Racist abuse may at one time have been hurled across the sports stadium or scrawled on a wall. But in today’s social media world it can be published to millions, from almost anywhere, in an instant. Sport, Racism and Social Media provides the first significant, academic account of how social media is shaping the nature of racisms in sport. Among the questions it addresses are: How, and why, is racism being expressed across different social media platforms and sporting contexts? To what extent is social media providing new platforms for traditional prejudices or actually creating new forms of racism? How can campaigners, authorities and individuals best challenge and counter these forms of racism? Combining analysis of social media content with in-depth interviews with athletes, fans, campaigners and officials, and including extensive case studies of soccer, boxing, the NHL, the NBA, and cricket, the book provides important new insights on a familiar but ever changing story. It is essential reading for any student, researcher, media professional, administrator or policy-maker with an interest in sport, new media or the issue of racism in wider society.
Beginning with a theoretical discussion of race, sport and media, this book critically examines issues of race, racism and sports journalism and offers practical advice on sports reporting, including a discussion of guidelines for ethical journalism. In a series of case studies, representations of race will be explored through historical and contemporary analysis of international media coverage, including online and digital platforms. The background and impacts of these representations will also be discussed through interviews with athletes and sports journalists. Subjects covered include: cricket in the UK, Australian and Asian media, with particular focus on Pakistan athletics and media representations of athletes, including a study of the reporting of South African runner Caster Semenya football and the under-representation of British-Asians, with an analysis of how race is constructed in the digital arena boxing with particular reference to Muhammad Ali, America and Islam Formula One and analysis of the media reporting, international spectator response and racism towards Lewis Hamilton, described in the media as the first black driver. Finally, the book will analyse the make-up of sports journalism, examining the causes and consequences of a lack of diversity within the profession.
An critically-acclaimed Iranian author makes his American literary debut with this powerful and harrowing psychological portrait of modern Iran—an unprecedented and urgent work of fiction with echoes of The Stranger, 1984, and The Orphan Master’s Son—that exposes the oppressive and corrosive power of the state to bend individual lives. Yunus Turabi, a bus driver in Tehran, leads an unremarkable life. A solitary man since the unexpected deaths of his father and mother years ago, he is decidedly apolitical—even during the driver’s strike and its bloody end. But everyone has their breaking point, and Yunus has reached his. Handcuffed and blindfolded, he is taken to the infamous Evin prison for political dissidents. Inside this stark, strangely ordered world, his fate becomes entwined with Hajj Saeed, his personal interrogator. The two develop a disturbing yet interdependent relationship, with each playing his assigned role in a high stakes psychological game of cat and mouse, where Yunus endures a mind-bending cycle of solitary confinement and interrogation. In their startlingly intimate exchanges, Yunus’s life begins to unfold—from his childhood memories growing up in a freer Iran to his heartbreaking betrayal of his only friend. As Yunus struggles to hold on to his sanity and evade Saeed’s increasingly undeniable accusations, he must eventually make an impossible choice: continue fighting or submit to the system of lies upholding Iran’s power. Gripping, startling, and masterfully told, Then the Fish Swallowed Him is a haunting story of life under despotism.
Fattah is middle-aged and unmarried. A former hospital janitor who became rich working as a torturer in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, he now moonlights as an uncertified backstreet doctor specializing in ‘honour surgery’ for unmarried young women. Fattah has nothing but contempt for these women; that is until the beautiful Shahrzad lands on his operating table, and soon he is dangerously infatuated. Undeterred that she is promised to – and in love with – another man, the younger and less affluent Mostafa, Fattah sets out to win Shahrzad by any means. Robbed of his bride, the jilted and furious Mostafa launches a desperate plan to move her beyond his rival’s reach by falsely reporting her as an opponent of the regime, a mission that takes him deep into Tehran’s underworld of criminals and provocateurs.
What follows is a series of epistles and missives (letters) sent to a friend of mine explaining Islam (to a degree). Upon editing the letters I realized that they may as well be of use to those intrigued with the thoughts of a Muslim in today's society. Islam is a holistic deen (way of life) that is intended to restore the natural order of inner peace in the human soul. It is referred to as a fitra religion. Meaning, it appeals to the natural disposition of the human being in relation to his creator. It is a simple way of life predicated on simple deeds done purely for the sake of Allah (God) and the natural order he ordained for the universe and the myriad of microcosmic universes inside of the larger universe. In wake of the recent episodes of terroristic mayhem that has plagued the planet; the publication of these epistles became more imperative and conducive to interfaith dialogue as well as providing the transparency needed for those seeking to understand what Islam truly is and what it stands for. It is my humble prayer that these private letters made public serve as a service to humanity as well as for the friend for whom they were intended.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.