First, I am not convinced that neofunctionalist and critical approaches to cultural studies can be combined as easily as he suggests. Finally, none of the ensuing chapters explore the utility of his transactional model and there is no concluding chapter that evaluates its relevance to the collection. In fact, Jhally's critical cultural studies framework is much more fruitful than Wenner's scheme and would have been a better way of introducing the book. There are some glaring omissions. Although the political economy of sport is discussed, this is not located in the context of either the global restructuring of capitalism or the globalisation of consumer culture.
Masculinity is mentioned at several points, but neither it nor femininity receive adequate coverage.
This is surprising given the abundant research on media representations of gender and sport. The final section is particularly unsatisfactory as it ignores the important research on audience ethnographies. Australian audiences will find the book to be of limited use, although Wenner's study of pre-game 'superhype' indicates what AFL and Rugby League grand finals might soon look like, given the increasing Americanisation of Australian sport. With the exceptions of Gruneau's paper on Canadian skiing and Real's analysis of soccer the papers are exclusively American. A more accurate title would have been Some North American Perspectives on Media and Sport.