Shifting signifier on the sidelines: memory and boundary work in the construction of Joe Paterno

Joe Paterno coached football at Penn State University for 61 years, including as head coach from 1966 to the night in early November 2011 when he was fired. With Paterno as its main character, this dissertation aims to understand how journalists narrate a single subject over a long period of time. Descriptions of Paterno, who was appreciated by journalists for most of his career, radically changed as America experienced cultural shifts.

From the late 1960s through the 1970s, journalists celebrated Paterno as a radical outsider who could heal college football’s corruption. During the 1980s and 1990s, journalists held up Paterno as a champion of conservatism. His values became college football’s values. Lastly, when scandal at Penn State University ended his career, a new generation of digital journalists turned Paterno into a symbol of everything wrong with the hero‐making tendencies of sports journalism.

Journalists built themes around Paterno over a half‐century that reinforced popular public sentiment. They embedded America’s cultural values onto Paterno’s image so that he came to represent America. When he ultimately betrayed those values, journalists worked quickly to salvage their professional reputations by either repositioning Paterno outside of American culture or by explaining to readers why they should continue to appreciate Paterno’s overall body of work. Paterno’s firing sent shockwaves through the profession of sports journalism, including helping to legitimize nontraditional news organizations while delegitimizing the work of mainstream journalists.