Media Relations in Sport

Brad Schultz, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. His academic credentials include a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri (1984), a master's in telecommunications from Southern Illinois (1999), and a doctorate from Texas Tech in 2002. Schultz's area of research interest is the effect of new technology on sports journalism. He has published nearly two dozen research articles in scholarly journals, including the International Journal on Media Management, the Newspaper Research Journal, the Journal of Communication Studies, the International Journal of the History of Sport, and the International Journal of Sport Communication. He has also presented two dozen papers at scholarly research conferences in the US and Canada. In 2006, Schultz launched the Journal of Sports Media, a scholarly journal that publishes twice a year. He continues to serve the journal as editor-in-chief. This is Schultz's fourth book. His previous works include Sports Media: Planning, Production and Reporting (2005, Focal Press), Broadcast News Producing (2004, Sage) and Sports Broadcasting (2001, Focal Press). This year, his chapter on Sport Communication will appear in Introduction to Sport Management to be published by Kendall-Hunt. Prior to entering academia, Schultz spent 15 years in local television sports and news as an anchor, reporter, news director, producer, editor, videographer, and writer., Philip H. Caskey, MA, is a graduate assistant in Educational Leadership for the Center for Democracy and Citizenship for the College of Human Resources and Education at West Virginia University (WVU). He was the former Associate Sports Information Director at WVU. A native of Martinsburg, West Virginia, Caskey was the primary media relations contact for Mountaineer women's basketball and served as the secondary contact for WVU football. He also assisted with the overall operation of WVU's 15 other varsity sports and supervises a student staff that consists of three graduate assistants and two student assistants. Prior to his full-time tenure in the Sports Communications office, Caskey served two years as a graduate assistant in the office from 19992001 as the primary media relations liaison for Mountaineer baseball, wrestling, and men's soccer. A seven-time award-winning College Sports Information Director's of America national and district feature writer, Caskey is also an adjunct instructor in WVU's College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences graduate sport management program and WVU's Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism online curriculum classes. He has also served as media coordinator for numerous WVU and NCAA hosted sporting events. Caskey earned his BS in journalism, with a specialization in public relations, from WVU in 1999. He earned his master's degree, also from WVU, in sport management in 2001., Craig Esherick is an associate professor of sport management at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He is the associate director of the Center for Sport Management at Mason and he also works with the U.S. Department of State and their Sports United section on grants that use sport for diplomacy and community building. Esherick is the Mid Atlantic Sports Network's (MASN) prime color commentator for college basketball. In the summer of 2014, he started a three year term as an editor for the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics (JIIA). Esherick's life in the sports industry started as a college basketball player and then basketball coach. He was a scholarship member of the Georgetown Hoyas from 1974-78; he received a business degree in finance with a minor concentration in Theology from Georgetown University. Craig also holds a law degree from Georgetown (1982) and has been a member of the DC Bar since 1982.