The aim of this study was to examine discourses about race/ethnicity in Spanish football commentary, where this type of research is scarce. Previous research in other countries has found that football commentators tend to draw on racial/ethnic stereotypes when commenting on players. This, combined with the large audiences that televised football attracts, may contribute to the (re)production of racialized discourses. In this study, we conducted a content analysis of ten broadcasts of televised post-match Spanish football commentary, using an in-depth qualitative approach. We conceptualized race/ethnicity as a layered concept instead of the commonly used Black–White dichotomy, taking into consideration the complexity of racial/ethnic categories in the Spanish context. We didn’t find evidence for the reproduction of some dominant discourses; however, we did find evidence for the reproduction of some hegemonic discourses that reinforce an “us” vs. “them” discourse. In our discussion we place these results within the larger societal and historical context.
Televised football in Spain enjoys great popularity as it is watched by millions of people every year. It has also been suggested as a site where ideas about race/ethnicity are (re)produced and national football teams have been proposed as key elements in the formation and/or confirmation of national identities. In this qualitative research we analyse the transcripts of 11 televised football matches of the Spanish national team with the goal of understanding how football commentators contribute to the construction of meanings about race/ethnicity and its intersections with nationality. Results showed how football commentators constructed racial difference by describing football players of diverse backgrounds in different ways. Furthermore, commentators made use of warlike language and national heroes in their construction of a narrative about the nation. These results will be interpreted and placed within the larger socio-historical context in the Discussion section.
The racial/ethnic diversity that can be seen in televised football, together with its wide audience, makes it an interesting place to study meanings given to race/ethnicity. Previous research on the content of these discourses has found that televised football in different countries reproduces a variety of racial/ethnic stereotypes. These discourses arguably help to perpetuate and ‘naturalize’ racial/ethnic inequities. In order to better illuminate how sport media serves as a site where discourses surrounding race/ethnicity are (re)constructed, a fruitful yet understated direction of future research would be to look at the production process of such discourses. Although the theoretical value of production studies has been noted in previous work, there is at this time a shortage of empirical production studies in sport media. The present article describes some of the main findings of previous research on the representation of race/ethnicity in televised football (a dominant subject of research in this area) and audience reception research. Furthermore, the article focuses on main findings from production studies in sport media, supplementing a focus on race/ethnicity with describing production studies on gender – as most production studies have mainly focused on gender and provide relevant insights for the study of race/ethnicity. We conclude with some future research avenues highlighting the importance of exploring production processes in relation to meanings given to race/ethnicity in sport media.
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