[ecrea] “Diversity” in television sports information: from formalization to application

Call for papers

“Diversity” in television sports information: from formalization to 
application

International conference : from 11^th to 13^th october 2017

IUT de Lannion – University Rennes 1 (France)


Dealing with the injunctions to "diversity" institutions, companies, 
politics, professional or organizational instances, this conference will 
question the notion of diversity in a particular field: the sports news 
on television. The main objectives are to deconstruct this notion, which 
seems self-evident, to question its astonishing plasticity, both by the 
used criteria and the targeted categories (gender, class, ethnoracial, 
age, sexual orientation, disability...). In order to also point out this 
under its consensual appearances, it induces principles of 
(dis)qualification, judgments, and naturalizes social processes of 
labelling individuals and groups. This is why it is important, at first, 
to analyse the uses and aims of the notion of diversity in television 
channels at several levels: first, documents and means created by the 
television channels to raise awareness among their staff and audiences 
on "diversity" themes (for example the disabled at the Olympic Games); 
the inclusion of "diversity" in commercial and managerial strategies. 
Indeed the diversity can become a marketing stake for the media 
companies - as shown by the labeldiversity delivered by the AFNOR 
(French National Organization for standardisation) – and promote both 
women's recruitment for the presentation of sports TV shows and the 
building of a "multicultural journalism". Second, an analysis of the 
mechanisms is needed where the promotion of the diversity fits into 
professional logics, at the time when the media representations of the 
sport are being built. Because promoting the diversity to make it happen 
in the newsrooms and transform the television images is not enough. 
Therefore the orientations, which are decided by the managers, still 
have to comply with the professional socialization, the division of 
labour, the professional routines and the constraints of production in 
the newsrooms. For example, short time productions encourage the use of 
simplified overviews of the world. This point raises the question of the 
place of rules in the journalistic work, in which way they define the 
subjects and their perspectives. Third, the analysis has to incorporate 
the sport environment: the actors (the athletes, the federations, the 
agents, the Olympic institutions, the fans and the TV-viewers), its 
links to commercialization (sponsors) and communications strategies 
(including those on the social networks), and its specificities, as the 
principles of the essentialization of bodies and performances. Fourth, 
it is important to study other national contexts in a comparative 
perspective. This opening is the only way to demonstrate that the term 
of media or other “diversity”, its elaboration, its circulation in 
public, political, professional and media spheres, the register of its 
promotion depend on specific national, professional, organizational and 
cultural places in which they fit.

We are calling for papers from scholars working on the connexions 
between “diversity” and production of the broadcast sports information. 
We would like to engage ourselves into a transdisciplinary discussion, 
involving historians, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, laws, 
media and political scientists. The contributions should be based on an 
empirical research, and would explore one of the four followings aspects:

In reply to the injunctions of "diversity" from the authorities of 
regulation (including the CSA in France), the sports authorities (sports 
federations, Olympic authorities) and the recurrent criticisms of the 
public, the television channels have produced internal policies and 
means in order to promote “diversity”. This promotion takes several 
ways: managerial by the recruitment of journalists from diversified 
origins (racial, gender, age, class): editorial by a higher plurality in 
the choice of the interviewed people (more women, more people of lower 
classes). How these channels also use these internal policies to promote 
themselves in external communication strategies? How this orientations 
"diversity" are spread in the sports newsrooms? To what extent the 
sports correspondents are associated to their elaboration? How do they 
incorporate them in their professional practices? Do they face some 
resistances? Under what forms of expression? How to explain them?

Television channels are now facing the competition of others actors in 
the mediatisation of the sport. Those actors have numerous backgrounds 
(telecommunications, sports clubs, non professional web sites, etc.). 
For instance, this competition is important during the purchases of the 
rights for broadcasting the sports events with high potential on the 
market of audiences and commercials. At the same time, the audio-visual 
editors have to deal with a transformation of the modes of consumption 
of audio-visual programs by the public. In this context of socioeconomic 
evolutions, how to produce some "diversity" in the subjects (in 
particular when you do not have the broadcasting rights)? How to invent 
new sports information narrative spines in order to compete in a market 
fragmented into so many offers and practices? In which way, the 
television channel “diversity” policies becomes a resource to target 
some publics (women, ethnic minority, etc.)?

The production process involves producers with various statuses, 
functions and skills (editors, sound recordist, editor, consultant, 
director, script, etc.), technical staff (computers, documentation, 
Etc.), and some people in charge of production (production manager, 
stage manager, etc.). The composition of the teams to "be sent on the 
field” influences the work relationships, and the media representations. 
Who’s deciding the composition of the teams? When are the editorial 
choices discussed? How are they negotiated in daily practices between 
editor, JRI, technicians and editor-in-chief? What are the related 
constraints and criteria? What is the given place to editorial and 
"diversity" recommendations?

Athletes’ Media coverage is an important editorial and commercial 
challenge for television channels. It also plays an essential role in 
the athletes’ career and in the development of sports and their 
federations. The changes in the television and sports economies, 
corelated to the rise of social networks, have shaked up relations 
between journalists and professionals of sports (athletes, coaches, 
federations, etc.). The best-known athletes manage their own media 
image, which became a resource to be negotiated with clubs and sponsors. 
They have got managers, agents, media training, and they stage 
themselves on the social networks ... Did this professionalization of 
the athletes image management create new representations of the 
athletes? Have these developments led journalists to rethink their 
treatment of sports’ information? How do they integrate or not Internet 
users’ criticisms, especially about diversity?

__

A reflection platform which combines media professionals and researchers.

The symposium format aims to encourage interactions between academics 
and sports actors in order to allow an exchange of knowledge between 
University and media and a better understanding of the complexity and 
paradoxes of the highlighted thematics. Media Professionals (TV channel 
manager, journalists, editors, sports service manager) and journalism 
training teachers will be associated to the debate. That is why, we ask 
to researchers to answer to the rising questions by using several of 
their own research works. Each session will take place with a scientific 
lecture time made by researchers followed by a debate (moderated by an 
expert of the subject) between scientists and media actors. A discussion 
with the public and with journalism students will also be pushed.

This symposium also aims to propose a reflexion about practices, 
conditions and constraints of sports information production. This in 
order to go beyond an instrumental vision of diversity reduced to a 
label, with commercial or marketing concerns. Finally, we are convinced 
of the heuristic interest of field surveys, with largest 
contextualization made by historians, politicians, 
economists,researcher. Furthermore, we think that this approach allows 
to talk about issues that are beyond television, sport and the media, by 
rethinking the political implications of the uses of diversity.


International and public exchanges

The official language for the symposium will be English (with 
simultaneous French - English translation).

In this way, we aim to promote comparisons between the media, cultural, 
political and economic systems of different countries. We are 
particularly interested in Canada, Spain, Italy and Great Britain. 
However, proposals from any other countries are welcome. In order to 
allow an opening to grand public, the symposium will be live broadcasted 
on the Internet. An evening event will also be organized, outside the 
university, at the Espace Sainte-Anne in the city of Lannion. At this 
occasion, the exchanges will be open to the audience.

__

Submission rules

Proposals will be written in French and in English and must be sent by 
e-mail no later than April 22th 2017 at: (sandy.montanola /at/ univ-rennes1.fr) 
<mailto:(sandy.montanola /at/ univ-rennes1.fr)>et 
(beatrice.damian /at/ univ-rennes1.fr) 
<mailto:(beatrice.damian /at/ univ-rennes1.fr)>. Proposals would contain a 
title, an abstract (2 pages max), a bibliography and a short 
presentation of the authors in connection with the theme of the 
symposium. They will have to include a theoretical referencing, a 
research methodology and one field of investigation.


Schedule

Deadline for submissions: May 22nd 2017

Symposium: 11-13 October 2017

Publication: October 2018.

Organization committee

Béatrice Damian-Gaillard, MCF HDR en Sciences de l’information et de la 
communication, CRAPE Arènes, UMR 6051

Sandy Montanola, MCF en Sciences de l’information et de la 
communication, CRAPE Arènes, UMR 6051

This symposium is organized as part oftask n°2 of the research programm 
(ANR) " Journalists Social Responsibility : Media, Diversity and 
Sport"funded by the french national research agency (ANR) (decision 
number : ANR-15-CE26-0006).

International Scientific Committee

Marco Binotto, University La Sapienza of Roma, Italy

Marco Bruno, University La Sapienza of Roma, Italy

Philippe Bouquillion, University Paris 13, France

Jean Charron, University Laval, Canada

Béatrice Damian-Gaillard, University Rennes1, France

Christophe Gimbert, University Rennes1, France

Eric Maigret, University Paris 3 France

Winston Mano, University Westminster, England

Jacob Matthews, University Paris 8, France

Pere Masip Masip, University Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain

Sandy Montanola, University Rennes1, France

Xavier Pujadas i Martí, Université Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain

Isabelle Rigoni, University Suresnes, France

Karim Souanef, University Lille 2, France



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