Speakers
Description
Objectives: This presentation focuses on the meanings given to race and ethnicity (and its intersections with gender) within sports media, with particular attention for the production process in televised football. Televised football is an interesting and highly relevant platform to explore meanings given to race and ethnicity given its combination of whiteness (and male-ness) in its production process and display of racial/ethnic diversity of football players on the pitch.
Methods: The study reflects findings from participant observations and in-depth interviews at different major English television stations in 2019. The stations provided us with access to the work floor, the journalists, and a variety of meetings. We were also able to travel with some journalists to matches. This was done within the framework of a European-wide study on diversity and inclusion in televised football (2018-2023) funded by the Dutch Research Council.
Findings: Preliminary analysis indicates that journalists and media professionals are quite open in discussing racial/ethnic diversity within their organization and also initiate initiatives to make the work force more diverse. At the same time, while recruitment and diversity on the work floor gets attention, some other aspects tend to get overlooked such as self-reflection on everyday practices and racial bias in commentary practices.
Discussion/Conclusion: Drawing on insights from sport media studies and cultural studies, I will discuss findings within the wider media sports and societal context. The study will contribute to new insights into the role of sports media in reproducing discourses surrounding race and ethnicity.
