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Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:

Televised men’s football is one of the most popular mediated sports in Spain. It displays the encounter of two rival teams, often composed of players of diverse racial/ethnic positionalities. In fact, it may be considered as one of the televised spaces in which Spanish audiences regularly encounter such racial/ethnic diversity. In contrast, a quick look at the spaces of production of televised men’s football suggests that these are mainly White spaces. In a context where dominant discourses around race/ethnicity tend to privilege White identities while often stereotype marginalized racial/ethnic identities, it becomes relevant to ask how televised men’s football contributes to re-constructing discourses about race/ethnicity in the Spanish context. Does it reproduce dominant meanings associated with race/ethnicity in the Spanish context? Or is there also space for challenging them? This dissertation attempts to explore these questions through a Cultural Studies and Critical Race Theory lens, which together offer a theoretical framework for understanding the role of popular media in the (re)production of discourses about race/ethnicity, in a context where racism is deeply embedded in societal structures. In line with the theoretical framework, this dissertation also draws attention to discourses of Whiteness in televised men’s football. This is achieved through four qualitative studies, each focusing on a different perspective, namely, the content, audience receptions and production of televised men’s football in Spain. This book presents the results of qualitative content analyses of televised football commentary, focus groups with football audiences, interviews with football journalists and observations in newsrooms. By examining televised men’s football, this dissertation sheds some light on the discursive construction of race/ethnicity in and through one of the most popular mediated cultural sites in Spain.