ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF DIGITAL AND SPORTS MEDIA
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
RESEARCH AND SKILLS
I discovered a passion for exploring the intersection of media and race. I expand this intersection into sports and the creation of visual production to challenge and document issues that arise through this complex intersection. Utilizing communication and sociological theories, I believe that "facts, as much as images, take on their meaning by being embedded in some larger system of meaning or frame" (Gamson et al., 1992). I consider myself a social constructionist because life does not happen in a vacuum.
CONFERENCES
PUBLICATIONS
Bell, T.R. (in review). Visually engaged ethnography: Constructing knowledge and critical consciousness. Journal of Media Practice.
Bell, T.R., & Sanderson, J. A hit on American football: Bottom-up framing in op-ed reader comments. (August, 2016). Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Minneapolis, MN.
Bell, T.R. (in press). As if beaches and theme parks weren’t enough: Mediated social construction of craft beer tourism in Tampa Bay. In C. Kline, S.L. Slocum, & C.T. Cavaliere (Eds.), Beers, Ciders, & Spirits: Craft Beverages and Tourism in the U.S. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bell, T.R. (in press). What’s in a name? Cultural heritage and identity in Tampa Bay craft breweries. In A. Tyma (Ed.), Beer, Culture, and Theory. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Bell, T.R. (2015). Sports networks. In F.F. Wherry & J.B. Schor (Eds.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society (Vols. 1-4) (1515-1518). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing.
Bell, T.R., & Coche, R. Post-apartheid Olympic hero: Media construction of South African Josia Thugwane. (November, 2016). The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Tampa, FL.
Bell, T.R. “Documentary, high school football, and race: An intersection of symbolic interactionism.” (August, 2015). Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. Chicago, IL.
Bell, T.R., & Applequist, J. Concussion, Omalu, and the NFL: A quantitative analysis of a media template. (November, 2016). National Communication Association. Philadelphia, PA.