Sports, Labor and the Media

This paper examines media coverage of sports labor issues from a political economic perspective by analyzing New York Times coverage of the 2011 National Football League lockout. We find that sports labor issues are framed in a manner consistent with findings by scholars such as Martin (2004), Schmidt (1993), and McChesney (2008). In particular, the media cover labor from a consumer-based perspective, simplify the conflict between players and owners as being disagreements between “millionaires and billionaires,” and focus more on offers made by owners to players than on owner demands. Other expected findings, such as media denigration of player labor and a general focus on player finances rather than owner finances, were not evident.