Abstract: This paper selects the information of 801 sports communication papers published in Chinese sports journals and other core journals from 1997 to 2018, and analyzes the characteristics of the papers by means of bibliometrics and content analysis. The research shows that from 2012 to 2018, the literature output of sports communication in China was relatively large, and a core publication group was initially formed, but there was no stable core author group. Sports communication development research, sports and news research, sports events and communication effect research, sports culture and communication research, sports communication and new media
research, all media communication research are the hot topics of sports communication research in China. There are some problems in sports communication research in China, such as lack of theoretical research methods, insufficient attention to the hot topics of sports communication, and lack of close connection in the scattered system of research topics. It is an important task for the development of sports communication to pay more attention to the hot topics of sports communication, constantly improve the innovation of sports communication research theories and methods,and thus form the core group of writers.

Key words: sports communication in China, bibliometrics, content analysis, sports news, medium