A tale of two scandals: scale shift and the inefficacy of crisis communication management in Olympic scandals

IF 1.5 Q2 COMMUNICATION
Henk Erik Meier, Samuel Tickell, Mara Verena Konjer
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Abstract

Introduction Mega sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, provide niche sports with unique opportunities to attract public attention. However, scandals during these events can pose serious threats to these sports. In particular, if a sport scandal enables hostile stakeholders to achieve a scale shift, it becomes almost impossible for a niche sport organization to manage the scandal. Methods The article employs a comparative research design that examines the trajectory of two scandals related to the German Olympic team that differ with regard to the occurrence of a scale shift. The first scandal involved a racist slur made by a German official during a cycling event; the second scandal was a case of animal cruelty during the modern pentathlon's equestrian event. Research relies on a mix of qualitative document analyses and quantitative analyses of the German Twitter discourse on both scandals. The analyses focus on the vulnerability to scandals, the potential for contentious politics, the scandal triggering events, the crisis communication, the reception, and the outcomes of both scandals. Results and discussion Our results show the detrimental impact of a scale shift on niche sports. The animal cruelty scandal put the future of the modern pentathlon at the Olympics at risk and triggered far-reaching reforms. The case supports the idea that a scale shift becomes more likely if there exists an effective collective action frame. In contrast, the German sports organizations effectively ended the racist slur scandal by imposing a limited sanction on the offender.
两个丑闻的故事:奥运丑闻的规模转移和危机沟通管理的无效
大型体育赛事,如奥运会,为小众运动提供了吸引公众关注的独特机会。然而,这些赛事中的丑闻可能会对这些运动构成严重威胁。特别是,如果体育丑闻使敌对的利益相关者实现规模转移,那么小众体育组织几乎不可能管理丑闻。方法采用比较研究设计,考察两起涉及德国奥运代表队的丑闻在发生规模转移方面的不同轨迹。第一起丑闻涉及一名德国官员在自行车比赛期间的种族主义诽谤;第二个丑闻是现代五项马术比赛中虐待动物的事件。研究依赖于对两起丑闻的德国推特话语的定性文件分析和定量分析。分析的重点是对丑闻的脆弱性,有争议的政治的可能性,丑闻引发事件,危机沟通,接受,以及两个丑闻的结果。结果和讨论我们的研究结果显示了规模转移对小众体育的不利影响。虐待动物丑闻将现代五项在奥运会上的未来置于危险之中,并引发了深远的改革。该案例支持这样一种观点,即如果存在有效的集体行动框架,规模转移就更有可能发生。相比之下,德国体育组织通过对违规者施加有限的制裁,有效地结束了种族主义诽谤丑闻。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.30
自引率
8.30%
发文量
284
审稿时长
14 weeks
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