---
title: "Public perceptions of concussion reporting in live sport broadcasts"
id: "plos-one-15-concussion-in-live-sport-broadcast-coverage-how-do-the-public-perceive-it"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-15-concussion-in-live-sport-broadcast-coverage-how-do-the-public-perceive-it"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "Neurology"
source_name: "PLOS ONE (Medicine)"
source_url: "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358688"
published_at: "2026-09-21T14:00:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Journal Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# Public perceptions of concussion reporting in live sport broadcasts
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-15-concussion-in-live-sport-broadcast-coverage-how-do-the-public-perceive-it
- **Specialty:** [Neurology](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/neurology.md)
- **Primary Source:** PLOS ONE (Medicine)
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358688)
- **Published At:** 2026-09-21T14:00:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Journal Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- This online cross-sectional study surveyed 163 community and university participants about the broadcast portrayal of **sport-concussion** and recommendations for improvement. Data were collected between 15 May 2024 and 01 November 2024. - Participants ranged from 17–55 years (mean 22.6); 20.9% reported a prior concussion and 65% had played contact sport. About one third reported receiving concussion education; viewing exposure to rugby league was mixed. - The Perceptions of Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal (**PoSCoMP**) scale (30 items; α = .83) produced a mean total score of 89.22 (SD = 12.86). Item means ranged from 1.93 (item on importance for player safety) to 3.94 (item that concussion is ignored in some sports). - Six PoSCoMP items were agreed perceptions (>50% agreed/strongly agreed), led by that coverage is ignored in some sports (78%), portrayal needs change (76%), and that media portrayal minimises the injury (56%). Six items were disagreed perceptions, including that current portrayal is important for player safety (78% disagreed). - The Perceptions of Accurate and Responsible Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal (**PaRSCoMP**) scale (12 items; α = .83) had a mean total score of 49.89 (SD = 6.63). Ten of 12 recommended reporting practices were endorsed by >50% of respondents; the specific two non-endorsed items were not reported in the source extract. - Most respondents supported improvements to broadcast concussion coverage and prioritising player health in commentary. A standalone item asked whether guidelines for sport commentators are needed; results for that item were not detailed in the provided source text. - No statistically significant subgroup differences were found on PoSCoMP or PaRSCoMP total scores by factors such as concussion history, concussion education, collision-sport participation, or rugby-league viewing, in contrast to prior work that had found some differences. - The authors conclude that broadcast commentary reaches wide audiences and can shape public understanding; community members in this sample support changes to make portrayal more accurate and informative for audience health and safety. - Data are not publicly available due to participant confidentiality requirements; requests can be made to the institution listed in the article. The study received no specific funding and authors declared no competing interests.
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
Concussion in live sport broadcast coverage: How do the public perceive it? | PLOS One Browse Subject Areas ? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here . Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Reader Comments Figures Figures Abstract Sport-concussion is widely reported in the mass media. This reporting includes live sport broadcasts that reach, and influence, widespread audiences. From a public health perspective, broadcast information about concussion should be accurate. An understanding of public perceptions of sport-concussion coverage is needed to understand potential impacts. One-hundred and sixty-three people completed an online cross-sectional survey. The survey comprised structured and open-ended questions to gather perceptions about the media portrayal of sport-concussions (portrayal-perceptions) in sport broadcasts, and recommendations to improve it (recommendations). Twelve of 30 portrayal-perceptions were endorsed (agreed or disagreed) by >50% of respondents, including that the portrayal should be improved. Ten of 12 recommendations were agreed, including that the portrayal should prioritise player health. No statistically significant differences in perceptions were found based on participant background (e.g., their concussion history). This research, through considering the way people experience sport-concussion coverage, elucidates its potential to shape understanding about sport-concussion and its management. Community members support changes to the media portrayal of sport-concussion to increase its informative value for audiences. Citation: Sullivan KA, Lappin K (2026) Concussion in live sport broadcast coverage: How do the public perceive it? PLoS One 21(9): e0358688. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358688 Editor: MOHAMAD AZWAN AZIZ, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Faculty of Medicine: Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz UKM, MALAYSIA Received: June 7, 2026; Accepted: September 1, 2026; Published: September 21, 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Sullivan, Lappin. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: Data cannot be made publicly available due to concerns surrounding participant confidentiality, as per conditions imposed by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) during ethical approval of this study. However, data requests can be sent to QUT’s Human Research Ethics Committee via email at humanethics@qut.edu.au . Data requests are subject to institutional approval. Data may be made available to eligible researchers with the completion of all required prerequisites, including a Data Use Agreement. Requests for data may also be directed to this manuscript’s Corresponding Author. Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction The role of organised sport in society is often framed as overall beneficial for health, but the caveats are many [ 1 ]. One consideration is how to balance potential benefits with risks, including for sports with a high risk for brain injury (sport-concussion). Sport-concussion is commonly experienced by players of contact and collision sports, such as American or Australian-rules football or rugby union / league [ 2 – 6 ]. Public concern about sport-concussion is significant, and this concern influences contact sport-participation decisions [ 7 – 10 ]. Sport-concussion involves the rapid acceleration, then deceleration, of a player’s brain. This process can occur when a player’s head or body meets an object such as the ground, goal post, or another player’s body [ 11 ]. The imparted force can result in an injured player experiencing dizziness, confusion, disorientation, or loss of consciousness [ 12 ]. A number of prevention and response strategies have been recommended to reduce concussion-related harms, but their perceived importance and utilisation varies [ 13 ]. In many sporting contexts, including junior sport, members of public such as parents and volunteer coaches play a critical role in instigating care, and safeguarding players from further injury [ 14 ]. In professional sport, by comparison, multidisciplinary staff can be employed to manage sport-concussion during play and according to approved protocols, but even for these players there can be additional financial, health, and career implications from injury [ 10 , 15 ]. In 2005, the first case of significant neurodegeneration linked to sport-concussion was identified in a post-mortem brain examination of an American National Football League player who died after developing a dementia-like condition [ 16 ]. This case heralded a new level of public concern about sport-concussion exposure and its management. In the United States of America, this concern was framed as a “concussion crisis” [ 17 ]. In fact, this “crisis” was found to be a continuation of similar public concern dating back to media reports from the early 1900’s [ 17 ]. The mass media clearly plays a key role in documenting the social context for sport, and through editorial and other decisions, it potentially influences attitudes towards health and medical issues [ 18 ], including incidents like concussion [ 19 – 22 ]. This influence may be via the psychological processes described in health behaviour models, including contributing the pressure reported by players from fans and others to conceal concussive injuries [ 23 , 24 ]. In televised professional sports, sport-concussion can be filmed, replayed, and discussed in the commentary of live sport broadcasts [ 25 – 27 ]. This coverage can include repeated slow-motion replays of the moment of impact, and may capture sport-concussion signs, such as a player staggering after an impact. Even the framing of media stories (selection or emphasis of content) – as articulated in media framing theory [ 28 ]– can be part of the media portrayal of sport-concussion. For the purposes of this research, the term ‘media portrayal’ refers to the broadcast commentary that accompanies the footage of televised sports, and more specifically, the commentary about potential sport-concussion incidents. The discussion of sport-concussion by broadcast commentary teams is part of an entertainment product [ 19 , 26 ], and this discussion reaches millions of viewers [ 26 ]. The sport broadcast production and commentary teams are unlikely to include sport-concussion experts. The commentators may not utilise published guidance or training to support decisions on reporting incidents when they occur [ 29 – 32 ]. Further, the commentary team for live sport broadcasts may be delivered by ex-players, including people who may have past or present affiliations with players, clubs, or leagues [ 33 , 34 ]. These associations could affect commentators’ portrayal of sport-concussion. Formal analyses of sport-concussion commentary in rugby league and other collision sports have been found to include confusing or misleading statements from a health perspective [ 35 – 37 ]. For example, this past research has documented concerns about the low accuracy of information conveyed. This concern includes the use of poor and incorrect injury names and severity modifiers (e.g., referring to a “mild” or “serious” concussion; [ 29 ]). Concerns about the accuracy of this portrayal have also been expressed by sports-stakeholders, such as coaches and players [ 38 ]. For example, some stakeholders reported being concerned about accuracy because they perceived the coverage as “sensationalist” (i.e., to sell product) [ 38 ]. It has been speculated that these inaccuracies, could have a detrimental effect on public understanding of sport-concussion [ 37 , 39 – 41 ]. According to social cognitive theory of mass media [ 42 ], these detrimental effects arise because the mass media shapes people’s perception of issues. Therefore, if the media portrayal of sport-concussion is inaccurate, it potentially distorts public perceptions of this injury. It could lead to incorrect public perceptions about this injury as minor, which in turn could undermine sport-concussion identification and management. A more recent analysis of live sport broadcast commentary during Australian rugby league games played in 2024 found that player safety and mention of that sport’s concussion protocol did not feature strongly [ 21 ]. For example, several on-field impacts (i.e., possible concussions) were not discussed, despite being documented in match statistics, and triggering player removal from the game for off-field concussion assessment [ 21 ]. On the other hand, there were some instances where the concussion protocol was mentioned by its name for this sport (i.e., Head Injury Assessment). There was also footage that showed an on-field trainer attending a player after impact and signalling for protocol activation [ 21 ]. Apparently, televised sport audiences do now see footage and hear commentary that reflect changes to this sport’s sport-concussion management. These considerations raise questions about how audiences perceive this portrayal, including if they are aware of the potential for biases or medical inaccuracies. Very few studies have sought to uncover public opinion about the mass media coverage of sport-concussion, including in televised sport. Despite this, experiments have shown that the broadcast commentary can change perceptions about bias in sport [ 43 ]. For sport-concussion, some members of the public may hold strong views about this injury’s coverage [ 38 ]. For example, people who are concerned about player health, or who have been injured themselves, may be reassured when the coverage informs them that protocols are followed, and that the player health is prioritised [ 19 ]. However, other people may dislike or object to this coverage, for example, if they perceive it as emphasising the sport’s risks rather than its benefits, or if they are concerned that players are being removed for assessment for reasons other than suspected concussion [ 38 ]. There is one prior study of public perceptions about the mass media portrayal of sport-concussion [ 44 ]. In that study of 157 people, mixed views were found about the media portrayal of sport-concussion. More than half of this sample disagreed that the portrayal is “ important for player safety ”. The same proportion agreed that it “ minimises injury ”. Further, viewer experience was found to play a role in these perceptions. Specifically, people with a self-reported history of concussion held more negative perceptions of the media portrayal of sport-concussion than people without this history. The present study aimed to replicate these findings in a new sample and extend this past research by examining perceptions about the recommendations for improved broadcast coverage (such as the injury name). Further, given the previous finding that perceptions differed based on a person’s concussion history [ 44 ], subgroup differences were explored in the present study. It was hypothesised that individual differences on factors such as concussion education, concussion history, and involvement in collision sport, would be associated with different audience perceptions. Materials and methods Participants This study was part of a larger project on mass media and sport-concussion. The larger research program was devised with stakeholder input, including discussions with former contact-sport or media professionals. Briefly, 346 volunteers were recruited from the community and a major metropolitan university. Study advertisements were shared via email and posted on websites and spread via word of mouth. The participants were required to: (i) be ≥ 17 years of age (ii) have access to a computer or mobile technology, preferably with a large screen, and (iii) be willing to participate using headphones or in a quiet distraction-free environment. Cases were excluded after data collection for reasons such as no active consent or low-quality data based on recommended checks for online studies [ 45 ]. Measures Demographic questions. To characterise the sample, participant demographics such as age (in years), education, and gender were assessed. These questions also determined sport-, concussion-, and sport-media involvement, such as collision sport participation, concussion history, and self-rated sports media consumption (e.g., matches watched). Perceptions of Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal (PoSCoMP). The Perceptions of Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal Scale, or PoSCoMP, has 30 items assessing relevant perceptions about this portrayal (portrayal-perceptions). This questionnaire was recently developed to measure perceptions based in the literature, such as that the coverage is inaccurate [ 37 ] or “over-hyped” [ 38 ]. A fixed prompt is used, s port-concussion media portrayal is… and responses are recorded on a 5-point scale [1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree with a neither agree nor disagree mid-point]. The items were drawn from contact sport stakeholder research [ 38 ]. After reverse scoring nine items, a total score is calculated by summing the item scores. Higher scores represent a more negative view of sport-concussion media portrayal. In the present study, the internal consistency of the PoSCoMP was adequate (Cronbach’s alpha = .83), and comparable to a previous report. Perceptions of Accurate and Responsible Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal (PaRSCoMP). The Perceptions of Accurate and Responsible Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal Scale, or PaRSCoMP, has 12 items assessing relevant perceptions about this portrayal. This measure was developed for this study from the guidelines for the accurate and responsible reporting of sport-concussion. Specifically, the recommendation that the portrayal should correctly name the injury [ 29 , 31 ] was turned into the following item: [sport commentary should] not use colloquial terms to describe the injury, i.e., head knock, in place of the correct terminology (concussion or brain injury). A fixed prompt is used ( accurate and responsible concussion sport commentary should… ) and responses are recorded on a 5-point scale [1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree with a neither agree nor disagree mid-point]. A total score is calculated by summing the item scores. Higher scores represent stronger agreement with recommendations for the accurate and responsible media portrayal of sport-concussion. In the present study, the internal consistency of the PaRSCoMP was adequate (Cronbach’s alpha = .83). A stand-alone item with the same 5-point response scale was also administered to assess agreement with the following question: should there be guidelines for sport commentators to help them report injuries in sport? Procedure Study approvals were granted by the Queensland University of Technology Human Research Ethics Committee (approval no.: 8510), and Health, Safety, and Environment Hub (approval no.: 12695). An online survey (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) was constructed for data acquisition. Upon activating the survey (via URL or QR code), participants received study information. All participants were asked if they consented to further participation (checkbox “agree” to indicate consent), with the ethics committee waiving the need for additional parent/guardian consent for 17-year-old participants. The survey included the questionnaires and embedded items, sometimes known as instructional manipulation checks, to permit screening for low quality data [ 45 ] (e.g., Please select somewhat disagree, then proceed to the next question ), and a free-text box at the end ( Would you like to make any comments about the media portrayal of concussion in sport?) . A token of appreciation was offered to all participants for completion (prize draw entry or 5% bonus course credit for eligible first-year psychology students). At the end of the study the participants could exit immediately (i.e., close their browser) or opt in to a new survey for distribution of tokens and study summary. The data were collected between 15 May 2024 and 01 November 2024. Statistical analyses Descriptive statistics (e.g., frequencies) were used to characterise the sample. The rugby league viewing item, which originally had four-response options, was collapsed into a binary variable ( never and rarely versus all other options, including more than 4 games per week ). Frequencies were calculated for PoSCoMP and PaRSCoMP items. These scores were used to identify agreed- and disagreed-perceptions using the method described. For example, an item was considered an agreed perception when more than 50% of the sample responded to it with agree or strongly agree . Independent-samples t -tests were performed to examine subgroup differences on the PoSCoMP and PaRSCoMP total scores (continuous variables). A correction for multiple comparison was not applied. An alpha of 0.05 for two-tailed tests was used for statistical significance. Effect size statistics (i.e. Cohen’s d for t-tests) were interpreted according to convention [ 46 ]. All analyses were conducted with IBM SPSS Statistics version 30.0.0.0. Results The final sample comprised 163 participants aged between 17 and 55 years ( M = 22.58, SD = 7.2). Thirty-four participants (20.9%) self-reported a prior concussion, with the most recent concussion acquired from sport (64.7%). One hundred and six participants (65%) had played contact sport socially, competitively, or professionally. Approximately one third of the sample self-reported receiving concussion education ( n = 50), with the remainder ( n = 113) denying such education. A similar proportion reported regularly viewing rugby league games ( n = 49) compared to the number who never or rarely watched this sport ( n = 113) ( Table 1 ). Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Table 1. Participant characteristics. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358688.t001 Perceptions of sport-concussion media portrayal (PoSCoMP) The mean PoSCoMP total score was 89.22 ( SD = 12.86). The mean item-scores ranged from a low of 1.93 for item 7 ( important for player safety ) to a high of 3.94 out of 5 for item 10 ( ignored in some sports ) ( Table 2 ). Six agreed portrayal-perceptions were identified, based on more than 50% of the sample selecting agree or strongly agree for those items ( Table 3 ). The top three agreed portrayal-perceptions were that sport-concussion was ignored in some sports (78%), in need of change (76%), and minimises the injury (56%). Six disagreed portrayal-perceptions were identified using a similar count of disagree and strongly disagree responses. The top three disagreed portrayal-perceptions were that the portrayal is important for player safety (78%), turning people off watching sport (69%), and given too much attention (64%). Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Table 2. Descriptive Statistics (Mean, Standard Deviation. Median) and Agreement with Items from the Perceptions of Sport-Concussion Media Portrayal (PoSCoMP) Scale (Portrayal-perceptions). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358688.t002 Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Table 3. Perceptions of Sport-concussion Media Portrayal (PoSCoMP) items coded as agreed perception (more than 50% of the sample agreed or strongly agreed with this item) or as disagreed perception (more than 50% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with this item). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358688.t003 Perceptions of accurate and responsible sport-concussion media portrayal (PaRSCoMP) The mean PaRSCoMP total score was 49.89 ( SD = 6.63). Ten out of 12 recommendations were agreed (endorsed as agree or strongly agree by >50% of the sample) ( Table 4 ). The two
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