Curriculum Vitae: Wesleyan University, B.A. 1968; University of Massachusetts,  M.A. 1978; University of Massachusetts, Ph.D. 1981

Specialization:  Leisure and Sport Management – Media studies, Consumer culture, Sport marketing, Communication

Curriculum:

(3) - This seminar is focused on a core set of readings in sport marketing, sponsorship and communications. Topics include consumer demographics and lifestyles; new approaches to sport marketing (database marketing, relationship marketing, direct marketing); evaluation methods in sport marketing and sponsorship; media relations and the use of new media (World Wide Web, Internet). [3-0]

(3) - Sport and leisure are viewed in the context of theoretical debates about mass society and consumer culture. [3-0]

Research:

Dr. Sparks’ research interests span the areas of mass communication, popular culture, and public health, with particular emphasis on the processes of social communication in advertising and the mass media, and theories and methods in audience research and reception analysis. In previous research, he has examined the information needs and priorities of sports journalists, the audience strategies of all-sports cable television, active lifestyle messages in consumer brand advertising, and youth awareness of tobacco marketing and sponsorship. Ongoing research he is conducting examines the impacts of the Web on Canadian news reporting, the communications practices of Canadian national sport organizations (Olympic sports), and the effects of peer cultures on youth interpretations of the mixed messages about smoking in their daily lives.

Current Projects:

Impact of the Internet and World Wide Web on Canadian News Reporting, 2000, continuing.
Sport Organization Communications, Media Relations and the World Wide Web, 2001, continuing.
Tobacco Marketing, Anti-Smoking Programmes and Adolescent Smoking Culture, 2001, continuing.

Publications:

Scholarly Articles

Dewhirst, T. and Sparks, R. “Intertextual Appeal of Tobacco Sponsorship in Adolescent Male Culture: A Selective Review of Tobacco Industry Documents,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, forthcoming 2003 (accepted February 9, 2001).

Sparks, R. and Westgate, M. “Sponsoring Women’s Team Sports: Broad-based and Targeted Sponsorship Strategies in Canadian Women’s Ice Hockey”, International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship, 2002, Vol. 3, No. 1, 49-84.

Wilson, B. and Sparks, R. “Michael Jordan, Sneaker Commercials, and Canadian Youth Cultures,” In D. Andrews (Ed.), Michael Jordan Inc.: Corporate Sport, Media Culture, and Late Modern America, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Sparks, R. and Green, L.W. “Chapter 9. Mass Media in Support of Smoking Cessation,” In National Cancer Institute, Population Based Smoking Cessation: Proceedings of a Conference on What Works to Influence Cessation in the General Population, Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 12. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, NIH Pub. No. 00-4892, November 2000, 199-216.

Hoek, J. and Sparks, R. “Tobacco Promotion Restrictions: An International Regulatory Impasse?” International Marketing Review, 2000, 17 (3), 216-230.

Wilson, B. and Sparks, R. “Impacts of Black Athlete Media Portrayals on Canadian Youth,” Canadian Journal of Communication, 1999, Vol. 24 (4), 589-627.

Sparks, R. “Youth Awareness of Tobacco Sponsorship as a Dimension of Brand Equity,” International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship, 1999, 1 (3), 236-260. Simultaneously published in: International Journal of Advertising and Marketing to Children, 1999, 1 (3), 193-218.

Sparks, R. and Green, L. Chapter IV. Mass Media in Support of Smoking Cessation. In Green, L. and Frankish, J. (Eds.). Smoking Cessation: A Synthesis of the Literature on Program Effectiveness, Report to the British Columbia Ministry of Health, July ,1998, Institute of Health Promotion Research, The University of British Columbia, pp. 61-95.

Sparks, R. “Tobacco Control Legislation, Public Health and Sport Sponsorship,” Asia-Australia Journal of Marketing, 1997, Vol 5, No.1, December, 59-70.

Donnelly, P. and Sparks, R. “Child Sexual Abuse in Sport,” In P. Donnelly (Ed.), Taking Sports Seriously: Social Issues in Canadian Sport, Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing, 1997: 200-205.

Sparks, R. “Bill C-71 and Tobacco Sponsorship of Sports,” Policy Options, 1997, 18, 3: 22-25.

Donnelly, P. and Sparks, R. “Child Sexual Abuse in Sport,” Policy Options, 1997, 18, 3: 3-5.

Wilson, B. and R. Sparks. “‘It’s Gotta Be the Shoes’: Youth, Race and Sneaker Commercials”, Sociology of Sport Journal, 1996, 13, 398-427.

Sparks, R. “Balancing Management Training and Education: Response to Stothart and Smith,” ANZALS Leisure Research Series, 1996, 3, 86-95.

Sparks, R. and B. Gauthier. Implementing Change: A National Study of NSO Communications and Media Relations: Technical Report, June, 1996, 45 pages.

Sparks, R. “Sport Management Education in New Zealand: A Situation Analysis and A Proposal,” ANZALS Leisure Research Series, 1995, 2, 94-124.

Sparks, R. “Rethinking Media Evaluation: Tobacco Sponsorship Messages and Narrative Conventions in Motorsport Telecasts,” World Marketing Congress, Melbourne, Australia, July 7-10, 1995, Vol VII-III, 11-1 to 11-5.

Sparks, R. Conditions and Trends Affecting Sports Reporting at Canadian Daily Newspapers: Technical Report, June, 1994, 52 pages.

Sparks, R. Incidental Active Lifestyle Messages in National Consumer Brand Advertising: Technical Report, May, 1993, 56 pages.

Sparks, R. "'Delivering the Male': Sports, Canadian Television, and the Making of T.S.N.," Canadian Journal of Communication, 1992, 17 (3), 319-342.

Harvey, J. and R. Sparks. "Politics of the Body in the Context of Modernity," Quest, 1991, 43 (2), 164-189.

Sparks, R. with K. Brown. Canadian Directory of Newspaper Sports Journalists. Vancouver: Lifestyle Media Research, 1991, 53 pages.

Sparks, R. "Social Practice, the Bodily Professions and the State," Sociology of Sport Journal, 1990, 7: 72-82.

Last Modified Thursday, June 2, 2005