Sport, Racism and Social Media

Racist abuse may at one time have been hurled across the sports stadium or scrawled on a wall. But in today’s social media world it can be published to millions, from almost anywhere, in an instant.

Sport, Racism and Social Media provides the first significant, academic account of how social media is shaping the nature of racisms in sport. Among the questions it addresses are:

• How, and why, is racism being expressed across different social media platforms and sporting contexts?
• To what extent is social media providing new platforms for traditional prejudices or actually creating new forms of racism?
• How can campaigners, authorities and individuals best challenge and counter these forms of racism?

Combining analysis of social media content with in-depth interviews with athletes, fans, campaigners and officials, and including extensive case studies of soccer, boxing, the NHL, the NBA, and cricket, the book provides important new insights on a familiar but ever changing story. It is essential reading for any student, researcher, media professional, administrator or policy-maker with an interest in sport, new media or the issue of racism in wider society.

Neil Farrington was a multi award-nominated UK sports journalist with 18 years’ experience of covering international, national and regional sport, including the Olympic Games and football World Cup. He is now a Senior Lecturer in Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, UK.

Lee Hall is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Sunderland, UK. He was formerly digital editor at the Sunderland Echo after a long spell working in magazines which included editing national newsstand videogames titles. He continues to write about the games industry for publications such as Edge.

Daniel Kilvington is Associate Lecturer in Media at the University of Sunderland, UK. His recent PhD analysed the reasons for the lack of Asian professional footballers playing in the UK today.

John Price is Senior Lecturer and programme leader for BA (hons) Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, UK. He is a former regional newspaper journalist.

Amir Saeed is an online tutor at the University of Leicester, UK and was until recently the Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Media, Culture and Communication at the University of Sunderland, UK. His research interests are in ‘race’, racism and Islamophobia.