Re-presenting Sport: How Instant Replay and Perceived Violence Impact Enjoyment of Mediated Sports

Scholars have asserted that instant replay profoundly impacted the practices and conventions of televising athletic competition. However, empirical explorations of how this technique impacts viewer response are scarce. This experiment was designed to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between instant replay, perceived violence, and enjoyment across both exciting and dull game play. Results suggest that replay impacts perceived violence such that viewing dull play followed by replay increased perceived violence, whereas the opposite was true for exciting play. Moreover, perceived violence more strongly contributed to enjoyment of dull play relative to exciting play. Taken together, these findings illustrate the potential utility of replay to impact viewer perception of mediated sports.