Colm Kearns
Biographic Data
| ID | 233395 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colm Kearns |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colm |
| FAMILY NAME | Kearns |
| SIGNATURE | KEARNS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Dublin City University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6819-8488 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How do football fans experience online abuse? Impacts, responses and implications
Online abuse, especially in the context of sport and leisure, is a growing and required area of study. Athletes, journalists and officials have been notably subject to various forms of abuse on major social media platforms, and this, in turn, has prompted responses from scholars, media organisations and sports authorities. One stakeholder who’s experience of online abuse has gone largely unexamined, however, is fans. In existing research, fans ha…
SeAcabó
The victory of the Spanish national women’s football team at the 2023 FIFA World Cup was marred by the mass-mediated non-consensual kiss on midfielder, Jennifer Hermoso, by Luis Rubiales, then President of the Royal Spanish Football National Federation. The kiss sparked general outrage worldwide and led to the prosecution of Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion. Drawing on the concepts of “moral shock” and “social drama,” this article explore…
Exploring online sexism and misogyny in women’s professional English football
The increased professionalization of women’s football means that women players are now competing in front of sold-out capacity crowds with millions of viewers watching. This enhanced popularity has increased online traffic relating to women’s football. Some of these discussions are abusive, and potentially harmful. Nonetheless, while a growing body of research has investigated online harms in football, most of the attention has centred on men’s f…
[K]neeling only goes to highlight your ignorance. England is NOT! a #racist country’
Drawing on theories of aversive racism and colour-blindness, which stress the invisibility of contemporary racism, this article analyses online discussions on taking the knee (TTK) during EURO2020 men’s football tournament. While highly visible racist abuse directed at Black English players after losing the final to Italy (dominative racism) received most public attention and repudiation, based on 6,850 English language tweets published on Twitte…
Let the tournament for the woke begin
Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”, \nthis article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both \nconstructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By \nproviding a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international \nfootball tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets \nrelating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, …
Best run club in the world
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact …
The Fetishization of Sport
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to 'sportswash' human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the 'sports fan' presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this articl…
A Scoping Review of Research on Online Hate and Sport
The rise of online hate speech in sports is a growing concern, with fans, players and officials subject to racist, sexist and homophobic abuse (in addition to many other prejudices) via social media platforms. While hate speech and discrimination have always been problems in sports, the growth of social media has seen them exacerbated exponentially. As a consequence, policy makers, sport governing bodies and grassroots anti-hate organisations are…
Two Brexits on Twitter
England’s ‘shock’ exit from the Euro 2016 Football Championship and the UK electorate’s decision to (Br)exit from the EU occurred almost simultaneously, providing an interesting lens through which to examine unfolding tensions in the UK and its component identities – all the more so given the presence of two of the three other component countries of the UK, Wales and Northern Ireland, at the Championship. Our analysis of 34,324 original tweets fe…
The Greening of Euro 2016
This article considers the representation of Irish identity in the media-sport discourse surrounding Euro 2016 in France. The behavior of Irish football fans attracted considerable attention in both the domestic and international media, and they were praised for their friendliness, helpfulness, and goodwill while in France. This media lionization eventually culminated in the Irish fans being awarded (jointly with their Northern Irish neighbors) t…
The Fetishization of Sport
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to 'sportswash' human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the 'sports fan' presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this articl…
Let the tournament for the woke begin
Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”, \nthis article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both \nconstructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By \nproviding a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international \nfootball tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets \nrelating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, …
Best run club in the world
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact …
[K]neeling only goes to highlight your ignorance. England is NOT! a #racist country’
Drawing on theories of aversive racism and colour-blindness, which stress the invisibility of contemporary racism, this article analyses online discussions on taking the knee (TTK) during EURO2020 men’s football tournament. While highly visible racist abuse directed at Black English players after losing the final to Italy (dominative racism) received most public attention and repudiation, based on 6,850 English language tweets published on Twitte…
SeAcabó
The victory of the Spanish national women’s football team at the 2023 FIFA World Cup was marred by the mass-mediated non-consensual kiss on midfielder, Jennifer Hermoso, by Luis Rubiales, then President of the Royal Spanish Football National Federation. The kiss sparked general outrage worldwide and led to the prosecution of Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion. Drawing on the concepts of “moral shock” and “social drama,” this article explore…
The Greening of Euro 2016
This article considers the representation of Irish identity in the media-sport discourse surrounding Euro 2016 in France. The behavior of Irish football fans attracted considerable attention in both the domestic and international media, and they were praised for their friendliness, helpfulness, and goodwill while in France. This media lionization eventually culminated in the Irish fans being awarded (jointly with their Northern Irish neighbors) t…
A Scoping Review of Research on Online Hate and Sport
The rise of online hate speech in sports is a growing concern, with fans, players and officials subject to racist, sexist and homophobic abuse (in addition to many other prejudices) via social media platforms. While hate speech and discrimination have always been problems in sports, the growth of social media has seen them exacerbated exponentially. As a consequence, policy makers, sport governing bodies and grassroots anti-hate organisations are…
Two Brexits on Twitter
England’s ‘shock’ exit from the Euro 2016 Football Championship and the UK electorate’s decision to (Br)exit from the EU occurred almost simultaneously, providing an interesting lens through which to examine unfolding tensions in the UK and its component identities – all the more so given the presence of two of the three other component countries of the UK, Wales and Northern Ireland, at the Championship. Our analysis of 34,324 original tweets fe…
[K]neeling only goes to highlight your ignorance. England is NOT! a #racist country’
Drawing on theories of aversive racism and colour-blindness, which stress the invisibility of contemporary racism, this article analyses online discussions on taking the knee (TTK) during EURO2020 men’s football tournament. While highly visible racist abuse directed at Black English players after losing the final to Italy (dominative racism) received most public attention and repudiation, based on 6,850 English language tweets published on Twitte…
Let the tournament for the woke begin
Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”, \nthis article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both \nconstructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By \nproviding a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international \nfootball tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets \nrelating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, …
Best run club in the world
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact …
The Fetishization of Sport
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to 'sportswash' human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the 'sports fan' presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this articl…
SeAcabó
The victory of the Spanish national women’s football team at the 2023 FIFA World Cup was marred by the mass-mediated non-consensual kiss on midfielder, Jennifer Hermoso, by Luis Rubiales, then President of the Royal Spanish Football National Federation. The kiss sparked general outrage worldwide and led to the prosecution of Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion. Drawing on the concepts of “moral shock” and “social drama,” this article explore…
Exploring online sexism and misogyny in women’s professional English football
The increased professionalization of women’s football means that women players are now competing in front of sold-out capacity crowds with millions of viewers watching. This enhanced popularity has increased online traffic relating to women’s football. Some of these discussions are abusive, and potentially harmful. Nonetheless, while a growing body of research has investigated online harms in football, most of the attention has centred on men’s f…
How do football fans experience online abuse? Impacts, responses and implications
Online abuse, especially in the context of sport and leisure, is a growing and required area of study. Athletes, journalists and officials have been notably subject to various forms of abuse on major social media platforms, and this, in turn, has prompted responses from scholars, media organisations and sports authorities. One stakeholder who’s experience of online abuse has gone largely unexamined, however, is fans. In existing research, fans ha…
Sports, Gender, and Society (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Football (6 works) · Media studies (6 works) · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (4 works) · Social media (4 works)