BBC’s Documentary “Stadiums of Hate” and Manufacturing of the News: Case Study in Moral Panics and Media Manipulation

Abstract

The article is based on a critical case study of the BBC’s investigative documentary titled Stadiums of Hate and the public’s response to it. The documentary was broadcasted 11 days before the kickoff of Euro 2012 (UEFA [Union of European Football Associations] European Championships in Football), the first sport mega event hosted in Poland and Ukraine. The main theme was football-related racism and violence allegedly threatening the safety of the fans coming to the tournament. The article follows Amanda Rohloff’s proposal combining the Eliasian conceptual framework of civilizing processes with the moral panics approach to describe the effort to amplify the spiral of public outcry toward the hosts of Euro 2012 in an attempt to modernize and civilize the Eastern European world of football. The moral panics spiral was brought to an end by the tournament which did not justify grim predictions. The article combines analysis of media content and the public statements with interviews conducted with some of the informants of the BBC journalists.

From football stadium to revolution and war frontlines: Ukrainian ultras and the conversion of their capital

“…The transgressive protests by football fans led to the spread of some moral panic in Ukrainian society that was formed and fuelled by derogatory media coverage of football fan activity. This was reinforced not only by the Ukrainian media but also by the international media, for example, a controversial documentary film released by the BBC before the 2012 European Football Championship entitled Stadiums of Hate , 9 in which Ukrainian ultras were negatively portrayed as brutal, aggressive racists, contributing to the intensification of the climate of moral panic at the national and international level (Rek-Woźniak and Woźniak, 2020). Therefore, the position of Ukrainian football fans vis-à-vis national public opinion in the autumn of 2013 was marginal, even antisocial.…”