CSCM is proud to announce our third annual report, “Politics in Sports Media.” This comprehensive study of sports media content in the United States captures a range of audience perceptions and details critical issues in sports media from 2023.

The report’s research team includes 21 contributors, including faculty members, graduate students and undergraduates from the Moody College of Communication and across UT-Austin. The team was led by Dr. Natalie Brown-Devlin, Dr. Jennifer McClearen, and CSCM director, Dr. Michael L. Butterworth.

"Politics in Sports Media provides statistical evaluation, qualitative interpretation, and critical assessment of sports media in the United States," said Dr. Butterworth. "We aim to capture audience attitudes and patterns in sports media content that help clarify when, and why, politics and sports influence one another."

As with CSCM's previous reports (2022, 2023), we define politics broadly, focusing on the ways power and resources are acquired, distributed, and limited in and around sports in the United States. Thus, we are interested in both formal political contexts, such as elections and legislative debates, and the equally important deliberations concerning race, gender, sexuality, class, labor, economic development, the environment, and more. We also retain our focus on “mainstream sports media,” meaning that we are attending to electronic and broadcast outlets with the widest reach. “Politics in Sports Media” defines “politics” broadly to include references to campaigns, elected officials, and legislation as well as matters of power, resources, and equity. 

High-level findings from the third annual Politics in Sports Media report include these:

• Sports media consumers deemed the "World Cup" to be less political in 2023 than in 2022; however, when asked to name specific events that were political, many named the "Women's World Cup." This suggests differences in understanding of the "Women's" event.
• The majority of both Republican-identifying sports media consumers (80%) and Democratic-identifying sports media consumers (58%) say "no" when asked if athletes should be openly political. This has been consistent for Republicans, but the 2023 numbers are a reversal among Democrats—58% said "yes" to this question in 2021. (Additionally, a majority of sports media consumers affiliated with both Republicans and Democrats believe sports media and politics should be kept separate.)
• Sports media consumers affiliated with both Republicans and Democrats identified "national anthem protests" as a political issue in 2023, despite the relative lack of such moments during the year. This suggests that protests in previous years linger in sports media consumers' consciousness. Other frequently cited political issues/moments include Donald Trump's appearance at UFC events and Travis Kelce's Pfizer vaccine commercial.
• ESPN continues to be rated as the most accurate and credible sports media outlet. Outlets not affiliated with a legacy news organization—Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports—score lower on accuracy and credibility. Republican-identifying sports media consumers find NBC Sports to be the most biased sports media outlet; Democratic-identifying sports media consumers find Fox Sports to be the most biased sports media outlet. This suggests that the sports networks are reputationally connected to their parent news organizations.

To compile the report, researchers from the Center for Sports Communication & Media surveyed over 500 sports fans about how they define and react to political content in sports and how they perceive leading sports media brands and their mix of sports and political content. The report also includes a content analysis of ESPN and Yahoo websites that reveal which political topics are most frequently featured in mainstream sports media. (Data shows that ESPN and Yahoo Sports web coverage includes political content more than 80% of the time.) The report also includes case studies evaluating six news stories from 2023 that featured politics and sports. Those subjects are:

• Pat McAfee and ESPN
• Ron DeSantis and the Conflation of Sports/Political Language
• Mark Adams and the Language of Slavery
• Tori Bowie and Black Maternal Health
• Public Backlash to the USWNT and the Politics of the Women's World Cup
• Unionization in Minor League Baseball