Exploring representations of ethnicity, racism, and gender in Australian sports news: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis

Global research has shown that alongside masculinity, “Whiteness” is also an unmarked norm within the sporting domain, with the sports media involved in constructing and reflecting these representations. This study presents a corpus-based CDA approach to explore representations of ethnicity and racism in the Australian sports media, including how these representations relate to gender by comparing coverage of women’s and men’s sport. Given the socio-cultural context in Australia and Australian sport, particular focus is given to the representations of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and identities. The analysis reveals a higher use of ethnic identity labels in media coverage of men’s sport alongside a distinct backgrounding of issues related to entrenched racism in sport more broadly. This therefore suggests that residues of divisive ideologies remain within the socio-cultural context(s) of sport and the media in Australia and provides an important baseline for future research.