Rituals, invented traditions, and shifting power: The role of communication in the history of stadium construction

This study employs James Carey's ritual view of communication to better understand the broad issues and forces that have driven stadium building in North America. The role of the city as part of an imagined community offers one rationale to explain why competitive stadium building has unfolded in various eras of history. Hobsbawm's notion of "invented tradition" is offered as a mechanism to understand the recent emergence of retro ballpark construction. The role of communication technologies and changes in deeper social structures are discussed in explaining a shift that has occurred among political and commercial realms involved in the stadium-building process, as is the relevance of Carey's vision for more inclusive journalistic strategies that draw from the philosophy of John Dewey.