 potential items. In Study 2, a sample from the United States (n = 322) provided data for an exploratory factor analysis which reduced the 100 items to 30 items across the 10 hypothesised dimensions sub-factors. In Study 3, these findings were then ratified in samples from the United States (n = 471) and India (n = 423) using a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. We also present reliability estimates (internal consistency: Studies 2-3) and preliminary evidence of the validity for the scale across two national groups (United States and India). The evidence presented suggests that the COVID-19 Multifaceted Threat Scale is a psychometrically sound measure and can be used to explore current and long-lasting effects of the pandemic on individuals and societies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Sternisko ◽  
Aleksandra Cichocka ◽  
Aleksandra Cislak ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel

While COVID-19 was quietly spreading across the globe, conspiracy theories were finding loud voices on the internet. What contributes to the spread of these theories? In two national surveys (NTotal = 950) conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom, we identified national narcissism – a belief in the greatness of one’s nation that others do not appreciate – as a risk factor for the spread of conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that national narcissism was strongly associated with the proneness to believe and disseminate conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, accounting for up to 22% of the variance. Further, we found preliminary evidence that belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and national narcissism was linked to health-related behaviors and attitudes towards public policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Our study expands previous work by illustrating the importance of identity processes in the spread of conspiracy theories during pandemics.


Author(s):  
Nathaniel Grow

This chapter examines a little known, but vitally important, statutory antitrust exemption for the U.S. professional sports industry: the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 (SBA). Under the SBA, league-wide television agreements between one of the four major U.S. sports leagues and an over-the-air broadcast network are immune from challenge under federal antitrust law. As a result, the SBA has played a significant role in shaping the way in which sports are broadcast in the United States today. At the same time, because sports leagues value the protection afforded by the SBA, the threat of repealing the statute has also intermittently given Congress the leverage needed to challenge various league activities that were viewed as harmful to the public interest. Thus, the SBA continues to play an important role in helping to shape professional-sports-related public policy in the United States today.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-565
Author(s):  
Samuel M. Clevenger ◽  
Oliver Rick ◽  
Jacob Bustad

This commentary highlights a recent trend of anthropocentrism (a focus on human-centered interests and activities) in the media coverage in the United States and Europe on the disruption of the contemporary sports industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors argued that the coverage promotes anthropocentric narratives by framing the pandemic as an external force causing a temporary and unforeseen “hiatus” in the sports industry. As a result, media consumers learn about human interest stories associated with consumer demand and industry adaptation: stories that renormalize, rather than question, the sports industry in its current and hegemonic form. Such media discourses bypass an opportunity to consider the longstanding entanglements of human and nonhuman actors in sporting contexts, rethink sport through environmental and nonhuman perspectives, and, ultimately, advance more progressive, democratic politics. The commentary employs a posthumanist lens to critique the recent anthropocentric media coverage, highlighting the ways in which it reproduces the dualist logic of neoliberal capitalism and deflects attention to the human and nonhuman relations that have always existed in contexts of sport and human physicality.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 1298-1313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Edmonds

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine (a) correlates of informativeness and efficiency in discourse and (b) potential cross-linguistic and stimulus type (picture vs. nonpicture) differences in measures of informativeness and efficiency in Spanish/English bilingual adults in the United States. Method Eighty-eight Spanish/English young bilingual adults who self-reported being functional in both languages completed the discourse tasks from Nicholas and Brookshire (1993). Responses were analyzed with an adapted version of the scoring system that is based on correct information units (CIUs), the variable corresponding to informative words. Results Regression analyses showed that among participant-provided data, self-ratings of proficiency accounted for most of the variance in informativeness over time (CIUs/min), although usage was also important in Spanish. When naming accuracy was added as a variable, verb-naming accuracy superseded all variables as accounting for the most variance in CIUs/min across languages. Overall, participants provided more information more efficiently in English as compared to Spanish. Conclusions The results provide preliminary evidence that Nicholas and Brookshire stimuli and scoring procedures may be appropriate for Spanish/English bilinguals and suggest that self-ratings and usage information collected from participants, as well as naming accuracies, may be predictive of informativeness and efficiency in discourse.


1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. Sage

The professional team sports industry has consistently worked at constructing a symbiotic relationship in the collective American mind linking professional team sports with United States patriotism. Professional team sports organizations use a variety of advertising images, rituals, and ceremonies to reinforce this association. One means by which the organizations perpetuate this association is through league logos, all of which use only the colors red, white, and blue—the precise color combination found on the flag of the United States. League logos are prominently displayed on all their licensed merchandise, merchandise that generates about $10 billion in annual revenue for professional team sports. This paper focuses on the contradiction or paradox that exists between the imagery of All-American patriotism professional team sports construct and the fact that much of their licensed merchandise is manufactured in foreign countries by exploited labor. The analysis centers on meaning-production by deconstructing and critiquing the managed image of professional team sport organizations.


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