INSTANT REPLAY OFFICIALS’ SOCIOCULTURAL EXPERIENCES: A QUALITATIVE GROUNDED THEORY STUDY

Abstract

Instant replay is used to interpret specific rules infraction, a scoring play, a reversal of possession, the ejection of a player, or adjust a particular amount of clock time for an event within particular sporting events. This dissertation examines the communicative process of officials that oversee and are directly involved in making decisions within instant replay. It approaches this subject by looking at the social, communicative, and technological environments, while using the Grounded Theory Method (GTM) to assist with establishing theory for the communication and decision-making process of officials. The process can have political, cultural, social and economic connotations depending on the context in which officials utilize it, or circumstances surrounding a particular violation. This project also traces the conceptual and cultural history of instant replay as phenomena that developed in and around spectatorship of sports. The dissertation concludes by describing the specifics of Dynamic Professionalization along with the process of decision making insofar as providing clear guidelines regarding decision-making and technological integration within competitive sports.