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‘Managing the Media’: The Changing Relationship Between Football Managers and the Media

2007; Routledge; Volume: 27; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17460260701437045

1746-0271

Neil Carter,

Sport and Mega-Event Impacts

Abstract This article examines how the relationship between the media and football managers has evolved over the twentieth century. In particular, it argues that before the late 1960s, the print media largely shaped perceptions of managers but after this period, television became the dominant medium in framing their image. In a wider context, this relationship has reflected changes in the media as well as mirroring football's association with it. The transformation of football managers into celebrities, for example, has reflected the so-called ‘tabloidization’ process of the media. Not only have tabloid newspapers gone ‘downmarket’ but also both quality broadsheet papers and television broadcasters have ‘dumbed down’. The article highlights not only how the changing role of the manager has been partly due to changes in the media industry but also the impact managers themselves have had on media developments. Notes 1. 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Chapman died relatively young and suddenly in 1934 at the age of 55. Allison had been a director, had not played professional football and left the players in charge of the trainer, Tom Whittaker. 34. Russell, Football and the English, p. 106. 35. BBC Written Archives Centre (hereafter WAC), R30/915/1, 17 Nov. 1942. 36. Russell, Football and the English, p. 107. 37. BBC WAC, George Allison File 1, 1927–32. 38. De Lotbiniere actually preferred Fred Everiss, the secretary-manager of West Bromwich Albion. 39. BBC WAC, George Allison File 1, 1927–32, Letter from George Allison to S.J. De Lotbiniere, 22 June 1932. 40. BBC WAC, R30/915/1, 1 March 1944; Express and Star, 3 March 1944, p. 7. 41. West Bromwich Public Libraries, Scrapbook no. 10, p. 29, Midland Chronicle and Free Press, 18 Oct. 1946; Albion News, 26 Oct. 1946. 42. Jimmy Guthrie, Soccer rebel: The evolution of the professional footballer (Newton Abbot, 1976), p. 16, plates. 43. 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A history of mass communication in Britain (London, 1998), p. 250. 78. Raymond Boyle, ‘The soft soaps in the press box’, Guardian, 21 Aug. 2006. 79. Guardian, 9 Dec. 2005, Sport, pp. 4–5. 80. Guardian, 22 May 1999, Weekend, p. 6. 81. Alex Ferguson, A will to win: The manager's diary (London, 1997), p. 227. 82. Joyce Woolridge, ‘Radio and television pundits’ in Cox, Russell and Vamplew, Encyclopedia of British football, p. 253. 83. Boyle, ‘The soft soaps’. 84. Ferguson, A will to win, p. 170. 85. Ferguson, A will to win, p. 181. 86. Kevin Keegan, Kevin Keegan: My autobiography (London, 1997), p. 241.