{"title":"Media Framings of the Transgender Athlete as “Legitimate Controversy”: The Case of Laurel Hubbard at the Tokyo Olympics","authors":"Shannon Scovel, Monica Nelson, H. Thorpe","doi":"10.1177/21674795221116884","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221116884","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we draw upon Hallin’s typology of journalistic writing to examine the role of the media in framing transgender participation in sport as a ‘legitimate controversy’, and thus up for public debate. Focusing on the media coverage before, during and after New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard’s debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, we reveal three key strategies used by journalists to frame the topic in polarizing terms: i) sourcing practices, ii) use of science, and iii) questioning of policy. Findings show that Hubbard’s voice and personal experiences were often left out of stories, replaced instead by the ‘authoritative’ voices of scientists and others (i.e., politicians, athletes, anti-trans groups) questioning her Olympic qualification and the International Olympic Committee policy for transgender athletes. Such framings prompt readers to ‘take a side’ in a polarizing debate, rather than encouraging more nuanced, ethical and empathetic responses to a complex issue. This study ultimately highlights the critical role that journalists play in controlling, shaping and/or shifting public opinion regarding the future of sport as an exclusionary or truly inclusive space.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"838 - 853"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44342799","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}
{"title":"#Selfies With a Mask On: Comparing Self-Presentation of Athletes From the U.S. and China in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics","authors":"Qingru Xu, Sitong Guo, Eun-Hi Kim","doi":"10.1177/21674795221113307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221113307","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to explore Chinese and U.S. athlete self-presentation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. By examining 1200 photographs posted by Olympians on social media, this study finds that (a) male athletes feature themselves in more revealing clothes than female athletes, (b) Chinese athletes actively show more nationalistic notions compared to their U.S. counterparts, and (c) U.S. female athletes are involved in more subordinating behaviors than Chinese female athletes. This study underlines how the intersection of gender, nationalism, and culture influences athlete social media self-presentation in the global pandemic context. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"11 1","pages":"219 - 237"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49452722","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}
{"title":"Gender, Sports, and Cultural Barometers: The State of Play in the Year 2022","authors":"A. Billings, Marie Hardin","doi":"10.1177/21674795221111691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221111691","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46882,"journal":{"name":"Communication & Sport","volume":"10 1","pages":"591 - 593"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42530504","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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}