Travis Vogan teams archival research and interviews with an all-star cast to pen the definitive account of how ESPN turned X's and O's into billions of $$$. Vogan's institutional and cultural history focuses on the network since 1998, the year it launched a high-motor effort to craft its brand and grow audiences across media platforms. As he shows, innovative properties like SportsCentury, ESPN The Magazine, and 30 for 30 built the network's cultural caché. This credibility, in turn, propelled ESPN's transformation into an entity that lapped its run-of-the-mill competitors and helped fulfill its self-proclaimed status as the "Worldwide Leader in Sports."
Ambitious and long overdue, ESPN: The Making of a Sports Media Empire offers an inside look at how the network changed an industry and reshaped the very way we live as sports fans.
| Cover Title Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: An ESPN Culture 1. From the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network to ESPN 2. SportsCentury: Programming Public Sport History 3. ESPN the Magazine and Page 2: Paper and Digital Sports Pages 4. ESPN Original Entertainment: Branding Authority across Genres 5. ESPN Films: "Unprecedented Documentary Series" by "Filmmaking Originals" 6. Grantland: ESPN's Miramax Conclusion: From Frontline to the Bottom Line Appendix A: The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network's First Press Release Appendix B: SportsCentury Top One Hundred Athletes of the Twentieth Century Appendix C: SportsCentury Panel Notes Bibliography Index |"Vogan's research provides him with ample fodder to engross readers with stories and insights into the world behind their notable shows. . . . Sports fans will enjoy this well-researched and fascinating look at how ESPN has impacted both television and the viewing habits of millions of watchers."—Library Journal"Represents a genuinely original and overdue assessment of perhaps the most significant entity in sports media since the penny press. An exceptional trove of interviews, archival information, and industrial and aesthetic analysis." —Victoria E. Johnson, author of Heartland TV: Prime Time Television and the Struggle for U.S. Identity
"This smart, lively examination of ESPN's place in American culture and how it continues to consciously work its way in is a trove of research, insight, and fascinating stories."—Robert Lipsyte, New York Times columnist and author of An Accidental Sportswriter
|Travis Vogan is assistant professor of Journalism and Mass Communication and American Studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media.
