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1981
Volume 24, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 1539-7785
  • E-ISSN: 2048-0717

Abstract

Baseball has long been viewed as a nostalgic expression of pre-industrial America as well as a potent symbol of an idealized past more generally. Major League Baseball has long marketed itself using nostalgic tropes that often validated its status as the ‘national pastime’ even when its popularity was surpassed by football. This article utilizes a media ecological approach in arguing that Major League Baseball is distancing itself from such romanticized mythology because it is inconsistent with the kinds of discourse incentivized via social media which has emerged as the most dominant communicative medium, the latter viewed as the only viable link to reach younger fans. Additionally, social media generate pressure on all cultural institutions to remake themselves in a manner palatable to the biases of digital media more generally.

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2025-11-24
2026-04-20

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/content/journals/10.1386/eme_00256_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): attention economy; big data; digital media; internet; McLuhan; Postman; sports

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