Winning Isn’t Everything: The Effect of Nationalism Bias on Enjoyment of a Mediated Sporting Event

Nationalism in the United States and Canadian primetime broadcast coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics

“…Yet, even if one's home nation athletes perform poorly, there is often a greater desire to see them compete than watch athletes from "other" nations perform in sports that are relatively "foreign" to a certain nation. Smith (2012) remarked "it may be fine if a United States team is not consistently shown winning every event in the Olympics, so long as the commentators focus on the positive attributes of the team or player" (188). Indeed, the CBC and NBC stories of the Sochi Olympiad appear to not only be about American or Canadian successes, but also about Americans or Canadians as central figures in sporting narratives, regardless if the home athletes were completely successful in their efforts.…”

Blinded by the sand of its burrowing? Examining fans’ intentions to follow one-day cricket on TV with a moderating effect of social influence

“…Also there are evidences to highlight that nationalistic framing is common amongst televised sports (Ličen and Billings, 2013;Billings et al, 2011;Billings and Eastman, 2003) which directs fans to inculcate nationalistic and patriotic attitudes about the home country as a way of social identity gratification (Atwell Seate et al, 2017). Apart from highlighting the characteristics of players (Billings and Tambosi, 2004), home-country-based framing of sports commentary can also increase the level of interest among home-country fans in an environment where commentary positively affects viewer enjoyment' (Smith, 2012). This would be of interest to sports marketers and media where they can use nationalistic themes while broadcasting matches (Scott et al, 2012).…”

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

“…A relationship exists between positive ''home'' nation sports commentary and overall enjoyment (Smith, 2012), making media entities more likely to give an audience what it craves-a focus on events and athletes that paints a home nation in the best light, presumably by winning. Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Smith, and Vincent (2014) confirmed that this does happen in NBC's Olympic telecast, finding that American athletes received 55.8% of the mentions within NBC's version of the London Games, more than 400% of what U.S. athletic successes would presumably warrant.…”

“…Indeed, people watch sports more if their home nation receives the bulk of the focus (Nü esch & Franck, 2009). For reasons of both self-interest (ratings) and viewer interest (increased enjoyment; Smith, 2012), media have been happy to oblige the tendency for unbalanced coverage toward a home nation. Real (1989) claimed that this happens in all countries but found it varied widely among nations and continents.…”