In this essay, Lawrence Wenner reflects on the social and cultural importance of communication about sport. He considers the major influences on his research agenda and how the evolution of his research program came to change over time from one centered on empirical audience study to one anchored in critical and cultural studies. In a focus section on reading sport and narrative ethics, the constituent parts of a “dirt theory of narrative ethics” are framed and contextualized as a response to the increasing presses of commodification on sport-referential narratives. The essay closes with a look ahead for communication and sport research that encourages researchers to turn increasing attention to both institutional/organizational studies and audience studies in order to supplement our critical understandings of sport media texts and narratives.
