Elite athletes or superstars? Media representation of para-athletes at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

Abstract

This paper offers a discourse analysis of media representations of para-athletes before, during and post Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in print, broadcast and online sources with a view to influencing attitudes towards people with a disability. We use the lens of critical disability theory to inform the study and analyse media representations of para-athletes beyond the physical barriers faced by people with a disability. We seek to address the dearth of studies that examine disability at major sporting events and make a contribution to understanding the media-sport cultural complex (Rowe 1999) and its importance in influencing public attitudes towards disability.

Repurposing the (Super)Crip: Media Representations of Disability at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

“…In this article, we do not mobilise a full Foucauldian analysis but instead a tailored version using key concepts which we deemed most appropriate to our research aims. This approach maps onto what we have successfully used previously to consider the discursive formations in media texts (McPherson et al, 2016). We focus as a result on both textual and visual variations on the supercrip and perhaps more importantly alternative discourses which have emerged more recently illustrating how the shifting balance of power between competing meanings of disability—athletic, militaristic, gender-coded, celebrity-oriented, increasingly political (McPherson et al, 2016)—exist side by side.…”

“…As the aim of a discourse-analytical approach is not the classical anthropological one of grasping “the intention and purposes of the photographer” (Scherer, 2003, p. 21) but to identify how meanings are elicited from the image in the encounter between its formal characteristics and the broader discursive frame in which these images are located. A key aim is to grasp the political nature of images which can at first glance appear, quite incorrectly, as functions of a depoliticised realm of sport more generally (Blain & O’Donnell, 1998) and of mediated Paralympic sport more specifically (McPherson et al, 2016).…”

“…In relation to media representations of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, Misener, McPherson, McGillivray, and Legg (2018) suggest that there was more emphasis on the rights of people with a disability (the minority/civil rights and legal models) but that the primary media frames still emphasised the supercrip narrative. Relatedly, research focused on the Glasgow (2014) Commonwealth Games (an integrated sport event where the able-bodied and parasport elements run concurrently) suggested that while the supercrip narrative was evident, a new gendered celebrity dimension to print and online representations was noticeable (McPherson et al, 2016). This dimension “spectacularises” the elite para-athlete visually and built on the success of the London 2012 Paralympics in positioning para-athletes as celebrities.…”

“…Sport events for para-athletes have for some time now been the subject of intense academic interest and analysis (e.g., Butler, & Bissell, 2015; Bush, Silk, Porter, & Howe, 2013; Ellis, 2009; Hardin & Hardin, 2004; Hodges, Scullion, & Jackson, 2015; Misener, 2013; Silva & Howe, 2012; Smith & Thomas, 2005). These events provide opportunities for raising awareness of disability because they now reach significant media audiences particularly in the global north (McPherson, O’Donnell, McGillivray, & Misener, 2016; Shapiro & Pitts, 2014), garnering widespread attention in print media, online news feeds, and via broadcast television and associated digital platforms, thereby providing an opportunity to educate and inform, as well as entertain audiences. However, previous research has indicated that there remains concern from para-athletes, persons with a disability and those responsible for governing parasport about media representations and their potential impact on the way disability (and disability sport) is talked about—and with what longer term effects (Hodges, Jackson, Scullion, Thompson, & Molesworth, 2014).…”

The SNP, Scottish Labour and Glasgow 2014 – Contrasting Political Narratives of the 2014 Commonwealth Games

“…Furthermore, other analyses have cautioned against the commonly-held perceptions about the possibility of a 'trickle-down effect' in terms of using funding for elite level sporting competitions to boost community sports and physical activity participation (Clark and Kearns, 2016), whilst others urge caution on the validity of claims regarding the 'feel-good effect' of hosting events such as the Games (Matheson, 2010;McCartney et al, 2012;Owe, 2012;Stewart and Rayner, 2016). This is problematic for achieving the planned legacy of the Games, given the centrality of using the Games to boost sports and physical activity participation to improve health outcomes in the Glaswegian and Scottish population (McCartney et al, 2012;Rogerson, 2016), or to overcome barriers relating to disability sports participation (McPherson et al, 2016;Misener et al, 2015).…”