Is racism still in football?

A lot of people would argue that racism is still around, no matter how much we try to kick it out and especially in Football. Kick it out is a campaign designated purely to stamp out racism in Football. It works throughout the football, educational and community sectors to challenge discrimination and encourage inclusive practices and work for positive change.
However after recent events going back a few years racism is still a main part of the football world although most people try to hide the fact that this is happening a lot of others are disappointed and frustrated that this still goes on. “To any governing body that turns a blind eye, I want to tell you that your attitude only magnifies the fact you are out of touch with the modern game” a strong statement made by Sepp Blatter president of FIFA (The International Federation of Association Football) to suggest that people must speak up, otherwise this problem may never be solved.
On speaking about recent events that have caught eye of the public audience’s I’m going to speak on two talented footballers who are generally known around the world; Luis Suarez Captain of Uruguay and an extremely talented footballer who wears the number 7 jersey for Liverpool FC and John Terry, previous England captain and captain for Chelsea FC, both have been in the limelight regarding racial allegations. After being found guilty for misconduct regarding using insulting and potentially racist words towards Patrice Evra of Manchester United, Luis Suarez was banned for eight games and fined ?40,000.

The allegations on October 15th during a fixture between Liverpool and Manchester United, during which Evra claimed that Suarez racially abused him “more than 10 times” (Guardian, 2011) Recently, incidents of racism have been blown out of proportion. Main man for Chelsea and England leader John Terry has been in the public eye following an occurrence that took place December of 2011 between himself and Anton Ferdinand, brother of England’s Rio Ferdinand.
John Terry has been accused of racial abuse and has been found guilty on the 27th of July 2012. “The verdict released by the FA said: “The Football Association charged Mr Terry on Friday 27 July 2012 with using abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand and which included a reference to colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3 [2] in relation to the Queens Park Rangers FC versus Chelsea FC fixture at Loftus Road on 23 October 2011. (BBC Sport, September, 2012) Sky Sports are one of the most sports oriented television channels in the UK and I will be assigning my media interest about how they reflect on the racism in the football world, more so in the United Kingdom. For my second week I had to identify, justify and develop an answerable research question Because I decided to focus my media interest on how sky sports deal with the issue that has affected a lot of people in football, this issue being racism, it’s no surprise that my research question will be of the same topic.
To begin with I had to do some research to see if the question I’m asking would be suitable and answered by the right audience. However before I reached that stage I needed to find the correct people I’m aiming this question to. So I went and rushed to the nearest shopping centre and asked a lot of local men, there ages ranging 18-24. 17 out of 20 young males identified themselves as regular Football viewers and also check Sky Sports to catch up on the latest. Research Question: How do Sky Sports report racism in Football? Object of Study:
In this subject I will be discussing how exactly Sky Sports report the racism that has been going on in recent events going back a few months to the Euro Cup where football players stated ‘if someone throws a banana at me I will go to jail, because I will kill them’ (Mario Balotelli, Sky Sports news) Sky Sports, like any other News Industry contain a lot of facts and gossip. In order to get information from my ‘object of study’ I have decided that I would visit Birmingham City Football club and speak to two young men who play for the clubs reserve squad, I asked them How Sky Sports reports racism and how the audience may respond to them? 8 year old Nathan told me that he had gone through some racial abuse early on in his career ‘I would never get picked for teams, players would never pass me the ball and most likely hear some racial abuse from fans but I believe it made me a better player now’ and 19 year old Jermain told me ‘whether Sky Sports sponge the racism issue these days to get more viewers or not, at least there putting the issue out there more so everybody can see what goes on. However I still needed to ground my question and make it more local, I could only come to a conclusion and make it based more in the UK, ‘How do Sky Sports report football racism in the UK?.
Sky Sports covers most of England NI and Wales this could already suggest that all there reports covers only the United Kingdom. In my third week, for my third assignment I’ve had to amend my question and look at something that in my eyes had all the possible attributes to fit that week’s task. I have decided to use the new Guinness advert to show how rhetorical and also semiological analysis are both being used. Directed by Peter Thwaites from Gorgeous, the film was shot on location in South Africa in both Johannesburg and along the Durban coastline.
The advert conveys the metaphor amazing things can happen when we challenge ourselves. (Creative report, 2012) The advert in the viewer’s judgments if never seen before can leave them guessing what it is leading to as it did me the first time I watched it. However, I looked back at it a few times and came across a number of key factors that actually do make sense and can relate to the pint of Guinness they are so discreetly advertising. ‘A cloud came from the sea’ the idea here, this could suggest, is that the cloud represents the typical Guinness drinker – someone who has broken away from the masses to find their own path.
In a way using a cloud to represent liquid refreshment is very clever and in its own way. “The cloud came from the sea. He was not like other clouds. The wind could not come on him. The more he saw, the more he did. And the more he did, the more he became. You see he wasn’t just a cloud. He was a cloud made of more” the dialogue is very intriguing and it’s what draws us closer to the advertisement. As the film progresses, the cloud engages with people, places and objects below, seeing itself reflected in a mirrored skyscraper, darkening as it approaches the scene of a fierce industrial fire before the dramatic climax.
The cloud then gently drifts back, ocean-bound, and gradually merges into a swirling pint of Guinness, before resolving with the new pint; Guinness. Made of More. Speaking more about the fire scene, in actual essence the cloud does represent a lot more. I believe that the fire represents a man’s rage and the cloud puts out the fire suggesting that if you have a pint of Guinness you’ll be relaxed and cooler. After reviewing this advert I’ve come to a conclusion, it’s just a major metaphor to show the amazing things that can happen when we challenge ourselves to make the most of who we are.
Do we settle for the way things are or do we take the bold choice to step up and be made of more? Do we settle for an ordinary drink or do we choose one that is made of more? ” Now for my fourth week I decided to focus my task on a new topic, purely because I needed a diverse audience there’s not much diversity in Football between Male and Females. How do audiences get entertainment from watching music videos on YouTube? YouTube provides a venue for sharing videos among friends and family as well as a showcase for new and experienced videographers.
Featuring videos it considers entertaining, YouTube has become a destination for ambitious videographers, as well as amateurs who fancy making a statement of some kind. In addition, YouTube emerged as a major venue for excerpts from political speeches (PC Magazine) To find out a suitable answer for my question I had to obviously ask some people and see what their response on the subject is. The 3 people I decided to interview were: 21 year old musician Jamal, 23 year old Producer Michael and 19 year old dancer Emma. All of these people where happy for me to ask them anything as long as it suited the subject.
Jamal told me he watched YouTube at least three times a day just too see if he can find inspiration and sometimes check out the competition. ‘YouTube is a massive platform for everybody to show off their skills, I have to see what everyone is bringing to the table to know what kind of stuff I want to bring out, and sometimes find some inspiration’. Michael however wasn’t so bitter and loves watching other musicians and producers on YouTube. ‘I love YouTube, I love everything about it. It’s like travelling the world to see what talents others have but you can do it all in your room if you know what I mean.
I watch YouTube every night, sometimes because I’m bored but most of the time for entertainments, it’s like how can anybody get bored of YouTube’. I asked him if he’s ever uploaded anything on YouTube and how that’s affected him ‘Yes, I upload my beats and samples and most of the times I get people messaging me and asking me to make them an instrumental, so it does take most of my time’. To conclude my interview I went over to speak to 19 year old dancer Emma, she told me that if it had not been for YouTube maybe she would have been a nurse. I was studying health and social care in secondary school till I got all obsessed with dancing, so literally every night after school id rush home to watch some magnificent dancers on YouTube. It was like a form of relaxation, I loved it, there were some nights I wouldn’t sleep id just be up all night watching amazing dancers. This was the main factor which made me change my mind in becoming a dancer. As far as entertainment goes, I believe YouTube is the main entertainment site to date for anyone.
McQuail – ‘duality of audiences’ is largely used when I was interviewing each one of these people because it gave them sense of equality the way they so passionately spoke about the subject. By reading Stuarts Halls encoding and decoding essay ive come to realise that The terms encoding and decoding are often used in reference to the processes of analog-to-digital conversion and digital-to-analog conversion. In this sense, these terms can apply to any form of data, including text, images, audio, video, multimedia, computer programs, or signals in sensors, telemetry, and control systems.
Encoding should not be confused with encryption, a process in which data is deliberately altered so as to conceal its content. Encryption can be done without changing the particular code that the content is in, and encoding can be done without deliberately concealing the content. (Search network, encoding decoding, Stuart Hall) Hall himself referred to several ‘linked but distinctive moments – production, circulation, distribution/consumption, reproduction’ (Hall 1980, 128)