Male Athlete Representations in Men’s Magazines: A Study in Mediated Sport Stacking

Abstract

This study examined 681 male athlete features in Details, Esquire, GQ, and Playboy across the first two decades of the 21st century. While White athletes accounted for 283 features and Black athletes 329, the former were featured in 35 of 43 sports observed, compared to just 14 for the latter. In fact, more than 80% of all features on Black athletes focused on basketball, football, and boxing. Latino athletes accounted for 52 of the 681 total features and represented 15 sports, one more than African Americans. Recognizing existing research, the study applies the term mediated sport stacking to the practice of limiting the Black athletic experience primarily to team sports, especially basketball. The article considers the implications of statistical patterns observed and also includes limitations and recommendations for future research.

Keywords

athletes magazines race sport communication

Recognizing the capacity of media content to affect perceptions of social reality, scholars have studied race and ethnicity as determinants of athlete portrayals in multiple sport contexts, including broadcasting (Coogan, 2012; Denham, Billings, & Halone, 2002; Eastman & Billings, 2001; Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005), newspaper reporting and photojournalism (Ferrucci, Tandoc, Paintr, & Leshner, 2013; Hardin, Dodd, Chance, & Walsdorf, 2004; Mastro, Blecha, & Seate, 2011; Niven, 2005), magazine features and cover images (Byrd & Utsler, 2007; Eagleman, 2011; Lumpkin, 2007), Internet blogs (McGovern, 2016), and combinations of print and broadcast media (Page, Duffy, Frisby, & Perreault, 2016). Content analyses have shown that media commentators tend to characterize White athletes as emotionally mature, hard-working, dedicated, and determined to succeed in spite of limited “natural” athleticism. In contrast, Black athletes tend to be portrayed as “naturally” talented, which conveys an expectation of success and little required effort (Ferber, 2007; Hoberman, 1997; Spaaij, Farquharson, & Marjoribanks, 2015). Black athletes have also been characterized as emotionally immature, physically aggressive, and hypersexual (Davis & Harris, 1998; Tucker, 2003). Little research has addressed portrayals of Asian and Latino athletes, but recent scholarship (McGovern, 2017) has shed light on leadership patterns in Major League Baseball. McGovern found that American-born and light-skinned Latinos had experiences similar to White individuals, while foreign-born and dark-skinned Latinos merged into what McGovern termed collective Blackness. Park (2015) studied the 2012 scoring streak of basketball player Jeremy Lin, suggesting that excessive media coverage (i.e., “Linsanity”) effectively reinforced low expectations of Asian American male athletes.

Given the findings of existing research, the present study focuses on athlete representations in four men’s magazines—Details, Esquire, GQ, and Playboy—across the first two decades of the 21st century. The study does not quantify athlete descriptors such as speed and strength but instead uses the sports in which athletes compete to explore representations of race and ethnicity. In doing so, the study draws on scholarship in stacking (Loy & McElvogue, 1970), which has traditionally examined athlete race as a determinant of position assignment in sports (Gonzalez, 1996; Lavoie & Leonard, 1994; Margolis & Piliavin, 1999; Smith & Harrison, 1996; Smith & Leonard, 1997). The study explores the concept of mediated sport stacking, observing that while magazines may feature and even celebrate athletes of color, the publications also may constrain athletes by limiting the number and type of sports in which they compete (see Page, 1997; Tucker, 2003). These limitations stand to affect perceptions among magazine audiences (Goodwill et al., 2019), contributing to cultural expectations of sport selection and participation (Goldsmith, 2003; L. Harrison, Lee, & Belcher, 1999). The following section reviews scholarship on sport stacking.

Review of Literature

Stacking in Sport

As originally conceived, stacking referred to position assignments in sports based primarily on the race of participants (Loy & McElvogue, 1970). Reviewing nine studies of racial position stacking in professional baseball, Curtis and Loy (1978) observed a consistent pattern of underrepresentation among Black athletes at central playing positions (e.g., pitcher and catcher). The authors also examined studies of football, basketball, and hockey, observing consistent stacking patterns in football and inconsistent patterns elsewhere. In a subsequent study of women’s college volleyball, Eitzen and Furst (1989) found an overrepresentation of Black athletes at positions requiring physicality and an underrepresentation of Black players at positions requiring leadership, intelligence, and outcome control (see also, Johnson & Johnson, 1995). Studying a major college football program, Hawkins (2002) observed an increase in Black athletes at positions considered central but attributed the increases to changing expectations of player abilities. Scholars have continued to study the stacking phenomenon (see Bopp & Sagas, 2014; Kaiser et al., 2016), seeking to build conceptually on explanations of position assignment.

This study applies previous research on position stacking to the actual sports in which athletes compete, as represented in four men’s lifestyle magazines. Mediated sport stacking suggests that while Black athletes and other athletes of color may be recognized for excelling in sports, media portrayals also may limit that excellence to sports such as basketball and football. As an example, the November 2017 issue of GQ featured “The World’s 50 Greatest Living Athletes,” 24 of whom were Black males. Of the 24, 11 played basketball and 6 played football, and the two sports thus accounted for 71% of Black male athletes. Additional sports included baseball, boxing, golf, and track and field. In comparison, the feature included 13 White males, who collectively competed in nine sports: baseball, football, golf, hockey, skateboarding, surfing, swimming, wrestling, and tennis. White athletes thus competed in a wider variety of sports despite appearing in 54% as many features. To some extent, patterns reflected actual participation rates, but they also may have reflected a tendency among mass media to reify dominant assumptions of ability and sport selection (C. K. Harrison, 1998; Hughey & Goss, 2015).

Writing about sport media, Rowe (2004) characterized the lack of racial minorities in decision-making positions as a form of stacking, with industry professionals intentionally or unintentionally assigning athletes to “race-appropriate” sports: “The outcome (if not the intention) is racist and ethnocentric in that the culture of sports journalism can be seen to be replicating a very old and damaging structure of inequality that reserves ‘gatekeeping’ positions for dominant social groups…” (p. 48). Again, to the extent that magazine editors consist largely of White males, gatekeepers may inadvertently or intentionally “stack” athletes in certain sports based on general assumptions of ability and participation.

Regarding the potential effects of mediated sport stacking, L. Harrison, Lee, and Belcher (1999) suggested that raced media representations of sports participation stand to affect self-schema (see also Beamon, 2010; May, 2009). In their study of adolescents, Harrison, Lee, and Belcher found Black participants to judge themselves as most competent in the sport of basketball. White participants considered themselves the most competent in sports such as swimming, rowing, snow skiing, and hockey. As scholars have explained (Goodwill et al., 2019), adolescent athletes seek to emulate the high-profile athletes they observe in the media, and a cycle of participation, driven in part by racial considerations, stands to develop (Comeaux & Harrison, 2004; Singer & May, 2010).

In addition to media portrayals, Coakley (2004) discussed cultural considerations for sport selection, noting that athletes of color often participate in team sports, where owners and coaches seek the best talent available, regardless of race. In sports involving “informal, personal, and male-female contact on or off the field” (Coakley, 2004, p. 313), racial anxieties may increase. As examples, Coakley cited sports such as golf, tennis, and swimming, often learned and played in private clubs. Such sports frequently involve greater intimacy and higher social status, leading to fewer images of those who threaten the status quo. A. K. Harrison (2013) applied the term racial spatiality to processes that have kept snow skiing and its social spaces primarily White. The author argued that skiing spaces became constricted with the closure of more than 1,000 designated ski areas in the Northeast. These closures resulted in skiing becoming steeped in tourism and expensive real estate, pricing out many skiers.

Based on existing research, the study advances the following central hypothesis regarding athlete portrayals in men’s lifestyle magazines:

Hyphothesis 1: Relative to White athletes, (a) Black athletes and (b) Latino athletes will be featured more frequently in team sports.

The “Big 3”

Scholars frequently refer to baseball, basketball, and football as the Big 3 sports in the United States (see Collins, 2006; Cooky, Messner, & Musto, 2015; Eitle & Eitle, 2002). Although schools and youth organizations now provide young athletes with a variety of sports from which to choose (Sabo & Veliz, 2016), the Big 3 remain popular selections among adolescents. The Big 3 also generate the highest interest among sport spectators (Norman, 2018; Paulsen, 2019), with soccer now a close fourth (Bondy, 2018). Given the popularity of the Big 3, one might expect baseball, basketball, and football players to be featured the most frequently in men’s lifestyle magazines. If a sufficient number of athletes from each sport are indeed featured in the magazines, then observed frequencies for athletes might be compared with expected frequencies derived from actual participation rates. To test for a stacking effect in the Big 3, one might examine whether differences exist between observed and expected frequencies, anticipating that Black athletes, for instance, would be stacked in basketball and football, with Latino athletes stacked in baseball (Juffer, 2002). Accordingly, the study poses the following research question:

Research Question 1: To what extent do athletes in (a) baseball, (b) basketball, and (c) football appear stacked by race in men’s lifestyle magazines?

Lifestyle Magazines

This study examines male athlete representations in men’s lifestyle magazines, which Stevenson, Jackson, and Brooks (2003) characterized as “sources of cultural power” (p. 129). As Abrahamson (2007) observed, magazines, in general, differ from other types of media based on a unique capacity to shape social realities. Abrahamson posited that magazines and their content may serve as singular, unique markers of sociocultural realities, ranging “in both intent and effect from the reflective to the transformative” (p. 667). Unlike newspapers, which cover daily events in sports, monthly lifestyle magazines tend to focus on personalities and long-form journalism (see, for background, Benwell, 2003; Waling, Duncan, Angelides, & Dowsett, 2018). Lifestyle magazines contain limited space for sport-related articles, and the interval between issues provides editors with more time to plan content and decide which athletes to feature. While newspaper journalists must respond to daily news events, magazine editors exercise greater discretion in choosing what issues and events to cover and, in this case, which athletes to profile.

Like newspapers, magazines are profit-driven enterprises, and the presence of high-profile athletes may help to boost sales (see, for discussion, Andrews & Jackson, 2001; Cashmore & Parker, 2003; Ricciardelli, Clow, & White, 2010; Wenner, 2013; Wheaton, 2003). In some instances, lifestyle magazines such as GQ enjoy a two-fold benefit, as athletes frequently model clothing lines as part of feature stories. This quasi-advertising may help to boost both magazine and clothing sales (Dix, Phau, & Pougnet, 2010), which in turn may lead clothing companies to purchase advertising space. In most instances, though, athletes do not serve as fashion models, and they appear in magazines because of their popularity and their accomplishments in chosen sports. The study therefore poses two research questions regarding potential differences across magazines in the athletes they feature and the sports features athletes represent:

Research Question 2: To what extent do magazines differ in featuring athletes of different races?

Research Question 3: To what extent do magazines differ in featuring athletes from team and individual sports?

Method

Sample

Magazines analyzed in this research included Details, Esquire, GQ, and Playboy. Ricciardelli, Clow, and White (2010) included the first three publications in their study of men’s lifestyle magazines, and Playboy has long published season previews of college football and basketball as well as features on individual athletes. Additionally, Cision Media Research lists Esquire, GQ, and Playboy as three of the top six men’s lifestyle magazines in the United States (https://www.cision.com/us/2016/04/top-10-mens-magazines/). Within magazines, the athlete feature served as the unit of analysis. To be included in the study, a feature had to be published between January 2000 and April 2018 and contain text about an active or retired male athlete, amateur, or professional. More than one athlete could be featured in a given magazine issue. The study did not include advertisements, as studies have recently analyzed ads in men’s magazines (see Tan, Shaw, Cheng, & Kim, 2013; Vokey, Tefft, & Tysiaczny, 2013), nor did it include photos without text. Articles did not have to contain a certain number of words, but they did have to focus on one individual. Features about teams and sporting leagues were not included in the study, as they did not focus on a specific athlete. While the study did not include every issue of every magazine (for some magazines, only a small number of issues from 2007 and 2008 were available), percentage inclusion ranged from 77 to 94% of all eligible issues. In all, this study included 681 athlete features published in 674 issues of men’s magazines.

Details

Regarding the first publication, Conde Nast purchased Details in 1989, and following a lengthy hiatus, the publication relaunched in October 2000 as a style magazine aimed at “affluent, educated, metropolitan men” (see http://justmediakits.com/mediakit/1367-details.html). With a circulation of approximately 560,000 (Somaiya, 2015), Details published 10 issues per year before halting publication with its December 2015/January 2016 issue. The study included 63 athlete features drawn from 123 issues analyzed between October 2000 and December 2015/January 2016.

Esquire

The second publication analyzed, Esquire, has a circulation of 757,535 and is published “for men who are ambitious in their lives and determined to shape the world” (see http://www.esquiremediakit.com/r5/home.asp#about). Hearst Communications publishes Esquire, a magazine that first appeared in October 1933. Historically, Esquire has published work from prominent authors such as Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. The study included 176 athlete features drawn from 184 issues of the magazine.

GQ

Published by Conde Nast, GQ is the third of four magazines analyzed in this research. GQ has a circulation of 947,519 and touts itself as a magazine that “speaks to all sides of the male equation” (see http://www.condenast.com/brands/gq/). Formed in 1957, the magazine is known for fashion, but like other publications in this study, it covers sports, politics, lifestyle, and celebrities, among other subjects. The study includes 365 athlete features in 165 issues analyzed.

Playboy

The final publication, Playboy, first appeared in 1953 and in a 6-month period ending in June 2017, the magazine had a circulation of 474,220 (Kelly, 2017). Playboy is known for publishing photographs of scantily clad or nude women in addition to interviews with prominent males, some of whom have been high-profile athletes (see http://www.playboyenterprises.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Playboy_Media-Kit_2017.pdf). Osgerby (2003) explained that Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner had worked briefly at Esquire and had sought to emulate parts of Esquire with his own magazine (see also Ehrenreich, 1983). The present study includes 77 athlete features from 202 issues analyzed.

Procedure

In this study, a coder examined every available issue of the four magazines published between the dates specified in the previous section. The study placed no restrictions on the sports in which individual athletes competed, but an article had to focus on a specific individual and contain text about that individual. This allowed the individual athlete feature to serve as the unit of analysis (N = 681). As indicated, the study also did not place a minimum or maximum word count on athlete features, which allowed the study to include a broad sample of features given differences in editorial style.

Measures

This study examined representations of male athletes in four men’s lifestyle magazines, with content measures indicating the magazine in which a given athlete feature appeared as well as the date of a given magazine issue. Race categories followed research from Tukachinsky and Yarchi (2015), who classified individuals as White (European, Asian Indian, Middle Eastern), Black (African American, Jamaican, African, Haitian), Latino (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Central American, South American), Asian (East Asians, Pacific Islanders), and Native American. Content variables in this study were measured primarily on a nominal scale, and intercoder reliability was checked with Holsti’s (1969) formula. Two coders reviewed variables and corresponding categories before coding approximately 10% of the total sample. Agreement on all variables was 1.0, with the exception of race, which was 0.96.

Analytic Strategy

The study first provides detailed descriptive statistics for the variables under study and then reports on a binary logistic regression analysis that tested the central hypotheses and magazine-related research questions. The regression analysis tested (a) the race of athletes featured in magazine articles and (b) the magazines in which athletes were featured as determinants of a dichotomous response measure indicating team or individual sport. Following Baker, Yardley, and Cote (2003), who used the dependency system developed by Chelladurai and Saleh (1978), the present study coded sports as interdependent or independent based on the level of reliance among athletes. The study then extended those classifications to indicate team (N = 455) or individual sport (N = 226), respectively.

Regarding athletes in the Big 3 sports of baseball, basketball, and football, the study used goodness-of-fit tests to compare observed magazine frequencies with expected frequencies derived from actual participation rates. These rates, gathered and made available by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida (Lapchick, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c), were used to establish expected values at 3 points in time (2016, 2009, and 2004). The study compared total observed frequencies to the respective expected counts to examine possible effects of changing participation rates. Goodness-of-fit test results are reported in table form, and included in the table are participation rates for soccer (Lapchick, 2017d). Although the total number of frequencies was not large enough for goodness-of-fit testing, percentage participation rates could still be compared with magazine representations.

Results

Table 1 contains descriptive statistics for athlete sport features. In all, male athletes competed in 43 different sports, and 681 features appeared in the four magazines analyzed. Of the 681 features, 455 (66.8%) pertained to team sports, with baseball, basketball, and football accounting for a combined 409 (90%) of those 455 items. Boxing, golf, and tennis collectively accounted for 99 (43.8%) of 226 features on individual-sport athletes. As shown, Table 1 contains article counts for each sport accompanied by article frequency percentages for each race.

Table 1.

Frequency Counts and Percentages for Athlete Features.

			Percentage Representation in Features
Sport	Type	N	White	Black	Latino	Other
Archery	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Auto racing	Individual	16	93.8	—	6.2	—
Baseball	Team	98	51.0	25.5	19.4	4.1
Basketball	Team	166	9.6	86.1	1.8	2.4
Beach volleyball	Team	1	100	—	—	—
Biathlon	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Bodybuilding	Individual	7	85.7	14.3	—	—
Boxing	Individual	58	10.3	77.6	8.6	3.4
Bowling	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Bull riding	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Bullfighting	Individual	2	—	—	100	—
Cycling	Individual	8	87.5	12.5	—	—
Diving	Individual	2	100	—	—	—
Football	Team	145	40.7	55.9	2.1	1.4
Golf	Individual	23	56.5	43.5	—	—
Gymnastics	Individual	2	100	—	—	—
Hockey	Team	18	77.8	16.7	5.6	—
Horse racing	Individual	4	75.0	—	—	25.0
Jai alai	Individual	1	—	—	100	—
Judo	Individual	2	50.0	—	—	50.0
Marathon	Individual	1	—	—	—	100
Mixed martial arts	Individual	7	57.1	14.3	28.6	—
Motocross	Individual	2	100	—	—	—
Olympic wrestling	Individual	6	83.3	16.7	—	—
Ping pong	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Polo	Team	1	—	—	100	—
Pool	Individual	1	—	—	—	100
Pro wrestling	Individual	7	85.7	—	14.3	—
Skateboarding	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Snowboarding	Individual	1	100	—	—	—
Snow skiing	Individual	5	100	—	—	—
Soccer	Team	24	50.0	16.7	33.3	—
Speed skating	Individual	1	—	100	—	—
Sumo wrestling	Individual	1	—	—	—	100
Surfing	Individual	14	100	—	—	—
Swimming	Individual	5	100	—	—	—
Tennis	Individual	18	77.8	5.6	16.7	—
Track and field	Individual	15	20.0	80.0	—	—
Taekwondo	Individual	1	—	—	100	—
Triathlon	Individual	2	100	—	—	—
Ultramarathon	Individual	5	100	—	—	—
Water polo	Team	2	50.0	—	50.0	—
Weightlifting	Individual	3	100	—	—	—
Total		681	41.6	48.3	7.6	2.5

Totals in Table 1 indicate that White and Black athletes accounted for approximately 90% of all athlete features, with Latinos accounting for 7.6% and members of other races 2.5%. White athletes were represented in 35 (81.3%) of 43 sports, while Black athletes were featured in 14 (32.6%), Latinos in 15 (34.9%), and members of other races in 9 (20.9%). To provide a visual account of participation by race, Figure 1 shows percentages of features about White, Black, and Latino athletes, as well as members of other races, in each of the five most common sports: baseball, basketball, boxing, football, and soccer. The figure shows that White athletes were the focus of approximately 50% of 98 articles about baseball players. Slightly more than 25% of baseball articles focused on a Black athlete, and slightly less than 20% featured a Latino.

Figure 1.

Percentage of sport features by race.

The most obvious disparities in Figure 1 pertain to basketball and boxing, with Black athletes accounting for 86.1% of the former and 77.6% of the latter. Black athletes also accounted for 55.9% of football players. White athletes accounted for 40.7% of all football articles and 50% of all soccer features, with Latino athletes accounting for 33.3% of all soccer articles and 19.4% of baseball reports.

Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1a predicted that relative to White athletes, Black athletes would be featured more frequently in team sports. Table 2 contains the results of a binary logistic regression model in which race of athlete and magazines served as determinants of team-/individual-sport membership. As the negative parameter estimate in Table 2 indicates, Black athletes were significantly less likely to be featured in the higher category, individual sports. Hypothesis 1a was therefore supported.

Table 2.

Binary Logistic Regression Analysis With Race and Magazine as Predictors of Sport Features.

							95% CI Exp(B)
Measure	B	SE	Wald	df	Significance	Exp(B)	Lower	Upper
Race			37.322	3	***
Black	−1.099	.185	35.178	1	***	.333	.232	0.479
Latino	−0.972	.355	7.478	1	**	.378	.188	0.759
Other race	−0.23	.535	0.185	1		.794	.278	2.268
Magazine			41.588	3	***
Esquire	−0.779	.32	5.917	1	*	.459	.245	0.860
GQ	−1.702	.309	31.143	1	***	.182	.100	0.332
Playboy	−1.059	.368	8.262	1	**	.347	.169	0.714
Constant	−0.405	.166	5.961	1	*	.667

Note. White and Details functioned as reference categories. Model χ² = 83.421, df = 6, p < .001. SE = standard error; CI = confidence interval; B = parameter estimate; Wald = Wald chi-square value; df = degrees of freedom; Exp(B) = exponentiated parameter estimate; Lower = lower bound; Upper = upper bound.

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

***p < .001.

Hypothesis 1b predicted that relative to White athletes, Latino athletes would be featured more frequently in team sports. Again, as the negative parameter in Table 2 indicates, Latino athletes were significantly less likely to be featured in individual sports. Hypothesis 1b was supported. Team- and individual-sport frequency percentages for members of all four racial groups appear in Figure 2, with the widest disparity appearing among Black athletes and the slimmest among Whites.

Figure 2.

Percentage participation in team and individual sports according to athlete race.

Research Questions

The first research question asked the following: To what extent do athletes in (a) baseball, (b) basketball, and (c) football appear stacked by race in men’s lifestyle magazines? Table 3 contains the results of goodness-of-fit tests for the Big 3 sports, beginning with baseball. As the table indicates, actual participation rates for White athletes ranged between 59% and 63% across the three time periods; on average, magazine representations were approximately 10 percentage points lower than actual participation. In contrast, Black baseball players were represented much more frequently in magazines than in actual participation, commanding 25.5% of baseball features. Like White athletes, Latinos were represented less frequently in magazines than in TIDES participation rates. Baseball patterns did not appear consistent with mediated sport stacking, as conceptualized in this study. Magazines suggested a relatively strong presence of Black athletes in baseball.

Table 3.

Goodness-of-Fit Test Results and Magazine Frequencies.

TIDES Participation Percentages Used in Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Major League Baseball					TIDES Participation Percentages Used in Goodness-of-Fit Tests for the National Basketball Association
Race	2016	2009	2004	Athlete N (%) in Magazines	Race	2016–2017	2009–2010	2004–2005	Athlete N (%) in Magazines
White	59.0	61.6	63.0	50 (51.0)	White	19.1	18.4	22.8	016 (9.6)
Black	8.3	9.0	9.0	25 (25.5)	Black	74.4	76.9	73.0	143 (86.1)
Latino	28.5	27.0	26.0	19 (19.4)	Latino	4.9	3.2	2.1	003 (1.8)
Other	4.1	2.3	2.0	04 (4.1)	Other	1.6	1.6	2.1	004 (2.4)
2016: p < .001					2016–2017: p < .01
2009: p < .001					2009–2010: p < .05
2004: p < .001					2004–2005: p < .001
TIDES Participation Percentages Used in Goodness-of-Fit Tests for the National Football League					TIDES Participation Percentages Used in Comparisons for Major League Soccer
Race	2016	2009	2003	Athlete N (%) in Magazines	Race	2016	2009	2004	Athlete N (%) in Magazines
White	27.4	30.0	29.0	59 (40.7)	White	48	58.3	62.6	12 (50.0)
Black	69.7	67.0	69.0	81 (55.6)	Black	11.8	21.7	17.3	04 (16.7)
Latino	0.8	1.0	1.0	03 (2.1)	Latino	24.8	16.9	13.9	08 (33.3)
Other	2.1	2.0	1.0	02 (1.4)	Other	15.4	3.2	5.2	00 (0)
2016: p < .001					Goodness-of-fit tests were not conducted
2009: p < .05
2003: p < .01*
TIDES data for 2004 were not available

Note. TIDES = The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

Moving to basketball, Black athletes accounted for approximately three of every four actual participants, and magazines showed a significantly higher percentage at 86.1%. White athletes were featured in less than 10% of basketball features, even though actual participation rates indicated, on average, that White players accounted for approximately one in five players. A slightly higher percentage of Latino athletes participated in basketball than were shown in magazines. Basketball patterns showed evidence of mediated sport stacking, as demonstrated by goodness-of-fit tests.

In football, actual participation for White athletes ranged between 27.4% and 30% across the three time periods; however, White athletes accounted for 40.7% of magazine features, which was between 10 and 13 percentage points higher than their participation. In contrast, Black football players accounted for nearly 70% of actual football athletes but accounted for 55.9% of magazine features. As with baseball and basketball, goodness-of-fit tests showed differences between observed and expected frequencies, but they did not show evidence of mediated sport stacking.

Lastly, this study observed 24 magazine features about soccer players, and because of this relatively low number, as well as a zero-count cell, goodness-of-fit statistics were not computed. Still, the percentage frequencies for actual participation provided insights on magazine coverage. As anticipated, Latino athletes accounted for 33.3% of soccer features, which was higher than actual participation rates. Depending on the TIDES year, White and Black portrayals were both above and below actual numbers. Soccer findings thus moved in a stacking direction, as Latino athletes appeared more frequently in magazine features than in actual participation rates. Findings, however, were limited to descriptive statistics.

The second research question focused on the extent to which magazines differed statistically in featuring athletes from different races. A cross-tabulation showed significant differences across the magazines χ²(9, 681) = 42.591, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .144. Details was the most diverse, respectively, featuring White, Black, and Latino athletes in 38.1%, 31.7%, and 25.4% of its 63 articles. Latino features in other magazines did not exceed 6.6% of articles. Esquire and GQ featured relatively high percentages of Black athletes at 48.3% and 45.2%, and 54.5% of athletes in Playboy were White.

The third research question focused on the extent to which magazines differed in featuring athletes from team and individual sports. Looking back at Table 2, statistically significant differences were observed across the four publications, with Esquire, GQ, and Playboy each focusing less on individual athletes than Details did. GQ appeared especially different from the reference magazine (Details) in this regard. Figure 3 provides a visual representation of differences in magazine features by sport type, and the figure is followed by a discussion of quantitative findings in the study.

Figure 3.

Percentages of team and individual athlete features in different magazines.

Discussion

Research on sport stacking has traditionally examined sport position assignment based on athlete race, and this study anticipated that men’s lifestyle magazines might tend to “stack” athletes in certain sports based on racial considerations. The study examined 681 athlete features in Details, Esquire, GQ, and Playboy across the first two decades of the 21st century. Unlike media outlets such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine, the publications analyzed in this study contain limited space for sport-related articles and are (or were) published on a monthly, as opposed to weekly, basis. Given space limitations, a maximum of 12 issues per year, and the increasing popularity of digital formats, magazines typically feature athletes who not only excel in sport but also stand to boost sales.

The study observed more features on Black athletes (N = 329) than on White competitors (N = 283), yet White athletes were represented in 2.5 times as many sports. Of 43 sports observed, White athletes competed in 35, while Black athletes competed in 14. In spite of appearing in just 52 features, Latino athletes were represented in 15 sports, one more than Black competitors. Thus, while magazines featured and celebrated Black athletes such as basketball stars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, they also imposed restrictions on the Black athletic experience. Like Latinos, Black athletes were more likely to compete in team sports than individual, and more than 80% of features on Black athletes involved basketball, football, and boxing. These patterns are important in that up-and-coming athletes may take cues from the mass media and emulate athletes they admire. A cycle of participation in a limited number of sports stands to develop.

In analyses of the Big 3 sports, goodness-of-fit tests showed that representations of Black basketball players exceeded an already high percentage of actual participants. To some extent, observed statistical patterns likely reflected a celebrity sports culture, with magazines seeking to maximize profit by featuring the most prominent athletes in the respective sports. For example, in basketball, LeBron James appeared in 13 features, and he also appeared on the cover of GQ three times. Kobe Bryant appeared in 10 features and was on the cover of GQ twice. In boxing, Muhammad Ali accounted for eight features, along with an Esquire cover, while Mike Tyson was the subject of six features and appeared on the cover of Details. Articles on high-profile athletes who transcend(ed) the sports in which they compete(d) help to sell magazines and, in some instances, material items such as designer clothing.

As a Big 3 sport, football did not show mediated stacking patterns but consistent with the notion of sports celebrity and the business interests of magazines, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady appeared in 11 features and was on the cover of all 4 magazines at least one time. Retired quarterback Joe Namath appeared in three features, as did active quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Tim Tebow and Rob Gronkowski both appeared on the cover of GQ, as did Cam Newton and Mark Sanchez. Although more than one in two football players featured were Black, none commanded the attention of a superstar such as basketball player LeBron James. In fact, retired running back Jim Brown appeared in more features than did most current players.

In the third Big 3 sport, baseball, Alex Rodriquez appeared in seven features and was on the cover of both Esquire and Details. Outfielders Mike Trout and Barry Bonds each appeared in four features, as did catcher Mike Piazza. Derek Jeter appeared on one cover of GQ. Apart from Alex Rodriquez, baseball features did not show evidence of a mediated stacking pattern for Latinos. Perhaps coincidentally, Rodriquez, Piazza, and Jeter all played professionally in New York, where magazines such as Esquire and GQ are published. Conceivably, these celebrity athletes were selected, in part, based on familiarity to both magazine staff and readers there. The athletes certainly excelled as baseball players but playing in the largest media market also may have increased their exposure.

Given existing literature addressing media cues and sport participation (e.g., L. Harrison et al., 1999), results here suggest that a young Black athlete who read one or more lifestyle magazines would have been steered to team sports and especially basketball. Black athletes accounted for 86.1% of basketball features, which, as indicated, exceeded an already high participation rate. Yet, magazine articles on baseball players moved in the opposite direction, with Black athletes accounting for one in four features. In that respect, the publications may have encouraged younger Black athletes to consider baseball, as some of the top players in the sport, as shown in national magazines, were African Americans. In football, White players appeared more frequently in magazines than they did on the field, and that was partially a function of high-profile White athletes appearing multiple times.

Beyond the Big 3, results of this study lend support to the notion of White spatiality (A. K. Harrison, 2013), as competitors in sports such as cycling, snow skiing, and tennis were almost exclusively White. With the exception of Tiger Woods, the same pattern appeared for golf. Growing up, many Black athletes do not have access to private facilities where individual sports are taught and played. Many come of age in urban environments, where basketball courts provide a space for athletic competition. Scholars who have studied urban basketball environments have also observed expressions of identity (Ogden & Hilt, 2003) and masculinity (Atencio & Wright, 2008), as well as engagement in community (Vieyra, 2016). In other words, basketball functions as more than a sport for many African Americans, and future studies might examine how writers and photographers use urban settings in establishing a sense of place for sports such as basketball.

In this study, GQ accounted for more than half of all features, and its volume of articles undoubtedly impacted overall results. GQ covered basketball and football athletes in higher numbers, but it also covered athletes from 26 sports. Future research might include Maxim or Men’s Journal, both of which have broad circulations (https://www.cision.com/us/2016/04/top-10-mens-magazines/), as well as magazines published beyond North America. Researchers also might compare results from this study to content in publications such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine. An additional extension of this research would be to study representations of female athletes across race. Research has demonstrated that male athletes tend to receive greater coverage than their female counterparts (see Bruce, 2016), but what kinds of patterns might emerge among female athletes instead of between males and females? Future research also might examine magazine covers for both male and female athlete representations, following previous research on Sports Illustrated covers. Magazines, in general, provide important social cues, and sport researchers should continue to examine athlete portrayals.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Bryan E. Denham

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