On February 18, Shaun Anderson, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, will be speaking in the Hannon Library Series Faculty Pub Night. Anderson will discuss his recent publication, “The African American Community and Professional Baseball: Examining MLB’s Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts as a Relationship Management Strategy.”
About the Author’s Work:
In 1989, former Major League Baseball (MLB) player John Young created the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program as a way to increase the number of African Americans becoming involved with the game of baseball. Along with this program, MLB created the Urban Youth Academy (UYA) in 2006 as a way to not only teach the game but also provide life skills to youth and adults. However, MLB continues to struggle in developing relationships and increasing involvement of African Americans.
Therefore, the purpose of this work was to understand why African Americans are not interested or involved in MLB. Corporate social responsibility and relationship management theory were used as the frameworks for this study. Eleven RBI and UYA program managers were interviewed to determine the challenges they face in getting African Americans involved in the game. Results from this study indicated three themes regarding MLB program managers’ challenges: inconsistency in measuring success, lack of parental involvement, and lack of trust. A discussion, implications, and future directions are addressed.
About the Author:
Shaun M. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies department and Faculty Advisor for the Institute of Business Ethics and Sustainability, at Loyola Marymount University. His teaching and research interests are in Organizational Communication with a focus on the effective use of corporate social responsibility within and outside of organizations, particularly, sport organizations. He has published in the Psychology of Popular Media Culture, International Journal of Sport Communication, and Sport Marketing Association conference proceedings.
In addition, his work has been featured in popular press outlets such as Huffington Post, Medium.com, Western City Magazine, and WorldPolicy.org. He is an advisor for the upcoming PBS television series, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. In addition, he has worked with organizations such as Football University, Major League Baseball, 9 Media, PBS, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In 2018, he was named a Black Enterprise magazine “Modern Man of Distinction” for his commitment to teaching and scholarship.
About Faculty Pub Night:
Hannon Library’s Faculty Pub Night is a speaker series where faculty from across LMU discuss their latest publication or project in a comfortable setting and format that welcomes diverse perspectives for an inclusive conversation aimed to educate the entire community. All Faculty Pub Nights are free and open to the public. Pub refreshments and snacks will be served courtesy of the William H. Hannon Library.
