Backpack students sit down with Assistant Professor Velloso to talk about the impact and importance of sports journalism in defining society's understanding of itself.
When it comes to all things sports media and journalism, Assistant Professor Carolina Velloso is one of Hubbard’s resident experts. From examining how media frames athletes like Serena Williams and Simone Biles to uncovering overlooked histories of women in sports journalism, Velloso studies how sports media influences culture, identity and public perception.
Velloso’s work sits at the intersection of journalism, ethics and representation. Her research spans both historical and contemporary perspectives, from newsroom practices to the portrayal of marginalized voices in sports media. She’s published in several leading journals including Journalism, The Howard Journal of Communications, American Journalism and Feminist Media Studies, along with award-winning work recognized by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, demonstrating both the range and impact of her research.
We sat down with Assistant Professor Velloso to discuss how sports journalism goes far beyond entertainment and why understanding the field is key to understanding society itself.
Backpack: How did you end up at Hubbard?
Carolina Velloso: As I was finishing up my PhD at the University of Maryland, I applied to and was lucky enough to land the open postdoctoral fellowship at the Hubbard School. For two years, I worked as a postdoc and on nothing but my research, which was such a gift. Then this past fall, I transitioned into a faculty position at Hubbard and couldn’t be happier to be staying.
B: What drew you specifically to sports journalism as a research focus and how does it differ from other areas of media studies?
CV: I fell into sports journalism and research sort of by accident. It wasn’t something I was necessarily planning to study, but like many sports media scholars, it sort of began with just being a sports fan and noticing things as I was watching sports. For a long time, I felt the way that women athletes and women’s sports were talked about in the media was problematic. So that was something I decided to dive into, and it led me to producing studies on media portrayals of athletes such as Serena Williams and Simone Biles.
Sports journalism and research is unique; it feels uniquely relevant, even within a field that’s relevant. I think because sports are so visible and widely consumed, more and more we recognize the power sports journalism has to shape narratives and attitudes. I think that it’s important to critically examine how sports media helps construct those meanings.
B: You’ve won several awards for your research. What project or topic has been the most meaningful to you so far and why?
CV: That’s a hard question because I love all the research I’ve done for many different reasons. I guess to answer this question, I’ll mention an article that I published on Sadie Kneller Miller, who was a trailblazing woman journalist whose career spanned the turn of the 20th century. She was one of the first woman beat writers, which is a sports reporter who covers one team throughout the season. So she covered the Baltimore Orioles baseball team from 1894 to 1897. Then she went on to have a decade-long career with Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly as both a photojournalist and a writer. Some of her career highlights had also included photographing the construction of the Panama Canal and interviewing Pancho Villa in Mexico.
She was just an incredibly interesting journalist with a fascinating career. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of historical research is the chance to delve into archives and recover stories that had been overlooked or forgotten. I was one of the first researchers to explore Miller’s archive at her alma mater, Westminster College in Maryland. It was a privilege to help bring her story back into view.
B: Sports media often feels just like entertainment. Why do you think it’s an important space to study issues like identity and culture?
CV: For a long time, the sports section was considered the “toy department” of a newspaper, which meant it was considered just mindless fun, right? Sports shouldn’t be taken as seriously as hard-hitting news like politics, economics and international affairs. In reality, that view overlooks the profound role that sports play in society. They’re not just games. Sports are a particularly rich site for examining how cultural values are constructed, challenged and negotiated, and it serves as a mirror to society. It reflects a particular society’s attitudes towards a whole set of issues. So for these reasons, I think studying sports is essential to understanding the broader culture in which we live.
B: What is your Hubbard Hot Take?
CV: I’ll just tie it back into sports. I don’t care what the popularity statistics say. For me, baseball is the best sport. I will never be convinced otherwise.
To learn more about Carolina Velloso and her work, visit her CLA faculty profile.
Text by Ashaar Ali, photo by Jessica Chung, Office Hours logo by Reagan Frystak, Backpack students.