Americans are obsessed by sports teams and sport heroes ü Bombarded: Exposure to sports coverage across mediums is higher and more frequent than it has ever been print, radio, social media, online, streaming, TV, podcasts, cable, pay per view, & live ü The sports media has specific patterns when depicting and describing today’s professional and college athlete ü The sports media use clearly different descriptors when they talk, write, discuss and broadcast about white and black athletes ü Media influences viewers attitudes, beliefs, judgments, values, behaviors, conscious and subconscious thinking, and actions ü The sports media is a contributing factor on how Americans perceive white and back athletes ü There are proven links between media induced perceptions of race and ethnic backgrounds that have an impact on a wide variety of social issues ü If you are a professional athlete, you are ATHLETICALLY gifted

1. IS SPORTS MEDIA
CONTRIBUTING TO RACIAL
STEREOTYPES?
Media bias in describing black and white athletes

2. How would you describe…..?
When you think of the following players. What would be the first
descriptive words you would use to describe the following athletes to a
3rd party?
§ TOM BRADY
§ RUSSELL WILSON
§ Kristaps Porzingis
§ LEBRON JAMES
§ KLAYTON KERSHAW
§ CHRIS ARCHER

3. Facts
ü Americans are obsessed by sports teams and sport heroes
ü Bombarded: Exposure to sports coverage across mediums is higher and more frequent than it has ever been
print, radio, social media, online, streaming, TV, podcasts, cable, pay per view, & live
ü The sports media has specific patterns when depicting and describing today’s professional and college athlete
ü The sports media use clearly different descriptors when they talk, write, discuss and broadcast about white
and black athletes
ü Media influences viewers attitudes, beliefs, judgments, values, behaviors, conscious and subconscious thinking,
and actions
ü The sports media is a contributing factor on how Americans perceive white and back athletes
ü There are proven links between media induced perceptions of race and ethnic backgrounds that have an
impact on a wide variety of social issues
ü If you are a professional athlete, you are ATHLETICALLY gifted

4. Goal
ü To increase awareness and reflection
ü To propose the possible correlation between media depictions of
athletes and the audience’s attitude, beliefs, behaviors, actions, and
possible impact
ü For the sports media to realize that how they depict athletes could have
unintended indirect negative impacts on greater social issues and race
relations (creating stereo-types). These depictions shape how we
perceive athletes, the general population and ourselves. To therefore
modify how they deliver information, commentary, and news when
delivering their content and rhetoric

5. Consequences?
High Interest and
Engagement by fans
of sports
Massive Media
Accessible Exposure
Across Mediums of
Sports Media
Specific Descriptors &
Depictions of Athletes
that Promote Stereo-
Types
What is the impact on
the fan’s, attitude,
beliefs, values,
perceptions, actions &
behaviors as a result?
What are the
consequences?

6. Who
I conducted research and recorded data about
professional and college athletes and what type
of descriptors are used by both black and white
sports journalists to describe male black and
white athletes across mediums, sources, and
sports. Sports being focused on professional and
college baseball, basketball, and football.

7. Types of descriptors by the sports media:
Two Types
Based on the research over 3 years, of 800 athletes and over 4000 descriptors. Typically you can
group these descriptors used by the media into two categories
The Mental
¨ Mental attributes
¨ Character attributes
¨ Personality attributes
The Physical
¨ Physical attributes
¨ Animal attributes
¨ Supernatural attributes
¨ Mechanical attributes

8. Results: White Caucasian media describing white athletes across mediums
percentages
Mental descriptors: 63%
Physical descriptors: 37%

9. Results: African American media describing white athletes across mediums
percentages
Mental descriptors: 62%
Physical descriptors: 38%

10. Results: White Caucasian media describing black athletes across mediums
percentages
Mental descriptors: 22%
Physical descriptors: 78%

11. Results: African American media describing black athletes across mediums
percentages
Mental descriptors: 39%
Physical descriptors: 61%

12. Assumptions portrayed in the media
White athletes success is
attributed to:
¨ Character attributes
¨ Personality attributes
¨ Mental Attributes
Typical Example: If they make a successful play on the field or the court it is usually described
as a result of his (decision-making, leadership, smarts). “What a mastermind play by Luke. He is a conductor
out on the field.”

13. Typical Descriptors Portrayed in the
Media of Caucasian Athletes
Described as: Heady, Smart,
Intelligent, dependable,
Steady, Tough, Hard-working,
Leader, Crafty, Clever,
Determined, Advanced, Durable,
Slick, Versatile, Relentless,
Resourceful, Courageous, Aware,
Having Character, &
Competitive. 62% majority of
content are Mental Attributes

14. Assumptions portrayed in the media
Afro-American athletes success is
attributed to their physical attributes
primarily by the media
The Physical
¨ Physical attributes
¨ Animalistic attributes
¨ Supernatural attributes
¨ Mechanical/Machine attributes
Typical Example: If they make a successful play on the field or the court it is usually described
as a result of his (their natural physical attributes). “What a monstrous play by Tim. He swatted that shot
like an angry beast in a cage, erupting like a volcano.”

15. Typical Descriptors Portrayed in the
Media of African American Athletes
Described as: An animal, a
monster, fast, quick, super-human,
agile, freak, talented, gifted, a
natural, strong, powerful, big, a
missile, a torpedo, a beast, athletic,
muscular, wide, speedy, explosive,
terrifying, scary, big, massive, and
huge, etc. 78% majority of the
content described by physical
attributes

16. ASSERTIONS
IT IS SAFE TO ASSERT THAT ALL OF
THESE PLAYERS ARE ATHLETIC AND
SMART & SHOULD BE DESCRIBED AS SUCH.
THE MEDIA SHOULD HAVE AWARENESS OF HOW
THEY DESCRIBE THESE ATHLETES, THEIR POTENTIAL
BIAS, AND DIVERSIFY THEIR COMMENTARIES WHEN
DESCRIBING ATHLETES

17. Conclusions
The core problem
¨ The review focuses on the core problem as
social scientists have described it — a
troubling link between media portrayals
and lowered life chances for black males.
The review breaks this story down into
several components.

18. Links to bias from the media. Does the
same link exist in Sports Media? #1
¨ The “problem” frame — Due to both distortions and also accurate and sympathetic discussion,
black males tend to be overly associated with intractable problems.
¨ General antagonism toward black males;
¨ Exaggerated views of, expectations of, and tolerance for race-based socio-economic disparities
¨ Exaggerated views related to criminality and violence;
¨ Lack of identity or sympathy for black males
¨ Reduced attention to structural and other big-picture factors
¨ Public support for punitive approaches to problems against the black community (harsher sentences).
¨ Reduce self-esteem and expectations from black community
¨ Greater limitations attributed to the black community (they will accomplish less)
¨ Whites tend to more easily associate negative words (e.g., terrible, failure, horrible, evil, agony, war,
nasty, and awful) with unknown black faces, as opposed to white faces.

19. Links to bias from the media. Does the
same link exist in Sports Media? #2
¨ Some studies indicate that many African Americans have an implicit bias against unknown
faces of their own race, similar to biases shown by whites against blacks.
From the perspective of most scholars who focus on the topic, there is a clear causal story
that links media representations of black men and boys to real-world outcomes. The story
can be summarized as follows:
¨ For various reasons, media of all types collectively offer a distorted representation of the lives
and reality of black males.
¨ In turn, media consumption negatively affects the public’s understandings and attitudes related
to black males (sometimes including the understandings and attitudes of black males
themselves).
¨ Finally, these distorted understandings and attitudes towards black males lead to negative
real- world consequences for them.
¨ For instance, attitudes (shaped to some degree by media) can and do:

20. Links to bias from the media. Does the
same link exist in Sports Media? #3
¨ directly affect the likelihood of being hired or promoted;
¨ directly affect the likelihood of school admission; directly affect school
grades; directly affect treatment within the justice system;
¨ directly affect chances of getting loans; end up affecting health and life
expectancy; end up affecting self-realization and individual
development; end up affecting the state of social policy (e.g., punitive
laws and police practices that impact communities).
¨ The Opportunity Agenda or less opportunity fro Afro-American males

21. Links to bias from the media. Does the
same link exist in Sports Media?
¨ For various reasons, media of all types collectively offer a
distorted representation of the lives and reality of black males.
¨ In turn, media consumption negatively affects the public’s
understandings and attitudes related to black males (sometimes
including the understandings and attitudes of black males
themselves).
¨ Finally, these distorted understandings and attitudes towards
black males lead to negative real- world consequences for them.

22. Further Research
¨ The real-world effects of media representation of African –Americans
alluded to in the literature include everything from less attention from
doctors to harsher sentencing by judges, lower likelihood of being
hired for a job or admitted to school, lower odds of getting loans,
and a higher likelihood of being shot by police. For example,
various experimental simulations have shown that whites are more
likely to “shoot” an unarmed black male than an unarmed white
male. Do those same links include media depictions in sports media?
The link is clear, but would need to be supported by further research
and a larger sample size, and more reliable way of collecting data.