Welch Suggs co-edits ‘Teaching Sports Media’

Welch Suggs, associate director of the Carmical Sports Media Institute at Grady College, has just published a new book, “Teaching Sports Media: Classroom Strategies for Getting Your Students in the Game,” a comprehensive guide to teaching one of the most in-demand disciplines in today’s journalism curriculum.

“Teaching Sports Media,” was co-edited by Lauren Reichart Smith, an associate director for research initiatives for the Center for Sports Communication and Social Impact at Rowan University. The book is the fourth in the Master Class series produced by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and published by Bloomsbury.

“Sports is really distinct from other areas of media because it is its own ecosystem that has very formalized customs in terms of the interactions between media and sports organizations,” Suggs said. “I think the intense public interest in sports requires professionals across media careers to have a specialized skill set.”

The book covers fundamental instruction, best practices and exercises for students in 13 chapters, each written by different scholars and practitioners in the industry. Suggs said when they were discussing topics to include, they did not want to focus on journalism or any one particular field. Instead, authors cover topics and issues that spread broadly across PR, marketing, communications, advertising, branding and journalism.

Examples of chapter topics include discussions about teaching personal branding, diversity issues, esports, ethics and professionalism, online course development and accessibility in sports media (both in teaching and media production.) Suggs authored a chapter about how students in sports media should work with collegiate or professional teams to report on games and interview athletes.

In addition to Suggs, two other Grady College faculty members, Vicki Michaelis, the John Huland Carmical Chair in Sports Journalism & Society, and Mark Johnson, the John G. Alston, Sr., Professor of Sports Media, were interviewed about their experience working with students to cover the Paralympics and the Women’s World Cup for the Associated Press. That chapter focused on working with professional news organizations and was written by Steve Fox of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“I just hope this is a resource for faculty who are transitioning either from the profession or from graduate school into teaching these courses,” Suggs said. “I think it provides a lot of important tips and tricks as well as a bigger overall approach to teaching sports media and creating valuable experiences for students.”

In addition to “Teaching Sports Media,” Suggs is also the author of “A Place on the Team: The Triumph and Tragedy of Title IX,” (Princeton University Press, 2006) and is currently writing a book about the history and culture of soccer in Georgia.

Author: Sarah E. Freeman, freemans@uga.edu