Page 104 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Sport and the Press • 93

Suggestions for Analysis

Newspapers address their imagined community of readers by framing sport in ways
designed to accord with their interests and values. Issues of rule infringement in
sport illuminate newspapers’ different social and political perspectives well. Trace
the reporting of an incident or scandal, such as a sport star involved in recreational
drug use, in different national or local newspapers. How is the player’s behaviour
celebrated, disciplined or monitored? What assumptions do the papers make about
how players ought to behave, and how do they use language to indicate the assump-
tions they expect readers to share? What combinations of linguistic and visual signs
are used to emphasise particular perspectives? Consider how this framing of players’
behaviour relates to the media construction of the sport star as ‘role model’.

Further Reading

Jackson, S. (1998), ‘A Twist of Race: Ben Johnson and the Canadian Crisis of Racial
and National Identity’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 15: 21– 40.
Kian, E., Vincent, J., and Mondello, M. (2008), ‘Masculine Hegemonic Hoops: An
Analysis of Media Coverage of March Madness’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 25:
223– 42.
Markula, P., ed. (2009), Olympic Women and the Media: International Perspectives,
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Richardson, J. (2007), Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse
Analysis, Houndsmill: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rowe, D. (2004), Sport, Culture and the Media: The Unholy Trinity (2nd edn), Maid-
enhead: Open University Press.
Whannel, G. (2002), Media Sport Stars: Masculinities and Moralities, London:
Routledge.