‘Racism Is Not a Sport’: An Analysis of Media Coverage of the Racial Violence Against Vinícius Júnior in Brazil and Spain

Abstract

In this article we analyze the coverage given by the two newspapers with the largest circulation in Brazil and Spain to the racial violence against the football player Vinicius Júnior, of Real Madrid FC, during a match held in Valencia. To do so, we worked with a sample of news units drawn up from a search of the digital editions of the selected newspapers in the week following the event, which occurred on 21/05/2023. We analyzed, from a narrative and editorial point of view, 64 publications from Brazil (41 from Folha de São Paulo; 23 from O Globo) and 81 from Spain (42 from El País; 39 from El Mundo). Considering the institutional limitations and professional practices of the journalistic field, we ask whether it is possible to produce anti-racist journalism in the mass press, in cases such as these, and if so, under what circumstances. The analysis reveals that the fact that Vinicius was a public figure and that his reactions mobilized political, sporting, and artistic leaders increased journalistic interest in the event, keeping the issue on the agenda for longer, which may contribute to the recognition of the problem. On the other hand, the episodic treatment given to the event repeats the pattern of other coverage, restricting the debate on racism to the sporting or personal sphere and denying its structural character. We ended the work with a reflection on the impact of racism as a structural reality, and the importance of seeking redress as a way of combating it through political anti-racism.