Televised men’s football is a key source for entertainment reaching millions of people. It is also one of the most visibly mixed ethnic cultural practices. Numerous studies have shown how football journalists draw on a discourse of ‘enlightened racism’: Black footballers are associated with bodily qualities but not with domains that require intelligence. It remains unknown, though, how these discourses come about. We therefore need to shift the research focus towards the journalists who produce the football coverage. The research question guiding the project is: How do discourses of race/ethnicity play a role in televised football production and how are these discourses articulated at the nexus of televised football content and audience receptions? The vast majority of football journalists is white but little is known about the intersection of whiteness and the meanings journalists give to racial/ethnic diversity of players. The project will supplement a focus on the production process with an examination of televised football content and audience receptions This three-fold focus will provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of televised football in meanings given to race/ethnicity. This is especially relevant in current times when discussions about race/ethnicity dominate policy and media discourses. A combination of observations, interviews, content analyses and online discussions will be used. The study will be conducted across four European countries (the Netherlands, England, Spain and Poland) and is innovative in three ways:

– The combination of content, production and reception in one project across different European countries gives important new theoretical insights. It does so through a focus on an important domain where discourses surrounding race/ethnicity are naturalized: televised football.
– The project combines various methods and research fields within one study providing a new perspective for media researchers.
– The project advances conceptual and empirical understanding of whiteness in media in a European context.

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