Prejudice in the people’s game. A content analysis of race/ethnicity in Polish televised football

This study explores how televised football in Poland serves as a site for the (re)construction of discourses surrounding race and ethnicity and to what extent this squares with previous studies on sport media conducted mainly in Western countries. In our analysis, we identify the discourses surrounding race and ethnicity that the commentators in televised football draw on and examine how they relate to hegemonic discourses and categorizations in wider Polish society. Our findings show that Polish football commentators draw on transnationally circulating racialized/ethnicized discourses on assumed superior physicality when talking about Black football players and on supposed negative psychological capabilities when talking about White Southern European football players. The findings also show that when talking about non-Polish players and head coaches, the commentators regularly rely on an us-versus-them frame that constructs foreign influences as a threat

The diversification of national football teams

The inclusion of foreign-born sportspeople in national sports teams has become increasingly common. At the same time, the assumed increase in diversity within national football teams has turned into a major subject of (inter)national controversy and debate. This applies, in particular, to the football World Cup, as the assumed increase in foreign-born players in national football teams detracts from the (homogeneous) nation-state basis of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) international football competitions. However, the actual dynamics and complexities of the presence of foreign-born players in national football teams within this context have remained under-researched. In this paper, we use the idea of ‘migration corridors’ to examine the underlying structures that contribute to the diversification of national football teams, in particular during the World Cup. We do so from both an immigration and emigration perspective. By connecting our foreign-born player data to three types of migration corridors, we discuss the bidirectiona

Making sense of race/ethnicity and gender in televised football: reception research among British students

Most people today watch football by way of the mass media, sites that reproduce and transform ideologies and ideas surrounding racial/ethnic and gender identity. However, still little remains known as to what extent actual football viewers take up or resist these ideas. Drawing on a cultural studies perspective, this study tries to identify the dominant discourses that British television viewers use to assign meaning to race/ethnicity and gender in men’s and women’s football on television. Eleven focus groups of British students (n = 44) were utilized to explore these discourses. Our findings indicate that viewers from various ethnic backgrounds were largely compliant with the hegemonic media discourses about natural physicality in both gender and race/ethnic comparisons. At the same time, multiple negotiated/oppositional discourses were found in relation to women’s football that showed how other social practices contributed to such readings. Limitations and possible areas for future research are discussed

Paralympische Spelen op televisie: interpretatie en representatie

Introductie en onderzoeksvraag “ ‘Het is maar gehandicaptensport, een ver-van-mijn-bed-show, laat maar!’ Ik word daar zo pissig van.” (Esther Vergeer, in Sport & Strategie, november 2011, p. 12) Bovenstaand citaat toont de frustratie die Esther Vergeer, zevenvoudig Paralympisch kampioen rolstoeltennis, voelt over de geringe aandacht in de media voor gehandicaptensport. Het is een centraal thema in het onderzoek dat voor u ligt. Van 29 augustus tot 9 september 2012 vond de Paralympische Spelen in Londen plaats. Dit evenement is inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een mega-evenement waarin meer dan 4000 atleten participeren uit 166 landen (International Paralympic Committee, in Misener et al., 2012). Ondanks de sterke groei en grootte van dit evenement bestaat er nog maar zeer weinig kennis over hoe en in welke mate de Paralympische Spelen op televisie bekeken en ontvangen/geïnterpreteerd worden door kijkers met een lichamelijke beperking. Niet alleen wetenschappelijk, ook juist maatschappelijk lijkt dit van belang. Uit eerste oriënterende gesprekken die zijn gevoerd voor aanvang van deze studie, alsmede uit internationaal onderzoek, blijkt bij mediagebruikers met een fysieke beperking frustratie te leven over de manier waarop en de mate waarin de media verslag doen van gehandicaptensport (Hardin & Hardin, 2004). Dit is ook niet zo verwonderlijk als we kijken naar internationaal onderzoek dat gedaan is naar de manier waarop sporters met een lichamelijke beperking in de media gerepresenteerd worden. In de eerste plaats blijkt er een gebrek te zijn aan zichtbaarheid van sporters met een beperking in de media, en dus ook aan rolmodellen (Hardin & Hardin, 2004). Daarnaast worden lichamen van sporters met een beperking relatief vaak gerepresenteerd als ‘zwak’ ‘ongezond’, ‘ niet competent’ en ‘inferieur’ ten opzichte van lichamen van valide sporters (Buysse & Borcherding, 2010). Verslaggevers lijken zich bijvoorbeeld vaker te richten op de handicap dan op de sportprestaties (Oosterwijk, 2011; Van Bottenburg, 2009). Engelen (2010) concludeerde in haar afstudeerscriptie dan ook dat er grot

Who Counts as a Migrant Footballer? A Critical Reflection and Alternative Approach to Migrant Football Players on N

Although there is a common belief that more footballers are representing countries other than their native ones in recent World Cup editions, a historical overview on migrant footballers representing national teams is lacking. To fill this gap, a database consisting of 10,137 football players who participated in the World Cup (1930–2018) was created. To count the number of migrant footballers in national teams over time, we critically reflect on the term migrant and the commonly used foreign-born proxies in mainstream migration research. A foreign-born approach to migrants overlooks historical-geopolitical changes like the redrawing of international boundaries and colonial relationships, and tends to shy away from citizenship complexities, leading to an overestimation of the number of migrant footballers in a database. Therefore, we offer an alternative approach that through historical contextualization with an emphasis on citizenship, results in more accurate data on migrant footballers – contextual-nationality approach. By comparing outcomes, a foreign-born approach seems to indicate an increase in the volume of migrant footballers since the mid-1990s, while the contextual-nationality approach illustrates that the presence of migrant footballers is primarily a reflection of trends in international migration

Colorblind Ideology in Traditional and Online Media: Towards a Future Research Agenda

Abstract While much research has looked at colorblind ideology in mainstream traditional media content and production, few studies have investigated the expression and status of colorblind ideology in social media. The present chapter addresses this discrepancy by reviewing academic literature on colorblind discourse in both traditional and social media. In the light of the literature reviewed, this chapter (i) underlines the complexities of both on- and offline expressions of race and racism, and the extent to which they are co-constructive. Furthermore, this chapter highlights the need to (ii) sensitize media practitioners and researchers on colorblind ideology to ensure that (iii) racism is treated, in research as well as in the media, as a structural phenomenon rather than as punctuated events

The under-representation and experiences of elite level minority coaches in professional football in England, France and the Netherlands

This article will examine the previously under-researched area of the under-representation and experiences of elite level minority (male) coaches in (men’s) professional football in Western Europe. More specifically, the article will draw on original interview data with 40 elite level minority coaches in England, France and the Netherlands and identify a series of key constraining factors which have limited the potential for and realization of opportunities for career progression across the transition from playing to coaching in the professional game. In doing so, the article will focus on three main themes identified by interviewees as the most prescient in explaining the ongoing under-representation of minority coaches in the sport: their limited access to and negative experiences of the high level coach education environment; the continued existence of racisms and stereotypes in the professional coaching workplace; and the over-reliance of professional clubs on networks rather than qualifications-based frameworks for coach recruitment. Finally, the article will contextualize these findings from within a critical race theory perspective and will draw clear linkages between patterns of minority coach under-representation, the enactment of processes and practices of institutional racism, and the underlying nor

Everyday practices and the (un)making of ‘Fortress Europe’.

The borders of Europe are erected and guarded through cultural practices as much as through border control and security technologies. Cultural Studies have been crucial in revealing how everyday, particularly media-oriented practices, make and unmake this ‘Fortress’. Yet, until now, the focus has been mostly on how migrants use or are represented through media discourses and technologies. This introduction essay argues that the signifier ‘Fortress Europe’—and its central premise of restraining mobility for some in order to enable freedom for others—also gains meaning in and through socio-cultural practices that we may not (as) immediately associate with the physical crossing of European borders. Particular practices that are discussed in this introduction and examined in the seven original articles of the special issue are: public opinion research, the public mobilization of emotions, negotiating identity in an ‘ancestral homeland’, the consumption of (sports) media, the production of a radio talk show and film archives, as well as the activist use of social media. Broadening scholarly attention to these kinds of sociocultural practices provides an important addition to understanding how power operates across social spheres and discursive orders. In addition, their identification also offers valuable opportunities to understand how and why some practices are particularly pertinent or effective in cementing or destabilizing Fortress Europe. This line of inquiry is visible throughout this special issue, despite the diversity of theoretical frameworks and empirical sites used in the contributing articles