Television’s production of objectivity

In the social sciences, the study of knowledge focuses largely on science and its production. The mediatization of sport does not usually benefit from the same prestige and is rarely perceived as an area of social life where the search for objectivity and correspondence to facts are expressed. Putting these assumptions aside, this article examines the practices of objectification of a phenomenon through its visual representation in the production of a seemingly trivial object: offside revealed on television.Based on video data collected in the control room during the production of live soccer matches, the article analyses interactions between technicians in the control room. Inspired by conversation analysis and ethnomethodology, the approach focuses on the mutually configuring and dynamic link between the modes of appearance of offside as a phenomenon, its perception in situ by the participants, and the verbal and visual descriptions of it.