Thematic Dossier - Communication and Sports: Media Narratives, Regimes of Representation, and New Technologies

2026-03-24

Call for Papers – Thematic Dossier

Communication and Sports: Media Narratives, Regimes of Representation, and New Technologies

Guest Editors:
Prof. Dr. Soraya Maria Bernardino Barreto Januário (UFPE),
Prof. Dr. Leda Costa (UERJ), and
Prof. Dr. Kim Toffoletti (Deakin University)

Submission deadline: September 7, 2026
Notification of accepted papers: November 9, 2026
Publication: April 2027

The dossier “Communication and Sports: Media Narratives, Regimes of Representation, and New Technologies” seeks to explore sport as a structuring communicational phenomenon of contemporary culture, emphasizing the communicational, medial, and discursive dimensions of sports phenomena. It proposes reflecting on the relationships between sport and communication, understanding sport as a social, cultural, and medial phenomenon traversed by narratives, symbolic disputes, and identity dynamics at local, national, and global scales (Fortes, 2011). The objective is to analyze how sport, mediated by traditional and digital media, articulates with contemporary communicational processes.

This approach aligns with Cultural Studies by promoting a reevaluation of the concept of communication, conceptualizing it as an essential sociocultural process (Escosteguy, 2006), in which all participating individuals play an active role in the collective construction of meanings. In this framework, sport emerges not as mere entertainment but as a symbolic field (Bourdieu, 1984)—one that reproduces and contests social hierarchies through hegemonic and counter-hegemonic narratives.

The contemporary sports debate in Brazil is profoundly shaped by discussions on representations, (in)visibilities, and dissidences related to gender, race, class, identity, and territoriality (Goellner, 2021). The dossier aims to assemble research exploring the multiple connections between sports and the field of communication, with particular emphasis on how narratives, media, and cultural practices mobilize social meanings, symbolic disputes, and power structures (Barreto Januário, 2023). Collectively, the texts presented herein reveal how sport functions as a privileged arena for the affirmation and negation of rights, visibilities and erasures, hegemonies and resistances. By examining narrative practices, institutional tensions, structural omissions, and emerging potencies, the article proposals illuminate sport as a site of political contestation and cultural production (Helal, 2021; Toffoletti et al., 2021).

In this vein, the dossier seeks to analyze how sport operates as a privileged locus of political, economic, social, aesthetic, technological, and identity agencements. Reflecting also on “agencements”—a key term in actor-network theory as proposed by Bruno Latour (2005)—we conceive sport not as an isolated phenomenon but as a hybrid and dynamic network comprising human actors (such as athletes, fans, and journalists) and non-human actors, including technologies like VAR or streaming platforms, alongside media discourses that circulate cultural meanings. From this perspective, agencements denote the unstable and mutable associations that stabilize or destabilize these networks, positioning sport as a space where humans, objects, and narratives interweave to produce collective social realities. This hybrid configuration articulates power relations, ranging from corporate domination in global sponsorships that shape hegemonic narratives, while simultaneously creating openings for resistances—such as antifascist and identity-based fan activism that challenge exclusions. Such dynamics are particularly evident in studies of mega sporting events, as in Horne and Whannel (2012), who analyze the Olympic Games as global networks wherein surveillance technologies (cameras and biometric data) reinforce economic and geopolitical inequalities, yet also catalyze grassroots movements, such as protests for indigenous rights during Rio 2016.

The theme is particularly timely, amid two consecutive years featuring the Men’s FIFA World Cup in 2026 (co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico) and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 (hosted in Brazil)—events poised to catalyze an explosion of global media narratives. These mega-events not only intensify the production, circulation, and consumption of medial meanings but also expose representational and power disputes, encompassing intersectionalities of gender, race/ethnicity, class, and geography. As Jacques Rancière (2004) contends, “regimes of representation” in sport configure a distribution of the sensible that visibilizes or conceals marginal bodies—a dynamic exacerbated during World Cups. These regimes, which underpin much cultural production in Western societies—particularly when disseminated via mass-reach channels—exert decisive influence in perpetuating established social configurations.

According to FIFA (2022), media engagement surged by 300% during the 2022 World Cup, with platforms like TikTok and Instagram amplifying affective narratives that, per Hardt and Negri (2004), foster global “multitudes” while perpetuating exclusions. In the Brazilian context, the 2027 Women’s World Cup offers a disruptive counterpoint to its male counterpart, enabling reflection on the “gender of the ball” (Pisani, n.d.) and the visibilization processes in women’s football (Barreto Januário, 2023), for instance. It further exposes how media coverage under-represents Black and peripheral female athletes (ONU Mulheres, 2023).

The dossier welcomes original articles investigating the interfaces among communication, media, and sports. Themes include, but are not limited to:

  1. Media Narratives and Regimes of Visibility: How do platforms such as broadcast television, streaming services, and digital social networks shape sports narratives? Analyses of recommendation algorithms and their influence on agenda-setting during mega-events like the World Cup and Olympics, focusing on how coverage reinforces or subverts gender stereotypes and their intersectionalities.
  2. Intersectional Disputes and Representations: Exploration of exclusions and resistances in depictions of race/ethnicity, class, and gender, drawing on feminist critical theory.
  3. Technological Transformations and Affectivities: The impact of emerging technologies, such as AI-driven performance analysis (e.g., VAR enhanced by machine learning) and augmented reality in broadcasts.
  4. Market Dynamics and Activism: Examination of how corporate branding interacts with activism.
  5. Historical Trajectories and Self-Representation: Longitudinal studies of sports coverage in Brazil, from the 1950 World Cup to future editions, including athletes’ self-representations via podcasts and YouTube. Innovative idea: mapping “counter-narratives” from organized fan groups in urban peripheries, employing digital ethnography to highlight local resistances.
  6. Historical Narratives of Invisibilized Sports Modalities and Athletes.