Revisiting the networked production of the 2003 Little League World Series: Narrative of American innocence

While many (popular) cultural studies focus on the discursive construction, and dominant meanings created in and through events, shows and individuals, there has been a relative dearth of studies that examine the production practices of those who create these mediated entities. As such, this project seeks to help ‘fill’ the relative void left in production practice studies, by critically evaluating the 2003 Little League World Series (LLWS). We will argue that the cultivation of this event was part of a wider (un)spoken social and political project to position the United States as a country which was to be exalted as a space of widespread diversity, acceptance of difference, and to be revered for its ‘inherent greatness’ (Ferguson 2004). Further, through our critique of the veritable ‘meaning makers’ for the LLWS, this project aims to illuminate the power they have in reifying particular – in this case overwhelmingly positive – understandings of those who hold political sway at particular moments in time. This article concludes by looking back at the 2003 American socio-political moment through a 2007 lens, a time when the republic is unquestionably more wary towards the Bush Presidency, the ‘War in Iraq’, and the government more generally.