Deck 5: Globalization, Global Sports Culture, and the Golden Triangle

Question 1

The process related to globalization by which local cultural patterns influence or reshape sports imported from other countries or brought by people from foreign countries is called:

A) Americanization.
B) glocalization.
C) grobalization.
D) modernization.

Answer 1

glocalization.

Question 2

The idea of American exceptionalism in sport:

A) is demonstrated by the American love of rugby.
B) is demonstrated by the strong passion of many American sports fans for NFL and college football and their limited passion for soccer.
C) can be explained by the desire of Americans and American sports fans to embrace cultural practices that are popular in other nations.
D) is demonstrated by the presence of soccer in the hegemonic sports culture of the U.S.

Answer 2

is demonstrated by the strong passion of many American sports fans for NFL and college football and their limited passion for soccer.

Question 3

The hegemonic sports culture of the United States:

A) only includes U.S. sports that are popular overseas.
B) does not include the most devoted fans of mainstream U.S. sports.
C) is the same as the hegemonic sports cultures of Canada and England.
D) includes the sports that Americans are mostly like to include in their everyday conversations about sport.

Answer 3

includes the sports that Americans are mostly like to include in their everyday conversations about sport.

Question 4

Robert Lipsyte's concept of "sportainment" implies that televised sports:

A) are a form of a reality show, with viewers seeing sports contests in the same way that spectators at the stadium or arena see them.
B) are the equivalent of a TV movie that is supposed to be based on a true story but has elements that are manipulated by the producer and director.
C) present sports images to viewers that are unfiltered and commentary that is spontaneous and unaffected by production controls.
D) reflect production values that are not found in entertainment programming on television.

Question 5

The commercialization of Canadian sport by U.S. investors and U.S.-based corporations illustrate the process that Kidd called:

A) globalization.
B) glocalization.
C) Americanization.
D) McDonaldization.

Question 6

Klein's study of baseball in the Dominican Republic illustrates:

A) how the American version of sport can completely transform sport in another country.
B) how the American version of a sport can be totally rejected by another country.
C) how a country can resist some of the American influence on their sport.
D) how the American version of a sport can be transformed in its basic structure by another country.

Question 7

In their study of the NBA in New Zealand, Jackson and Andrews found that:

A) television had transformed the NBA from an American cultural product and economic commodity to a global one.
B) young New Zealanders who wore Nike shoes endorsed by NBA stars, collected NBA player cards, or treated African-American NBA stars as heroes demonstrated conclusively that New Zealand culture had been Americanized.
C) the attraction of the NBA to young New Zealanders was because it represented American culture.
D) the NBA had no appeal to young people in New Zealand.

Question 8

The growth of sport as part of the growing global cultural economy implies that:

A) sport has avoided the influence of globalization processes.
B) sport is less commercialized than other elements of popular culture in the world.
C) the Golden Triangle has been able to sell sports events and sports stars as if they were economic commodities.
D) sport has no cultural significance.

Question 9

The idea that the global growth of sport has been driven by a "capitalist imperative" implies that:

A) sport only appeals to capitalists.
B) Golden Triangles are always looking for new markets in which to expand their sports.
C) sports fans are not really sports consumers.
D) transnational corporations that invest in sports are interested in making money from sports, but their sports and media partners in global Golden Triangles are not.

Question 10

The special feature in the text about Iranian women in the soccer stadium showed that:

A) sports of the Golden Triangle are generally consistent with the values of Muslim nations such as Iran.
B) Iranian women have gained substantial rights as women under the Iranian regime that has been in power since 1979.
C) a ruling banning women from the soccer stadium was consistent with Iranian Islamic law.
D) religious leaders in Iran supported the President's decision to allow women in the soccer stadium, and they especially encouraged single women to attend soccer games and sit with men in the stadium.

Question 11

Kaufman and Patterson's study of cricket showed that:

A) the British learned the sport from indigenous people in the countries they colonized.
B) cricket was never a popular sport in the United States or Canada.
C) the popularity of cricket in the U.S. suffered from efforts by the elite to make it an exclusive sport.
D) cricket became most established and popular in colonies or former colonies of Great Britain that resisted their colonizers and in which the colonial elites were most insecure in their status in society.

Question 12

When a sport is part of the "hegemonic sports culture" of a nation, it:

A) is only embraced by the elite.
B) is not as popular as the most commercialized sports in that nation.
C) is a frequent topic of everyday conversations among people in that nation.
D) does not inspire strong loyalties or emotional attachments among people who follow sports in that nation.

Question 13

The idea of the "grobalization" of sport:

A) applies to efforts to replace indigenous sports in less industrialized countries with modern corporate and commercialized sports.
B) is the same as "glocalization."
C) implies that the growth of the Golden Triangle in sports around the world should be stopped.
D) is the opposite of forces such as Americanization and McDonaldization.

Question 14

The growth of sports in England and the United States during the nineteenth century was most closely tied to the mass medium of:

A) television.
B) radio.
C) newspapers.
D) the Internet.

Question 15

In the relationship between sports and television:

A) sports derive a financial benefit from the relationship, but television does not.
B) Major League Baseball earns more from national broadcast rights fees in the U.S. than the NFL earns.
C) broadcast rights fees for the Summer Olympics have continued to escalate since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
D) broadcast rights fees have increased for major U.S. professional sports leagues over the past two decades, but they decreased for English Premier League soccer in England in the 1990s as a result of the involvement of Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB television network.

Question 16

What is one thing we learn about consumer capitalism by watching TV sports? Be specific.

Question 17

Based on the discussions of Donnelly's and/or Ritzer's work in the text and in class, how would you respond to the argument that the world is moving toward a single homogeneous global culture of sport?

Question 18

What kinds of sociological explanations did Kaufman and Patterson reject in their analysis of the cultural diffusion of English cricket, and how did they explain this diffusion?

Question 19

What does American sports exceptionalism reveal about the globalization of sport?

Question 20

How is cultural studies related to the study of sport?