Through its interpretation of events, and subsequent creation of social reality, mediated sport is often seen to be presented within certain ideological discourses which reflect existing power structures. The aim of this study was to investigate this phenomenon through an analysis of the images constructed of the Black soccer player in the UK by television commentators. The methodology employed was two-fold. First, 100 hours of football footage was scrutinized, with the descriptors used to portray both Black and White players being coded into one of the following categories: (a) players and their performance, (b) the physical characteristics of players, and (c) the psychological characteristics of players. Second, through the subsequent use of same-race focus groups, the influence of the images portrayed on differing racial groups was also examined. Results demonstrated that the Black groups clearly identified the existence of media sport racial stereotypes, which were fed and reaffirmed through commentator discourse. The White groups, on the other hand, were much less certain of such phenomena, with, in particular, only a small discursive space being apparent between an awareness of the Black athletic stereotype and acceptance of that stereotype.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ang, I. (1996) Living Room Wars. London: Routledge .
2.
Atkin, C., Greenberg, B. and McDermott, S. (1983) `Television and Race Role Socialization' , Journalism Quarterly60: 407-414 .
3.
Back, L., Crabbe, T. and Solomos, J. (2001) `Lions and Black Skins', in B. Carrington and I. McDonald (eds) Race, Sport and British Society. London: Routledge .
4.
Banton, M. (1997) Ethnic and Racial Consciousness, 2nd edn. London: Longman .
5.
Barth, F. (ed.) (1969) Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. London: Allen & Unwin .
6.
Barthes, R. (1987) The Semiotic Challenge. Berkeley: University of California Press .
7.
Birrell, S. (1989) `Racial Relations Theories and Sport: Suggestions for a More Critical Analysis' , Sociology of Sport Journal6: 212-227 .
8.
Bradley, H. (1996) Fractured Identities. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press .
9.
Bromley, R. (1995) `Richard Hoggart: The Real World of People: Illustrations from Popular Art—Peg's Paper', in J. Munns and G. Rajan (eds) A Cultural Studies Reader: History, Theory and Practice. London: Longman .
10.
Carrington, B. (1998) `Sport, Masculinity and Black Cultural Resistance' , Journal of Sport and Social Issues22: 275-298 .
11.
Carrington, B. and McDonald, I. (2001) `Introduction: Race and Sport and British Society', in B. Carrington and I. McDonald (eds) Race, Sport and British Society. London: Routledge .
12.
Cashmore, E. (1982) Black Sportsmen. London: Routledge .
13.
Cashmore, E. (1994) Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations, 3rd edn. London: Routledge .
14.
Cashmore, E. and Troyna. B. (1983) Introduction to Race Relations. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
15.
Comisky, P., Bryant, J. and Zillmann, D. (1977) `Commentary as a Substitute for Action' , Journal of Communication27: 150-152 .
16.
Condit, C.M. (1989) `The Rhetorical Limits of Polysemy' , Critical Studies in Mass Communication6: 103-122 .
17.
Davis, L.R. and Harris, O. (1998) `Race and Ethnicity in US Sports Media', in L. Wenner (ed.) MediaSport. London: Routledge .
18.
Devine, P. and Elliot, A.J. (1995) `Are Racial Stereotypes Really Fading? The Princeton Trilogy Revisited' , Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin21: 1139-1150 .
19.
Drummond, P. and Paterson, R. (eds) (1985) Television in Transition. London: British Film Institute .
20.
Originally published (1988) in Screen29: 44-65 .
21.
Entman, R. (1992) `Blacks in the News: Television, Modern Racism and Cultural Change' , Journalism Quarterly69: 341-361 .
22.
Ferguson, R. (1998) Representing `Race': Ideology, Identity, and the Media. London: Hodder Headline Group .
23.
Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon .
24.
Frankenberg, R. (1993) The Social Construction of Whiteness: White Women, Race Matters. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
25.
Frankenberg, R. (1994) `Whiteness and Americaness: Examining Constructions of Race, Culture, and Nation in White Women's Narratives', in S. Gregory and R. Sanjek (eds) Race. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press .
26.
Frankenberg, R. (1996) `Whiteness as an “Unmarked” Cultural Category', in K.E. Rosenblum and T.-M.C. Travis (eds) The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class and Sexual Orientation. New York: McGraw-Hill .
27.
Gabriel, J. (1998) Whitewash: Racialized Politics and the Media. London: Routledge .
28.
Gates, H.L. (1987) Race: Writing the Difference. Chicago: Chicago University Press .
29.
Giroux, H. (1997) `Rewriting the Discourse of Racial Identity: Towards a Pedagogy and Politics of Whiteness' , Harvard Educational Review67: 285-320 .
30.
Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine .
31.
Goulbourne, H. (1998) Race Relations in Britain since 1945. Basingstoke: Macmillan .
32.
Greenberg, B.S. (1986) `Minorities and the Mass Media', in J. Bryant and D. Zillmann (eds) Perspectives on Media Effects. London: Erlbaum .
33.
Guilianotti, R. (1999) Soccer: A Sociology of the Global Game. Cambridge: Polity Press .
34.
Hall, S. (1980) `Encoding/Decoding', in S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe and P. Willis (eds) Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972-79. London: Hutchinson .
35.
Hall, S. (1982) `The Rediscovery of “Ideology”: Return of the Repressed in Media Studies', in M. Gurevitch, T. Bennett, J. Curran and J. Woollacott (eds) Culture, Society and the Media. London: Methuen .
36.
Hall, S. (1988) `New Ethnicities', in K. Mercer (ed.) Black Film, British Cinema, ICA Documents, 7. London: ICA .
37.
Hoberman, J. (1997) Darwin's Athletes: How Sport has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race. New York: Houghton Mifflin .
38.
Hobson, D. (1982) Crossroads: The Drama of a Soap Opera. London: Methuen .
39.
Jackson, D.Z. (1989) `Calling the Plays in Black and White', Boston Globe (22 Jan.).
40.
Jarrett, R.L. (1993) `Focus Group Interviewing with Low-Income, Minority Group Populations: A Research Experience', in D.L. Morgan (ed.) Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
41.
Jhally, S. and Lewis, J. (1992) Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream. Boulder, CO: Westview Press .
42.
Jones, R.L. (2002) `The Black Experience within English Semi-Professional Soccer' , Journal of Sport and Social Issues26: 47-65 .
43.
Kinkema, K.M. and Harris, J.C. (1992) `Sport and the Mass Media' , Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews20: 127-159 .
44.
Lewis, J. (1991) The Ideological Octopus. New York: Routledge .
45.
Locke, L. (1989) `Qualitative Research as a Form of Scientific Enquiry in Sport and Physical Education' , Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport60: 1-20 .
46.
McCarthy, D. and Jones, R.L. (1997) `Speed, Aggression, Strength and Tactical Naivete: The Portrayal of the Black Soccer Player on Television' , Journal of Sport and Social Issues21: 348-362 .
47.
McDonald, M. (1999) `Unnecessary Roughness: Gender and Racial Politics in Domestic Violence Media Events' , Sociology of Sport Journal16: 111-133 .
48.
Maguire, J. (1991) `Sport, Racism and British Society: A Sociological Study of England's Elite Male Afro-Caribbean Soccer and Rugby Union Players', in G. Jarvie (ed.) Sport, Racism and Ethnicity. London: Falmer Press .
49.
Maguire, J. (1993) `Globalization, Sport Development, and the Media/Sport Production Complex' , Sport Science Review2: 29-47 .
50.
Messner, M.A., Duncan, M.C. and Jensen, K. (1993) `Separating the Men from the Girls: The Gendered Language of Televised Sports' , Gender and Society7: 121-137 .
51.
Miles, R. (1984) `Marxism versus the Sociology of Race Relations' , Ethnic and Racial Studies7: 217-231 .
52.
Morgan, D.L. (1997) Focus Groups as Qualitative Research, 2nd edn. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
53.
Morley, D. (1980) The Nationwide Audience: Structure and Decoding. London: BFI .
54.
Morley, D. (1992) Television, Audiences and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge .
55.
Munns, J. and Rajan, G. (1995a) `Introduction: Media Studies', in J. Munns and G. Rajan (eds) A Cultural Studies Reader: History, Theory and Practice. London: Longman .
56.
Munns, J. and Rajan, G. (1995b) `Introduction: Race Studies', in J. Munns and G. Rajan (eds) A Cultural Studies Reader: History, Theory and Practice. London: Longman .
57.
Patton, M. (1980) Qualitative Research Methods. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage .
58.
Radway, J. (1984) Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press .
59.
Rains, F.V. (1998) `Is the Benign Really Harmless? Deconstructing Some “Benign” Manifestations of Operationalized White Privilege', in J.L. Kincheloe, S.S. Steinberg, N.M. Rodriguez and R.E. Chennault (eds) White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. London: Macmillan .
60.
Rainville, R.E. and McCormick, E. (1977) `Extent of Covert Racial Prejudice in Pro Football Announcers Speech' , Journalism Quarterly54: 20-26 .
61.
Robson, C. (1995) Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers. Oxford: Blackwell .
62.
Rodriguez, N.M. (1998) `Emptying the Content of Whiteness: Toward an Understanding of the Relation between Whiteness and Pedagogy', in J.L. Konchloe, S.R. Steinberg, N.M. Rodriguez and R.E. Chennault (eds) White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. London: Macmillan .
63.
Rose, A. and Friedman, J. (1997) `Television Sports as Mas(s)culine Cult of Distraction', in A. Baker and T. Boyd (eds) Out of Bounds: Sports, Media, and the Politics of Identity. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press .
64.
Rosenblum, K.E. and Travis, T.-M.C. (eds) (1996) The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex, and Gender, Social Class, and Sexual Orientation. New York: McGraw Hill .
65.
Ross, K. (1997) `Viewing (P)leasure, Viewer Pain: Black Audiences and British Television' , Leisure Studies16: 233-248 .
66.
Sabo, D. and Jansen, S.C. (1994) `Seen But Not Heard: Images of Black Men in Sports Media', in M.A. Messner and D.F. Sabo (eds) Sex, Violence and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press .
67.
Sabo, D., Jansen, S.C., Tate, D., Duncan, M.C. and Leggett, S. (1996) `Televising International Sport: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalistic Bias' , Journal of Sport and Social Issues20: 7-21 .
68.
Scheurich, J.J. (1993) `Toward a White Discourse on Racism' , Educational Researcher22: 5-10 .
69.
Seale, C. and Kelly, M. (1998) `Coding and Analysing Data', in C. Seale (ed.) Researching Society and Culture. London: Sage .
70.
Tonkiss, F. (1998) `Analysing Discourse', in C. Seale (ed.) Researching Society and Culture. London: Sage .
71.
Trujillo, N. (1995) `Machines, Missiles, and Men: Images of the Male Body on ABC's Monday Night Football' , Sociology of Sport Journal12: 403-423 .
72.
Wenner, L.A. (ed.) (1989) Media, Sports and Society. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
73.
Whannel, G. (1992) Fields in Vision: Television, Sport and Cultural Transformation. London: Routledge .
74.
Wiggins, D.W. (1989) ` “Great Speed But Little Stamina”: The Historical Debate over Black Athletic Superiority' , Journal of Sport History16: 158-185 .
75.
Wilson, B. (1995) `Audience Reactions to the Portrayal of Blacks in Athletic-Apparel Commercials', unpublished master's thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
76.
Wilson, B. and Sparks, R. (1996) ` “It's Gotta be the Shoes”: Youth, Race, and Sneaker Commercials' , Sociology of Sport Journal13: 398-427 .
77.
Wong, L.M. (1994) `Di(s)-secting and Dis(s)-closing “Whiteness”: Two Tales about Psychology', in K.K. Bhavani and A. Pheonix (eds) Shifting Identities, Shifting Racisms. London: Sage .
78.
Yetman, N. and Eitzen, S. (1972) `Black Americans in Sports: Unequal Opportunities for Equal Ability' , Civil Rights Digest5: 20-34 .
