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ABSTRACT
This study examines sports journalists’ discourse of Jemele Hill’s Twitter comments about Donald Trump. On Sept. 11, 2017, Hill called Trump a white supremacist in a tweet. She faced immediate public backlash from Trump, the White House, and the public. Critical discourse analysis was used to study content produced by U.S. sports journalists in newspapers and sport-focused digital media platforms. The findings suggest that sports journalists produced three discursive themes: Jemele Hill’s value as a Black woman in sports journalism is tied to deviancy and provocation; the negotiation of the boundaries between sports and politics; and, lastly, public apology symbolizes admission of journalistic norms violation. The incident showcases the intersecting oppressions imposed on Black women who speak out against white supremacy in sports media.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Ever Josue Figueroa
Ever Josue Figueroa (BA., M.A & PhD, University of Texas) is an assistant professor of journalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas – Lawrence. He received his doctoral degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include video game culture, sociology of digital media production, and media representations of race and gender. In particular, he focuses on analyzing traditional sports journalism, entertainment journalism and live-stream culture.