CALL FOR ARTICLES | Year 2025 - Issue 38 (Jan-Jun)
CALL FOR ARTICLES - MEDIATION MAGAZINE
Year 2025 - Issue 38 (Jan-Jun)
Submission deadline: April 30, 2025
Dossier publication: June 30, 2025
DOSSIER TOPIC
Communication and Sport: Traditions and Dysphoria
We invite scholars in Communication, Arts, Literature, and related fields to submit articles for Issue 38 of Revista Mediação, dedicated to the thematic dossier "Communication and Sport: Traditions and Dysphoria."
OVERVIEW
Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, sport has emerged as a phenomenon with profound social, cultural, economic, communicational, and political implications. Various sports have influenced fashion and behavior, driven the advertising market and global economy, fostered technological innovations, generated diverse discursive, media, and artistic productions, and shaped identity relationships among different social groups. This dossier aims to explore and analyze these issues to deepen our understanding of sporting phenomena and their intersection with communication and related disciplines, such as the arts and literature.
Additionally, this initiative seeks to establish a dedicated academic forum for discussions on the relationship between sport and communication, showcasing the vast and diverse body of research that has flourished in Brazil, particularly over the past three decades. Until the 1990s, for instance, few undergraduate and postgraduate programs in communication in Brazil focused on sports-related studies. These were often isolated initiatives, detached from established research groups, and challenged prevailing academic and market perspectives.
But why was a phenomenon as widespread in society as sport so often overlooked in Brazilian academic research? One possible explanation lies in the academic traditions established between the 1960s and 1980s, which associated sport with discipline and alienation, viewing high-performance athletic practices as reflective of the exploitative structures of post-Industrial Revolution society. Moreover, sport was frequently classified as a leisure activity, linked to "non-productive" time, and thus relegated to the margins of discussions on significant social issues. In Brazilian journalism, sport was also traditionally treated as a "minor" section, in contrast to the "major" sections such as Politics, Economics, and International Affairs.
However, by the late 20th century, Brazil and the world witnessed a new wave of sports studies, incorporating theories of communication and media discourse analysis, as well as literature. Sport also began to be examined in connection with the humanities and social sciences, particularly anthropology, sociology, and history. This shift opened up new analytical perspectives for postgraduate students in Brazil. No longer burdened by the stigma of being the "opium of the people," sport is now recognized as a stage where societal conflicts, aspirations, frustrations, and joys are projected—an arena that reflects the contradictions and richness of our social fabric.
This dossier, provocatively titled "Communication and Sport: Traditions and Dysphoria," seeks to juxtapose canonical and classical studies on sport with new theoretical and methodological approaches that challenge conventional perspectives. Our goal is to highlight both well-established academic viewpoints and innovative, unconventional perspectives—provided they are well-founded.
Below is an indicative list of suggested (but not exclusive) topics for submissions to Revista Mediação:
· Sport and journalistic practices
· Sport and audiovisual representations
· Sport and literature (short stories, chronicles, novels, poetry)
· Sport and graphic humor
· Sport and its relationship with advertising
· Communication and sport on social media
· Organizational communication and sport
· Discursive practices on gender relations in sport
· Anti-racism discourse in sport
· Sport and the media ecosystem
· Communication and major sporting events
· Sport and aesthetics
We welcome contributions that explore these and related topics.
References
CAMPOS, Priscila Augusta Ferreira Campos; CORNELSEN, Elcio Loureiro; SILVA, Silvio Ricardo da. (Orgs.). Futebol, linguagem artes, cultura e lazer – vol. II: produção acadêmica sobre futebol - análises e perspectivas. Rio de Janeiro: Jaguatirica, 2017.
GIGLIO, Sérgio Settani; PRONI, Marcelo Weishaupt. (Orgs.). O futebol nas ciências humanas no Brasil. Campinas (SP): Editora da Unicamp, 2020.
HELAL, Ronaldo; COSTA, Leda; AMARO, Fausto; FONTENELLE, Carol. (Orgs.). Estudos em mídia, esporte e cultura. Rio de Janeiro: Appris / Faperj, 2021.
MARQUES, José Carlos; ROCCO JR., Ary José. Qual legado – Leituras e Reflexões sobre os Jogos Olímpicos Rio-2016. São Paulo: Cultura Acadêmica, 2018.
VIMIEIRO, Ana Carolina; FORTES, Rafael. (Orgs.). A pesquisa em comunicação e esporte no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Letra e Imagem Editora - selo Fólio Digital, 2023.
DOSSIER COORDINATORS
José Carlos Marques – Associate Professor at São Paulo State University (Unesp/Bauru), where he teaches in the Postgraduate Programme in Communication and the Human Sciences Department of the Faculty of Architecture, Arts, Communication, and Design. He holds a Livre-Docência in Communication and Sport from Unesp, a PhD in Communication Sciences (Journalism) from the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo (USP), and a Master’s degree in Communication and Semiotics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. He also holds a BA and a teaching degree in Letters (Portuguese–French) from the University of São Paulo and has completed a postdoctoral fellowship in History at USP. He is the leader of GECEF (Communication Studies Group on Sport and Football) and a member of LUDENS (Interdisciplinary Centre for Studies on Football and Playing Modalities).
Elcio Loureiro Cornelsen – Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he lectures in the Postgraduate Programme in Literary Studies (PÓSLIT) at the Faculty of Letters and in the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Programme in Leisure Studies (PPGIEL) at the School of Physical Education, Physiotherapy, and Occupational Therapy. He holds a PhD in German Studies from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, as well as a Master’s and a Bachelor's degree in German Language and Literature from the University of São Paulo. He has completed postdoctoral research in Organisational Studies at FGV-EAESP, in Literary Theory and History at the Institute of Language Studies at Unicamp, and in Comparative History at the Institute of History at UFRJ. He is a member of FULIA (Centre for Studies on Football, Language, and the Arts, UFMG) and the Integrated Literature and Authoritarianism Research Group (UFSM).
