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The debate over Caster Semenya’s female sex began shortly after the South African runner won gold in the women’s 800 m final at the 2009 Athletic World Championships in Berlin. Her victory was disputed by questioning her right to compete as a woman. Using the theoretical framework of gender and postcolonial theories and the methodology of discourse and dispositive analysis, the paper explores the contextualization of a perceived transgressive, aesthetic, performance and display in the field of top-level sports. The case study analyses the discourses surrounding a non-white, non-male South African runner in eight mainstream Swiss German language print media. The paper argues that the media response to Semenya exemplifies Butler’s claim that the discursive framework of gender constructs and naturalizes sex. A key question is, therefore, whether the assignation of deviant bodies to a ‘field of deformation’ works to pluralize and cross set gender boundaries, or rather, as Butler suggests, calls those bodies into question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 26 April 2007, US sportswriter Mike Penner told readershewas transsexual and thathewould return to the paper as Christine Daniels. Journalists immediately analysed and assessed this column. Three months later, Daniels' first byline appeared assheassumedherformer beats. Yet, after eight months in the spotlight, Daniels faded from view and, without explanation, Penner's name returned. Although the paper did not offer details on Penner's return,hisre-emergence proved newsworthy. While the byline appeared consistently, Penner rarely appeared in public. On 27 November 2009,hecommitted suicide. By interrogating the fragmented coverage of Penner/Daniels in these three periods of his/her life – transition, (re/de)transition and suicide – this paper argues that the media selectively framed Penner/Daniels's gender identity and used gender pronouns purposefully to create specific meanings. Few described Penner/Daniels in entirety; as a result, the life was flattened into a one-dimensional category of gender advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential of international youth football tournaments for youth development in the Global South. The tournaments under study were East Africa Cup in Tanzania, and Norway Cup in Norway. Through qualitative interviews with tournament participants, we addressed the following research question: What are the participant’s views of the potentials of Norway Cup and East Africa Cup in dealing with development issues facing youth in the Global South? Our findings demonstrate that all interviewees consider the tournaments potentially beneficial for youth development in the Global South. In the analysis, we identified four different categories, mostly representing positive outcomes of tournament participation. We argue that a functionalist neo-liberal notion of sport is visible in the data material. Thus, our findings correspond with Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) research showing how reproductions of the SDP functionalist discourse ‘continue to be leveraged through sport and sealed into the success story of SDP’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the sports coverage in the Polish media from a gender perspective. Do women and men receive the same amount of coverage? It is assumed that the interest of the media depends, among other things, on the popularity of a sport and the fame of an athlete. However, it must be noted that the prestige of a sport depends on the gender of the participants. Furthermore, it can be assumed that male athletes have a greater chance of being in the focus of attention than women athletes. This paper has two main objectives: (1) to present the status of women's events in the Polish media by comparing men's and women's coverage and (2) to point out the main explanations of the different treatment of male and female athletes by the Polish media. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used in this paper. The first set of data is secondary data concerning media coverage, viewership and the media value of athletes and sports. The results ofThe International Sports Survey 2011are quantitative in character and were conducted and coordinated by the author of this paper. The qualitative data – results of the author's own research: individual in-depth interviews and focus group interviews – are of complementary nature. They are used to complement and discuss the information concerning media coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing Olympics made visible, through various media practices and events associated with them, a range of different component parts of the constantly and rapidly changing Chinese media landscape. By following the Chinese, and to some degree foreign, media coverage of the Olympics this paper presents a range of clear examples that draw our attention to some of the key ways in which Chinese media work and some of the important changes and developments that are currently taking place in this area of Chinese social life. The paper identifies the more important of these developments treating them under three broad interrelated headings. The first is the relationship of the media to the government and the paper argues that this relationship requires reconceptualisation in ways that avoid the stereotypical polarities of state control and resistance. The second area for discussion relates to the relationship between Chinese and foreign media. I will argue that coverage of Olympics-related events in both Chinese and foreign media reveal important transformations in this relationship. The third issue relates to the rapid growth of new media use in contemporary China. To understand contemporary developments in Chinese media it is impossible to ignore the emergence of new media and new technologies - the Internet, mobile phones, digital television and mobile television in particular. However, the emphasis will not only be on what is new. It is also important to consider how old media habits continue to shape new media agendas and transformations. The paper argues that these developments require us to reconceptualise the Chinese media landscape in ways that break with the established frames of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the volume contextualises the theme of the conference and examines how all the papers included in this special issue address the theme of 'Documenting the Beijing Olympics'. The issue of what it means to document, especially in the twenty-first century in which the media must include new technologies, is considered in some detail. Types of documentation, the problem of intentional and unintentional meanings, are considered and the question 'what does it mean to represent an event?' is asked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eileen Gu received a widespread public attention as an American-born snowboarder that won 3 medals in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics representing China. Building on the conceptual and historical frameworks of sports and nation-building, and taking Eileen Gu as a case-study, this article analyzes through critical discourse analysis how Chinese mainstream media portrayed Eileen Gu's image and her Chinese identity. The results show that during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Chinese media constructed Eileen Gu's Chinese identity through a pluralistic approach: her success is connected with national pride, Chinese food, family relations and kinship, friendship, excellence in study and Chinese totems. We conclude that in the context of sport being an important vehicle for China's nation-building, this country is expanding the boundaries of Chinese/China through sports storytelling and the naturalization of athletes, linking sporting success to the 'rejuvenation of China'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, a version of which was written in 1993, argued that media sport flows are part of an interdependent global sport system that involve transnational practices, the relatively autonomy of which is linked to ‘disjunctures’ that occur as global flows weave together. This global sports system possesses a relatively autonomous dynamic, yet, transnational practices are prone to attempts to control and regulate them. This can involve the actions of transnational agencies or individuals from the ‘transnational capitalist class’. Transnational organizations such as the IOC, FIFA and the IAAF, agencies such as the IMG and ISL, media corporations such as NBC, Eurosport and News International, and transnational companies such as Reebok and Nike, seek to regulate the cultural flows involved. Individuals who belong to the ‘transnational capitalist class’ are also centrally involved as some of the key players whose plans and actions interweave in attempting to develop a global sport media complex. Such interventions cause cultural struggles of various kinds, and, at different levels and relate to questions of ownership, production, media content and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the mediatization of BMX-freestyle cycling over the past four decades through an examination of the centrality of particular media of communication and particular texts within this sport. It is argued that the history of BMX is inseparable from the history of the activity's mediation. Indeed, the historic rise and fall of the sport with regard to industrial success can be correlated with the appearance and disappearance of disseminating institutions such as particular special-interest magazines. Furthermore, these magazines have been the site of introductions to, and negotiations with, other competing media throughout the history of the activity. In the early twenty-first century, digital media have increasingly challenged the dominance of older media that have served/exploited this sport. It is probable that this particular activity, and the media that serve and exploit it, will continue to have a complex, co-dependent relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adds to a growing body of literature that engages with failure as a way of knowing and understanding the social. Through a focus on images of sportswomen's loss or failure in three Australian newspapers during the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games we analyzed affective-discourses and patterns in images and accompanying headlines, captions and stories to explore the place of loss in the narrative of mainstream sport reporting. Through this focus on loss we hoped to find points of disruption that might generate new conceptions of women in sport. What we found was that stories of loss in mainstream newspaper coverage reproduced transphobic, racist, nationalistic, ageist and sexist discourses. We conclude by calling for research that explores how athletes self-present their losses in digital platforms subjectively rather than being reported 'on'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on gender, sport and power in the mass media is presented.

Since the first Olympic Games, the figure of the athlete has roused enormous passion. One may wonder if nowadays the cultural mechanisms that produce them are analogous and perform the same functions as in the past. This article aims to answer these questions. For this purpose, we have relied on the analysis of the discourse from different actors in the 2010 European Symposium of Sports “Thinking Sports, Transforming Society: The EU in favor of citizenship for the XXI Century”. The results will provide relevant information about the responsibility of the mass media in the production of a sports spectacle, the role of the big brands and the exemplarity of the sports’ elite. In this manner, the need was conveyed of producing a different view of sports, so that in the contest between humanistic values and materialistic values, those who contribute to the welfare of the citizens could achieve glory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the significance of the Ryder Cup golf competition to national identity in the U.S. It discusses how the media use the Ryder Cup as a framing mechanism for narratives of the nation and sports as a vehicle for national pride. The article examined coverage of the Ryder Cup in the newspapers the Louisville Courier-Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today and the importance of the Ryder Cup to amateur golfers in the U.S.

Reporting about combat sports generates much discussion within the broader community. Many opinions abound and views impact on the acceptance of these types of sports in society. Within Australia, the introduction of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contests has generated significant debate. This debate has been presented in the media reflecting political, social and moral arguments about the value or social acceptance of this sporting activity. This research explores the manner in which the media frames the reporting into UFC in Australia. A process for framing newspaper articles is broken down and adopted through analysis of 68 articles drawn from two major Australian National newspapers. Themes that emerged included Defining and Legitimizing the Sport, Growth and Economic Benefit, Image and Impact on Society and Political and Government Factors. Upon establishing these themes, it was apparent these presented a Conflict Frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The London 2012 Olympic Games were widely reported as the ‘Women's Games’ but was this reflected in the photographic representation in British print media? This study focused upon photographic representation of athletes in the British print media during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The original dimension of this investigation is the triangulation of gender with location, position and camera angle of photos. From a feminist perspective, content analysis was used to compare the amount and prominence of the coverage devoted to female and male athletes and photographs during the Games findings indicate that media coverage of female athletes continues to lag behind that of male athletes in quantity of photos. However, there are signs of increased gender equality in the location, page prominence and camera angle of photos of sportswomen compared to previous studies on the media representation of female athletes at Olympic Games. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to shed light on the reasons beneath the emergence of football hooliganism-related media-orchestrated moral panics. Comparative analysis of the upmarket press coverage of the issue in Italy and Greece from the 1970s onwards reveals that the transforming of football hooliganism into a security threat was to a great extent dissociated from the scale and seriousness of the phenomenon. In both case studies, the change in the way journalists perceived football hooligans was closely associated with an array of social and political factors that were unrelated to football crowd violence. Contextualization of these findings suggests that the gradual replacement of the political origins of this threat-focused perception by apparently depoliticized risk-oriented security threat assessments has played an important role in legitimating liberty-restricting counter-hooliganism policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compact disc was launched in 1982 and heralded a golden age of music industry profitability before extensions of the same digital revolution, in the form of file-sharing, began, in 1999, to undermine the very foundations of commercial mediation in recorded music. The parallels in English football run one decade behind, with subscription-based digital broadcasting of live matches kicking off in 1992. Much has been made of the successes and corruptions associated with the vast influx of revenues that have supposedly transformed English 'elite' football, but such discussions are premature at best. Ten years on from the advent of file-sharing in music, parallel technologies are emerging for the free transmission of live sporting events. This article suggests that the cultural differences that might have inhibited the uptake of such services amongst football fans, relative to music fans, have been eroded by the very hyper-commercialization of sport which digital media once helped to facilitate but which now threatens or promises to undermine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conjunction with the extensive growth of new media technologies, stadium debates and competing claims on civic resources are being increasingly played out in cyberspace. Using case material from Dunedin, New Zealand, we critically examine the deployment of popular video sharing websites like YouTube that allow dominant interest groups to articulate their 'unfiltered' ideological positions. We suggest that stadium proponents (in the private and public sectors) are utilizing new media technologies (e.g., websites, blogs, etc.) as part of highly orchestrated public-relations campaigns that are designed to create the impression of popular support and optimistic momentum for development. In bypassing traditional media and skirting oppositional viewpoints, we argue that these types of promotional strategies have profound implications for local democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'It seems to me that we are living through a long revolution, which our best descriptions only in part interpret. It is a genuine revolution, transforming men and institutions; continually extended and deepened by the actions of millions, continually and variously opposed by explicit reaction and by the pressure of habitual forms and ideas. Yet it is a difficult revolution to define, and its uneven action is taking place over so long a period that it is almost impossible not to get lost in its exceptionally complicated process.'1 The dialectics of the relations between globalization, national identity and xenophobia are dramatically illustrated in the public activity that combines all three: football. For, thanks to global television, this universally popular sport has been transformed into a worldwide capitalist industrial complex (though, by comparison with other global business activities, of relatively modest size).2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As ‘Propaganda Theorists’ argue, an examination of key discourses can enhance our understanding of how economic, political and social debate is shaped by mainstream media reporting. In this essay we present content and discourse analysis of Australian media reporting on the nexus of sport and terrorism. Examining newspaper reports over a five-year period, from 1996–2001, which included the 11 September 2001 terrorist tragedy in the United States (9/11), provides useful insights into how public discourse might be influenced with regard to sport and terrorism interrelationships. The results of the media analysis suggest that hegemonic tropes are created around sport and terrorism. The distilled message is one of good and evil, with homilies of sport employed in metaphors for western society and its values. The reactions and responses of sport administrators and athletes to terrorist acts and the threat of terrorism to sport are used to exemplify these ideals, providing newspaper readers a context within which to localize meaning and relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the English media coverage of what is popularly labelled 'football hooliganism'. While there have been studies of this nature in the past, this remains a relatively under-researched area. By revisiting some of the findings of previous studies, this essay investigates the media construction and representation of the 'football hooligan' in contemporary English society through an exploratory textual analysis of the coverage of recent football-related disorder. The analysis focuses specifically on reported incidents of the now infamous public disorder involving English supporters during the 1998 World Cup (France 98) and the 2000 European Championships (Euro 2000). Stuart Hall's seminal 1978 study of the press treatment of 'football hooliganism' found it to be 'brutal, short-hand and simplifying'; with the press implicated in 'generating and keeping alive societal reactions' to the phenomena. From the analysis of the reporting of football-related disorder during France 98 and Euro 2000, it would appear that little has changed in the media agenda over two decades on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]