“Patriots at Play”: Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of the Gold Medal Contenders in Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

Abstract

This study compared how The Globe and Mail and The New York Times covered the Canadian and U.S. women’s and men’s ice hockey teams competing in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. A content-analysis methodology compared the amount and prominence of coverage devoted to the women’s and men’s teams. Each newspaper provided more coverage of the men’s teams and to its own national teams, particularly in prominent locations. Textual analysis was used to analyze how the gendered themes intersected with national identity in the narratives. Theoretical insight was drawn from Connell’s theory of gender–power relations, Anderson’s concept of the imagined community, and Hobsbawm’s theory of invented traditions. Four themes emerged: the future of hockey at the Winter Olympic Games, postgame celebrations, gendered discourses, and the importance of the gold-medal games. A discussion of each theme is presented.

A Unified Version of London 2012: New-Media Coverage of Gender, Nationality, and Sport for Olympics Consumers in Six Countries

“…Pratt, Grappendorf, Grundvig, and LeBlanc (2008) examined newspaper coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics and discovered that male athletes received more coverage in terms of column inches and were more likely to be featured on the front page of the sports section. Vincent and Crossman (2012) examined coverage of the Canadian and U.S. men's and women's hockey teams provided by The Globe and Mail and The New York Times during the 2010 Winter Olym pics and found that both media organizations provided more coverage to the men's teams. Because of the discrep ancies in coverage listed above, scholars have concluded that the media may have set an agenda that reinforced stereotypical portrayals of athletes (Billings et al, 2008;Billings & Eastman, 2003;Tuggle & Owen, 1999).…”

Comparing Flagship News Programs

“…Vincent and Crossman (2012) found more than a 2:1 ratio favoring men within newspaper coverage of Olympic ice hockey; Coche (2012) found ESPN's internet coverage of the Australian Open yielded more than triple the hours for men's tennis than women's tennis; Turner (2014) studied SportsCenter, finding not only an ''almost complete lack of coverage'' of women's sports (pp. 16-17) but also that women were no more likely to occupy host, reporter, or coaching roles in 2009 than they were in 1999.…”

“Smiles and Laughs—All Teeth Intact”: A Cultural Perspective on Mediated Women’s Handball in Norway

“…The commentators produce a narrative of us/Norway and them/the opposition. As documented elsewhere (Vincent & Crossman, 2012) it is evident in the material that also contemporary women are symbolic bearers of national and masculine virtues. Furthermore, the Norwegian female handballers are metaphorically represented as managing not only team handball, but also other masculine contact-sports such as wrestling (Sisjord & Kristiansen, 2008).…”

“…Through the TV screen, the often hyper-masculine warrior narratives of male sports are glorified and broadcasted to wide audiences (Broch, 2011;Gee, 2009;Messner, Dunbar, & Hunt, 2000;Trujillo, 1995;Vincent & Crossman, 2012). Jordan and Cowan (1995, p. 729) accordingly argue that " [t]he mantle of the warrior is inherited by the sportsman".…”

“…MacKay and Dallaire (2009) found that Canadian campus newspaper coverage depicted male and female athletes almost free of gender bias, as mere athletes. Media coverage of the Olympic Games have been analyzed as gender equal (Capranica & Aversa, 2002;King, 2007), notably as national identity and gender intersects (Vincent & Crossman, 2012), but its relevance questioned as a four-yearly spectacle (Bernstein, 2002). New female ideals, whether empowering, oppressive, or both, are emerging in sport media.…”