Pub Date : 2022-06-30DOI: 10.1177/21674795221110232
Daniel Burdsey, E. Michelini, S. Agergaard
Following the global “refugee crisis” of 2015, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) established the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT), providing opportunities for refugee athletes to compete at the 2016 and 2020 (2021) Summer Olympics. To examine the changing intertwinements between wider social dynamics and mediated constructions of refugees, this article considers the IOC’s representation of the ROT around the 2020 Games. With this aim, a catalogue of articles published on the IOC’s website was examined through critical discourse analysis. Four discursive themes emerged: 1. The saving, healing and transformative power of Western sporting capital and the Olympic Games; 2. The ROT as epitome of the Global North’s inclusivity and benevolence; 3. Refugee athletes as offering hope and inspiration to other refugees; and 4. The neoliberal ideal that “hard work pays off” and “you can overcome everything” in and through sport. More broadly, current changes in the societal reception of refugees were evident in the IOC’s communication, which appeared to assume that we have moved beyond the “refugee crisis”. The IOC disseminates an “official” discourse, which elides the challenging structural conditions that refugees face after their arrival in receiving contexts, and obscures current political reluctance towards finding more long-term solutions for refugees.
{"title":"Beyond Crisis? Institutionalized Mediatization of the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2020 Olympic Games","authors":"Daniel Burdsey, E. Michelini, S. Agergaard","doi":"10.1177/21674795221110232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221110232","url":null,"abstract":"Following the global “refugee crisis” of 2015, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) established the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT), providing opportunities for refugee athletes to compete at the 2016 and 2020 (2021) Summer Olympics. To examine the changing intertwinements between wider social dynamics and mediated constructions of refugees, this article considers the IOC’s representation of the ROT around the 2020 Games. With this aim, a catalogue of articles published on the IOC’s website was examined through critical discourse analysis. Four discursive themes emerged: 1. The saving, healing and transformative power of Western sporting capital and the Olympic Games; 2. The ROT as epitome of the Global North’s inclusivity and benevolence; 3. Refugee athletes as offering hope and inspiration to other refugees; and 4. The neoliberal ideal that “hard work pays off” and “you can overcome everything” in and through sport. More broadly, current changes in the societal reception of refugees were evident in the IOC’s communication, which appeared to assume that we have moved beyond the “refugee crisis”. The IOC disseminates an “official” discourse, which elides the challenging structural conditions that refugees face after their arrival in receiving contexts, and obscures current political reluctance towards finding more long-term solutions for refugees.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"68 1","pages":"1121 - 1138"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84111792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1177/21674795221106115
V. Harrison, Brandon C. Boatwright, Joseph Bober
During the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty starred in political election-related memes as Philadelphia voters became central to the election outcome. With Gritty’s ability to transcend sport as a symbol of the political left during the election, our study was framed with theoretical discussions of mascot anthropomorphism and the concept of “home” in sport fandom. Using systematic discourse analysis, this paper analyzes purposefully selected Gritty memes to understand the interplay of sport mascots, meme co-creation, and the meaning of home in online spaces. Memes were evaluated for form and function. Evidence was found for meme intertextuality and polyvocality as well as four personas of Gritty (Aggressor, Humorist, Leftist, and Hometown Hero) that propelled the mascot to becoming a historic symbol of Philadelphia’s role in determining the election outcome. Contributions of the study include expanding the concept of home to include instances of fan co-creation and online spaces and further understanding mascot anthropomorphism in a unique socio-political context.
{"title":"“A Manifestation of Their City as a God”: Gritty Memes, the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, and Online Representations of Home","authors":"V. Harrison, Brandon C. Boatwright, Joseph Bober","doi":"10.1177/21674795221106115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221106115","url":null,"abstract":"During the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty starred in political election-related memes as Philadelphia voters became central to the election outcome. With Gritty’s ability to transcend sport as a symbol of the political left during the election, our study was framed with theoretical discussions of mascot anthropomorphism and the concept of “home” in sport fandom. Using systematic discourse analysis, this paper analyzes purposefully selected Gritty memes to understand the interplay of sport mascots, meme co-creation, and the meaning of home in online spaces. Memes were evaluated for form and function. Evidence was found for meme intertextuality and polyvocality as well as four personas of Gritty (Aggressor, Humorist, Leftist, and Hometown Hero) that propelled the mascot to becoming a historic symbol of Philadelphia’s role in determining the election outcome. Contributions of the study include expanding the concept of home to include instances of fan co-creation and online spaces and further understanding mascot anthropomorphism in a unique socio-political context.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"356 - 384"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44601237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1177/21674795221103412
Mike Milford
In 2021, the twelve largest soccer clubs in the world created a new league that promised high-level competition between the sports’ elites. Three days later, the Euro Super League was no more. Much of the credit for its demise is attributable to the various groups who spoke out strongly against the organization. The collective rhetoric took on the qualities of kategoria, a speech of accusation that proceeds apologia. While there is a wealth of research on apologia, there is little on kategoria as a discrete rhetorical act. Kategoria sits at the intersection of community and morality. Rhetors position themselves above the accused and utilize the community’s collective identity to streamline the complexities of contemporary sports into simpler moral issues. In the case of the Super League, an analysis of the six English Premier League clubs and their supporters clubs shows this principle at work. The supporters secured a place of moral authority and charged the owners with ethical failure. They asserted that the owners were out of touch with the spirit of English soccer due to their single-minded greed.
{"title":"Fans not Customers! Kategoria in the Rise and Demise of the European Super League","authors":"Mike Milford","doi":"10.1177/21674795221103412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221103412","url":null,"abstract":"In 2021, the twelve largest soccer clubs in the world created a new league that promised high-level competition between the sports’ elites. Three days later, the Euro Super League was no more. Much of the credit for its demise is attributable to the various groups who spoke out strongly against the organization. The collective rhetoric took on the qualities of kategoria, a speech of accusation that proceeds apologia. While there is a wealth of research on apologia, there is little on kategoria as a discrete rhetorical act. Kategoria sits at the intersection of community and morality. Rhetors position themselves above the accused and utilize the community’s collective identity to streamline the complexities of contemporary sports into simpler moral issues. In the case of the Super League, an analysis of the six English Premier League clubs and their supporters clubs shows this principle at work. The supporters secured a place of moral authority and charged the owners with ethical failure. They asserted that the owners were out of touch with the spirit of English soccer due to their single-minded greed.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"993 - 1010"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48922049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-05DOI: 10.1177/21674795221106937
Lin Shi, Liwen Zhang
In the post-COVID-19 era, the mediatization of sports mega-events is timely and notable. This study focuses on the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and investigates how mediated processes influenced the Olympics. The data were gathered in two ways: we examined 783 WeChat posts from three salient Chinese media institutions, namely, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organising Committee (BOCOG), China Central Television (CCTV), and Beijing Television (BTV), as well as conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with BOCOG staff and members of the general public. We discovered that the Games were narrated around two major themes—the development of technology and “going green”—both of which were heavily influenced by the country’s national agenda. As a result, the Chinese public was thoroughly immersed in the tech-savvy Olympics scenario, and the Green Olympics concept was widely shared in their daily practices. This study adds to the literature by incorporating communicative figuration as an analytical framework to improve the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of media saturation theory. Additionally, this research sheds light on the study of sports mediatization in China in the context of a pandemic.
{"title":"A Smarter and Greener Olympics: Mediatization and Public Reception in the Preparation Stage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics","authors":"Lin Shi, Liwen Zhang","doi":"10.1177/21674795221106937","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221106937","url":null,"abstract":"In the post-COVID-19 era, the mediatization of sports mega-events is timely and notable. This study focuses on the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and investigates how mediated processes influenced the Olympics. The data were gathered in two ways: we examined 783 WeChat posts from three salient Chinese media institutions, namely, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organising Committee (BOCOG), China Central Television (CCTV), and Beijing Television (BTV), as well as conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with BOCOG staff and members of the general public. We discovered that the Games were narrated around two major themes—the development of technology and “going green”—both of which were heavily influenced by the country’s national agenda. As a result, the Chinese public was thoroughly immersed in the tech-savvy Olympics scenario, and the Green Olympics concept was widely shared in their daily practices. This study adds to the literature by incorporating communicative figuration as an analytical framework to improve the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of media saturation theory. Additionally, this research sheds light on the study of sports mediatization in China in the context of a pandemic.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"10 1","pages":"951 - 972"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47852583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-03DOI: 10.1177/21674795221090422
Qingru Xu
This study examines the Twitter network discussing the inclusion of Laurel Hubbard, the first out trans woman Olympian, during the 2020 Tokyo Games. By analyzing the Twitter reactions, top opinion leaders, and the modularity of the network, this study uncovers that (a) the majority of the top 10 most-liked tweets and the top influential social actors hold a negative attitude toward Laurel Hubbard’s participation in the women’s category; (b) compared to traditional news agencies, social media influencers and newly launched digital media agencies play a more important role in facilitating the flow of information in this network; and (c) the observed Twitter network is highly clustered, indicating that individuals tend to interact with people more frequently within their segregated subgroup, whereas information diffusion across clusters is more restricted. This research contributes to the understanding of how Twitter users perceive the inclusion of trans athletes at international sporting events by empirically exploring the Twitter network of Laurel Hubbard, the first out trans female athlete in Olympic history.
{"title":"Competing as the First Out Transgender Female Olympian: A Twitter Network Analysis of Laurel Hubbard During the 2020 Tokyo Games","authors":"Qingru Xu","doi":"10.1177/21674795221090422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221090422","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the Twitter network discussing the inclusion of Laurel Hubbard, the first out trans woman Olympian, during the 2020 Tokyo Games. By analyzing the Twitter reactions, top opinion leaders, and the modularity of the network, this study uncovers that (a) the majority of the top 10 most-liked tweets and the top influential social actors hold a negative attitude toward Laurel Hubbard’s participation in the women’s category; (b) compared to traditional news agencies, social media influencers and newly launched digital media agencies play a more important role in facilitating the flow of information in this network; and (c) the observed Twitter network is highly clustered, indicating that individuals tend to interact with people more frequently within their segregated subgroup, whereas information diffusion across clusters is more restricted. This research contributes to the understanding of how Twitter users perceive the inclusion of trans athletes at international sporting events by empirically exploring the Twitter network of Laurel Hubbard, the first out trans female athlete in Olympic history.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"854 - 878"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46101348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-03DOI: 10.1177/21674795221106118
X. Ginesta, N. I. Faedo
The objective of this article is to analyze the changes in the management model of RCD Mallorca, a LaLiga football club, with the arrival of a new, North American majority shareholder (ACQ Legacy Partners LLC) in 2016. It also analyzes journalists’ perception of the new ownership. Our method is a case study design, using qualitative methodological triangulation: a focus group discussion with non-sports executives of the entity, non-participant observation, in-depth interviews with the CEO of RCD Mallorca and its Director of Communication, as well as semi-structured interviews with journalists that regularly cover the club’s information. The results show how the club has developed its management model from one focused on the short-term to a rational and analytical one that incorporates long-term planning. Meanwhile, journalists criticize that they are experiencing a process of disintermediation, since the club ends up competing with them in content creation thanks to the potential of the new digital environment.
{"title":"The Influence of North American Ownership on the Business, Management, and Communication Model of Spanish Professional Football: A Case Study of Real Club Deportivo Mallorca (2016–2021)","authors":"X. Ginesta, N. I. Faedo","doi":"10.1177/21674795221106118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221106118","url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this article is to analyze the changes in the management model of RCD Mallorca, a LaLiga football club, with the arrival of a new, North American majority shareholder (ACQ Legacy Partners LLC) in 2016. It also analyzes journalists’ perception of the new ownership. Our method is a case study design, using qualitative methodological triangulation: a focus group discussion with non-sports executives of the entity, non-participant observation, in-depth interviews with the CEO of RCD Mallorca and its Director of Communication, as well as semi-structured interviews with journalists that regularly cover the club’s information. The results show how the club has developed its management model from one focused on the short-term to a rational and analytical one that incorporates long-term planning. Meanwhile, journalists criticize that they are experiencing a process of disintermediation, since the club ends up competing with them in content creation thanks to the potential of the new digital environment.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"949 - 967"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41736756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-02DOI: 10.1177/21674795221103408
Kelsey Slater, L. Burch, Matthew H. Zimmerman
The inaugural season of the National Basketball Association–supported Basketball Africa League (BAL) featured 12 teams from the African continent, competing in a Champions League-style competition. This brand-new professional endeavor featured player rosters mandated to feature a certain number of players from each of the countries in which the individual teams were based, with rosters also including a small number of foreign players. Proceeding from a Framing Theory paradigm, two coders examined the broadcasts of the BAL competition, analyzing for descriptors including physicality, intelligence, nationality, and experience. Most descriptors pertained to athlete success or failure, with significant findings for most descriptors between nationalities. Ideas for future research are also discussed.
{"title":"On the “Basketball Africa League”: Framing Analysis of the Broadcast Commentary of an African Professional Basketball League","authors":"Kelsey Slater, L. Burch, Matthew H. Zimmerman","doi":"10.1177/21674795221103408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221103408","url":null,"abstract":"The inaugural season of the National Basketball Association–supported Basketball Africa League (BAL) featured 12 teams from the African continent, competing in a Champions League-style competition. This brand-new professional endeavor featured player rosters mandated to feature a certain number of players from each of the countries in which the individual teams were based, with rosters also including a small number of foreign players. Proceeding from a Framing Theory paradigm, two coders examined the broadcasts of the BAL competition, analyzing for descriptors including physicality, intelligence, nationality, and experience. Most descriptors pertained to athlete success or failure, with significant findings for most descriptors between nationalities. Ideas for future research are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"968 - 992"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47933522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.1177/21674795211001937
Sean R Sadri, Nicholas R Buzzelli, Patrick Gentile, Andrew C Billings
On March 11, 2020, the National Basketball Association suspended its season after a player tested positive for COVID-19. Within days, the rest of the sports world similarly suspended play in the wake of the pandemic. This study focuses on sports media storytelling when covering athletic competition was no longer an option. Utilizing four distinct time periods and framing theory as the foundation of our theoretical framework, the content analysis examined shifts from the normal reporting routine and how those shifts morphed as pandemic information dictated. As the pandemic grew more widespread, health and safety became the predominant focus of national sports media. In spring 2020, sports news experienced a significant shift in coverage as economic and fairness frames were replaced with health, safety, and quality of life as the principal frames in the coded articles. By pinpointing the major differences in coverage across time, the study revealed that sports content and frames quickly shifted to reflect the perceived severity to the global health community, while the sources used in those articles stayed largely the same. The theoretical and applied implications of the study are discussed.
{"title":"Sports Journalism Content When No Sports Occur: Framing Athletics Amidst the COVID-19 International Pandemic.","authors":"Sean R Sadri, Nicholas R Buzzelli, Patrick Gentile, Andrew C Billings","doi":"10.1177/21674795211001937","DOIUrl":"10.1177/21674795211001937","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>On March 11, 2020, the National Basketball Association suspended its season after a player tested positive for COVID-19. Within days, the rest of the sports world similarly suspended play in the wake of the pandemic. This study focuses on sports media storytelling when covering athletic competition was no longer an option. Utilizing four distinct time periods and framing theory as the foundation of our theoretical framework, the content analysis examined shifts from the normal reporting routine and how those shifts morphed as pandemic information dictated. As the pandemic grew more widespread, health and safety became the predominant focus of national sports media. In spring 2020, sports news experienced a significant shift in coverage as economic and fairness frames were replaced with health, safety, and quality of life as the principal frames in the coded articles. By pinpointing the major differences in coverage across time, the study revealed that sports content and frames quickly shifted to reflect the perceived severity to the global health community, while the sources used in those articles stayed largely the same. The theoretical and applied implications of the study are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"10 3","pages":"493-516"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/21674795211001937","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10257430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-06DOI: 10.1177/21674795221095042
Veera Ehrlén
Participation in leisure sports is undergoing a transformation that is guided by societal and cultural changes as well as recent developments in, and the use of, digital sports media and technologies. This paper discusses how changes in leisure sports participation can be understood using mediatization as a theoretical framework. This theoretically informed analysis of change is contextualized within Finnish climbing and trail running subcultures. The paper proposes that mediatization contributes to the diversification of the sporting landscape, enables fluidity in sports communities, and strengthens commercialization of leisure sports. Additionally, the paper outlines how the dynamics of de- and reinstitutionalization of leisure sports are connected to the rise of digital media and communication.
{"title":"Mediatization and Self-Organized Leisure Sports: A Finnish Perspective","authors":"Veera Ehrlén","doi":"10.1177/21674795221095042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221095042","url":null,"abstract":"Participation in leisure sports is undergoing a transformation that is guided by societal and cultural changes as well as recent developments in, and the use of, digital sports media and technologies. This paper discusses how changes in leisure sports participation can be understood using mediatization as a theoretical framework. This theoretically informed analysis of change is contextualized within Finnish climbing and trail running subcultures. The paper proposes that mediatization contributes to the diversification of the sporting landscape, enables fluidity in sports communities, and strengthens commercialization of leisure sports. Additionally, the paper outlines how the dynamics of de- and reinstitutionalization of leisure sports are connected to the rise of digital media and communication.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"10 1","pages":"913 - 930"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44091502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-06DOI: 10.1177/21674795221090423
Simon Ličen, Dunja Antunovic, Sunčica Bartoluci
The Olympic Games are the largest mediated sporting mega-event, and broadcasters are instrumental in ensuring their exposure and financial viability. In the digital era, the Olympics navigate technological and societal changes that contest the values of sport, carry political and economic implications, and shape the relationship between the organizers and nation states. These interdependencies vary by global regions. This study examines the mediatization of sport as manifested in digital Olympic content published on Facebook during the Tokyo Olympics by public service media (PSM) in Croatia and Slovenia—two countries inconsistently assigned to either Central and Eastern Europe or Southeast Europe. These PSM face a host of challenges, including rising media rights costs, digitalization, and political interference, while continuing to broadcast the Olympics. On their Facebook pages, contest-related updates were the primary type of content, general news and especially human interest content was rare, critical posts were virtually non-existent, and “home” athletes were politicized conspicuously. Mediatization in this region seems delayed, facilitates event-focused and decontextualized sport content, and appears central in promoting patriotic narratives. On social media, broadcasters perpetuate problematic practices characteristic of sport media and only partially fulfill the roles traditionally ascribed to PSM.
{"title":"A Public Service? Mediatization of the Olympic Games in Croatia and Slovenia","authors":"Simon Ličen, Dunja Antunovic, Sunčica Bartoluci","doi":"10.1177/21674795221090423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221090423","url":null,"abstract":"The Olympic Games are the largest mediated sporting mega-event, and broadcasters are instrumental in ensuring their exposure and financial viability. In the digital era, the Olympics navigate technological and societal changes that contest the values of sport, carry political and economic implications, and shape the relationship between the organizers and nation states. These interdependencies vary by global regions. This study examines the mediatization of sport as manifested in digital Olympic content published on Facebook during the Tokyo Olympics by public service media (PSM) in Croatia and Slovenia—two countries inconsistently assigned to either Central and Eastern Europe or Southeast Europe. These PSM face a host of challenges, including rising media rights costs, digitalization, and political interference, while continuing to broadcast the Olympics. On their Facebook pages, contest-related updates were the primary type of content, general news and especially human interest content was rare, critical posts were virtually non-existent, and “home” athletes were politicized conspicuously. Mediatization in this region seems delayed, facilitates event-focused and decontextualized sport content, and appears central in promoting patriotic narratives. On social media, broadcasters perpetuate problematic practices characteristic of sport media and only partially fulfill the roles traditionally ascribed to PSM.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"10 1","pages":"931 - 950"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49462793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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