Page 94 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Sport and the Press • 83

contrast, the action photograph of Milczarek on horseback during a race minimised

the impact of her gender, and the profile of her dressed as a jockey connoted strength
and heroism. The images as a group portray a somewhat ambiguous array of tradi-
tional codes of femininity and sporting prowess that allows readers to construct their
own narratives around their understandings of women in sport.
Photographs presented in sequences require the reader to fill in the gaps between

the images by constructing a narrative. As Bignell (1997: 102) suggested, ‘the rep-
etition and variation of the signs in the pictures “add up” to produce particular con-
notations for the sequence as a whole, which become the signifiers of the mythic

meaning of the event, like “tragedy” or “triumph” for instance.’ For example, The

Sun’s story about Beckham’s lack of fitness (discussed previously) was accompanied
by a sequence of images of him in various locations around the world between
22 November 2007 and 22 January 2008. In the series of shots, Beckham is depicted
engaging in celebrity diplomacy, publicity and socialising, alongside one image of
him playing soccer in New Zealand and another training in London, England. The
image sequence was laid on top of a shot of Beckham playing football barefoot
and bare-chested on a beach in Brazil. Together the images told a story of constant
international travel and celebrity engagements, with little time devoted to serious
sport. The headline is it any wonder? overlaid on the spread carried a presupposed
shared knowledge of the story (“is it any wonder that Beckham was not picked for
the England team?”), and the images together provided the answer.

Newspapers use specific language codes in combination with layout and pictures
to produce rich meanings. Using multiple layers of visual and textual signifi cation,
newspapers frame sport and sportspeople within broader social ideologies. While
appearing to celebrate achievements, the press can use subtle forms of implication
to contradict its explicit message. The two case studies that follow show how im-
ages and text construct particular viewpoints from which readers are invited to view

Olympic athletes. The first case study discusses the way newspapers in the United
States reported Ben Johnson’s positive drug test in 1988. The second discusses the
way Kelly Holmes’s double gold medal success in the 2004 Olympics was narrated
by the British press.

Case Study: Ben Johnson and the Spectacle
of Drug Use in Sport

Since the 1980s, drug use has remained a recurring theme in a newspaper’s sport
pages. The initial proliferation of stories about drug use in the 1980s has been at-
tributed to a range of factors, including an increase in the number of athletes using
drugs, the ongoing acceptance of athlete transgressions as a topic in sport sections
and, in particular, high-profile reports, arrests, suspensions, bans and even deaths