This article analyzes the Fox Sports 1 sports debate program Speak for Yourself. The article analyzes the thematic frames the show utilizes to espouse and reinforce sport as a site of conservative value-making and male bonding. In using an interracial male pairing of Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock, the show mimics similarly popular debate programs on rival network ESPN, such as Pardon the Interruption and First Take. However, Whitlock in particular advances a unique brand of Black conservatism, and his clashes with progressive activists and other black guests represent intraracial tensions among Black sport media members. This paper argues Speak for Yourself brings Newscorp’s conservative messaging to a nominally apolitical space in sport media.
AlexanderMichelle. 2020. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. La Vergne: The New Press.
3.
AndrewsDavid L.1996. “The Fact(s) of Michael Jordan’s Blackness: Excavating a Floating Racial Signifier.”Sociology of Sport Journal13 (2): 125–58.
4.
BedermanGail. 1996. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States. 1880-1917. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Bonilla-SilvaEduardo.2018. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
6.
BoydTodd. 1997. Am I Black Enough for You? Popular Culture From the ‘Hood and Beyond. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
7.
BoydTodd. 2003. The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop. New York, NY: New York University Press.
8.
BoykoffJulesCarringtonBen. 2020. “Sporting Dissent: Colin Kaepernick, NFL Activism, and Media Framing Contests.”International Review for the Sociology of Sport55 (7): 829–49.
CarbyHazel V.1998. Race Men. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
CoakleyJay. 2015. “Assessing the Sociology of Sport: On Cultural Sensibilities and the Great Sport Myth.”International Review for the Sociology of Sport50 (4–5): 402–6.
CoombsDanielle SarverLambertCheryl AnnCassiloDavidHumphriesZachary. 2020. “Flag on the Play: Colin Kaepernick and the Protest Paradigm.”Howard Journal of Communications31 (4): 317–36.
DavisLaurelOthelloHarris. 2002. “Race and Ethnicity in US Sports Media.” In MediaSport, edited by LawrenceWenner, 154–69. London: Routledge.
17.
DearingJames W.EverettRogers. 1996. Agenda-setting. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
18.
EntmanRobert M.1993. “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.”Journal of Communication43 (4): 51–8.
19.
FalcousMarkHawzenMatthew G.NewmanJoshua I.2019. “Hyperpartisan Sports Media in Trump’s America: The Metapolitics ofBreitbart Sports.” Communication and Sport7 (5): 588–610.
20.
FinkJanet S.2016. “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Embedded Nature of Sexism in Sport.”Journal of Sport Management30 (1): 1–7.
21.
FiskeJohn. 1993. Power Plays Power Works. London: Verso Press.
HenryTaylor M.OatesThomas P.2020. “Sport is Argument’: Polarization, Racial Tension, and the Televised Sport Debate Format.”Journal of Sport & Social Issues44 (2): 154–74.
30.
HongSeong ChoulOhKyong-Soo. 2020. “Determinants of Sports Coverage: Newsworthiness in US Media Coverage of Foreign Athletes During the London 2012 Olympic Games.”Journalism21 (7): 933–49.
31.
IbrahimHabiba. 2009. “Toward Black and Multiracial ‘Kinship’ After 1997, or How a Race Man Became ‘Cablinasian.”Black Scholar39 (3/4): 23–31.
32.
KissasAngelos. 2020. “Performative and Ideological Populism: The Case of Charismatic Leaders on Twitter.”Discourse & Society31: 268–84.
33.
LewisAngela K.2005. “Black Conservatism in America.”Journal of African American Studies8 (4): 3–13.
34.
LewisNickyWeaverAndrew J.2015. “More Than a Game: Sports Media Framing Effects on Attitudes, Intentions, and Enjoyment.”Communication and Sport3 (2): 219–42.
35.
LorenzStacy L.MurrayRod. 2014. “Goodbye to the Gangstas’: The NBA Dress Code, Ray Emery, and the Policing of Blackness in Basketball and Hockey.”Journal of Sport & Social Issues38 (1): 23–50.
36.
MartinRoland S.2018. “Roland Martin & Jason Whitlock Battle Over Politics & if African Americans Should Vote.”YouTube Video, October19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aLjjQmfGM.
37.
McBrideDwight A.2007. “Toward the New Black Studies: Or Beyond the Old Race Man.”Journal of Black Studies37 (3): 428–44.
OatesThomas P.2017. Football and Manliness: An Unauthorized Feminist Account of the NFL. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
46.
OttBrian L.2017. “The Age of Twitter: Donald J. Trump and the Politics of Debasement.”Critical Studies in Media Communication34 (1): 59–68.
47.
PeckReece. 2019. Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
48.
PhilpotTasha S.2017. Conservative But Not Republican: The Paradox of Party Identification and Ideology Among African Americans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
49.
PutneyClifford. 2001. Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
SaboDonJansenSue CurryTateDannyDuncanMargaret CarlisleLeggettSusan. 1996. “Televising International Sport: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalistic Bias.”Journal of Sport & Social Issues20 (1): 7–21.
SerazioMichael. 2019. The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture. New York, NY: New York University Press.
56.
SlackDaryl. 1996. “The Theory and Method of Articulation in Cultural Studies”. In Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, edited by David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen, 112–129. London: Routledge.
57.
SobierajSarahBerryJeffrey M.2011. “From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio, and Cable News.”Political Communication28 (1): 19–41.
Speak. 2016g. Kaepernick responds to death threats: 'Violence would prove my point' | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF,”YouTube Video, September21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rttBQNO6uf8.
Speak. 2016i. “NFL ratings have declined, but it's not Colin Kaepernick’s fault – ‘Speak for Yourself,’”YouTube Video, October5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kc6SDnDTV8.
Speak. 2016m. “Whitlock 1-on-1: Colin Kaepernick hasn't done much since being paid | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF,”YouTube Video, September2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoYrge589kA.
71.
Speak. 2017a. “Issue with Michael Vick saying Colin Kaepernick should cut his hair? | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.”YouTube Video, July18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn1dknMFHNY.
Speak. 2017e. “Michael Jordan is tougher than LeBron James – is Dennis Rodman Right? | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF,”YouTube Video, April6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKDKiGH4_8M.
Speak. 2017g. “Whitlock and Broussard: A heated debate over LeBron's comments about race | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF,”YouTube Video, June1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKu8_TkgZ0.
Speak. 2018a. Jason Whitlock: LeBron’s time with the Lakers will be huge disappointment | NBA | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.”YouTube Video, July13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16WL3AGXa4Q.
80.
Speak. 2018b. “Jason Whitlock on LeBron opening the ‘I PROMISE School’ in Akron, Ohio | NBA | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.”YouTube Video, July31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEUfSvLUR7c.
81.
Speak. 2018c. “Jason Whitlock on why LeBron’s cast was ‘inexcusable’ in Cavs presser | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.”YouTube Video, June11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOTwtMtfEfM.
82.
Speak. 2018e. “Stephen Jackson breaks down LeBron’s biggest weaknesses as a competitor | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.”YouTube Video, June7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQybtqGRY_o.
SquiresCatherine. 2014. The Post-Racial Mystique: Media and Race in the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: NYU Press.
85.
Wahl-JorgensenKarin. 2018. “Media Coverage of Shifting Emotional Regimes: Donald Trump’s Angry Populism.”Media Culture & Society40 (5): 766–78.
86.
WalkerLee. 1997. “What ‘Black Conservative’ Means to Me.” In Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America, edited by StanFarynaStetsonBradContiJoseph G., 29–31. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
87.
WaltersCarolineSheilaMurphy. 2008. “Framing the Olympic Games: Impact of American Television Coverage on Attitudes Toward International Cooperation and Foreign Policy in the United States.”American Journal of Media Psychology1: 76–102.
