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Color Coded: Racial Descriptors in Television Coverage of Intercollegiate Sports
Abstract
Although African Americans have achieved equality in their participation in professional and intercollegiate sports, the same cannot be said for the coverage of these events. In noting that the announcers'booth is a conducive environment for priming racial stereotypes, this research sought to build on previous findings by further exploring the distinction announcers create between the player-as-athlete andplayer-as-person. Results showed that announcers continue to craft a negative image of African American athletes when describing them as people. Suggestions for further research are included.
... International research suggests that the speech of sports commentators exhibits racial bias [3]. Specifically, non-White players are more likely to be praised in terms of their physicality, while White players are more likely to be praised in terms of their intellect and character [3,4]. However, the existence of racial bias within Australian sports commentary, and more specifically within AFL commentary, has yet to be systematically examined. ...
... Racial bias, in the context of televised sports commentary, has previously been found in the commentary of several sports, including American football [3,4,8], basketball [4,7], and European soccer [9][10][11]. Generally, these studies have revealed that non-White athletes are more likely to receive positive comments related to their physical ability, while White athletes are more likely to receive positive comments related to their cognitive ability and character [3]. ...
... Racial bias, in the context of televised sports commentary, has previously been found in the commentary of several sports, including American football [3,4,8], basketball [4,7], and European soccer [9][10][11]. Generally, these studies have revealed that non-White athletes are more likely to receive positive comments related to their physical ability, while White athletes are more likely to receive positive comments related to their cognitive ability and character [3]. ...
International research has shown that live sports commentary exhibits racial bias. Specifically, non-White players are more likely to be praised in terms of their physicality, while White players are more likely to be praised in terms of their intellect and character. The current study, which utilised a quantitative content analysis design, examined whether the speech of AFL commentators exhibited racial bias. The study randomly selected 50 men’s AFL game quarters from the 2019 AFL season and analysed 1368 applicable statements directed at 382 unique players. Based on prior research, a coding instrument was developed that incorporated three main categories (physical, cognitive, and character attributes), and six subcategories (physical ability, appearance, cognitive ability, intelligence, general character, and hard work). In contrast to the international literature, findings revealed that there were no significant between-race differences for each main attribute category. However, non-White players received a higher proportion of statements related to their physical ability, and a lower proportion of statements related to their appearance compared to White players. Non-White players also received a higher proportion of negative statements related to their cognitive ability compared to White players. There was no evidence found to suggest that players of any race were discussed in terms of their physical ability being innate, natural, or instinctual. Given the strong, but also dated, evidence showing racial bias within both American and European sports commentary, the current study provides only weak evidence for the existence of racial bias within contemporary AFL live commentary.
... Racial bias. Ample research has shown that racial bias is present in media coverage (Dixon, 2002), including in sports media (Angelini et al., 2014;Dixon, 2002;Eastman and Billings, 2001;McLoughlin, 2020;Mercurio and Filak, 2010;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005;Van Sterkenburg and Knoppers, 2004). In sport and broader media, discrimination manifests as both who the media covers (Angelini et al., 2014;Dixon, 2002) and how the media talks about those covered (Angelini et al., 2014;Dixon, 2002;Eastman and Billings, 2001;McLoughlin, 2020;Mercurio and Filak, 2010;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005;Van Sterkenburg and Knoppers, 2004). ...
... Ample research has shown that racial bias is present in media coverage (Dixon, 2002), including in sports media (Angelini et al., 2014;Dixon, 2002;Eastman and Billings, 2001;McLoughlin, 2020;Mercurio and Filak, 2010;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005;Van Sterkenburg and Knoppers, 2004). In sport and broader media, discrimination manifests as both who the media covers (Angelini et al., 2014;Dixon, 2002) and how the media talks about those covered (Angelini et al., 2014;Dixon, 2002;Eastman and Billings, 2001;McLoughlin, 2020;Mercurio and Filak, 2010;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005;Van Sterkenburg and Knoppers, 2004). Within the sport literature, there are mixed findings about proportional representation in media coverage Black athletes receive. ...
... These findings establish that racial bias exists widely. Racial bias persists across media platforms including written (Mercurio and Filak, 2010) and broadcast (Eastman and Billings, 2001;McLoughlin, 2020;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005); in a variety of sports; at a variety of levels including professional (Mercurio and Filak, 2010;McLoughlin, 2020) and intercollegiate (Eastman and Billings;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005); and across nationalities. Such bias presents both covertly and overtly, as Rada and Wulfemeyer (2005) wrote that commentators "knew no bounds" (p. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this research was to examine the role of intersectionality (multiple marginalized identities) in narratives used within online media coverage of women's sports. The authors adopted an intersectionality lens and drew from sports media literature to explore the representation of Black athletes in women's sport.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a quantitative content analysis of online articles from ESPN, CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated from the 2020 WNBA Season. The authors coded the number of times an athlete was mentioned in an article, the athlete's race, publicly disclosed sexual orientation and gender expression. The authors used hierarchical regression to examine the relationship between an athlete's social identities and frequency of media mentions.
Findings
Within mainstream online sport media, Black WNBA athletes receive less media attention than white WNBA athletes. Black athletes who do not present in traditionally feminine ways receive the least amount of media attention, while white athletes have the freedom to express their gender in a variety of ways and still capture media interest. Within league press releases, however, there is no difference in media mentions based on race, sexual orientation or gender expression.
Practical implications
The findings in this research are important for sport media professionals who write stories and player-activists who are pursuing racial justice. Outlets should commit to antiracist storytelling practices. Players, player agents and players' associations—all of whom have shown their power to create change for a more equitable industry and society—should also advocate for and organize around practices that create more equitable media coverage.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few empirical investigations of women's professional sport that examines the influence of intersecting social identities.
... With this method, we followed a coding process in order to "discover" the themes that appear systematically in the commentary (Corbin & Strauss, 2008;van Sterkenburg et al., 2010). First, we searched for comments about footballers which presented them in a positive or negative light as has been done in other studies (Ličen, 2015;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). We considered "positive" comments that presented the player in a favorable way, and "negative," comments that presented the player in an unfavorable way (see also van Sterkenburg et al., 2012). ...
... This included, for instance, comments referring to their power, athleticism or speed, such as "le pega muy fuerte" (hits the ball hard), "está en forma" (he is in good shape) or "tiene zancada" (he's got good stride). These findings also contrast with earlier studies in other contexts where Black players have been found to be more often described in terms of physicality than their White counterparts (Campbell & Bebb, 2020;Hylton, 2009;Johnson & Romney, 2018;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). We will return to this finding in our Discussion section. ...
... One possible explanation could be found in our additional finding that Spanish (White) players were more often than other racial/ethnic categories described in terms of physicality. This "reversed" physicality discourse, where Black or Black African players were not described more often in terms of physicality, but instead, White Spanish players were, challenges the well-known brain vs. brawn racial bias (Cranmer et al., 2014;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). This finding may find its explanation in the conceptualization of the Spanish identity, which has been described by Spanish authors such as Pérsanch (2018) and Repinecz (2018) as "mixed" and as navigating between notions of "whiteness" and "otherness" as a result of its geographical situation and history. ...
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.
... Previous research (see Azzarito & Harrison, 2008;Billings & Eastman, 2003;Bruce, 2004;Haslerig et al., 2020;Hylton, 2009;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005) on racialized discourses in sport media has mostly been carried out within the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia and generally defined race/ethnicity in dichotomous terms of Black and White (van Sterkenburg, 2019). These works have all been fundamental in broadening understandings on how sport media can serve as a site for the (re)production of racial/ethnic stereotypes. ...
... The producers of televised football, like with other cultural texts, sway the reader towards preferred dominant interpretations. Previous studies have shown that the sporting texts recurrently draw upon and reinforce dominant racial/ethnic categorizations and meanings apparent in wider society or within global racial formations (see Bruce, 2004;Ferrucci & Tandoc, 2018;Haslerig et al., 2020;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;van Sterkenburg et al., 2012). ...
... One of the main findings in our analysis is that in Polish televised football, Black players are associated relatively often with their physical capabilities, while their mental capabilities get understated. This suggests that the Black Brawn-White Brain discourses that have been found to be prevalent in other national contexts (e.g., Buffington & Fraley, 2008;Haslerig et al., 2020;Ličen, 2015;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005) are also replicated within Polish football media. Although the number of comments reserved for Black players was quite limited and focused on a few individual players, the findings are significant for they do dovetail with hegemonic discourses surrounding race/ethnicity internationally and in Polish society. ...
This study explores how televised football in Poland serves as a site for the (re)construction of discourses surrounding race and ethnicity and to what extent this squares with previous studies on sport media conducted mainly in Western countries. In our analysis, we identify the discourses surrounding race and ethnicity that the commentators in televised football draw on and examine how they relate to hegemonic discourses and categorizations in wider Polish society. Our findings show that Polish football commentators draw on transnationally circulating racialized/ethnicized discourses on assumed superior physicality when talking about Black football players and on supposed negative psychological capabilities when talking about White Southern European football players. The findings also show that when talking about non-Polish players and head coaches, the commentators regularly rely on an us-versus-them frame that constructs foreign influences as a threat.
... Therefore, when a fan reads a profile about the Williams sisters' faith and that religion is subtly depicted as odd, the fan could, theoretically, then subconsciously think of that religion as odd or not normal. For example, a series of content analysis found that an athlete's race, whether white or black, will significantly affect how media professionals will describe him or her (e.g., Angelini and Billings 2010;Billings 2004;Billings and Eastman 2003;Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005). Rowe (2007) found that these descriptions matter: the stereotypes utilized by media professionals significantly affect how the general public perceives athletes of different races. ...
... When taken in isolation, none of the stereotypes examined in these aforementioned studies would be considered negative by the general public and, one could argue, they should actually be considered positive attributes in all cases. But when one race is often referred to one way, and another in a different way, bias reveals itself and stereotyping occurs (Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005). More importantly, when people of different races, regardless of circumstance, are consistently labelled differently, the general public begins to believe these differences and will stereotype accordingly (Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005). ...
... But when one race is often referred to one way, and another in a different way, bias reveals itself and stereotyping occurs (Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005). More importantly, when people of different races, regardless of circumstance, are consistently labelled differently, the general public begins to believe these differences and will stereotype accordingly (Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005). This could also happen when examining religion. ...
This study utilizes textual analysis to analyze how the popular and influential sports magazine Sports Illustrated covered religion over the period from Jan. 1, 1994, to Sept. 1, 2014. The data showed that the magazine wrote about religion in three primary ways: as an exotic characteristic that makes an athlete somehow odd, as incongruous since sports themselves display similar characteristics to religion, and as a front to hide some insidious real motive. These results are analyzed through the lens of Edward Said's theory of oriental-ism, which argues that the press tends to cover dominant groups as "normal" and "others" the remaining groups, which has been shown, historically, to have damaging impact. This study concludes with a discussion concerning how SI's coverage of religion could impact society.
... (Eastman & Billings, 1999;Eastman & Billings, 2001;Kobach, 2009;Mercurio & Filak, 2010;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Washington & Karen, 2001). Previous research has established that sports media have used dichotomous frames that emphasize athletes' physical or intellectual abilities to explain their successes and failures. ...
... . Previous research has established that sports media have used dichotomous frames that emphasize athletes' physical or intellectual abilities to explain their successes and failures. These frames are colloquially referred to as brawn and brain frames (McDonald & Andrews, 2001;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005) and are often conjoined with an athlete's race, as White athletes are commonly framed as brainy, whereas Black athletes are framed as brawny (Buffington & Fraley, 2008;Fucillo, 2012;McDonald & Andrews, 2001;Mercurio & Filak, 2010). Racially based distributions of brawn and brain frames have been primarily identified in live, oral commentary (i.e., broadcasts that feature analysts commentating on events as they happen; Angelini & Billings, 2010;Billings, 2004;Bruce, 2004;Eastman & Billings, 2001;Rada, 1996;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). ...
... These frames are colloquially referred to as brawn and brain frames (McDonald & Andrews, 2001;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005) and are often conjoined with an athlete's race, as White athletes are commonly framed as brainy, whereas Black athletes are framed as brawny (Buffington & Fraley, 2008;Fucillo, 2012;McDonald & Andrews, 2001;Mercurio & Filak, 2010). Racially based distributions of brawn and brain frames have been primarily identified in live, oral commentary (i.e., broadcasts that feature analysts commentating on events as they happen; Angelini & Billings, 2010;Billings, 2004;Bruce, 2004;Eastman & Billings, 2001;Rada, 1996;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). ...
Extant research has established that racially based brawn and brain frames are common within sports media. Framing theory suggests that these brawn and brain frames should influence audience members’ behaviors and attitudes, but little empirical evidence to support this notion exists. This study used a quasi-experimental design (Frame x Athlete Race) to understand how exposure to sports news articles that emphasize the physical or mental attributes of White and Black athletes may result in audiences’ subsequent observable behaviors or character judgments toward athletes. Results indicated that frames influenced audiences’ behaviors in a simulated environment and attitudes regarding athletes’ mental abilities, whereas athlete race influenced audiences’ attitudes of athletes’ physical abilities. These findings support sports scholars’ assertions about framing effects and underscore the potential dangers of current sports media trends.
... However, the sports media certainly do not act accordingly. Numerous studies of the coverage of athletes show that journalists and broadcasters describe players of different races and genders differently (e.g., Billings, 2004;Billings & Eastman, 2003;Birrell, 2003;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). These scholars found ample evidence suggesting biases in coverage of athletes. ...
... Researchers examining how White and Black athletes receive different descriptions have found similar results across all sports studied. White and Black athletes tend to be described using a brains-versus-brawn dichotomy (e.g., Billings, 2003Billings, , 2004Billings & Eastman, 2003;Denham, Billings, & Halone, 2002;Eastman & Billings, 2001;Halone & Billings, 2010;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Rainville, 1978). In these studies, scholars examined coverage of basketball, baseball, football, golf, and various Olympic sports. ...
... All found that White athletes, regardless of sport, tended to be described as intelligent and leaders whereas the media tend to describe Black athletes as physically strong and having natural ability. Researchers argued that although it may seem complimentary to describe White athletes as leaders or Black athletes as strong, bias reveals itself when we look at media descriptions through the prism of race (Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). The media tend to describe White athletes in controllable ways and Black athletes in noncontrollable manners, hence the nature-versus-nurture description. ...
This study experimentally tested whether participants held and/or applied stereotypes of baseball players. Participants were asked to rate White, Black, and Latino baseball players based on stereotypes consistently identified in previous literature. Participants saw a photo of a player and an anonymous paragraph from a newspaper that highlighted a particular stereotype. They were then asked to rate the author's credibility. Black players were rated as higher in physical strength and natural ability, consistent with previous literature concerning how athletes were described. However, White and Latin players were not stereotyped. But participants rated White-consistent descriptions as credible and Latin-consistent descriptions as less credible. These results are interpreted through the prism of social identity theory.
... This has led to a growth of research that has explored the role of televised football as a site where meanings are given to race/ethnicity, 1 as well as to other markers of difference such as nationality, religion and gender (Campbell and Bebb 2020;van Sterkenburg, Knoppers, and de Leeuw 2012). These previous works have found that in various national contexts, commentators habitually draw on discourses that (mostly implicitly) differentiate between athletes from various racial/ethnic backgrounds (Campbell and Bebb 2020;Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005). A consistently recurring stereotype identified in various national contexts is that of the natural Black athlete in which extraordinary physical qualities are ascribed to Black athletes (Carrington 2011). ...
... The prominence of racialized representations in sport media content has been exhibited in a myriad of national contexts (e.g. Campbell and Bebb 2020;Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005;van Sterkenburg, Knoppers, and de Leeuw 2012). However, significantly less research is done on audience receptions of these discourses or on the discourses surrounding race/ethnicity that audiences draw on in their everyday football talk. ...
A wide body of research has focused on representations of race/ethnicity in sport media content, because of its central location in popular culture. These studies found that sport media content serves as a site where hegemonic and reductive discourses surrounding racial/ethnic identities are habitually reproduced. So far, these studies have predominantly been textual analyses. Studies that take into account the polysemic readings of media content by audiences remain few, especially beyond the Anglosphere and Western Europe. This audience reception study addresses this gap by exploring how young audiences of televised football relate to racialized preferred readings, and how they themselves give meaning to race/ethnicity and Whiteness in their everyday football talk, in the little-researched context of Poland. In 13 focus groups (n = 45) with young adults (17–30) several key discourses were identified. This study found that most of the interviewees reproduced hegemonic discourses surrounding racial/ethnic differences, in particular regarding Black football players. The study also identified that in their everyday football talk audiences (re)produced contingent hierarchies of Whiteness.
... We tag first and last name mentions only if they can be disambiguated to a single player in the rosters from opposing teams. bias in sports broadcasts which informs our work (Rainville and McCormick, 1977;Rada, 1996;Billings, 2004;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005) typically assume hard distinctions between racial groups, which measurably affect commentary. In this work, we do not reify these racial categories; we use them as commonly understood within the context of the society in which they arise. ...
... Such non-computational studies typically examine a small number of games drawn from a single season and rely on manual coding to identify differences in announcer speech (Rainville and Mcten times for each race to be considered. Cormick, 1977;Billings, 2004;Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005). For example, Rada (1996) perform a fine-grained analysis of five games from the 1992 season, coding for aspects such as players' cognitive or physical attributes. ...
Sports broadcasters inject drama into play-by-play commentary by building team and player narratives through subjective analyses and anecdotes. Prior studies based on small datasets and manual coding show that such theatrics evince commentator bias in sports broadcasts. To examine this phenomenon, we assemble FOOTBALL, which contains 1,455 broadcast transcripts from American football games across six decades that are automatically annotated with 250K player mentions and linked with racial metadata. We identify major confounding factors for researchers examining racial bias in FOOTBALL, and perform a computational analysis that supports conclusions from prior social science studies.
... A series of content analyses found that an athlete's race, whether White or Black, will significantly affect how media professionals will describe him or her (Angelini & Billings, 2010;Billings, 2003;Billings & Eastman, 2003;Denham, Billings, & Halone, 2002;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Rainville & McCormick, 1977;Rainville, Roberts, & Sweet, 1978). Billings (2004) found when Black quarterbacks succeeded, broadcasters attributed it to athletic skill, whereas the failures of White quarterbacks were attributed to a lack of athletic skill. ...
... Researchers found that White athletes, regardless of sport, tended to be described as intelligent and leaders, whereas media tend to describe Black athletes as physically strong with natural ability (Ferrucci, Tandoc, Painter, et al., 2016). They argued that although it may seem complimentary to describe White athletes as leaders or Black athletes as strong, bias reveals itself when we look at media descriptions through the prism of race (Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). Eastman and Billings (2001) concluded sportscasters focus on particular characteristics between Black and White male college basketball players. ...
This study analyzed how depictions of White and Black recruits by ESPN network employees differs depending on athletic successes, failures, personality, and physicality. A total of 42 hr of ESPN college football National Signing Day (NSD) coverage (2015–2018) was analyzed with results indicating sportscasters who covered NSD largely did not differ in their depictions of athletes, with the majority of comments referring to recruits’ physicality or their upbringing, regardless of race. In all, 98% of the comments about NSD were spoken by White sportscasters, and 86.4% of the comments were spoken about a Black athlete. The relatively meager differences could be framed in a fairly positive light, whereas the lack of non-White commentators within coverage indicates hiring practices are still problematic. Cultivation theory logics related to stereotype-formation-through-media are then applied to determine implications for the future.
... Hughey and Goss (2015) analyzed 292 articles covering Olympic, professional, and collegiate sport from ten major US newspapers and found there was a tendency for news media to attribute Black athletic success to a superior genetic predisposition rather than training or hard work. In another study that analyzed racial descriptors in college football and basketball broadcast commentary, Rada and Wulfemeyer (2005) found Black players were primarily described in terms of their "God-given" physical ability, and white players were described as hard workers or intelligent. They also found personal interest stories and character judgments portrayed Black players negatively, whereas white players were only portrayed positively. ...
... Our occasional use of "athlete(s) of color" rather than "Black athlete(s)/ player(s)" reflects a distinction between comments about specific Black players rather than a group of athletes of color (with diverse racial backgrounds or where the race of all athletes could not be determined) and reflects our initial coding scheme (which coded broadly for athletes of color, then analyzed Black athletes specifically). In keeping with the norms of this type of research (McCarthy and Jones 1997; Rada and Wulfemeyer 2005;Woodward 2004), we assigned racial identifiers to the best of our ability based on visual clues and available press coverage. Although athletes' self-identifications would have been preferable, it was not practical to ascertain self-identifications on this scale. ...
College GameDay (CGD) commentary and imagery is one source of socialization that reinforces ideologies that rationalize police violence (and our tolerance thereof). As the most watched college sport broadcast of all time (Volner D, More than 179 million fans watched 100 billion minutes of college football games on ESPN’s TV networks during the 2016 college football season; 15 million unique devices streamed ESPN games. ESPN MediaZone. Retrieved from http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2016/12/179-million-fans-watched-100-billion-minutes-college-football-games-espns-tv-networks-2016-college-football-season-15-million-unique-devices-streamed-espn-games, 2016), CGD primes audiences to make certain associations (Moy P, Tewksbury D, Rinke EM, Agenda-setting, priming, and framing. In: Jenson KB, Craig RT, Pooley JD, & Rothenbuhler EW (eds), The international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy. Wiley, 2016). Through analysis of regular- and postseason CGD pregame and game-of-the-week broadcasts during the 2016 football season, the authors examine the use of animal metaphors and the belief that Black people possess superstrength. The chapter documents prominent narratives promoting Black players as invulnerable in the broadcasts while making the case these narratives serve to prime audiences—including law enforcement—to ascribe inhuman abilities to Black people, thus reinforcing the belief lethal force against them is justified.
... However, along with that negative assessment, they have also been perceived as more knowledgeable and portrayed as demonstrating more effort, moral character, and leadership capabilities than Black players (Leonard, 2017). Rada and Wulfemeyer (2005) found that all of the play-by-play commentators' negative judgments were about Black players, whereas white players were only portrayed positively. White players' athletic ability is often characterized in negative or deficit terms, thus framing each white player as the "everyman" that overcomes those limitations and is relatable to white audiences (Leonard, 2017: 23). ...
... Due to the constraints of participation in American football at the college level, our data are focused on the portrayal of male athletes. In line with the conventions of previous research (Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005;Woodward, 2004), we assigned race phenotypically when there was not additional information. We first consulted roster pictures as well as news coverage to ascertain athletes' race as accurately as possible. ...
As the most watched college sport broadcast of all time, the US Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN)’s College GameDay (CGD) is one source of socialization that primes US audiences to make certain associations. Through disaggregated analysis of regular- and post-season CGD pre-game and game-of-the-week broadcasts during the 2016 football season, the authors examine the coverage of players’ physicality and injuries, contrasting the portrayals of Black and white American football players. The paper documents prominent narratives that promoted Black players as relatively invulnerable, while making the case that these narratives serve to prime audiences to ascribe inhuman abilities to Black people and thereby reinforce white supremacist ideology.
... A series of content analyses found that an athlete's race, whether White or Black, will significantly affect how media professionals will describe him or her (e.g., Angelini & Billings, 2010;Billings, 2003;Billings & Eastman, 2003;Denham, Billings, & Halone, 2002;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Rainville & McCormick, 1977;Rainville, Roberts, & Sweet, 1978). Rowe (2007) found that these descriptions matter: The stereotypes used by media professionals significantly affect how the public perceives athletes of different races. ...
... Yet when one race is often referred to one way and another in a different way, bias reveals itself and stereotyping occurs. More important, when people of different races, regardless of circumstance, are consistently labeled differently, the public begins to believe these differences and will stereotype accordingly (Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). While this does not result in overt racism, it can potentially lead to a more implicit and therefore more damaging type of racism. ...
This study experimentally tested whether White participants ( N = 274) applied stereotypes to Black and White professional quarterbacks. Using common stereotypical descriptors established in prior research, this between-subjects experiment found that while the participants did not stereotype White quarterbacks, they did apply the stereotypes of “physically strong” and “naturally gifted” to Black quarterbacks, thus othering, or using race to establish an out group. These results are interpreted through the framework of social-identity theory.
... Some of this scholarship has focused on the context of athletics, where race and media regularly converge in important and complex ways (Whannel, 1992). For example, research has uncovered evidence of racial stereotyping in media coverage of collegiate athletics (e.g., Eastman & Billings, 2001;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005), professional athletics (e.g., Eagleman, 2009;Rainvill & McCormick, 1977), and the Olympic games (e.g., Billings & Angelini, 2007;Billings & Eastman, 2003). These studies generally find that commentators stereotype Black athletes as ''born athletes'' (Staples & Jones, 1985;Whannel, 1992), whereas White athletes are more often described as having superior intelligence and determination (Birrell, 1989;McCarthy & Jones, 1997). ...
... Denham, Billings, and Halone (2002) found that during the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments Black athletes were more likely to be praised for athletic ability and physical strength than for any other sports-ability descriptor. Rada and Wulfemeyer's (2005) content analysis of collegiate football and basketball had similar results. ...
Applying Social Identity Theory and Linguistic Intergroup Bias to the analysis of mediated sports commentary, this study examines racial bias surrounding the National Football League draft. A content analysis of 41 mock drafts—amounting to more than 1,300 descriptions of individual athletes—revealed significant differences in how commentators discussed White and non-White athletes. In particular, commentators more often described White athletes and in-group athletes in terms of mental traits, but described non-White athletes and out-group athletes in terms of physical traits. Additionally, in-group athletes were talked about in more abstract terms, consistent with Linguistic Intergroup Bias.
... esim. Billings, 2004;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005) ja sukupuolieroihin (ks. esim. ...
Television urheiluselostukset paitsi kuvaavat kenttätapahtumia, myös tulkitsevat ja arvottavat niitä rakentaen uutta todellisuutta kielellisillä valinnoillaan. Urheiluselostus on kielenkäyttötilanteena nopeatempoinen ja affektiviinen, mikä tekee siitä omaleimaisen ja arvokkaan tutkimuskohteen. Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee suomalaisen urheiluselostuksen arvottavaa diskurssia. Tutkimus on tehty sattumanvaraisesti valituista kuudestatoista palloilulajin lähetyksestä, joiden selostukset olen litteroinut. Olen jäsennellyt aineistossa esiintyvää arvottamista suhtautumisen teorian avulla, ja havaintojen syvempään tarkasteluun sovellan diskurssianalyysia. Tutkimuksessa havaitsin, että urheiluselostusten diskurssi oli sävyltään erittäin positiivista ja onnistumisia korostavaa. Samaan aikaan diskurssi korosti runsaasti yksilöä ja tämän kyvykkyyttä, kun taas tunnepuhe jäi aineistoissa niukaksi. Suora negatiivinen arvottaminen kohdistettiin lähinnä tekoihin ja asioihin ja vain harvoin ihmisiin. Diskurssin pääpiirteet olivat yhtenevät sekä miesten että naisten sarjojen selostuksissa, mutta hienovaraisempi tarkastelu nosti esiin myös eroja sukupuolten esittämisen välillä.
... Extant scholarship also demonstrates that the predominance of white men in the sports media industry has impacted the way athletes of color-and race and systemic racism, in and of themselves-are all covered and portrayed. Previous research has explored the prevalence of racialized descriptors and stereotypes employed by sports television commentators (Billings, 2004;Bruce, 2004;Eastman & Billings, 2001;Lewis et al., 2020;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;van Sterkenburg et al., 2019), televised and written coverage of multiracial athletes (Billings, 2003;Deeb & Love, 2018), and race as a marker in the selection of imagery used in print coverage of Olympic athletes (Hardin et al., 2004). The existing research has also explored racial stereotypes and bias in coverage of college football recruits (Love et al., 2021), as well as in news coverage of specific athletes and their behavior on and off the field of play (Crowe, 2021;Douglas, 2012;Lorenz & Murray, 2014;Rugg, 2019). ...
This content analysis uses media framing theory to explore and compare the rate at which NFL beat writers discussed race in their coverage of the 2020 and 2021 NFL head coach hiring cycles, a perennial process that has historically maintained the statistical overrepresentation of white men among the league’s head coaches. The study of the articles (N = 374) found significant year over year increases in 2021 in both the percentage of all sampled articles overall that mentioned race and in the percentage of stories that mentioned race after a team’s head coach was hired. This study’s findings suggest that, while NFL beat writers are unsurprisingly likely to avoid using race to frame their coaching search stories, their willingness to include race in their reporting may be increasing. Given increased calls for the NFL to address its lack of Black head coaches, sportswriters’ (un)willingness to include race in their reporting of coaching searches has become increasingly relevant. Given this study’s results, we therefore call for further qualitative and longitudinal quantitative studies to more definitively investigate these results as a sustained (and sustainable) phenomenon.
... The privilege includes, amongst other things, that having a white skin colour is often associated with specific normative and desirable traits such as leadership, perseverance and intelligence. It is those qualities that are also often seen as valuable to achieve a successful career and obtain higher positions in various fields such as academia, business and politics Racial stereotypes and ethnic diversity (Rada and Wulfemeyer, 2005). White privilege also means that White people often do not see themselves as "raced" and are able to ignore or deny existing racial discrimination without being affected by such denial or ignorance (Reitman, 2006). ...
Purpose
The aim of this article is to examine how professionals within Dutch sports media give meaning to racial/ethnic diversity in the organization and reflect on the use of racial stereotypes in sports reporting.
Design/methodology/approach
Ten in-depth interviews with Dutch sports media professionals have been conducted to obtain the data. Respondents had a variety of responsibilities within different media organizations in the Netherlands. The authors used thematic analysis supplemented with insights from critical discourse analysis to examine how sports media professionals give meaning to racial/ethnic diversity and the use of racial/ethnic stereotypes.
Findings
The following main themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: (1) routines within the production process, (2) reflections on lack of diversity on the work floor and (3) racial/ethnic stereotyping not seen as an issue. Generally, journalists showed paradoxical views on the issue of racial/ethnic diversity within sport media production dismissing it as a non-issue on the one hand while also acknowledging there is a lack of racial diversity within sport media organizations. Results will be placed and discussed in a wider societal and theoretical perspective.
Originality/value
By focussing on the under-researched social group of sport media professionals in relation to meanings given to race and ethnicity in the production process, this research provides new insights into the role of sports media organizations in (re)producing discourses surrounding race/ethnicity in multi-ethnic society and the operation of whiteness in sports media.
... This portrayal often per vades sports depictions. Sports news and commentary frequently depicts Blacks as unintelligent or dumb, yet naturally talented athletes (Angelini, Billings, MacArthur, Bissell, & Smith, 2014;Primm, DuBois, & Regoli, 2007;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). However, these same sports outlets portray White athletes as intelligent while lacking in athleticism. ...
... Several scholars analyzed sports media framing to understand issues like the characterization and perceptions of race and gender (e.g. Angelini & Billings, 2010;Billings & Angelini, 2007;Giacobbi & DeSensi, 1999;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Wensing & Bruce, 2003). Media framing has not gone unnoticed in sport, where, 'Sports journalists can and do employ various frames that emphasize specific content in their stories' (Lewis & Weaver, 2013, p. 219). ...
Winter activities, such as outdoor skating are arguably part of Canada’s identity; however, due to changing social, political, legal, economic, and environmental factors, one component of winter activities that is in jeopardy is the outdoor rink. The purpose of this study was to explore the media framing surrounding issues within media articles regarding outdoor rinks in Canada as it pertains to national identity and place meaning theory. This paper utilized the computer program – Leximancer – to facilitate a review of media frames contained within 65 newspaper and online news articles. Seven frames and five sub-frames depicting the public discussion about the state of outdoor rinks and their use in Canada were identified. Media frames were grouped into place meaning categories of: Place Characteristics, Socialization within a Place, and Activities that have Place Meaning. The meanings discussed here can inform policy and management wherein attempts are made to balance public and private access to outdoor rinks and the inherent issues faced by a hockey passionate culture.
... In addition to interpersonal communication, mass media are a powerful transmitter of stereotypic characteristics associated with categories (Arendt, 2013;Ramasubramanian, 2011;Ramasubramanian & Oliver, 2007). For instance, television announcers covering professional football and basketball have been shown to subtly induce associations by more frequently emphasizing athleticism of African-American players, while emphasizing intellectual abilities and character traits of White players (Billings, 2004;Eastman & Billings, 2001;Rada, 1996;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). These and other types of biased representations in media content of different categories have an effect on recipients. ...
FULL TEXT HERE (open access): http://rcommunicationr.org/index.php/articles/volume-7-2019
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Language use plays a crucial role in the consensualization of stereotypes within cultural groups. Based on integrative review of the literature on stereotyping and biased language use, we propose the Social Categories and Stereotypes Communication (SCSC) framework. The framework integrates largely independent areas of literature, and explicates the linguistic processes through which social-category stereotypes are shared and maintained. We distinguish two groups of biases in language use that jointly feed and maintain three fundamental cognitive variables in (shared) social-category cognition: perceived category entitativity, stereotype content, and perceived essentialism of associated stereotypic characteristics. These are: (1) Biases in linguistic labels used to denote categories, within which we discuss biases in (a) label content and (b) linguistic form of labels; (2) Biases in describing behaviors and characteristics of categorized individuals, within which we discuss biases in (a) communication content (i.e., what information is communicated), and (b) linguistic form of descriptions (i.e., how is information formulated). Together, these biases create a self-perpetuating cycle in which social-category stereotypes are shared and maintained. The framework allows for a better understanding of stereotype maintaining biases in natural language. We discuss various opportunities for further research.
... While many of these studies refer to in-game descriptions of athletes, they are still cultural descriptors that place players within larger cultural frameworks based on race and would thus work to guide and inform off-field representations of athletes (L. R. Davis & Harris, 2002;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Van Sterkenburg, Knoppers, & De Leeuw, 2010). ...
This article critically examines the media coverage surrounding National Football League (NFL) player James Harrison in 2010 and 2011. In 2009, medical research linking hits to the head and the Alzheimer’s-like condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy prompted the league to institute rule changes to limit violent tackles. Harrison was repeatedly punished by the league office and criticized by sports media outlets for his violent tackles and recalcitrant attitude. Guiding both the discipline and media coverage of Harrison are narratives rooted in a neoliberal logic situating the existence of and responsibility for football violence within the individual decisions of football players. Intensifying these narratives is the NFL and its media partners’ invocation of discourses of Black criminality to construct the most damaging moments of football violence as unsanctioned acts that operate “outside the game.” This invocation serves to place the authority over the judgment and legitimation of football violence within the White corporate morality of the league’s offices and its media partners, allowing them to preserve the sport’s central place in producing and maintaining dominant American masculinities through football violence while casting off the responsibility for the consequences of that violence to the footballing bodies that administer and receive it.
... None of these stereotypes, by themselves, are decidedly negative. If Black and White athletes are consistently described differently, though, an insidious result occurs: People think of the athletes differently completely dependent on race, not on actual ability or traits (Lewis & Weaver, 2015;Mok & Chih, 2015;Page, Duffy, Frisby, & Perreault, 2016;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). Rowe (2007) found that the manner in which journalists and broadcasters stereotype athletes based on race significantly affects how people perceive athletes of different races. ...
This experiment tested stereotypes and message credibility associated with Black and White quarterbacks. Participants were asked to rate quarterbacks based on stereotypes identified in previous literature and then were asked to rate the credibility of stereotype-consistent or inconsistent messages. The study found that participants stereotyped both races, but Black participants actually stereotyped more strongly. Only messages concerning stereotype-consistent descriptors of White quarterbacks were rated as more credible. These results are interpreted based on social identity theory.
... Serena (and Venus Williams to a lesser extent) has experienced a myriad of racist treatments, from being praised primarily for her physical gifts and having her mental and technical strengths downplayed to close scrutiny of her fashion choices (Brooks, forthcoming;Douglas, 2002Douglas, , 2005Schultz, 2005;Spencer, 2001Spencer, , 2004. Rada and Wulfemeyer (2005) studied television commentators talk while covering college sports and found that White players received a disproportionate share of positive character comments and Blacks received more negative comments. Similarly, Billings, Halone, and Denham (2002) conducted a content analysis of professional football commentary and found that the performances of Black and White athletes were often reduced to physical gifts, with Black success being attributed to their physical superiority and White failure understood as a result of their natural physical deficits. ...
Sports are no longer simply extracurricular activities. For many children, sports are curricular, central to their identity, development, and peer and familial relationships. However, sport scholars and sociologists spend little time trying to learn and understand the huge growth in youth sports participation and even less attention to the role of race in youth sports. Sociology could offer much more, but suffers from what James McKee calls () “the failure of a perspective” with regard to studying and understanding race, racism, and race relations. Critical Race Theory can help to extend the coverage of youth sports to include more input from Youth and of Scholars of Color. In this article, we review a current debate in the sociology of youth sports, which illustrates the gap in understanding the experiences of youth of color and Black athletes in particular. And, we provide solutions and ideas for future research.
... A long shot that exposes a broad range is used to establish place and time as well as the relationship of the location to the objects [23,24]. Compared to the long shot, the full shot gives the audience an opportunity to recognize to some degree the character of a person along with some spatial information. ...
Narrative scene editing is carried out by directors as an eidetic technique. Continuity editing is a style of editing used in film making to make films as realistic as possible for the audience. While non-continuity editing (e.g., flashbacks, jump cuts, montages, etc.) is also a critical factor that reflects the character of a director, most scenes demand continuity editing to maximize the audience’s narrative immersion. In this paper, we present an algorithm for continuity editing that determines the size of a shot (field of view) by evaluating the psychical distance between the characters and viewers via the measurement of electrodermal activity (or the galvanic skin response). The use of this continuity editing algorithm is expected to result in more audience-friendly videos by reflecting the level of identification between the actors and the audience.
... One stereotype consistently identifi ed by research concerning sports is the juxtaposition of brawn (Blacks) versus brains (Whites) (e.g., Billings, 2003Billings, , 2004Rainville, Roberts, & Sweet, 1978). While both intelligence and physical strength may at fi rst appear positive, bias reveals itself when these stereotypes are examined through the prism of race (Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). ...
Prior content analyses of sports coverage have revealed sports journalists ascribe particular adjectives to athletes based on race. A recurring pattern is the brain-versus-brawn dichotomy. In a 2 (race: Black versus White player) x 2 (description: consistent versus inconsistent stereotype) x 2 (source: journalist vs. blogger) within-subjects experiment, we empirically tested if the same set of stereotypes holds true among those exposed to these media stereotypes. Using both implicit (response latency) and explicit (credibility rating) measures, we found a consistent pattern of stereotyping Black athletes. Stereotypes were activated most quickly by a stereotypical description of a Black athlete. A journalist was also rated most credible when stereotypically describing a Black athlete.
... The brute stereotype was observed in the interracial interactions between Black athletes and White leaders. Unfortunately, these stereotypes are pervasive in American and commonplace within the context of sport (Cranmer, Bowman, Chory, & Weber, 2014;Eagleman & Martin, 2013;Hoberman, 1997;Mercurio & Filak, 2010;Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005;Smith, 2009). In the film, these beliefs informed White leaders' game strategy and served as a means to rebuke and control Black athletes. ...
Media has long been regarded as influential in shaping and alter-ing individuals’ perceptions of race and interracial interactions.The following article examinesRemember the Titans (Bruckheimer& Yakin, 2000) as a communicative text using critical race theory as an interpretive lens. This framework facilitated the examination of pervasive stereotypes and systematic oppression that privilegesWhites. In particular, this article considers issues of leadership and interracial interactions within the context of sport. The authors’ findings contribute to the heuristic nature of critical race theory by identifying a visual text that is reflective of a time in U.S. history where racial tensions were high and a Black male in a leadership role in sport was anomaly; thus, we offer further evidence that film can function as an educational tool designed to improve media literacy and raise awareness of social injustices, with the goal of improving the social realities of people of color.
(15) (PDF) Shot in Black and White: Visualized Framing in ESPN’s The Body Issue. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304356080_Shot_in_Black_and_White_Visualized_Framing_in_ESPN%27s_The_Body_Issue [accessed Sep 21 2020].
... As stated previously, the social identity perspective has been applied to understanding identity construction in sport contexts (e.g., Bryant & Cummins, 2010). Overall, this work finds that sport is an important venue to understanding identity construction, and that mediasport texts are rich with identity-based themes and images (e.g., Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005), particularly those themes tied to national identity (e.g., Jiang, 2013). Sporting contexts that are on the international stage, including the Olympics and the World Cup, are particularly ripe for national identity (re)construction (Billings et al., 2015;Meân, 2010), as research suggests that one's national in-group is typically prominently featured in said coverage (Billings & Angelini, 2007). ...
Drawing on the literature on American nationalism and the social identity perspective, this study examines the effects of mediasport on nationalized attitudes, using both rhetorical and experimental approaches. First, a rhetorical analysis examined the nationalistic themes featured in the game promotional ad of the United States versus Ghana soccer match in World Cup 2014, linking these themes to the republicanism/liberalism paradox in American political thought. Using the social identity perspective, we predicted the effects of these themes on U.S. participants’ nationalized attitudes and tested our hypotheses using an experiment. Experimental findings indicate that exposure to nationalistic rhetoric indirectly increases uncritical patriotism, critical patriotism, and support of militarism attitudes via self-enhancement gratifications. Additionally, exposure to nationalistic rhetoric also indirectly influences uncritical patriotism via social uncertainty reduction gratifications. Our study demonstrates the utility of a mixed-method approach and points out directions for future research on the (re)construction of social identities through mediasport.
... Black athletes have been argued to receive comparatively harsher public scrutiny of perceived transgressions than White athletes, both in terms of quantity and intensity of judgment (Mocarski & Billings, 2014). Furthermore, Rada and Wulfemeyer (2005) suggest that media commentary is inevitably tinged by elements of race, with Black athletes receiving increased media scrutiny compared to White athletes (Mastro et al., 2012). Scholarship has explored this dichotomous relationship, yet professionals and scholars know comparatively little about races beyond Black/White binaries, uncovering even less about how different response strategies interact within such divisions. ...
This study examines the extent to which an athlete’s race impacts the image repair process within media-filtered athlete transgressions by utilizing a 5 (race) × 3 (response strategy) factorial experiment and employing Benoit’s (1995) image repair typology. Reponses from a national sample of 215 participants revealed that, independent of race, the mortification strategy was more effective for repairing an athlete’s image compared to reducing offensiveness and evading responsibility strategies, supporting current image repair studies. This study also revealed that the athlete in the White condition was uniformly viewed as being less successful than four other racial conditions (Asian, Black, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern) in achieving image repair, a new result within this stream of image repair scholarship. Conclusions related to social identity theory and expectancy violation are rendered.
Scholars have long worked to explore the existence of race-based stereotypes and narratives within sports media. Video game scholars share in this curiosity of understanding the extent to which racial stereotypes are being embedded into games and the role that they may play in cultivating or perpetuating racial stereotypes among their players. Utilizing framing and schema theories as a guide for understanding the media’s role in developing stereotypes, the present study conducted a content analysis of player data present in EA SPORTS’ FIFA 22 to investigate whether racial stereotypes were being embedded in the most popular sports video game (SVG) title through its player attributes. Each athlete represented in the game is given a 0–99 rating across a total of 35 attributes with the intention of reflecting the player’s real-life ability in these areas. Through an analysis of the avatar’s skin tones alongside their respective values for each of the attributes selected for analysis, the study found significant differences between athletes of different skin tones across nearly all of the attributes present that reinforce the Brain vs Brawn narratives scholars have located in many sporting contexts. Conclusions and suggestions of next steps are discussed.
As highly visible organizations, professional sports teams provide a context to examine the reproduction of racial hierarchies over time. This study analyzes racial segregation/integration in the NFL between 1960 and 2020. Using data from 20,357 players, we examine the racial composition of positions in the field and how these patterns influence career length. Our analysis reveals three distinct patterns of segregation/integration over time: cumulative hyper-segregation in high-risk positions, durable segregation in high-prestige positions, and integration in hybrid positions. We consider the implications of these findings for theory and research on racialized organizations as well as for the lives of players.
This research investigates whether stereotypes activated by common media portrayals of Black athletes that emphasize physicality influence social judgments outside the sporting context. Results of a 2 (athlete race) X 2 (athlete frame) between-subjects experiment indicated that when an athlete was framed in terms of physical attributes, participants evaluated a suspect in a subsequent news story based on overlapping qualities related to criminality, regardless of athlete race. However, when an athlete was described in terms of their mental skills, physical qualities were more likely to be ascribed to a Black athlete and to impact evaluations of the crime suspect.
Two survey studies, one with a college sample (Study 1, n = 245) and one with a national U.S. adult sample (Study 2, n = 590) examined how media messages can influence attitudes toward Black people in the U.S. A novel contribution is the role of Bounded Generalized Reciprocity, or the belief that members of an outgroup are likely to return a favor (positive), or enact retribution for a wrong (negative) as a factor in the relationship between television use and attitudes. Study 1 (college student sample) found support for a relationship between lifetime television exposure and negative attitudes, mediated by negative reciprocity beliefs. Study 2 (U.S. adult sample) found support for an ambivalence effect, where lifetime television exposure was associated with increases in both positive and negative reciprocity beliefs. This indicates that reciprocity beliefs can be cultivated similarly to other kinds of beliefs (e.g., crime frequency, mean world), and that these beliefs have downstream relationships with racial attitudes. The direction in which they are influenced by television use remains an open question, and likely depends on TV content patterns over time.
The inaugural season of the National Basketball Association–supported Basketball Africa League (BAL) featured 12 teams from the African continent, competing in a Champions League-style competition. This brand-new professional endeavor featured player rosters mandated to feature a certain number of players from each of the countries in which the individual teams were based, with rosters also including a small number of foreign players. Proceeding from a Framing Theory paradigm, two coders examined the broadcasts of the BAL competition, analyzing for descriptors including physicality, intelligence, nationality, and experience. Most descriptors pertained to athlete success or failure, with significant findings for most descriptors between nationalities. Ideas for future research are also discussed.
This study explores the meanings given to race/ethnicity by Polish commentators covering games of the Polish national football team on TV. There will be an explicit focus on how such patterns of representation might intersect with those given to national identities in the context of international football. Our analysis reveals that commentators habitually reproduce the racialized stereotype of the ‘natural Black athlete’, particularly in the representation of Black African football players. White players remain more ‘invisible’ in the commentary, yet also here the intersection with national or wider regional backgrounds inflects the patterns of representation. For instance, White Portuguese and White Bosnian players are represented in a fashion that suggests they are placed outside of hegemonic Polish understandings of White (sporting) masculinity. This reveals the contingency and complexity of discourses of Whiteness in the Polish context. The findings reveal that the normativity of European Whiteness is also reflected in the meanings given to Polishness by the commentators, which are imbued with notions of psychological (masculine) Whiteness.
The explosion of Black Lives Matter protests in the mid-2010s rendered visible state violence against Black Americans, producing a barrage of images and videos of lethal police violence and the protests that followed. These images served as a powerful site of contestation about the meaning of race and racism in the United States for both movement supporters and critics. We examine these dynamics through the lens of media coverage of the pivotal 2014 killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson and the protests that followed in Ferguson, MO. Drawing from literatures on race, visuality, and media studies, we explore how media outlets pictured the killing of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson, either resisting or reproducing the white racial frame through the selection of images in their coverage. We analyze the images in digital media coverage across nine ideologically diverse media outlets in the month after Brown’s death and the month following the non-indictment of Officer Wilson. Across 1,303 articles, we show that most sites did not center images of violence against Brown, preferring instead images of Brown’s life and, more commonly, protesters and law enforcement. While we found few consistent differences in image categories preferred across outlets’ ideological profiles, the specific content and tone of these images starkly diverged, with liberal sites choosing humanizing images of Brown and protesters and conservative sites favoring criminalizing images. We conclude by considering the role media images play in mediating perceptions of race and racism.
Throughout history, water as a tool for racialized oppression has been in constant evolution. From utilizing water as a passage to transport slaves, to using fire hoses as a form of punishment toward Black people, liquified racism is a concept we coined to represent past and present racial discrimination through the use of water. In this paper, we conducted a critical content analysis of the USA swim team and the swim team pages of the top ten Division I men’s and women’s college swimming programs to uncover how liquified racism is prominent within these contexts. Findings suggest that Blackness is racialized, tokenized, and perpetually silenced on swimming websites. We argue that Black individuals lacking representation in this sport, along with discourse surrounding competitive swimming, ultimately promotes whiteness, racial hierarchies, and an illusion of postracism.
During a Week 8 post-game press conference in the 2016 season, NFL quarterback Cam Newton explicitly criticized the officiating crew of the game for not calling penalties on late hits that he felt put his safety at risk. This study analyzes the media responses that followed, identifying the evaluations made of Newton’s claim and the arguments media personalities presented in justifying those evaluations. We found the majority of statements provided support, both for Newton’s claims and his right to speak out. However, in both statements of support and dismissal, references to size dominated the discourse, reducing Newton to his physical abilities and perpetuating the brain versus brawn dichotomy, which is applied along racial lines to athletes. We argue reliance on this stereotype allows race to be an implicit factor in assessing athletes but never an explicit topic of discussion. At issue is not only that differences exist in how reporters talk about Black and White athletes, but also that these differences have evolved from racial biases obscured through the use of the stereotype, which we argue functions as a value hierarchy. Further, we argue that the continued use of such stereotypes can have significant impacts on player safety and agency.
Over the past several years, color-blind rhetoric has permeated public discourse around the subject of race in U.S. society. In this color-blind world, race is either a thing of the past or something we can choose to ignore. One location of such rhetoric is in sports. This mixed-methods study offers a rare examination of color-blind rhetoric among 365 college students at a Division I school that is a part of one of the power conferences. We administered a 20-question multiple-choice and open-ended survey accessing students’ views about race in college football and its athletes. Our open-coded responses were consistent with Bonilla-Silva’s color-blind racism frames. The frames students use are consistent with previous work that suggests that they envision a world in which overt attention to race is secondary to traditional aspects of American life, such as work ethic, meritocracy, individualism, and cultural differences. This color-blind emphasis works to encourage students to take to heart that race does not warrant inclusion in explaining college sports.
Significant research depicts the implications of sport’s role in racial formation located mainly in the ‘Global North’. Yet, there has been less attention afforded to the related role of sport in the ‘Global South’, particularly in divided societies, where the consequences of sports’ influence on ethno-racial relations, are also significant. This study relies on empirical evidence gathered during an in-depth exploration into the role of soccer and rugby in Fijian intergroup relations. Sport is analysed as an arena that not only plays host to ethno-racial groupings but one which is also instrumental in their maintenance and reimagining. In Fiji at least, the organisation and positioning of sport in popular culture and discourse means that it becomes an emblematic sphere, active in the reconfirmation and preservation of ethno-racial division. Through this discussion, this study contributes to sport and racial formation theory, widening the gaze to diverse and divided socio-cultural settings.
Colorism research often suffers from endogeneity issues related to human capital outcomes and researchers’ inability to compare the effects of skin tone to those of racial classification. Furthermore, colorism research focuses on intraracial differences in skin tone inequality while insufficiently considering skin tone inequality across racial groups. Using data from video broadcasts of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s annual, single-elimination Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament for the years 2000–2010, we quantitatively examine comments made by announcers about the performance, physical characteristics, and mental characteristics of players across various skin tones. Controlling for objective measures of performance, we find that announcers are more likely to discuss the performance and mental abilities of lighter-skinned players and the physical characteristics of darker-skinned players. We argue that, although the two concepts are related, skin tone is not simply a proxy for racial classification. Rather, skin tone inequality transcends traditional racial boundaries.
This study examined 681 male athlete features in Details, Esquire, GQ, and Playboy across the first two decades of the 21st century. While White athletes accounted for 283 features and Black athletes 329, the former were featured in 35 of 43 sports observed, compared to just 14 for the latter. In fact, more than 80% of all features on Black athletes focused on basketball, football, and boxing. Latino athletes accounted for 52 of the 681 total features and represented 15 sports, one more than African Americans. Recognizing existing research, the study applies the term mediated sport stacking to the practice of limiting the Black athletic experience primarily to team sports, especially basketball. The article considers the implications of statistical patterns observed and also includes limitations and recommendations for future research.
This research examines the effects of racial stereotypes embedded within sports media. An experiment was conducted to examine the impact of racialized “brawn” and “brain” frames on perceptions of student-athletes among their potential peers. College student participants (N = 232) were exposed to one of eight versions of a news article about a college football recruit that manipulated the athlete’s race (White vs. Black) and the frame used to describe him (brawn vs. brain vs. mixed vs. control). Results showed a college admittance essay was evaluated more positively when the author was a Black athlete compared to a White athlete. In addition, the brawn frame elicited lower levels of social attraction and greater athlete stereotype endorsement compared to all other frames. No interaction effects were revealed. These findings suggest that how the media frame student-athletes affects expectations of their academic performance, which has practical implications for interpersonal dynamics between student-athletes and their peers, as well as public perceptions of student-athletes writ large.
The present study used framing theory to analyze reports and articles from 1998 through 2016 offered by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and various newspapers to analyze the relationship between social-control agents and how they speak to specific audiences (e.g., public and NCAA members) about instances of misconduct by Division I members. The concept of conflict framing (i.e., frame alignment, counterframing, and reframing) is featured. The research demonstrated that episodic framing is more widespread than thematic framing, but it is used differently for specific audiences. The study also found that thematic framing is highly correlated with the normative approach and confirms that media outlets used assorted conflict-framing strategies (e.g., frame alignment, counterframing, and debunking) to emphasize that information on cases was false, incomplete, correct, or filtered. Different uses regarding precedent are also acknowledged, along with coverage concerning the type of institution and location of newspaper (i.e., local or national).
Five studies demonstrate that athletic praise can ironically lead to infrahumanization. College athletes were seen as less agentic than college debaters (Studies 1 and 2). College athletes praised for their bodies were also seen as less agentic than college athletes praised for their minds (Study 3), and this effect was driven by bodily admiration (Study 4). These effects occurred equally for White and Black athletes (Study 1) and did not depend on dualistic beliefs about the mind and body (Study 2), failing to provide support for assumptions in the literature. Participants perceived mind and body descriptions of both athletes and debaters as equally high in praise (Study 5), demonstrating that infrahumanization may be induced even if descriptions of targets are positively valenced. Additionally, decreased perceptions of agency led to decreased support for college athletes' rights (Study 3).
Relying on cultural transmission, social identity and self-categorization theories, this study uses an innovative two-part photo-pasting and survey method to investigate quantitatively and qualitatively non-fans’, fans’ and players’ assumptions about what positions black and white players should occupy in American football. Both white and black players and fans showed evidence of being cultural transmitters of racial ideologies associated with the quarterback position in American football. Overall, the respondent choices for quarterback diverged significantly from equality but not significantly from the reality of the National Football League. Players and fan and non-fan participants alike showed evidence of being cultural consumers and transmitters of racial ideologies associated with the quarterback position. Narrative reasons for player choices aligned with past literature about racial stereotypes. On most measures, the findings did not differ greatly among the institutions from which study participants were drawn, their diversity in geography, racial composition, ideology, athletic division and public–private status notwithstanding.
Under the guidance of social categorization theory (SCT), this project analyzed news coverage of steroid use in major league baseball (MLB), and fans’ perceptions of three players indicted for using steroids—Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro—should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Study 1 results revealed that widespread attention was given to issues of legality with fewer reports regarding the health costs of using steroids between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2011, with Bonds receiving the most negative coverage for his alleged use. Study 2 examined fans’ support of Bonds, McGwire, and Palmeiro’s pending Hall of Fame inductions by drawing from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and cultivation theory. The results revealed that player likability, similarity, attitudes, and subjective norms predicted support for each player with differences emerging between each player. The results are discussed with an emphasis on how SCT was used to intersect the health, media effects, and race literatures.
An experiment investigates the impact of fan identification on the cognitive and emotional processing of sports-related news media. Two coaches were featured; one conceptualized as negatively valenced the other positively. Participants completed as fan identification scale prior to stimuli presentation. While watching the press conferences, heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator muscle activity were recorded as indices of cognitive resource allocation, emotional arousal, and aversive motivation activation respectively. Self-report measures were collected after each stimulus. Results show that highly identified fans process sports-related news content differently than moderate fans, allocating more cognitive resources and exhibiting greater aversive reactions to the negatively valenced coach. Comparisons between the self-report and psychophysiology data suggest that the latter may be less susceptible to social desirability response bias when emotional reaction to sports messages are concerned.
A content analysis of a random sample of television news aired in Los Angeles and Orange Counties was undertaken to assess representations of Whites, Blacks, and Latinos as crime victims. Intergroup comparisons (Black vs. White and Latino vs. White) revealed that Whites are more likely than African Americans and Latinos to be portrayed as victims of crime on television news. Interrole comparisons (perpetrator vs. victim) revealed that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be portrayed as lawbreakers than as crime victims, whereas the reverse is true of Whites. Interreality comparisons (television news vs. crime reports) revealed that Whites are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Blacks are neither overrepresented nor underrepresented as homicide victims on television news compared to crime reports. Conversely, African Americans are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Caucasians are neither overrepresented nor underrepresented as perpetrators on television news. Whites appear to be overrepresented as victims, whereas Blacks are relegated to roles as perpetrators and Latinos are largely absent on television news. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
The aim of the study was to analyze whether the language used by television commentators during the coverage of domestic English soccer matches differed according to the race of the player. It was hypothesized that the English television medium constructed negative images of the Black domestic soccer player through the descriptive narratives and metaphors adopted. The methodology was composed of a verbal content analysis (as used by Sabo and colleagues). The analysis centered on the identification and categorization of positive and negative commentator remarks. The categories were (a) players and their performances, (b) physical characteristics of players, and (c) psychological characteristics of players. Although Black players were depicted positively in each of the defined categories, evidence of covert racial stereotyping was found in the excessive positive depictions related to the physicality of the Black players and the psychological characteristics of the White players.
Recent research has moved beyond the mere documentation of implicit stereotypes to consider how these measures relate to attitudes and predict behaviors. Little is known, however, about the basic psychometric properties of these measures. The present research includes three studies that provide evidence for test-retest reliability of implicit stereotypes when supraliminal priming of associated traits precedes a group categorization decision (Experiments 1 and 2) and when subliminal presentation of a group member precedes a decision about trait applicability (Experiment 3). Across the studies, significant evidence of implicit racial and gender stereotyping was obtained. These effects showed moderate test-retest reliability of comparable levels from 1 hour to 3 weeks. Implications of these findings for the use of implicit measures are considered.
“The rape of Mike Tyson”; offers two, quite different meanings. The 1992 trial and conviction resulting from Tyson's attack on Desiree Washington provided a site for the press to enact an even broader drama that violated, degraded and debased the boxer. This paper looks closely at press depictions of Tyson and argues that this larger drama of degradation shaped and was shaped by subtle racist stereotypes. The press coverage of Tyson then is used to consider the entrenchment of racist reporting in the news, the implication of the press in modern racism, and leads finally to a larger discussion of the symbolic types by which and with which the press portrays people of color.
The words of sportscastersrepeated hundreds, even thousands, of times by different announcers in similar waysprovide a conceptual frame for the sports experience, and that mental frame has particular importance because fans often apply it to nonathletic situations. Contrary to assertions by some critics, analysis of 1,156 descriptors in sportscaster commentary during 66 televised men's and women's college basketball games showed no significant difference between the proportions of commentary and proportions of participating Black and White men players, but showed some overemphasis in comments about White women players. Predictably, Black men players tended to be stereotyped as naturally athletic, quick, and powerful, while White men players continued to be touted for their hard work, effort, and mental skill. The same racial stereotypes also appeared in the commentary about women basketball players, but few gender stereotypes emerged. Thus, increases in the numbers of Black and women game announcers may have lent balance to quantities of coverage by race and gender, but traditional racial stereotypes continue to pervade sports commentary even when gender stereotypes appear to be diminishing.
Three studies tested basic assumptions derived from a theoretical model based on the dissociation of automatic and controlled processes involved in prejudice. Study 1 supported the model's assumption that high- and low-prejudice persons are equally knowledgeable of the cultural stereotype. The model suggests that the stereotype is automatically activated in the presence of a member (or some symbolic equivalent) of the stereotype group and that low-prejudice responses require controlled inhibition of the automatically activated stereotype. Study 2, which examined the efforts of automatic stereotype activation on the evaluation of ambiguous stereotype-relevant behaviors performed by a race-unspecified person, suggested that when subjects' ability to consciously monitor stereotype activation is precluded, both high- and low-prejudice subjects produce stereotype-congruent evaluations of ambiguous behaviors. Study 3 examined high- and low-prejudice subjects' responses in a consciously directed thought-listing task. Consistent with the model, only low-prejudice subjects inhibited the automatically activated stereotype-congruent thoughts and replaced them with thoughts reflecting equality and negations of the stereotype. The relation between stereotypes and prejudice and implications for prejudice reduction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although most research on the control of automatic prejudice has focused on the efficacy of deliberate attempts to suppress or correct for stereotyping, the reported experiments tested the hypothesis that automatic racial prejudice is subject to common social influence. In experiments involving actual interethnic contact, both tacit and expressed social influence reduced the expression of automatic prejudice, as assessed by two different measures of automatic attitudes. Moreover, the automatic social tuning effect depended on participant ethnicity. European Americans (but not Asian Americans) exhibited less automatic prejudice in the presence of a Black experimenter than a White experimenter (Experiments 2 and 4), although both groups exhibited reduced automatic prejudice when instructed to avoid prejudice (Experiment 3). Results are consistent with shared reality theory, which postulates that social regulation is central to social cognition.
This article challenges the highly intuitive assumption that prejudice should be less likely in public compared with private settings. It proposes that stereotypes may be conceptualized as a type of dominant response (C. L. Hull, 1943; R. B. Zajonc, 1965) whose expression may be enhanced in public settings, especially among individuals high in social anxiety. Support was found for this framework in an impression formation paradigm (Experiment 1) and in a speeded task designed to measure stereotypic errors in perceptual identification (Experiment 2). Use of the process dissociation procedure (B. K. Payne, L. L. Jacoby, & A. J. Lambert, in press) demonstrated that these effects were due to decreases in cognitive control rather than increases in stereotype accessibility. The findings highlight a heretofore unknown and ironic consequence of anticipated public settings: Warning people that others may be privy to their responses may actually increase prejudice among the very people who are most worried about doing the wrong thing in public.
This investigation examined the beliefs of college students regarding specific stereotypes about African American athletes and about college student-athletes. Beliefs about intelligence, academic integrity, and academic competitiveness among male college student-athletes, as well as assumptions about intelligence, academic preparation, style of play, competitiveness, physical superiority, athletic ability, and mental temperament in African American athletes, were investigated. A fixed alternative questionnaire was administered to 869 graduate and undergraduate students. The findings indicate that white and male students believe that athletes are not as intelligent as the typical college student and that they take easy courses to maintain their eligibility and that African American athletes are not academically prepared to attend college, are not as intelligent and do not receive as high grades as white athletes, and are generally temperamental. African American and female students believe that African Ame...
This paper suggests that sport sociology may be ready to move from a generally atheoretical approach to “race and sport“ to a critical analysis of racial relations and sport. Four theoretical groups are identified from the writing of racial relations scholars: bias and discrimination theories, assimilation and cultural deprivation theories, materialist and class-based theories, and culturalist or colonial theories. In the past, studies of race and sport have fit within the former two theories. A cultural studies approach that blends the latter theories is advocated in order to move toward the goal of critical theory and develop a comprehensive model for analyzing the complex of relations of dominance and subordination simultaneously structured along racial, gender, and class lines.
This special issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition addresses issues of the measurement and the malleability of implicit prejudice and stereotypes. The findings raise fundamental questions about the assumptions underlying the assessment of implicit prejudice, particularly with regard to the widely used Implicit Association Test (A. Greenwald, D. McGhee, & J. Schwartz, 1998) and the assumption of extant models of prejudice and stereotyping that implicit biases are automatically and invariantly activated when perceivers come in contact with members of stigmatized groups. Several of the articles show that contextual manipulations produce reductions in implicit manifestations of prejudice and stereotyping. The articles in this issue, in challenging conventional wisdom, are thought provoking and should be generative in the field's ongoing efforts to understand the role of implicit (and explicit) processes involved in prejudice and stereotyping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The book is a historical and comparative ana]ysis of African American portrayal and participation in the mass media in the United States.
This study examines the amount of coverage given to women's athletics by the nation's two nightly sports news/highlights programs: ESPN SportsCenter and CNN Sports Tonight. The two programs were found to devote only about five percent of their air time to women's sports. Other measures, such as story placement and use of on‐camera comments also indicated an emphasis on men's athletics. The stories about women involved individual competition, with almost no attention given to women's team sports.
This study examined gender differences in the audience experience with televised sports. Men and women were expected to approach, observe, and respond to sports programming in different ways. Telephone interviews were conducted with 400 adults residing in Los Angeles and 307 adults residing in Indianapolis. Gender differences were tested using covariate analyses controlling for demographic attributes, favorite sport, and interest in viewing television sports. More than women, men responded like fans, even with initial levels of interest controlled. Social norms as well as varying household responsibilities may account for many of the differences uncovered.
Blaming outgroups for social problems is a common discursive practice. However, it is not clear whether this discourse represents ethnocentric bias or realistic group conflict. To compare these explanations, the authors studied 14 weeks of local television news on three stations in Philadelphia. The authors found that persons of color were heavily presented in stories about crime, and within those stories were more likely to be presented as perpetrators of crime than as persons reacting to or suffering from it. An analysis using recent homicide rates in Philadelphia and a rational model of expected victimization indicated that contrary to a realistic-conflict explanation, White actors were overpresented as victims of violence compared to their roles as perpetrators, and persons of color were overpresented as perpetrators of violence against White actors. These patterns were consistent with the hypothesis that the news media engage in a discourse of ethnic blame that is independent of realistic group conflict.
This study examines the amount of coverage given to women’s events and female athletes by NBC at the Centennial Olympic Games. Content analysis showed that women were covered extensively, but that coverage of women concentrated on individual sports such as swimming, diving, and gymnastics to the exclusion of team events. Men’s team competitions received substantially more coverage than did women’s team events, and women in sports that involved power or hard physical contact between athletes received almost no attention. Additionally, many more men were used as on-camera sources and most event announcers were male.
This study used both qualitative and quantitative analyses to discern whether the narratives, metaphors, framing devices, and production practices in televised international athletic events differed by the race, ethnicity, or nationality of athletes. About 340 hours of videotapes of 7 televised international athletic events were used to study key aspects of production: (a) commentator descriptions of 161 athletes in 31 competitions, (b) 30 personal interviews drawn from 3 of the events under study, and (c) 5 opening and closing segments that commonly unify themes and metaphors and that produce the look of an event. Six major findings include the following: (a) efforts were made to provide fair treatment of athletes, (b) the treatment of race and ethnicity varied across productions, (c) little evidence of negative representations of Black athletes, (d) representations of Asian athletes drew on cultural stereotypes, (e) representations of Latino-Hispanic athletes were mixed, and (f) nationalistic bias was evident.
This research sought to examine the relationship between television news portrayals of African Americans and subsequent behavioral responses toward African Americans. While this research was not able to clearly illuminate the specific link between portrayal and behavior, this research is able to suggest a model for future studies into such relationships.
Research into the portrayal of African Americans in the media shows that nearly 30 years after the Kerner Commission Report, the media still portray African Americans inaccurately and stereotypically. A cursory examination of television coverage of professional sports would lead one to believe that equality and objectivity have been achieved in this arena. African American announcers and reporters cover the games, and praise seems to be awarded on the basis of performance. However, numbers on the field and in the booth may not mean equal representation in the way players are portrayed. This research seeks to determine if there is racial bias in television's coverage of America's most popular sport—football.A Biased Coverage Index (BCD was developed to test for announcer bias in television coverage of professional football during the 1992 season. The study found that announcers emphasized the athleticism of African American players and the cognitive abilities of White players. This results in the portrayal of African American players as merely athletic, while more positive intellectual and character traits were attributed to White players.
Researchers have shown that news discourse contains images, episodes, themes, and vocabulary that comprise a negative portrayal of Blacks. But evidence linking news media content to Whites' racial policy opinions has lacked clear specification of the opinion formation process and mechanisms of news media influences on such process. This study mimics Whites' reasoning process via a causal model involving ideological orientations, affect toward Blacks, assessment of situations of racial inequality, and causal attributions of the inequality. The characteristics of this reasoning process may be affected by the news media in several ways. By analyzing the National Election Study (NES) 1990 Post-Election Survey data, this study examines how Whites' reliance on ideological principles or affect in forming their opinions is contingent on news media exposure. The data show that increased information-oriented media use enhances the role of ideological orientation and, possibly, causal attributions in Whites' racial policy reasoning.
Chronicles the representation of Blacks on television since the 1950s, focusing on their stereotyping as entertainers, athletes and criminals. Discusses the positive effect of the Bill Cosby Show, the negative effect of Mr. T, and television's role in reinforcing White supremacy. Also considers the impact of television on Blacks. (RDN)
Two experiments showed that framing an athletic task as diagnostic of negative racial stereotypes about Black or White athletes can impede their performance in sports. In Experiment 1, Black participants performed significantly worse than did control participants when performance on a golf task was framed as diagnostic of "sports intelligence." In comparison, White participants performed worse than did control participants when the golf task was framed as diagnostic of 'natural athletic ability." Experiment 2 observed the effect of stereotype threat on the athletic performance of White participants for whom performance in sports represented a significant measure of their self-worth. The implications of the findings for the theory of stereotype threat (C. M. Steele, 1997) and for participation in sports are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined the role of anticipated-interaction instructions on memory for and organization of social information. In Study 1, Ss read and recalled information about a prospective partner (i.e., target) on a problem-solving task and about 4 other stimulus people. The results indicated that (a) Ss recalled more items about the target than the others, (b) the target was individuated from the others in memory, and (c) Ss were more accurate on a name–item matching task for the target than for the others. Study 2 compared anticipated interaction with several other processing goals (i.e., memory, impression formation, self-comparison, friend-comparison). Only anticipated-interaction and impression formation instructions led to higher levels of recall and more accurate matching performance for the target than for the others. However, the conditional probability data suggest that anticipated interaction led to higher levels of organization of target information than did any of the other conditions. Discussion considers information processing strategies that are possibly instigated by anticipated-interaction instructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Winner of the Frank Luther Mott Award for best book in Mass Communication and the Robert E. Lane Award for best book in political psychology. Living in a segregated society, white Americans learn about African Americans not through personal relationships but through the images the media show them. The Black Image in the White Mind offers the most comprehensive look at the intricate racial patterns in the mass media and how they shape the ambivalent attitudes of Whites toward Blacks. Using the media, and especially television, as barometers of race relations, Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki explore but then go beyond the treatment of African Americans on network and local news to incisively uncover the messages sent about race by the entertainment industry-from prime-time dramas and sitcoms to commercials and Hollywood movies. While the authors find very little in the media that intentionally promotes racism, they find even less that advances racial harmony. They reveal instead a subtle pattern of images that, while making room for Blacks, implies a racial hierarchy with Whites on top and promotes a sense of difference and conflict. Commercials, for example, feature plenty of Black characters. But unlike Whites, they rarely speak to or touch one another. In prime time, the few Blacks who escape sitcom buffoonery rarely enjoy informal, friendly contact with White colleaguesâperhaps reinforcing social distance in real life. Entman and Rojecki interweave such astute observations with candid interviews of White Americans that make clear how these images of racial difference insinuate themselves into Whites' thinking. Despite its disturbing readings of television and film, the book's cogent analyses and proposed policy guidelines offer hope that America's powerful mediated racial separation can be successfully bridged.
This special issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cogniition addresses issues of the measurement and the malleability of implicit prejudice and stereotypes. The findings raise fundamental questions about the assumptions underlying the assessment of implicit prejudice, particularly with regard to the widely used Implicit Association Test and the assumption of extant models of prejudice and stereotyping that implicit biases are automatically and invariantly activated when perceivers come in contact with members of stigmatized groups. Several of the articles show that contextual manipulations produce reductions in implicit manifestations of prejudice and stereotyping. The articles in this issue, in challenging conventional wisdom, are thought provoking and should be generative in the field's ongoing efforts to understand the role of implicit (and explicit) processes involved in prejudice and stereotyping.
An investigation of campus stereotypes: The myth of Black athletic superior-ity and the dumb jock stereotype Sport in society: Equal opportunity or business as usual? (pp. 193–202) The structure and organization of memory
- G A Sailes
Sailes, G. A. (1996). An investigation of campus stereotypes: The myth of Black athletic superior-ity and the dumb jock stereotype. In R. Lapchick (Ed.), Sport in society: Equal opportunity or business as usual? (pp. 193–202). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Squire, L. R., Knowlton, B., & Musen, G. (1993). The structure and organization of memory. An-nual Review of Psychology, 44, 453–495.
Race and ethnicity in U.S. sports media
- L R Davis
- O Harris
Davis, L. R., & Harris, O. (1998). Race and ethnicity in U.S. sports media. In L. Wenner (Ed.), Mediasport (pp. 154–169). London: Routledge.
Blacks and White TV? African Americans in television since More bull from Billy. Sports Illustrated
- J Macdonald
- Wadsworth
- J Mccallum
- R Brien
MacDonald, J. (1992). Blacks and White TV? African Americans in television since 1948 (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. McCallum, J., & O'Brien, R. (1998, March 30). More bull from Billy. Sports Illustrated, 88(13), 29. McCarthy, D., & Jones, R. L. (1997).
Culture, ideology and African American television im-ages. The Black Scholar
- R Staples
- T Jones
Staples, R., & Jones, T. (1985, May/June). Culture, ideology and African American television im-ages. The Black Scholar, pp. 10–20.
Darwin's athletes: How sport has damaged Black America and preserved the myth of race
- J Hoberman
Hoberman, J. (1997). Darwin's athletes: How sport has damaged Black America and preserved the myth of race. New York: Mariner.
Question of race; debate over whether Black athletes are superior to Whites is not a new one
- E Almond
Almond, E. (1989, April 28). Question of race; debate over whether Black athletes are superior to Whites is not a new one. Los Angeles Times, p. C3. Birrell, S. (1989). Racial relations theories and sport: Suggestions for a more critical analysis. So-ciology of Sport Journal, 6, 212–227.
Packer, Tompkins both get caught up in all the madness. Los An-geles Times Stereotype threat effects on Black and White athletic performance
- L Stewart
Stewart, L. (1990, March 30) Packer, Tompkins both get caught up in all the madness. Los An-geles Times, p. C3. Stone, J., Lynch, C., Sjomeling, M., & Darley, J. (1999). Stereotype threat effects on Black and White athletic performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1213–1227.
The media image of sport and gender
- M C Duncan
- M A Messner
Duncan, M. C., & Messner, M. A. (1998). The media image of sport and gender. In L. Wenner (Ed.), Mediasport (pp. 170–186). London: Routledge.
The Greek's apology is difficult to accept
- M Wilbon
Wilbon, M. (1988, January 17). The Greek's apology is difficult to accept. Washington Post, p. D1.
Calling the plays in Black and White
- D Jackson
Jackson, D. (1989, January 22). Calling the plays in Black and White. Boston Globe, pp. A25, A28.
Sport, power and culture
- J Hargreaves
Hargreaves, J. (1986). Sport, power and culture. Oxford, England: Polity.
Media treatment of female athletes: Issues of gender and sexualities
- M J Kane
- H J Lenskyj
Kane, M. J., & Lenskyj, H. J. (1998). Media treatment of female athletes: Issues of gender and sexualities. In L. Wenner (Ed.), Mediasport (pp. 186–201). London: Routledge.
Primetime blues: African Americans on network television
- D Bogle
Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities
- O Holsti
March 30) Packer, Tompkins both get caught up in all the madness
- L Stewart