Talking football: Discourses about race/ethnicity among Spanish youth

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that sports media and televised football in particular are sites where ideas about race/ethnicity are (re)produced. However, less is known about how audiences deal with these messages: do they assume these ideas are true or do they negotiate them and if so, how? Using cultural studies as our theoretical framework, we conducted 14 focus groups among Spanish youth and asked them to reflect on ideas about race/ethnicity while talking about football. Results show that interviewees had difficulty in talking about race/ethnicity and that they not only reproduced dominant discourses about race/ethnicity but also negotiated other discourses. Interviewees also described Spanish sports media as sensationalistic and money driven.