A Sportswashed Agenda? Insights from Spanish Reporters Who Cover LIV Golf
摘要
LIV Golf has created significant upheaval in the golf world and raised many issues for the media in covering a new, state-sponsored global competition. To what extent do sports media outlets and reporters covering LIV Golf focus on the Saudi Arabia’s human rights record? Should they also report about this situation rather than primarily focus on athletic performance? This chapter gathers insights from Spanish sports journalists who usually cover LIV Golf tournaments about the way they need to comply with an apparently remaining ‘stick-to-sports’ agenda. The text also examines the reporters’ responsibility to go “beyond the greens” in their coverage, and reflects on how Saudi Arabia channels resources into sponsoring and organising sports mega-events as a strategy to acquire soft power and launder its image globally.