After years of unexplained oversight, scholars now recognize the pervasiveness and significance of mediated sports. This collection pulls together research that will engage and open the eyes of anyone who has read a sports page, watched a Super Bowl, owned a fantasy team, or known someone who has. Read this book and youll learn more about yourself, your friends, and the world we inhabit.Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization is a welcome addition to the growing scholarship in communication and sport. This edited volume features an impressive lineup of emerging and established scholars, drafted from a variety of disciplinary interests, including business, media studies, psychology, public relations, rhetoric, and sports management. What makes the book such a success is that it presents a broad range of methodological perspectives and addresses sports fanship across multiple sports, sites, and contexts. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization is required reading for anyone interested in the attitudes, behaviors, and motivations of contemporary sports fans.Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization is an eclectic collection of new studies from accomplished and emerging scholars in the fields of communication, business, geography, kinesiology, psychology, and more, who employ a wide range of methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, and critical analyses.Once deemed an unworthy research endeavor, the study of sports fandom has garnered the attention of seasoned scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. Identity and socialization among sports fans are particular burgeoning areas of study among a growing cadre of specialists in the social sciences. Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization, edited by Adam C. Earnheardt, Paul Haridakis, and Barbara Hugenberg, captures an eclectic collection of new studies from accomplished scholars in the fields such as communication, business, geography, kinesiology, media, and sports management and administration, using l£Ã