Cheering for ‘our’ champs by watching ‘sexy’ female throwers: Representation of nationality and gender in Slovenian 2008 Summer Olympic television coverage

Abstract

Television is a cultural service and its national renderings of the Olympic Games contribute to the viewers' understanding of themselves and the world. This study examines the representation of nationality and gender within Slovenian broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Results show that evaluative commentary comprised as much as 44% of the dialogue. 'Home' athletes were given more prominence, while foreign athletes were largely portrayed through quantifiable features. Male athletes received more commentary than females. Announcers favoured analysing results and predicting outcomes for men, and resorted to personality and physicality depictions in women. A critical discourse analysis uncovered notions about gender and nationality that would be deemed inappropriate in many societies. Sports journalists and broadcasters at TV Slovenija do not have explicit editorial policies addressing chauvinistic dialogue. The absence of a policy is not perceived as an issue as individual announcers abide to their personal, at times conflicting, understandings of proper announcing.

Making sense of race/ethnicity and gender in televised football: reception research among British students

“…This also applies to many other countries across Europe and worldwide (Alabarces, Tomlinson, and Young 2001;Lechner 2007). Results are, therefore, not only relevant for the English context but also for other (Western) European countries where similar trends in football media discourses surrounding race/ethnicity and gender are visible as the ones reported here (De Bruycker 2012;Ličen and Billings 2013). We will draw on a cultural studies perspective to further interpret and discuss the hegemonic discourses that the British television viewers in this study used to assign meaning to race/ethnicity and gender in televised football.…”

Sports Draped in the American Flag: Impact of the 2014 Winter Olympic Telecast on Nationalized Attitudes

“…Billings, Angelini, and Wu (2011) found that this practice was not limited to the United States, as other nations (in this case, China) were found to produce a broadcast that focuses primarily on the home nation and its successes. Other nations report similar findings (see Ličen & Billings, 2013;Real, 1989) that nationalized coverage of an Olympics is a given, with the only remaining question being a matter of degree.…”

‘Black as Kenenisa Bekele in a tunnel’: Representation of African athletes in Slovenian Olympic broadcasting

“…Hence, the original connotation is perhaps even cruder than the resulting translation into English, since the verb 'import' (as originally used) is literary reduced to merchandise only. It is thus probably no surprise that 'fake' nationality was never mentioned in connection to naturalised Slovenian athletes whom the commentators supported just as openly and fully as native representatives (Ličen and Billings 2013).…”

“…Hence, comments regarding a seemingly non-existent minority are not perceived as problematic. The commentator who spoke about black runners 'wearing sunglasses at 10 p.m.' and compared a blank screen to 'Kenenisa Bekele in a tunnel' was asked whether he regretted these and other potentially offensive comments (see Ličen and Billings 2013) he made during the 2008 Olympic telecasts. He replied that he did not regret such statements at all, arguing that he had merely been stating facts (Andrej Stare, pers.…”

“…In Slovenia, the lack of indepth information extended to most foreign athletes, even beyond the African continent. Personal details that go beyond tangible references to personal bests, past results or biographical information are limited almost exclusively to 'local' athletes, with whom commentators are arguably more familiar (Ličen and Billings 2013).…”