AFL commentators mostly avoid racial stereotyping during games

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-07-26 04:00

Australia; QLD

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

Racial bias previously found in commentary of sports overseas is not strongly present in Australian Football League broadcasts, according to a study analysing the 2019 AFL season. Previous research on sports like American and European football has shown commentators are more likely to praise non-white players for their 'natural' physical ability, and white players for their character and intelligence. The team collected about 1400 AFL commentary statements and identified which referred to players easily identifiable as non-white. They say there were no significant race-based differences between the amount of positive or negative statements about players, but there was weak evidence suggesting non-white players received more comments on their physical ability and negative comments about their intelligence.