Human rights abuses at the Rio 2016 Olympics: activism and the media

Adam Talbot; Thomas F. Carter

doi:10.1080/02614367.2017.1318162

Human rights abuses at the Rio 2016 Olympics: activism and the media

Adam Talbot, Thomas F. Carter

University of Brighton

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

44 Citations (Scopus)

102 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article examines activists’ use of human rights as a discourse to contest the impacts of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by drawing on a wider ethnographic project examining activism at Rio 2016. Focusing on two areas of contention, forced evictions and police brutality, the article considers the way activists framed their grievances and how mainstream international media outlets reported those grievances. While activists fighting against forced evictions explicitly used the language of rights in their activism, media accounts tended not to discuss these issues using this lexicon. Conversely, grassroots activists protesting around the issue of police brutality did not tend to frame their grievances in terms of rights, but these issues were discussed as human rights abuses in the media. This points to a dual role played by activists fighting forced evictions: while they are fighting to keep their own homes, they are also part of a wider discursive battle for the right to housing to be recognised and respected.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	77-88
Number of pages	12
Journal	Leisure Studies
Volume	37
Issue number	1
Early online date	17 Apr 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2017.1318162
Publication status	Published - 2 Jan 2018
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Leisure Studies on 17/04/17, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2017.1318162

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

Keywords

activism
human rights
media
Mega-events
Olympics
Rio de Janeiro

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development
Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management

Access to Document

10.1080/02614367.2017.1318162

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 743 KB

Cite this

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Human rights abuses at the Rio 2016 Olympics: activism and the media

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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