Racism in Football - A News Package Analysis Based on our Live Broadcast

Tackling Racism | Sky Sports News | Full programme

We decided to do our live outside broadcast or OB about specifically racism in football because we thought it was an interesting and a very relevant topic that our target audience would be interested in. This broadcast itself is based on racism as a whole but in our OB we will be focusing on primarily the racism that happens in football because we thought focusing on racism in general would be too much of a broad topic. In this news broadcast, I liked the variety of shots they did interviewing members of the public in different places around the stadium which they were filming at because I think that it gave the whole broadcast a different variety of places to see when interviewing the public.

I liked the visual that Sky Sports used to show the percentage of people experiencing racist chanting, slurs or singing at a football, which came to 86% according to the news broadcast. I think the visual itself gave the broadcast a lot of depth and meaning as the text itself is very bold and in dark colours to make it stand out to the white colours of the stadium background. Additionally, I also liked the statistic itself as it was very valid and admittedly a lot of a higher number than what I anticipated. This statistic makes the members of the public or watchers watching the program think about their actions.

In terms of distinguishing facts and opinions in this particular news broadcast, because this news broadcast was primarily interviews of the public and professionals, I would argue that this news broadcast is predominantly more opinions than facts even though the facts used are arguably very valid and make the whole broadcast very professional. With regards to bias used in this broadcast, there was none that really stood out to me. Some opinions I noticed when Sky Sports were talking to the public about if someone reported some racial abuse to the police would they think the police would do anything about it and most of them said no or they would like to see something be done about it but never had. I find that very appalling because it should be the police's right to want to make members of the public safe and happy in the society they live in.

An activist called Jazlyn Geiger, who is 21 years old, told BBC News that "fear of a bad encounter with the police lives in the mind of every African American. "It makes me think my life can be taken at any given time, just because I have brown skin, because I'm black, because since I was a little girl I've seen the way black people in America are treated and all over the world. It's a really unsettling state of mind to be in."" (BBC News, 2020)

I agree with Geigers statement here as I think it is wrong that people like Jazlyn don't feel very welcome in the society we live in today as I believe in equality for everyone regardless of race, gender etc. One shocking event which I think set the social bar for racism for members of the public was the George Floyd murder that happened outside of a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. A former white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pulled Mr Floyd out of the police cars passengers seat, with Mr Floyd's hands handcuffed and onto the road behind the car, with Mr Floyd lying on the floor, and placed his left knee between Mr Floyd's head and neck, leaving Mr Floyd unable to breathe. After the incident, he was announced dead later on in the evening. 

His death set wave for an uprise in racism protests, and his death also had a massive toll on the football community. Tom Ince, an English professional footballer who currently plays as a Midfielder foe Stoke City F.C. told Sky Sports: "Racism has nothing to do with football and it's something that really needs to be looked at moving forward because football is about football, not whether a player is black or white." (Ince, 2020) 

According to The National Academic Press, Chapter 4 on page 56 they state that: "discrimination can include more than just direct behaviour (such as the denial of employment or rental opportunities); it can also be subtle and unconscious (such as nonverbal hostility in posture or tone of voice). Furthermore, discrimination against an individual may be based on overall assumptions about members of a disadvantaged racial group that are assumed to apply to that individual (i.e., statistical discrimination or profiling). Discrimination may also occur as the result of institutional procedures rather than individual behaviours." (National Academies Press, 2004). This is the exact message that we are trying to implement in the Sans Vanitas broadcast, that discrimination and racism is wrong and should be dealt with.

Bibliography:

National Research Council (2004). Measuring Racial Discrimination. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z_Nd-wkuijU2EtF7hE3cu2VT3AhNs6kt/view?usp=sharing. (Accessed on 12/10/21)

Sky Sports. (n.d.). George Floyd protests a turning point in fight against racism, says Nigel Reo-Coker. [online] Available at: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12001648/george-floyd-protests-a-turning-point-in-fight-against-racism-says-nigel-reo-coker. (Accessed 12/10/2021)

US election 2020: Why racism is still a problem for the world’s most powerful country. (2020). BBC News. [online] 30 Oct. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54738922. (Accessed on 12/10/2021).