Arthur A. Raney, professor and director of doctoral studies in FSU’s School of Communication, delivered a keynote address at an international conference on sports media and communication hosted by Chengdu Sport University in Chengdu, China — the first of its kind ever convened in mainland China.
Raney was one of three U.S. sports media scholars invited to headline “Transition, Transformation, and Transcendence: Sports and Media Under Globalization” in November 2011. The other two American scholars were Lawrence Wenner, Von der Ahe Professor of Communication and Ethics in the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University, and Andrew Billings, Ronald Reagan Endowed Chair in Broadcasting in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. The fourth keynoter was Australian David Rowe, Professor at the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney.
Attendees included sports media scholars and students from leading universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as top executives from CCTV, China’s largest sports television network, and the Chinese Olympic Committee.
“The sports media conference in Chengdu was a wonderful intellectual and cultural experience,” Raney said. “The top universities in China are looking to raise the international profile of their research and teaching programs in sports media and communication. To that end, this conference was an excellent opportunity to share ideas and forge collaborative relationships.”
He used the opportunity to highlight research he conducted with PhD students Sophie Janicke and Andy Ellis as a part of the School of Communication’s 3D Media Team. Raney’s address, titled “The Future of Sports Television? 3DTV and the Sports Reception Experience” reported initial findings comparing 2D and 3D sports and sports-based video games on key entertainment variables such as physiological arousal, attention, presence and enjoyment.
After the conference, Raney traveled to Taiwan, where he delivered lectures on entertainment media and morality to faculty and graduate students at National Chengchi University and National Chiao-Tung University, where Yen-Shen (Sam) Chen, a recent FSUComm Ph.D. alumnus, is an assistant professor. During the visit, Raney also hosted a luncheon for FSU alumni living in Taipei City.
As a result of this visit, additional trips to China are in Raney’s future. He has been invited to give a keynote at the annual meeting of the Chinese Sport University Consortium next year, and the director of the International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan has invited him to serve as a visiting professor in Spring 2012, teaching an intensive two-week course on the entertainment industries.
Photo courtesy of Chengdu Sport University