Race, ethnicity and the sport media

Abstract

Due to its multi-ethnic character and popularity, television coverage of sport can contribute to people’s beliefs and ideas about race and ethnicity. This role of the sport media is however, often overlooked or downplayed by the general public, by policy makers and by many scholars. This research project addresses this neglect and discusses the often taken-for-granted assumptions that are embedded in the use of racial/ethnic meanings and categorizations by soccer commentators on television and by sport media audiences. Although the Dutch context serves as a reference point for the research project, the findings are placed in a broader societal and internationally comparative perspective. In addition to a focus on the sport media, the author critically reflects on the use and definitions of race and ethnicity in international sport media research and Dutch sport policy. A recurring theme in this book is the interplay between discourses as they are articulated in sports related cultural practices and the rest of society. Drawing on key concepts from cultural studies, race theorists and sport and media scholars, the author shows how racialized power relations in society are played out in sport related cultural practices and how sport related cultural practices in turn have the potential to reinforce but also challenge racialized power relations outside of sport. In addition to this, the book offers suggestions for alternative ways of using the concepts of race and ethnicity by those who shape sport policy agendas and those who conduct critical sport media research.