This book offers an introductory guide to sports tv, its history in the United States, the genreâ??s defining characteristics, and analysis of its critical significance for the business practices, formal properties, and social, cultural, and political meanings of the medium. "Victoria E. Johnson's stellar Sports TV offers the best available scholarly introduction to its topic. Just as important, this book persuasively argues for the centrality of sports television to any serious consideration of popular media culture." Travis Vogan, University of Iowa, USA "Johnson has written the definitive critical history of sports as one of television's most enduring and important genres. Sports TV is an elegant and masterfully comprehensive analysis of sports as our televisual public forum. This book is a slam dunk/touchdown/home run work of media scholarship." Jennifer Holt, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA