Ed Smith, professional cricketer and author of 'What Sport Tells Us About Life' (2008), discusses how and why sport has come to acquire such intense and diverse social meanings.

What Sport Tells us About Life

Sport is a massive global phenomenon. Events and sporting heroes attract an enormous amount of interest. What’s going on? Why do sporting heroes matter so much and why is the media full of sports news? This album uses interviews with four key people in sport (Ed Smith, Sue Tibballs, Ed Warner and Sunder Katwala)  to explore the relationship between sport and the media and considers the role of media representations in constructing our understanding of sport and creating its place in the wider popular culture. Course chair, Professor Kath Woodward also reflects on the course and the material in this album through two academic perspectives. This material forms part of the course D170 This Sporting Planet.