Mediatized Engagements with Technologies

“Reviewing” the Video Assistant Referee at the 2018 World Cup

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13049009
AutoresCarlos Frederico De Brito D''Andréa (0000-0001-7328-6714, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, autor de correspondencia), Markus Stauff (0000-0001-8350-7904, Amsterdam University of the Arts)
Año2022
Volumen10
Número5
Páginas830-853
Fecha de publicación2022-04-26
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCommunication & Sport (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2167-4795 • E-ISSN: 2167-4809
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/21674795221076882
OpenAlexW4225003283
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas41

This article presents the implementation of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) as an example of the increasingly layered mediatization of sports. We argue that, while integrated into the established broadcasting protocols, VAR becomes an object of explicit reflection and popular debate—and increasingly so, when football and its TV coverage are discussed on “technologies of engagement” like Twitter. Combining the concept of mediatization with insights from Science and Technology Studies, this article discusses how and why sports systematically contribute to what we call “mediatized engagements with technologies.” The combination of football’s “media manifold” comprising epistemic technologies, television, and social media with its knowledgeable and emotionally invested audience inevitably limits the “black-boxing” of a refereeing technology. Our case study analyses how fans, journalists, and others evaluate VAR in action on Twitter during the men’s 2018 FIFA World Cup. Based on a multilingual dataset, we show, among other examples, how the media event displays the technology as a historical innovation and analyze why even the allegedly “clear and obvious” cases of its application create controversies. In conclusion, the article discusses how the layered mediatization of sports, its partisanship, and ambivalent relationship with technologies stimulate engagement far beyond the fair refereeing issue

Action (physics · Ambivalence · Broadcasting (networking · Football · Media studies · Multimedia · New media · Object (grammar · Political science · Public relations · Social media · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society