We Are in Good Hands

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Simon Ličen

Amid the ongoing economic crisis, experts see Slovenia as the next euro-zone country that might need a bail-out. A recent appearance by Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek on CNN did not inspire pundits or peasants as she repeated that “We will solve our problems ourselves”—without, however, being able to offer a tangible answer or explanation to Richard Quest’s simple question why should we believe it. In these circumstances people often turn to successful athletes as their heroes to find comfort and reassurance. This winter’s favorite was alpine skier Tina Maze who set a number of records en route to her overall World Cup title. The spotlight shifts to other athletes and events as temperatures rise and winter snow melts away in people’s memories.

Two archetypical and interconnected examples of crisis-ridden sectors in Slovenia are banking and construction. Over-simplifying, large state-owned banks are in crisis partially for not being able to collect loans offered to individual managers and corporations, many in the construction industry, over the past ten and more years. Construction was also devastated by instances of white-collar crime including bribing, tax fraud, mismanaging of corporate funding, anti-trust laws breach etc. Virtually all major Slovenian constructors went bankrupt and their former bosses are currently on trial for their alleged implication in the crimes. Some sentences have already been awarded and a number of guilty verdicts delivered. No sports here, apparently.

One of the most defining judicial proceedings has been the Clean Shovel Affair which started out as an investigation into the awarding of a public procurement to build a new control tower at the Ljubljana Airport. According to the investigators, constructors tried to secure the contract by bribing members of the tender committee. Eight indictments were filed in early 2008; the trial at the District Court of Ljubljana started in October, 2010, and in March, 2012 the court returned a guilty verdict for seven of the accused and acquitted one. The Higher Court confirmed all verdicts on 21 March 2013.

One of the seven people that were found guilty is Borut Farčnik. The prosecution established that he acted as a middle-man between the advisor who took the bribe (or “gift,” as defined by the Penal Code) and the corporations aspiring to secure the contract. Mr. Farčnik was sentenced to a jail term of ten months and given an additional €6,000 fine. The Higher Court rejected his appeal and confirmed the original sentence.

Who is Borut Farčnik—and why should sports fans care about him?

RTV Slovenija reported that Mr. Farčnik is a former head of the logistics department at the Ministry of Defense and the owner of Si Sport Ltd. According to their corporate website, Si Sport specializes in the organization of sport events.

According to the Agency for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES), the ownership is actually divided between Mr. Farčnik and his children. Borut Farčnik is also the director (the top executive officer) of the company which was founded in 2000.

The company and Mr. Farčnik himself have been prominent organizers of sporting events of varying size and scope for quite some time. Between 2001 and 2008, he held top organizing roles in events such as biathlon World Championships and World Cup events, the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2003, Slovenian stages of the Giro d’Italia cycling race in 2001 and 2005, several Masters’ Games, and others. In 1999, he was even appointed by the Slovenian government to the Slovenian organizing committee for an international bid to host the 2006 Winter Olympic Games (along with Carinthia in Austria and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Italy).

But, the company’s or even Mr. Farčnik’s stakes do not seem to have suffered from his arrest in 2008 or his indictment in 2010 or even his conviction in 2012:

Since 2006, Si Sport has organized Tek za ženske (Women’s Run), an annual running event sponsored by Drogerie Markt, a multi-national retailer.

Since 2005, it has organized Maraton Franja, a yearly cycling event sponsored among other by the City of Ljubljana (awarded a Diamond Sponsor status), Radio and Television Slovenija (the Slovenian public service broadcaster), Delo (the nation’s foremost broadsheet newspaper), Loterija Slovenije (the leading organizer of games of chance in Slovenia, listed as both a Silver and Bronze Sponsor), and I Feel Slovenia (the country’s overall brand coordinated by the Government Communication Office). Mr. Farčnik sits in the organizing committee of the event.

In 2008—after Mr. Farčnik had been arrested in connection with the bribery intermediation—Si Sport co-organized the Olympic National Hospitality House for the Slovenian NOC at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In 2011—with the Clean Shovel Affair trial well under way—Mr. Farčnik was Vice-President of the Organizing Committee of the World Rowing Championships. He was responsible for the financial aspect of the event. The Honorary Committee of the event included the Slovenian president, six members of the government, and even a constitutional judge, Ernest Petrič, who was the state secretary (equivalent to junior minister) presiding over the 1999 Slovenian organizing committee to host the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In December, 2012, after Mr. Farčnik had been found guilty for his involvement in the airport tower bribing scheme (the sentence is not final as he may still file an appeal with the Supreme Court), he was the Vice-President of the Executive Committee with marketing and financial responsibilities of a Biathlon World Cup event in Pokljuka, Slovenia. The committee was chaired by Aleš Hojs, then Minister of Defense.

The company, Si Sport, has been either the organizer or a partner in all the events listed.

Interestingly, Borut Farčnik is also still listed as the director of Center Pokljuka, the company that manages the Pokljuka sports center owned by the Slovenian Ski Federation.

Of course, Borut Farčnik has only been found guilty in one criminal proceeding; this text does not imply that he might be involved in others. What this author finds troubling is the fact that sports organizers, sponsors, and even top government officials are willing to work with a person accused and later convicted of taking part in a bribing scheme and even entrust him to run the financial aspects of major sports events. This hardly conveys an impression of transparency and honesty.

Even more troubling is the fact that to the best of this author’s knowledge, not a single sports journalist in Slovenia explored the ramifications of having a person convicted of white-collar crime with the financial matters of recreational and competitive sports events.

A sports official this author spoke to expressed regret at having to work with Si Sport but mitigated the claim by adding that “programs are one thing, people are another.” This explanation might echo the thoughts and stances of other organizers and journalists covering the field. The press thus either failed to connect the dots or chose not publish the details of Mr. Farčnik’s activities because they did not think they might be connected. Sport programs are indeed one thing and people are another; but in the end, people are those who organize the programs. Are we in good hands?

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Next stop: Austin!

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Simon Ličen

It has been many months since I last posted on this website.  Many exciting things happened during this time and hopefully I will start catching up—and providing up-to-date news—soon.

In a few days I will be presenting a paper on Radio Slovenia tweeting during the 2012 London Olympics at the Summit on Communication and Sport organized by the International Association for Communication and Sport.  The event will be held at the Belo Center for New Media and is hosted by the Texas Program in Sports and Media and the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.  I will be speaking in a session on 23 February at 8:00 a.m. local time.  A full schedule of the event can be found on the conference website.

Fans of academic scholarship into communication and sport might consider following IACS’ on Twitter: @IACSacademic.  Conference participants, including me, will be tweeting from the conference using the tag #sportsummit13.

I am looking forward to Keeping Austin Weird during my visit!  Stay tuned for a  report from the capital of the Lone Star State!

Posted in News, Personal | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Ice Cream Plagiarism?

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Simon Ličen

During my trip to Alabama earlier this year I visited among other an unusual but culturally significant point of interest: a supermarket. Specifically, I joined the host of my stay in Alabama, Andy Billings, on a trip to a Publix store.

Always the inquisitive type, I armed myself with a camera, eager to discover and document where the Homo Americanus fetches its food. Almost immediately upon entering the store, a stern-looking store manager approached and asked why I carried a camera. Andy, the “tour guide,” explained that we were tourists from Slovenia willing to see a real-life American supermarket. The manager, reassured, explained they are wary of business competitors trying to sneak a peek of their operations; tourists, however, were welcome to enjoy the experience and even take pictures.

While touring the frozen products aisles I came across the Publix Premium ice cream:

Cartons of Publix Premium ice cream

Cartons of Publix Premium ice cream. click to enlarge. Photo: Simon Ličen

The carton design, especially when combined with the name of the brand, looked surprisingly familiar! This is the carton design of Maxim Premium Ice Cream produced by Ljubljanske mlekarne, a Slovenian corporation that processes milk and produces dairy products:

Maxim Premium ice cream carton

A carton of Maxim Premium ice cream. Click to enlarge. Photo: Ljubljanske mlekarne corporate website

While the designs are obviously not exactly the same, they do bear a striking resemblance in the picture presentation of the ice cream, the “Premium” brand and even the script typeface used to spell out “Premium” and “Maxim,” respectively.

Intrigued, I emailed both corporations and asked when had the carton designs been adopted and how long had the corporation been using them.

Publix Customer Care was the first to reply as I received their response on the next business day. Their reply, however, was not particularly enlightening: “As a privately held company, we are limited in what we share. Your question on the graphic design of our Publix brand ice cream packaging falls in the realm of propriety information,” read the message.

It took Ljubljanske mlekarne almost three weeks to reply; but when they finally did, their director of corporate communication was considerably more eloquent about the features of Maxim Premium. She explained that the Maxim Premium brand was launched in 1995 while the current design of the packaging was introduced in 2003. She added that Futura, a Slovenian advertising agency, helped with the revamp.

Publix’s evasive reply and the fact that Ljubljanske mlekarne has been adopting the same packaging design for the past nine years seem to be clues in favor of Maxim Premium’s seniority. Mere clues, however, are not enough to be able to demonstrate who—if anyone at all—copied the packaging design; I leave it to the readers to decide. While summer lasts on the northern hemisphere, it might be a good idea to enjoy both—or either one is within reach.

 

Posted in Comment | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Olympic Nationalism Study

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Simon Ličen

As the curtain falls on the 2012 London Olympics, athletes and spectators return to their regular routines, some of them with their lives changed, others about to change theirs.

Researchers also return to their—often irregular—routines and for sport scholars, the end of the Olympic Games often denotes the beginning of an Olympiad of research and publishing.

After the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games I engaged in the daunting task of analyzing over 50 hours of Slovenian Olympic broadcasts and an additional 30+ hours of other sports broadcasts. The results of this research were then published in my dissertation, “Telecasting Sports: Sports Broadcasts on Slovenian Public Television,” released and defended in 2011. These findings are summarized in articles accepted for publication in the European Journal of Communication and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, while several other articles will hopefully soon be accepted for publication in other outlets.

Four years later I am planning new research on the intersection of sport, media and society. The first Olympic-themed international collaboration I am involved in is the Olympic Nationalism Study; coordinated by Dr. Andrew Billings from the University of Alabama, this study aims to find out how different countries respond to the Olympic Games. This study will be conducted in six different countries: Australia, Bulgaria, China, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United States. At this stage of the study, I am in charge of collecting data for Slovenia.

Readers from Slovenia that would like to take part in the study are welcome to do so by filling in the questionnaire published on: http://www.1ka.si/a/17728 (the questionaire is in the Slovenian language). Every survey counts as they will help communication scholars understand how one of the largest sporting events affects its audience.

The results of this and other research initiatives I am involved in will of course be mentioned and summarized on this website so keep following simonlicen.com for knowledge and insight into sports media science.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Football Player Admits Involvement in Match Fixing

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Simon Ličen

As the world turns its attention to the London Olympic Games, less glamorous sporting matters are discussed in Slovenian courts.

In mid-July, the first sentence was imposed in a trial on the fixing of a Slovenian championship football game between Drava Ptuj and Nafta Lendava on 11 April 2009.

On 13 July, football player Erdžan Bećiri admitted receiving 10,000 € (approx. US$12,300) to take part in the fix. Drava won the encounter 4-1.

Mr. Bećiri, 27, has agreed with the prosecution to plead guilty in exchange for a jail sentence of eight months converted to 480 hours of community work. In addition, the player was fined 1,646 € (approx. US$2,000) for corruptive behavior.

Erdžan Bećiri, a Slovenian national, turned professional in 2002. Since then, he played for nine teams in six countries: Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Iceland, Croatia, and Austria. Interestingly, when the game between Drava and Nafta was played in the spring of 2009, Mr. Bećiri was not a member of any of the two teams. Instead, he joined Nafta, the team that lost the game, in the 2009/10 season that followed the disputed encounter.

According to some news reports, the player admitted “acting with the intention of acquiring personal profit” in Croatia as well. These are code words for involvement in further match-fixing: apparently, the prosecution has evidence that Mr. Bećiri took part in an unsuccessful attempt to fix a Croatian national league game between Šibenik and Zadar on 11 April 2009, the same day as the Drava-Lendava encounter. Zadar (the team Mr. Bećiri played for at the time) was supposed to lose but the game ended up in a draw instead. Further details of the player’s testimony could not be verified and are reported here from secondary sources.

Reportedly, the player originally pleaded innocent but changed the plea to guilty after the prosecution presented copious evidence of the wrongdoing. Proof included telephone wiretapping and text messages.

Also accused in the trial held at the Maribor district court are Dušan Bogdanović, Mario Cvrtak, and Dragan Mihelič. None of them appeared in court on 13 July: Mr. Bogdanović excused himself as he is currently playing football in Indonesia, while Mr. Cvrtak and Mr. Mihelič are in custody for a match-fixing trial in Bochum, Germany. Mr. Bogdanović, now 33, took part in the fix as a defensive player on Nafta’s team.

After news of Mr. Bećiri’s sentence was made public, the Slovenian Football Federation issued a media statement condemning all kind of match-fixing activity and affirming the federation’s zero-tolerance policy regarding these matters. The statement said the federation would start a disciplinary proceeding against Mr. Bećiri and inform both European and international football federations, UEFA and FIFA, about its outcome.

UEFA president Michel Platini recently said that the football career of any player convicted of match-fixing would be over . Meanwhile, Erdžan Bećiri will continue his football career with Víkingur Ólafsvík in the Icelandic First Division (second national league tier). The team announced his addition to the team on 16 July, three days after the player pleaded guilty. Transfermarkt, a specialized football website, estimates the player’s market value to be 150,000 € (US$185,000).

Most national media outlets that reported the story drew extensively from stories originally published in Večer, a regional daily based in Maribor, and by the Slovenian Press Agency. Even errors were not exempt from reproduction: some journalists, for instance, reported that “the prosecution sentenced the player to eight months in prison,” a detail originally included in the item written by the Slovenian Press Agency. Obviously, the prosecution does not sentence defendants, judges and courts do—even when the sentence is part of an agreement. While this may be considered by some an irrelevant detail or a formality, it speaks about Slovenian sports journalists’ poor understanding of basic prosecuting procedures. Regardless of whether this error derives from ignorance or superficiality, such journalists will hardly be able to pursue and report on stories related to transparency and governance in sport where formal details are frequently of the essence.

Further, several reports described the sentence as the ultimate confirmation that Slovenian football is not immune from match-fixing. In fact, such confirmation came over a year ago when Croatian fixers confessed at a trial in Bochum to fixing a series of games including that between Drava and Nafta on 11 April 2009. Investigative journalist Declan Hill published on his website the list of games on 23 March 2011, 16 months before Slovenian media picked up this “ultimate confirmation.”

More serious doubts and questions arise from the story: usually, a single player on the fixers’ payroll is not enough to rig a football game. As Dr. Hill wrote in his book on fixing in professional football, The Fix, it usually takes four or five players to ensure a loss. Journalists should thus ask who, besides Mr. Bogdanović, might be involved and should be charged with fraud in the case of the game between Drava and Nafta. It also seems very unlikely that the fixers—as any corrupt person—would fix only once in a championship. Finding a local go-between with connections among the players, and him finding players willing to play along, is the hardest part. It is thus very unlikely that fixers would fix only one game after setting everything up and initially getting away with it.

Last but not least, the sanction agreed between prosecutors and Erdžan Bećiri hardly seems a deterrent for other potential fixers. The player was fined 1,646 € after confessing to receiving 10,000 €, netting a profit of 8,354 €. A 16.4% tax rate is even lower than local salary taxes.

Hopefully, this sentence in sports fraud will stimulate some sports journalists in Slovenia to start developing an interest in issues of governance and transparency. Thus far, media interest in topics that transcend pre-game and post-game reports has been scarce. However, there seems to be murky activity going on in both local and national sports contexts.

Posted in Comment, News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Cyclist Banned for “Speeding”

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Simon Ličen

Away from the doping allegations currently accompanying the Tour de France, the Austrian Anti-Doping Agency has suspended Slovenian cyclist Blaž Furdi (who is not competing at this year’s Tour) for two years after testing positive for amphetamine.

Mr. Furdi, 24, was tested after winning Grand Prix Sportland Niederösterreich, a race valid for the Austrian cup title, on 6 May. He is a member of the Austrian-based Tyrol Cycling Team.

After the Austrian Anti-Doping Agency’s Law Commission issued its ruling on 10 July, Mr. Furdi said to the media that the test was positive because he had taken “speed” at a party earlier in May. Some news reports on Sportal, a news website, and on Radio Slovenija quote him as saying that he acknowledges drinking alcohol at the party but that the drug was slipped to him without his knowledge.

Speed is a slang name for alpha-methylphenethylamine, a psychostimulant drug that increases wakefulness and focus as well as decreases fatigue and appetite. The substance is used recreationally and as a performance enhancer, and it can be ingested by diluting it in water or alcoholic beverages.

I do not intend to chastise Mr. Furdi for using illegal substances: he was caught violating anti-doping rules and has been sanctioned for doing so. What I do find worth commenting is his explanation of how amphetamine entered his body.

There are two possibilities: Blaž Furdi is either lying to hide the fact that he indeed intended to use performance-enhancing substances, or he is telling the truth.

If he is lying and he thus knew the result of the test conducted on 6 May might turn out to be positive, he had about two months to prepare a plausible excuse. Going to a rave party and being inadvertently slipped speed is on the very bottom of this list. Invoking ignorance and lack of responsibility as a defensive strategy hardly raises sympathy among either the media or the public.

In turn, if the explanation is true and a professional cyclist was slipped amphetamine in his alcohol by a friend, then he is both ignorant and terrible at selecting friends. The person obviously had to be someone he knew as I cannot see dealers attending parties and slipping drugs to people without telling them just for the kick of it; if this was part of their “marketing strategy,” how would a potential client that enjoyed the feeling know whom to contact for seconds?

One actually wonders what is worse: that the best excuse Mr. Furdi could come up with was being inadvertently drugged at a rave party—or that he had actually been inadvertently drugged at a rave party days before racing a championship race. Regardless of what is true, sports teams and federations should perhaps devote more attention to educating the athletes—and assist them even in adverse times.

Posted in Comment | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Article published in IRSS

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Simon Ličen

The International Review for the Sociology of Sport, an academic journal that focuses on research and scholarship in social issues in sport, just published online an article written by Andrew Billings and I on sports media discourse.

The paper entitled Affirming nationality in transnational circumstances: Slovenian coverage of continental franchise sports competitions examines discursive framing of nationality within Slovenian broadcasts of international men’s basketball and women’s team handball matches—a relatively seldom studied topic given that international media scholars typically focus on broadcasts of national team competitions such as the ongoing Euro 2012.

Readers interested in the topic may access the manuscript abstract free of charge here. Full text is available to subscribers or those accessing the journal website from a library that is subscribed to this Sage-published journal. Others may purchase access to the article at a fee.

The article has not been published in a printed issue of the journal yet; rather, it is available through the OnlineFirst system which enables contributions to be published online before they are scheduled to actually appear in print. Such an article can be cited by quoting the doi (digital object identifier) number in the list of references. Affirming nationality in transnational circumstances’ doi is 10.1177/1012690212446821.

This is the first article based on my 2011 dissertation that is published in a peer-reviewed journal. Hopefully, other will follow soon.

Happy reading!

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sports Journalism and Sports Reporting in Slovenia

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Simon Ličen

At least since 2001—the year I commenced my undergraduate studies at the University of Ljubljana—the Department of Journalism of the Faculty (School) of Social Sciences has been trying to introduce sports journalism contents in its curriculum. Years have passed and potential lecturers have proved elusive: to date, students of communications-related topics in Slovenia still cannot take a single course dedicated to sports-specific contents. Nonetheless, Department of Journalism faculty has not given up on the prospect of offering their students access to knowledge on sports media; part of their recent efforts was inviting me to lecture to first-year journalism students on sports journalism.

I designed the lecture to appeal to more than the one in four students whose primary interests include sports-related topics: I understand “sports journalism” and “sports reporting” as journalism and reporting about sports, rather than an exceptional field that has little in common with the conventional profession. Hence, sports journalists and sports reporters are above all journalists and reporters bound to follow professional norms. In turn, the field in which they operate offers topics and angles that are relevant to media people working in other sections as well: the toy department of journalism educates its audiences and provides topics that can be covered in economic, legal, and health sections of newspapers and broadcast media. I dare say that by the end of the lecture, each of the approximately 30 students in attendance learned something new that could be integrated in their future professional careers.

One of the main points of the lecture was emphasizing the difference between sports journalism and sports reporting. In Slovenia, both academics and professionals seem to regard the two as equivalents. I prefer to emphasize the difference between them, stressing that sports reporting involves regular and routine coverage of competitions, teams, or even individual athletes, while sports journalism also consists of in-depth coverage of individual phenomena, single stories or affairs. The two are not mutually exclusive: rather, sports journalism is a wider concept that includes, but is not limited to, sports reporting. The latter is a widespread and perfectly legitimate form of media expression—according to the 2011 International Sports Press Survey, around 80% of newspaper coverage of sports focuses on games and other competition aspects. However, it must be emphasized that it essentially represents sports chronicling, or beat reporting which contributes to perpetuating the existing status quo of newsworthy topics and excludes others such as governance in sports and women’s sports. Investigative journalism in sports is becoming increasingly relevant outside the Unites States, thanks among other to authors such as Andrew Jennings and outlets such as Play the Game. Slovenia currently lags behind as media executives have shown virtually no interest in hosting this kind of contents.

Another popular custom among Slovenian sports reporters is referring to Slovenian athletes in international events as “ours”. The origins of this habit are unclear: some, including TV Slovenija sportscasters I interviewed while writing my dissertation, claim “everybody does it”. This is not true: media in the United States and Germany ban the use of the first person plural in their contents. Others claim “the viewers do not accept unbiased commentators well”. Wrong again: a non-scientific survey conducted on RTV Slovenija’s (a public service broadcaster) website showed that “rooting for ‘ours’” ranked fourth among broadcasting approaches preferred by the audience at 15%, surpassed by “description of events and inclusion of trivia” at 24%, “insightful explanation of technical and tactical aspects of the sport” at 22%, and even “objective reporting about facts” at 16%. Hence, 62% of potential viewers selected some form of impartial reporting as their preferred style of sports broadcasting over the 15% of die-hard rooting fans perceived by sports media professionals in Slovenia as a majority. If not to abide to professional standards which ban the rhetoric of the first person plural, or to profit from knowledge offered by social identity theory which assumes that people are motivated to evaluate themselves positively by (irrationally) valuing their own group as better than others, then these professionals might want to commit to impartial reporting simply to indulge the public. Group affiliation is only one of the eight typical motives that are common among sports fans.

To do this, sports journalists and sports reporters in Slovenia should first be able to transcend their own need to reaffirm a positive social identity. The media in general and sports media in particular are saturated with more or less implicit indications of nationalism. In an excellent book, Michael Billig referred to this phenomenon as banal nationalism. The media construction of an imagined sense of national solidarity and belonging is typically perceived as “patriotism”, a positive quality, as opposed to “nationalism” which is usually considered a negative and extremist manifestation. Banal nationalism is thus an ideology in which “being ours” and (thus) “being winners” is more important than collective well-being. It consolidates national identity and, by doing this, cements the internal cohesion of an imagined community. It is hard to say whether the media perpetuate banal nationalism intentionally or not; certainly, it influences the interpretation of media texts by narrowing down the field of potential meanings and thus narrowing down the intellectual horizons of their readers and audiences.

The pool of sports media professionals in Slovenia is small, limiting its potential horizons and making it difficult to introduce new perspectives and approaches. Nonetheless, the field is slowly but surely opening up: hopefully, some of the students in the Introduction to Journalism II course will be among those embracing these views. I would like to hear from them, as well as from other sports media scholars and professionals in Slovenia and abroad: is it time for sports journalism that transcends game reports and quotes? Comments and emails on the topic are welcome.

Posted in Comment | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sports Com, Twitter, and Fantasy Sports: a Report from the Communication and Sport Summit

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Simon Ličen

I have been quite busy over the past weeks, causing me to delay posting on the website. Hopefully, these engagements will result in new knowledge and publications in the months to come. In my previous post, however, I promised to comment on the Summit on Communication and Sport held between 29-31 March in East Peoria, Illinois.

The first adjective that comes to mind when thinking back to the event hosted by Bradley University is ‘welcoming’. I caught up with two acquaintances before the start of the opening reception, was introduced to fifteen more participants at dinner, and agreed to take part in the Summit Fantasy Baseball League before paying my tab. During the entire event, people seemed genuinely interested in meeting fellow researchers and finding out what goes on in other parts of the planet.

The conference was extremely informative. I attended presentations on topics that Slovenian as well as many European scholars seem to consider irrelevant, such as issues surrounding Twitter as a source of information for the media and the billion dollar industry that are fantasy sports. I was particularly impressed with Adam Earnheardt’s talk on sports journalists as sports fans (in general, younger journalists seem to believe fandom is an admissible part of their profession while older journalists frown that), while Keith Strudler from the Center for Sport Communication at Marist College discussed the impact of social media on speed and sourcing in sports newsrooms.

The paper on the representation of nationality and gender in Slovenian 2008 Summer Olympic television coverage I co-authored with Andy Billings was part of a Saturday morning session on Olympic Broadcasting. I spoke about broadcasters’ cheerleading, which is wrongfully considered pervasive by Slovenian announcers, and about chauvinistic discourse in terms of gender and nationality. Other speakers included Tie Nie (with Nicholas Watanabe) from the University of Missouri with a paper on the evolution of television broadcast commentary in China, and Lauren Smith from Auburn University who conducted a gender-focused analysis of the visual production of the 2010 Olympic ice hockey tournaments. The crowd in attendance was relatively small—apparently many had left on the day before—but it hopefully enjoyed some insightful presentations on the influence of Olympic broadcasting worldwide.

The pool of invited speakers and panelists included several names from the American broadcasting and communication industry. Names such as Charley Steiner, the Los Angeles Kings radio play-by-play broadcaster, and Molly Knight, a sportswriter for ESPN The Magazine, were a magnet for US participants but only little appealing to international members such as myself. While these prominent sports media people are good storytellers, they focus on entertaining US crowds rather than offering insight to global audiences. Still, most people enjoyed their talks and I picked up tidbits of interesting information myself.

Unfortunately, I did not meet Robert Krizek from Saint Louis University who could not attend the event. Krizek was one of the speakers at the first Summit in 2002 and was then the editor of a special issue of the Western Journal of Communication—the first time a disciplinary journal devoted an entire issue to communication and sport research. Krizek and I share mutual interest in culture and communication, and sport and communication; hopefully, we will have a chance to meet at next year’s Summit in Texas.

One of the pillars of the conference’s social program was the draft of the fantasy baseball league. As I last followed baseball ‘when Albert Belle was a good slugger’, I did not originally intend to take part in the competition and joined only because an even number of participants was needed (and to expand my cultural horizons). As I am completely oblivious as to who is hot and who is not in the MLB at the moment (or has been over the past ten years) I chose the only drafting strategy I could consistently follow: hence, my team, The Internationals, is composed of non-US players only. Due to the absurd team composition—while other players were shifting through insider’s websites and statistical archives, I was checking on Wikipedia to confirm that Randall Delgado was born outside the USA—my goal for the season was achieving a single victory in the 19 games/weeks of regular season. I reached the goal in Week 4, winning against a team set up by a professional fantasy sports scholar, and extended my winning streak to two games after Week 5.

A thing I noticed while in East Peoria was the extent to which people used Twitter. Even academics would share thoughts and quotes in mid-lectures through their mobile phones. I might be old-fashioned or even considered to come from a developing country but I cannot help considering using a mobile phone during someone’s speech impolite. Despite this, I succumbed to peer pressure and finally joined Twitter myself. My one-liners can be followed through @drSimonLicen (an alias consisting of my first and last name only was already taken, hence the ‘dr’ in front). I am still very wary of making statements ‘in 140 characters or less’—my arguments are more likely to require 140 words or more—but I can certainly appreciate it as a new media form as well as a source of ideas for future research. Feel free to follow me there.

Attending the Summit and the overall US experience was great fun. A few weeks after lecturing at the University Alabama I had the opportunity to talk about sports journalism and sports reporting to University of Ljubljana journalism students. I shall post a report with the key points I made in the lecture within a week. Until then, keep on supporting The Internationals in the International Association for Communication and Sport Fantasy Baseball league. If I had to choose a war cry for the team, I guess it might be: ‘Dajmo, naši!’

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Three days and three lectures in Alabama

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Simon Ličen

The first thing an observant traveler might note when flying between Europe and the United States is the difference between airport stores offerings; even major European hubs tend to be quite essential and have, for instance, only a few cafeterias/delis. In contrast, major airports in the U.S.A. offer myriad food choices: pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, ribs, and even the occasional fruit stall. This merely complements a wide range of stores selling books and clothes, sweets and souvenirs, and other more or less useful items that might appeal to globetrotters desperately trying to kill time. Consumerism meets travelers at continental gateways.

Less than 14 hours after stepping out of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama, it was my turn to propel intercultural exchange: that is when my first visiting lecture at the College of Communication and Information Sciences of the University of Alabama was scheduled. Three times in as many days I had the opportunity to speak about notions of identity in Slovenian sports broadcasting as an expression of cultural diversity.

The Reese Phifer Hall

The Reese Phifer Hall, home of the College of Communication and Information Sciences and venue of my three guest lectures


Broadcast media industries in the United States and in Europe obviously have a common denominator, yet the differences between them can be quite prominent. In Europe, for instance, sports broadcasters are usually considered to be journalists (and thus presumably subject to journalistic professional standards). Then, public service broadcasting is considered to be the trend-setter in the Old World’s broadcast media industry—something highly unlikely in a nation where the very existence of an indigenous tax-funded television network is inconceivable. A more specific difference between Slovenian and American media (specifically, between the two nations’ Olympic broadcasters, TV Slovenija and NBC) is the fact that American announcers would certainly be fired if they discussed the sex-appeal of hammer thrower Clarissa Claretti, or noting upon a power shortage that a monitor is black as if the commentator met Kenenisa Bekele in a tunnel. In Slovenia, they are not. These and other characteristics of Slovenian sportscasting discourse led among other to brief, but hopefully insightful discussions on differing notions of political correctness and freedom of speech with University of Alabama students. One of the key points of my lectures were that societies need to be studied from different aspects and standpoints, and cultivation effects of television as a medium need to be kept in mind. The tube directs, as much as reflects reality.

I hope to have fulfilled the expectations of Andy Billings, the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting at the College of Communication and Information Sciences who offered me the opportunity to lecture at the University of Alabama. I am also grateful to award-winning television academic and professional Michael Bruce from the Department of Telecommunication and Film, and to sports-loving rhetoric and public address specialist Meredith Bagley for from the Department of Communication Studies for inviting me to speak in their courses.

Among the things that struck me during the short but insightful visit at the university was the institution’s policy to have lecturers teach some of the core courses. This way, good lecturers that do not aspire to become researchers are allowed to engage in what they do best, while top-notch scholars can teach in specialized courses and dedicate more time to research. Both students and faculty benefit from the arrangement.

One of the events I attended while visiting the university was the Alabama Forensic Council National Showcase. The 90-minute event showcased University of Alabama students scheduled to compete at the national forensics (competitive public speaking) tournament during the Easter weekend. I saw some astounding performances and it would probably make sense to introduce similar programs at universities outside English-speaking countries. Another initiative I appreciated was the Crimson White, a student-run newspaper published four times a week and with a circulation of 14,000 that reports on topics of local and campus-wide relevance.

Arguably the most iconic feature of the University of Alabama, however, is its football team. Earlier this year, the Crimson Tide won its fourteenth national title, and about half the cars in Tuscaloosa seem to have ‘Bama plates or other gadgets exhibiting their support for the team. As my lectures took place in March, I did not have the opportunity to attend a game; I was, however, given the honor of being taken to a very exclusive full tour of the Bryant-Denny stadium, a cathedral-like building that dominates the horizon in Tuscaloosa and seats 101,821 people. Typically, only donors and other very distinguished guests are offered stadium tours—this is not something that is offered to members of the general public—so seeing a million-dollar skybox and the Crimson Tide locker room from the inside was certainly a great privilege I was offered.

After three days and three lectures in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I traveled to East Peoria, Illinois, for the Summit on Communication and Sport. Thoughts and experiences from this part of the journey will be the topic of my next blog post.

Until then…Roll Tide!

Mateja Loncar, Andy Billings, and Simon Ličen in the Crimson Tide locker room at Bryant-Denny Stadium

Mateja Loncar, Andy Billings and Simon Ličen in the Crimson Tide locker room at Bryant-Denny Stadium

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment