Branded Media Representations of Coach Sarah Murray: The Intersection of Olympic Nationalism, Gender, and Whiteness in ice Hockey

Abstract

This study offers a critical discourse analysis of media representations of coach Sarah Murray, the first foreign, the first female, and the youngest head coach of the South Korean women's national ice hockey team at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. We focus on the South Korean media, which framed and manipulated coach Murray's credibility, especially the caliber of her coaching, while constructing a familial tie and restating the global hierarchy between North America and South Korea in the sport of ice hockey. We suggest how the media (re)produced denotative/connotative meanings of the recruitment of Coach Murray and her leadership through determinant moments by engaging a discussion of the discourse that both constructed coach Murray as subordinate to male figures and affirmed whiteness as the center of the global context.

The “Descendant of Dragon” or an “American Dreamer”? The Flow of Identity in the Media Discourse of Eileen Gu Between China and the US

“…This example is another sign of how South Korea, as a postcolonial nation-state, insists on constructing its ethnic-centered national identity. More recently, Park et al (2021), and Park and Shin (2023) also discussed transnational power and coloniality in the sporting context.…”

“…Unlike other sports mega-events, the Winter Olympics is geared toward the global north, through which Western “white” cultural hegemony and privilege are continuously re-enacted (Lee, 2016; Leonard, 2008; Park & Shin, 2023). In this sense, East Asian countries have endeavored to bid on hosting the Winter Olympics and introducing more naturalized athletes worldwide in recent decades.…”