Abstract
This chapter analyzes the results of the three studies conducted in this book in the context of sports journalism’s “toy department” reputation, with attention to the substance and quality of the reporting about Jason Collins and Michael Sam’s coming out stories. Comments and insights from two prominent Sports Journalists, Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune and Cyd Zeigler of Outsports, are also included. Overall, the studies offer some evidence that Sports Journalists did attempt to address issues inherent with being a gay male professional athlete in a major team sport. However, being gay was also often presented as a distraction, especially in coverage of Sam.
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Cassidy, W.P. (2017). The Status of the Conversation. In: Sports Journalism and Coming Out Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62770-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62770-0_5
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