Normative Bridges and Barriers in the Framing of Emerging Sports Movements

Abstract

Why have some small, emerging sports communities grown faster than others? To begin answering this question, the analysis presented here considers the case of disc golf, a flying disc sport that has grown rapidly since the early twenty-first century. This research conceptualizes the disc golf community as a new social movement and examines how the news media has influenced its development. Drawing on a large, diverse sample of local and national news materials, this study finds that the volume of disc golf news coverage is correlated with reliable measures of the sport’s growth. In addition, a content analysis of 2920 newspaper articles is used to identify the news frames that may promote, or attenuate disc golf’s “grow the sport movement.” The theoretical and methodological contributions of this study shed further light on the complex relationship between the news media and the evolution of small, non-normative sports movements.