Sport media and culture graduates learn how to study sports critically and understand their complex relationships with cultural meanings. This entails an understanding of:

1. Contemporary U.S. sports' relationship with media and how this relationship intersects with other institutions and contexts including politics and the economy.
2. Diversity of sporting experiences in the U.S., including how opportunities for and the nature of participation are influenced by social class, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, age, and ability/disability; as well as how that diversity is represented in sport media.
3. Historical and cultural forces that shape the relationship between U.S. sport and media from the 19th century to the present.
4. U.S. sport media's relationship to global sport media and the historical, political, and social factors that impact it.
5. Theories and research methods that allow students to forge their own well-informed and clearly communicated critical studies of sport media.

Coursework provides students with the critical skills necessary to understand sport media’s relationships to economics, politics, and education. A focus on race, class, gender, and sexuality in sports is central to the major. The following are the general categories of coursework required to earn the degree; for more specific information on courses, curriculum, and requirements of the Bachelor of Arts in Sport Media and Culture, visit the UI General Catalog.

Degree requirements

Foundation courses

You will need to take both of these:

Sport and media courses

You will need two courses from group 1 and two courses from group 2:

Sport and culture courses

You will need two courses from group 1 and two courses from group 2:

Capstone course