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Televised Sport • 57

insistently are close-ups of faces employed’ (Modleski 1984: 99). The omnipresence
of close-ups in this programme type activates the ‘gaze of the mother’, according to
Modleski, providing viewers with training in reading other people’s emotions. Of
course, it is not possible to ignore the importance of the body in sport, but the preva-
lence of the close-up in some televised sport forms (tennis, snooker) might be viewed
as a strategy to attract a wider audience.

Written Language and Graphics

The use of graphics is prevalent in television. Seiter (1992) observed,

Diagrams are superimposed over news or sports images to invite a quasi-scientifi c
scrutiny of the image. Borders and frames mask out the background of already
pared-down images. Words constantly appear on the screen to identify the pro-
gram, sponsoring corporation, the network or cable station, the product name, the
person portrayed. (p. 44)

Statistics, diagrams, logos and computer-animated images are inseparable from sport
broadcasts and are often a constant feature. Graphics provide an eye-catching visual
marker of a range of events within a broadcast, including scores, time, players and
logos. Graphics may be in motion, superimposed on the playing fi eld, fl ashing or
accompanied by sound. Graphics may also refer to events occurring beyond the im-
mediate broadcast such as a scoreline running underneath the match that refers to
other results. Words and graphics play an important role in creating the televised
sport experience by marking, labelling and highlighting particular features of the
broadcast.

Voice

It has been argued that the medium of television is dominated by its soundtrack: ‘the
sound track serves as a value-laden editing function, identifying better than the image
itself, the parts of the image that are suffi ciently spectacular to merit closer attention
on the part of the intermittent viewer’ (Altman 1986: 47). The voice of the commenta-
tor in sports television has this effect—if your attention wanders, a yell from the com-
mentator immediately refocuses your gaze. Altman referred to this as ‘italicizing’.
It is interesting to consider the way that the voice in sport television differs
from other television genres. Unlike dramas, for example, sport broadcasts can be
watched without the sound with relatively little loss of comprehension. Yet, in stud-
ies of televised sport, the words of the commentators are often given most attention
(Duncan and Hasbrook 1988). The voices of the commentators and presenters could