Christopher Finlay
Associate Professor, Media Cultures & Institutions Loyola Marymount University
- Los Angeles CA
Associate Professor, Media Cultures & Institutions and Coordinator, Minor in Digital Media, Cultures, and Industries
Biography
He holds a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania as well as two master’s degrees: one in Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and another in Communication from Penn.
His research focuses on the intersections of digital media, gender and masculinities, media industries, sports communication, global media industries, nationalisms.
ORCID:0000-0002-6824-9991
Education
Simon Fraser University
B.A.
Political Science
2000
Carleton University
M.A.
Political Science
2002
University of Pennsylvania
M.A.
Communication
2005
University of Oxford
Visiting Scholar
Journalism
2009
University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D.
Communication
2011
Social
Areas of Expertise
Industry Expertise
Affiliations
- International Communication Association
- Alumni of the Ivy League: Ivy & Oxford Cambridge MIT Stanford Caltech Berkeley Chicago Northwestern
- Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Media Appearances
Farrow's Darfur Olympics & Our Olympic Shame"
Huffington Post online
2008-08-01
With less than a week to go before the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Mia Farrow is on her way to a refugee camp in Darfur to host The Darfur Olympics, a week-long web broadcast that will be timed to coincide with the first week of the Olympic Games.
Rebel Viewers: #NBCFail and the Decline (and Rise?) of the Shared Olympic Media Event by Chris Finlay
CGCS Mediawire online
2012-09-12
On July 26th, 2012, Steven Marx, whose twitter account reportedly had only 17 followers at the time, posted a complaint about NBC, the official International Olympic Committee (IOC)-ordained American broadcaster of the London 2012 Olympics.
Articles
Beyond the blue fence: Inequalities and spatial segregation in the development of the London 2012 Olympic media event
Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture2014-06-02
This article presents two cases studies of local resistance to the conscious effort of Olympics actors to use East London as representational space to produce and reinforce dominant nationalist and neo-liberal themes in the 2012 Olympic media event narrative.
A Space for Mothers: Grief as Identity Construction on Memorial Websites Created by Sids Parents
OMEGA--Journal of Death and Dying2011-08-01
In this article we conduct a textual analysis of memorial websites created by mothers who have experienced a loss due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Public diplomacy games: a comparative study of American and Japanese responses to the interplay of nationalism, ideology and Chinese soft power strategies around the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics2010-06-29
The Olympic Games are global communication events that offer host-nations the unique opportunity to promote a soft power agenda by allowing them to construct global messages about their cultural identities and work towards public diplomacy goals that may be more difficult to achieve under normal circumstances.
Toward the Future: The New Olympic Internationalism
Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China2008-01-01
The Olympic Games are global communication events that offer host-nations the unique opportunity to promote a soft power agenda by allowing them to construct global messages about their cultural identities and work towards public diplomacy goals that may be more difficult to achieve under normal circumstances.
Rearticulating the strongman: Masculinities and sports dirt in the 2024 vice-presidential campaigns
International Journal of Sport Policy and PoliticsChristopher J. Finlay
2026-04-28
In the 2024 US election, vice-presidential candidates Tim Walz (Democrat) and J.D. Vance (Republican) made masculinity a central feature of their campaigns. Both sought to connect with disaffected male voters in the American Midwest by deploying sports-infused rhetoric and personal narratives rooted in military service, regional identity, and class. This article uses critical discourse analysis to examine how each candidate employed ‘sports dirt’ – the transfer of sports logics into political discourse – to hail an interpretive community of working-class men and offer responses to the perceived crisis of masculinity. Vance’s tripartite model of masculinity – military valour, sports discipline, and patriarchal protection – drew on grievance politics, Muscular Christianity, and effeminophobic tropes to reassert hegemonic norms. Walz, by contrast, attempted to construct a more inclusive model grounded in mentorship and care. Yet his hybrid approach, while softer in tone, remained tethered to traditional masculine tropes and failed to offer a coherent alternative. Through comparative case studies of convention speeches and campaign events, this study shows how both candidates ultimately rearticulated rather than reimagined masculinity. In doing so, it reveals how the intersection of masculinity and sports dirt can serve as a gateway to political legitimacy and perhaps even authoritarian consolidation.
Canada and the Clash of Media Civilizations: Ethical Implications from a Survey of Journalists
The Cartoon Debate and the Freedom of the Press2007-01-01
Canada and the Clash of Media Civilizations: Ethical Implications from a Survey of Journalists, a chapter from "The Cartoon Debate and the Freedom of the Press."
