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When the Formula One engines roar louder than war : a qualitative case study of the UK news framing of the Formula One Grand Prix in Russia and Saudi Arabia regarding sportswashing

Crantz, Carl LU (2024) MKVM13 20241
Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
Abstract
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world of sports took the joint decision to exclude them both from hosting events and Russian athletes from competing under the Russian flag. Among the events that were cancelled was the Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi. A month later a missile strike hit an oil refinery 10 kilometres outside of the circuit in Jeddah that would host the second Formula One Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia. Despite questions regarding the safety of the venue the race still went ahead. Two cases with similar circumstances took two different directions regarding the appropriateness of hosting a Formula One Grand Prix. Both states have been accused of using sport for political purposes which... (More)
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world of sports took the joint decision to exclude them both from hosting events and Russian athletes from competing under the Russian flag. Among the events that were cancelled was the Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi. A month later a missile strike hit an oil refinery 10 kilometres outside of the circuit in Jeddah that would host the second Formula One Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia. Despite questions regarding the safety of the venue the race still went ahead. Two cases with similar circumstances took two different directions regarding the appropriateness of hosting a Formula One Grand Prix. Both states have been accused of using sport for political purposes which has prompted the use of the term sportswashing. However, sportswashing is a vague term and has mostly been applied as a pejorative term to authoritarian states with news media being the dominant user of the word compared to a limited academic use. Thus, this study aims to map how the UK news media frames these two events to further develop the understanding of the medial use of sportswashing using framing theory and putting it in a broader context of sports mega-events and sports diplomacy. Through a qualitative analysis of 222 articles
covering both Russia from 2014-2023 and Saudi Arabia from 2021-2023, five frames can be highlighted. These are Sport as a Political Tool, Carrier of Responsibility, Development, Conflict and Global Society. These frames show a dominantly negative coverage highlighting the responsibility of the drivers rather than covering the organisations' responsibility in deciding where the races take place. Furthermore, the framing displays that sports in general have hypocritical tendencies and where the higher organisational interest in displaying Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) could be a factor that the term sportswashing has seen an increase. As sports journalism tends not to cover political news related to sports could also be a factor that a pejorative use of the term sportswashing has increased when comparing it to already established concepts as sports diplomacy. Advancements for research would be to develop the understanding of other regions' news coverage related to sportswashing to understand this term from a more global perspective. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Crantz, Carl LU
supervisor
organization
course
MKVM13 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Sportswashing, Framing, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Formula One, Diplomacy, Sport
language
English
id
9151467
date added to LUP
2024-06-04 16:36:06
date last changed
2024-06-04 16:36:06
@misc{9151467,
  abstract     = {{When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world of sports took the joint decision to exclude them both from hosting events and Russian athletes from competing under the Russian flag. Among the events that were cancelled was the Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi. A month later a missile strike hit an oil refinery 10 kilometres outside of the circuit in Jeddah that would host the second Formula One Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia. Despite questions regarding the safety of the venue the race still went ahead. Two cases with similar circumstances took two different directions regarding the appropriateness of hosting a Formula One Grand Prix. Both states have been accused of using sport for political purposes which has prompted the use of the term sportswashing. However, sportswashing is a vague term and has mostly been applied as a pejorative term to authoritarian states with news media being the dominant user of the word compared to a limited academic use. Thus, this study aims to map how the UK news media frames these two events to further develop the understanding of the medial use of sportswashing using framing theory and putting it in a broader context of sports mega-events and sports diplomacy. Through a qualitative analysis of 222 articles 
covering both Russia from 2014-2023 and Saudi Arabia from 2021-2023, five frames can be highlighted. These are Sport as a Political Tool, Carrier of Responsibility, Development, Conflict and Global Society. These frames show a dominantly negative coverage highlighting the responsibility of the drivers rather than covering the organisations' responsibility in deciding where the races take place. Furthermore, the framing displays that sports in general have hypocritical tendencies and where the higher organisational interest in displaying Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) could be a factor that the term sportswashing has seen an increase. As sports journalism tends not to cover political news related to sports could also be a factor that a pejorative use of the term sportswashing has increased when comparing it to already established concepts as sports diplomacy. Advancements for research would be to develop the understanding of other regions' news coverage related to sportswashing to understand this term from a more global perspective.}},
  author       = {{Crantz, Carl}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{When the Formula One engines roar louder than war : a qualitative case study of the UK news framing of the Formula One Grand Prix in Russia and Saudi Arabia regarding sportswashing}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}