annual conference 2012
Sport Politics, Identity and the Media, Southampton Solent University
The 6th annual conference, held on 24 February 2012, was the first to explicitly address identity and the media. Over thirty delegates attended to listen to fourteen interesting and thought-provoking papers.
The conference began with a panel on ‘Sport and Social Identity’. Dr John Harris (Glasgow Caledonian University) - pictured, right - commenced with a presentation of ‘An (extra)ordinary Joe: identity politics, media narratives and the noble art’. The paper looked at arguably one of the greatest British boxers, Joe Calzaghe, and how his many different mixed identities contributed to his struggle for recognition in both the media, and amongst some in the boxing community, like Bernard Hopkins, who played on Calzaghe’s identity before a bout in what Harris thought was seen as ‘acceptable racism’ by the media. He also drew on an element of personal experience to speak of how the Welsh as a nation are often defined by sport and sporting performance, and as a result remain hidden in many areas.
The conference began with a panel on ‘Sport and Social Identity’. Dr John Harris (Glasgow Caledonian University) - pictured, right - commenced with a presentation of ‘An (extra)ordinary Joe: identity politics, media narratives and the noble art’. The paper looked at arguably one of the greatest British boxers, Joe Calzaghe, and how his many different mixed identities contributed to his struggle for recognition in both the media, and amongst some in the boxing community, like Bernard Hopkins, who played on Calzaghe’s identity before a bout in what Harris thought was seen as ‘acceptable racism’ by the media. He also drew on an element of personal experience to speak of how the Welsh as a nation are often defined by sport and sporting performance, and as a result remain hidden in many areas.
Professor Eric Anderson (University of Winchester) - pictured, left - gave a highly charismatic and entertaining talk on ‘Head Trauma and Changing Masculine Narratives in the NFL’. He argued that there has been a ‘softening’ of traditional sporting masculinity, linked with a decreasing degree of homophobia. His case study, of an NFL game where Quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a concussion and his teammate, Donald Driver, told him to sit the rest of the game out because his health was more important, was a good example of his theory in action, and the textual analysis of the event in the American press, was revealing of this ‘softening’ of the masculine dominance in sport. Anderson speculated that as the NFL, the masculine pinnacle, changes its rules to make the sport safer, so other sports will follow, addressing what is becoming an increasingly crucial public health issue.
Dr Carly Stewart (Cardiff Metropolitan University) looked at the academic use of sporting autobiographies in her paper: ‘Sporting autobiographies: embodiment and identity formation: a resource for narrative enquiry’. She argued that autobiographies were of more use than many academics perceived, and that the ‘mindless athlete stereotype’ was out of date in many cases. It was said that these books provide a unique and whole illumination of the private world of many sports stars, although there was a highlighted inequality between the genders in terms of bestselling, and best written books, with male autobiographies being by far the more popular. The case study of female boxer Jane Couch’s book was a fascinating one to use as it was a violent, shocking, candid account of her life, which appeared to provide good evidence of a female sport star whose agressive 'male outlook' challenged identities of the female athlete's body and its uses.
The ensuing questions seemed to focus on this male hegemony that appears to dominate sport, both in professional participation and in the media coverage of it. References to the acceptance of homosexuality in sport and the continued undermining of female sporting achievements were common themes.
The first keynote speaker of the conference was Professor Kath Woodward (Open University) who presented on the subject of ‘The Sexual Politics of Boxing: Affect and Sensation’, with a keen look at the recent events involving David Haye and Derek Chisora included in the study. The lack of female representation in a ‘love it or hate it’ sport was a particular theme, while also highlighted were the racialization and ethnicisation of the sport. She argued that boxing was dominated by male culture and that women simply ‘performed’ this male culture, which prohibits any female ‘heroes’ in boxing as they are parodying the stories that made the male boxers heroes. The paper then went on to look at the press conference brawl between Haye and Chisora, and how the antics outside the ring are both an ‘affect’ of boxing and masculine culture, but also create a ‘sensation’ for all those watching, whether it be excitement or repulsion. The political issues of boxing have always been along the lines of race, ethnicity, poverty and violence, but the question was raised that while there are rules in the ring, are there unwritten ‘masculine’ rules outside of it?
After a short coffee break, the second panel of the day began, with Rachael Bullingham (University of Winchester) giving a presentation on the media reaction to Ellen MacArthur’s round the world sailing record. It was a revealing paper that showed a real gender bias in the male-dominated media, with sexualisation, infantilisation, ambivalent/extraneous commentary and trivialisation all common themes in articles written about someone who had just completed a great sporting feat. The coverage seemed to indicate a real lack of comprehension and malice against MacArthur that a male sailor probably would not have received.
Dr Jason Tuck (University of Winchester) then took to the stage to present his paper on ‘Blazing saddles in Beijing: newspaper representations of the Team GB Olympic Track Cycling Team.’ He argued that the media constructs culture and identity of sportspeople and nations through shared conceptual and linguistic maps, a construction that will be recreated for London 2012, using mostly masculine imagery and context. He then used Wordle to illustrate exactly how this occurs, with textual analysis of the media coverage of Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton’s cycling successes on the track in Beijing, revealing yet more examples of the male dominated media and its almost sexist portrayal of each athlete’s victories. The concept of a ‘velo-dramatic’ identity was then given, and a warning with it, that if identity was fuelled by commercial investment, like that of Sky in cycling, then sport and sporting identities would be welded to corporate involvement, and would therefore need money from the commercial side to stay ahead of the game.
The second keynote speaker, Professor Andy Miah (University of the West of Scotland) then gave an exceptionally visual presentation on his project, #Media2012, in his paper: ‘Citizen Journalism & the London 2012 Olympic Games: ambush media, celebrating humanity & political resistance’. With the games becoming more and more of a commercial enterprise, and even journalists’ accreditation counting towards IOC profit, the rise of social media has given 10,000,000 in this country alone, the opportunity to become ‘citizen journalists’, reporting on what is going on around the event. This ability promotes dialogue about the good and bad of the Olympiad, and challenges that the Olympics are an exclusive zone for only those who pay for the privilege. He also alluded to the fact that the commercial reach of the Olympics is even further than many would think, with athletes now being commercial property, carrying banners and slogans of promotion, and LOCOG being tighter with their control of the use of any associations with London 2012 than any previous Olympiad.
The third panel session of the day followed on nicely from Andy Miah’s talk, being under the umbrella theme of ‘Olympic Politics’. Dr Thomas Carter (University of Brighton) looked at the army of migrating workers that travel wherever the Olympic Games go for work, and especially his two case studies: ‘Reggie’ and ‘Maria’. It was a frank look into the often unromantic and difficult lives of migrant workers, who have to deal with issues of mobility, visibility, alienation and the risk and cost to family, the effect on the subjects’ relationships were particularly interesting to observe, and added a real human element to this piece of academic research.
Sadie Hollins (UCLAN) then presented her paper, which offers insight into the environmental impact of the hosting of the Olympic Games on Olympic host Boroughs. The presentation looked into the issues that are so often publicised, such as sustainability, especially in the current economic climate, and legacy. Location issues were also flagged up, especially those around the ‘Olympic route network’ that could cause serious congestion problems around London’s boroughs. Hollins noted that, during her research, it was becoming more and more evident that environmental issues were beginning to take a back seat, or be discarded totally due to the economic situation that the country was going through.
Thirdly, Jennifer Jones (University of the West of Scotland) picked up where Andy Miah left off, and returned to theme of social media and its role in subverting the course of justice. Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, it was argued, were beginning to disrupt the dominant media hierarchy and create an alternative sphere from which events such as the Olympic Games, could be covered from, and by ‘citizen journalists’, not by the journalists who have to pay for the privilege. The tension between the established media and the general public who have access to social media was highlighted, and the ‘Occupy’ movement, it was argued, embodies these tensions, and is a protest from which social media has the power to spread stories and messages, communicating them to the wider world. The argument required that future research into the effects of digital culture on the future of the Olympics must provide an understanding of who occupies these spheres of influence, the motivation to self- or co-produce media content and dominant narrative that is associated with discussion relating to alternative media contexts and sporting events.
The conference concluded with a four-paper panel under the heading of ‘Football, Identity and the Media’, and began with Dr Peter Millward’s (Durham University) contemporary look at ‘Racism and hysteria in the traditional social media’, taking the recent Luis Suarez incident as a convenient case study. Points made included the massively overblown media coverage of the event, referring to Baudrillard’s ‘Phoney War’, and the distortion created by social media involvement meaning that all sensible voices on the issue were drowned out by hysterical extremism on the racism issue. He also highlighted the influence of Sky Sports News, saying it was both willing and encouraging discourse on these incidents and issues simply as it gained the channel viewers in its twentyfour hour news cycle.
Next, John McManus (Green Templeton College, Oxford) presented his ongoing paper on ‘Transnational football fans and social media: the case of Besiktas’, where he looked at the global fan network of the Turkish club Besiktas, and how they linked through social media and promoted their various ‘sects’ of supporters online. These groups, called ‘Carsi (name of place/country etc)’ created a transnational community based around the football club, a community that communicated through Facebook, which, in turn, helped the brand of the fan group due to its immediacy. He ended by saying how social media was now challenging the conceptions of identity space and time, by making it possible to instantaneously communicate with anyone across the globe.
Dr Jim O’Brien, one of the organisers of the conference at Southampton Solent University, gave a talk on his paper: ‘El Classico and the demise of tradition in Spanish club football; perspectives on shifting cultural identities’, which was an in-depth look at the historical, political and social dimension behind the famous Barcelona vs Real Madrid match. The concern in today’s culture is one that while the Catalan culture has remained strong, it is far more difficult to assess what exactly is ‘madridista’ apart from a strong anti-Catalan, anti-Basque feeling, something that is reflected in the playing squads of both teams, with Barcelona nurturing young talent through its regional academy, and Real Madrid buying talent from abroad and throughout Spain. He spoke of the unresolved questions that remain in Spanish society, questions of nationhood, ethnicity and identity, questions that football in the country often reflects the answers to.
The final presentation of the day was made by Dr David Ranc (Essca) researching football supporters’ identification with foreign players in Europe. He looked at the questions whether football supporters or national press were inherently xenophobic, or whether heroes of supporters could be foreigners. His studies of Celtic and Arsenal especially seem to show that this is not the case in terms of supporters being xenophobic toward their own teams’ players, but when another club had foreign players, this xenophobia reared its head, a form of jealousy perhaps? He also thought that the identities of clubs were fluid and could change according to media influence, and that media narratives were central to the creation of the identity of a sporting club, especially in England.
Congratulations must go to the organisers of this conference, Dr Russell Holden (In the Zone Sport Politics Consultancy/Southampton Solent University), Dr Jim O'Brien (Southampton Solent University) and Dr Paul Gilchrist (University of Brighton), for bringing together such a thought provoking set of speakers, who presented topical, contemporary papers that are sure to fuel debate for a long time going forward.
Report by Michael White, BA(Hons) Sport Journalism undergraduate, Southampton Solent University
Conference programme
Abstracts and speaker biographies
Dr Carly Stewart (Cardiff Metropolitan University) looked at the academic use of sporting autobiographies in her paper: ‘Sporting autobiographies: embodiment and identity formation: a resource for narrative enquiry’. She argued that autobiographies were of more use than many academics perceived, and that the ‘mindless athlete stereotype’ was out of date in many cases. It was said that these books provide a unique and whole illumination of the private world of many sports stars, although there was a highlighted inequality between the genders in terms of bestselling, and best written books, with male autobiographies being by far the more popular. The case study of female boxer Jane Couch’s book was a fascinating one to use as it was a violent, shocking, candid account of her life, which appeared to provide good evidence of a female sport star whose agressive 'male outlook' challenged identities of the female athlete's body and its uses.
The ensuing questions seemed to focus on this male hegemony that appears to dominate sport, both in professional participation and in the media coverage of it. References to the acceptance of homosexuality in sport and the continued undermining of female sporting achievements were common themes.
The first keynote speaker of the conference was Professor Kath Woodward (Open University) who presented on the subject of ‘The Sexual Politics of Boxing: Affect and Sensation’, with a keen look at the recent events involving David Haye and Derek Chisora included in the study. The lack of female representation in a ‘love it or hate it’ sport was a particular theme, while also highlighted were the racialization and ethnicisation of the sport. She argued that boxing was dominated by male culture and that women simply ‘performed’ this male culture, which prohibits any female ‘heroes’ in boxing as they are parodying the stories that made the male boxers heroes. The paper then went on to look at the press conference brawl between Haye and Chisora, and how the antics outside the ring are both an ‘affect’ of boxing and masculine culture, but also create a ‘sensation’ for all those watching, whether it be excitement or repulsion. The political issues of boxing have always been along the lines of race, ethnicity, poverty and violence, but the question was raised that while there are rules in the ring, are there unwritten ‘masculine’ rules outside of it?
After a short coffee break, the second panel of the day began, with Rachael Bullingham (University of Winchester) giving a presentation on the media reaction to Ellen MacArthur’s round the world sailing record. It was a revealing paper that showed a real gender bias in the male-dominated media, with sexualisation, infantilisation, ambivalent/extraneous commentary and trivialisation all common themes in articles written about someone who had just completed a great sporting feat. The coverage seemed to indicate a real lack of comprehension and malice against MacArthur that a male sailor probably would not have received.
Dr Jason Tuck (University of Winchester) then took to the stage to present his paper on ‘Blazing saddles in Beijing: newspaper representations of the Team GB Olympic Track Cycling Team.’ He argued that the media constructs culture and identity of sportspeople and nations through shared conceptual and linguistic maps, a construction that will be recreated for London 2012, using mostly masculine imagery and context. He then used Wordle to illustrate exactly how this occurs, with textual analysis of the media coverage of Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton’s cycling successes on the track in Beijing, revealing yet more examples of the male dominated media and its almost sexist portrayal of each athlete’s victories. The concept of a ‘velo-dramatic’ identity was then given, and a warning with it, that if identity was fuelled by commercial investment, like that of Sky in cycling, then sport and sporting identities would be welded to corporate involvement, and would therefore need money from the commercial side to stay ahead of the game.
The second keynote speaker, Professor Andy Miah (University of the West of Scotland) then gave an exceptionally visual presentation on his project, #Media2012, in his paper: ‘Citizen Journalism & the London 2012 Olympic Games: ambush media, celebrating humanity & political resistance’. With the games becoming more and more of a commercial enterprise, and even journalists’ accreditation counting towards IOC profit, the rise of social media has given 10,000,000 in this country alone, the opportunity to become ‘citizen journalists’, reporting on what is going on around the event. This ability promotes dialogue about the good and bad of the Olympiad, and challenges that the Olympics are an exclusive zone for only those who pay for the privilege. He also alluded to the fact that the commercial reach of the Olympics is even further than many would think, with athletes now being commercial property, carrying banners and slogans of promotion, and LOCOG being tighter with their control of the use of any associations with London 2012 than any previous Olympiad.
The third panel session of the day followed on nicely from Andy Miah’s talk, being under the umbrella theme of ‘Olympic Politics’. Dr Thomas Carter (University of Brighton) looked at the army of migrating workers that travel wherever the Olympic Games go for work, and especially his two case studies: ‘Reggie’ and ‘Maria’. It was a frank look into the often unromantic and difficult lives of migrant workers, who have to deal with issues of mobility, visibility, alienation and the risk and cost to family, the effect on the subjects’ relationships were particularly interesting to observe, and added a real human element to this piece of academic research.
Sadie Hollins (UCLAN) then presented her paper, which offers insight into the environmental impact of the hosting of the Olympic Games on Olympic host Boroughs. The presentation looked into the issues that are so often publicised, such as sustainability, especially in the current economic climate, and legacy. Location issues were also flagged up, especially those around the ‘Olympic route network’ that could cause serious congestion problems around London’s boroughs. Hollins noted that, during her research, it was becoming more and more evident that environmental issues were beginning to take a back seat, or be discarded totally due to the economic situation that the country was going through.
Thirdly, Jennifer Jones (University of the West of Scotland) picked up where Andy Miah left off, and returned to theme of social media and its role in subverting the course of justice. Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, it was argued, were beginning to disrupt the dominant media hierarchy and create an alternative sphere from which events such as the Olympic Games, could be covered from, and by ‘citizen journalists’, not by the journalists who have to pay for the privilege. The tension between the established media and the general public who have access to social media was highlighted, and the ‘Occupy’ movement, it was argued, embodies these tensions, and is a protest from which social media has the power to spread stories and messages, communicating them to the wider world. The argument required that future research into the effects of digital culture on the future of the Olympics must provide an understanding of who occupies these spheres of influence, the motivation to self- or co-produce media content and dominant narrative that is associated with discussion relating to alternative media contexts and sporting events.
The conference concluded with a four-paper panel under the heading of ‘Football, Identity and the Media’, and began with Dr Peter Millward’s (Durham University) contemporary look at ‘Racism and hysteria in the traditional social media’, taking the recent Luis Suarez incident as a convenient case study. Points made included the massively overblown media coverage of the event, referring to Baudrillard’s ‘Phoney War’, and the distortion created by social media involvement meaning that all sensible voices on the issue were drowned out by hysterical extremism on the racism issue. He also highlighted the influence of Sky Sports News, saying it was both willing and encouraging discourse on these incidents and issues simply as it gained the channel viewers in its twentyfour hour news cycle.
Next, John McManus (Green Templeton College, Oxford) presented his ongoing paper on ‘Transnational football fans and social media: the case of Besiktas’, where he looked at the global fan network of the Turkish club Besiktas, and how they linked through social media and promoted their various ‘sects’ of supporters online. These groups, called ‘Carsi (name of place/country etc)’ created a transnational community based around the football club, a community that communicated through Facebook, which, in turn, helped the brand of the fan group due to its immediacy. He ended by saying how social media was now challenging the conceptions of identity space and time, by making it possible to instantaneously communicate with anyone across the globe.
Dr Jim O’Brien, one of the organisers of the conference at Southampton Solent University, gave a talk on his paper: ‘El Classico and the demise of tradition in Spanish club football; perspectives on shifting cultural identities’, which was an in-depth look at the historical, political and social dimension behind the famous Barcelona vs Real Madrid match. The concern in today’s culture is one that while the Catalan culture has remained strong, it is far more difficult to assess what exactly is ‘madridista’ apart from a strong anti-Catalan, anti-Basque feeling, something that is reflected in the playing squads of both teams, with Barcelona nurturing young talent through its regional academy, and Real Madrid buying talent from abroad and throughout Spain. He spoke of the unresolved questions that remain in Spanish society, questions of nationhood, ethnicity and identity, questions that football in the country often reflects the answers to.
The final presentation of the day was made by Dr David Ranc (Essca) researching football supporters’ identification with foreign players in Europe. He looked at the questions whether football supporters or national press were inherently xenophobic, or whether heroes of supporters could be foreigners. His studies of Celtic and Arsenal especially seem to show that this is not the case in terms of supporters being xenophobic toward their own teams’ players, but when another club had foreign players, this xenophobia reared its head, a form of jealousy perhaps? He also thought that the identities of clubs were fluid and could change according to media influence, and that media narratives were central to the creation of the identity of a sporting club, especially in England.
Congratulations must go to the organisers of this conference, Dr Russell Holden (In the Zone Sport Politics Consultancy/Southampton Solent University), Dr Jim O'Brien (Southampton Solent University) and Dr Paul Gilchrist (University of Brighton), for bringing together such a thought provoking set of speakers, who presented topical, contemporary papers that are sure to fuel debate for a long time going forward.
Report by Michael White, BA(Hons) Sport Journalism undergraduate, Southampton Solent University
Conference programme
Abstracts and speaker biographies
