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Michael Phelps was one of the first athletes to openly struggle with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, and depression while still competing. During his career, his perceived identity was tied to his status as an athlete. In retirement, his identity shifted to that of a mental health advocate. This study examines the word choice of newspaper articles on the topic of Phelps and mental health using both social identity and framing theories. Mentions of suicide and seeking help, along with the descriptions of specific types of mental illness and perceived identity assigned to Phelps, were compared between two time periods. Results showed that during Phelps's career, articles were much more likely to discuss his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis and not as likely to discuss suicide, seeking help, and depression. After his retirement, articles were more likely to identify Phelps as an advocate and less likely to focus on him as a celebrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of people accessing the Paralympic Games is growing at a time when few television ratings rise, warranting study of the influence that exposure to Paralympic media has on viewers. This study contrasts two forms (Olympic, Paralympic) of exposure to sport competition while testing other potential moderating factors, including personal experiences with persons with disabilities, trait and state empathy, and attitude toward disability. An online experiment with a national sample of 411 subjects reveals further variables that influence empathy for Paralympic athletes and potentially contribute to stigma reduction. The most holistic finding uncovered was that personal experience with a disability was the biggest predictor of everything else. Experience with disability also served as a key moderator or media exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Global Sport Management is the property of the Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A survey conducted to locate the degree and types of gender, ethnic, and national biases hidden within the prime-time network telecast in the Salt Lake City Olympics, is presented. The results indicated that as long as athletes are treated differently on Olympic telecasts, the same perceived differences are expected to be perpetuated in other realms of American life.

A population of NBC's primetime coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (64 hours) was analyzed to determine differences between the media treatment of U.S. and non-U.S. Olympians. Results showed that U.S. athletes were highlighted at three to four times to rate their successes would suggest. In addition, American athletes were more likely to be depicted as succeeding because of their intellect, commitment, and consonance while non-American athletes were more likely to be depicted as failing because they lacked the strength and skill of other athletes. From a personality/physicality standpoint, American athletes received enhanced comments about their outgoing/extroverted nature while non-American athletes received more comments about the size and parts of their bodies. Ramifications for framing theory and Olympic nationalism research are articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of 291 Australians before and after consuming varied levels of Olympic media revealed key relationships between national identity, psychological connections to the Olympic Games, and media consumption of the Rio Games. The desire for nationalized emulation significantly predicted televisual media consumption; and the desire for nationalized identification and protection significantly predicted both print and digital media consumption. Differential motivations for identifying with Australia, fan involvement, and media consumption all yielded significant relationships with connection to the Olympics as a whole. Theoretical and applied implications are delineated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined Chinese and US newspaper coverage of the controversial performance of female Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen during 2012 London Summer Olympics. While Ye won two gold medals, the ease in which she did so led to doping suspicions in Western media. Analysis of 222 articles from the US and China revealed sharp differences between the two countries’ amount of coverage about Ye, highlighting the valence and usage pattern of information sources as well. US coverage of Ye Shiwen was not as extensive as in China, and gender and nationality-based dialogues were present in newspaper reports. US coverage showed more skepticism on the doping issue; meanwhile, Chinese coverage exhibited a strong desire to protect its national image and national identity through defending Ye as unquestionably innocent. From a theoretical perspective, a framed “us versus them” dichotomy suggests that both countries’ coverages were still strongly influenced by the hostile ideologies beyond mere Olympic performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of NBC's 2012 London Summer Olympic broadcast revealed significant differences between athletes of different ethnic backgrounds. Regarding athletic mentions, White athletes were more likely to be mentioned (64.3%) than all other athletes combined, with significant differences found in the reporting of an athlete from differing ethnic backgrounds depending on the venue where the mention is made. Regarding descriptions ascribed to the Olympians, significant differences were found when comparing the commentary for White, Black, Latino, Asian, and Middle Eastern athletes, including differences in the discussion of successes and failures of athletic strength, athletic ability, experience, and intelligence. Implications on the dialogue divergences are offered at the theoretical level, with heuristic impact being discussed in a variety of contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Television is a cultural service and its national renderings of the Olympic Games contribute to the viewers’ understanding of themselves and the world. This study examines the representation of nationality and gender within Slovenian broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Results show that evaluative commentary comprised as much as 44% of the dialogue. ‘Home’ athletes were given more prominence, while foreign athletes were largely portrayed through quantifiable features. Male athletes received more commentary than females. Announcers favoured analysing results and predicting outcomes for men, and resorted to personality and physicality depictions in women. A critical discourse analysis uncovered notions about gender and nationality that would be deemed inappropriate in many societies. Sports journalists and broadcasters at TV Slovenija do not have explicit editorial policies addressing chauvinistic dialogue. The absence of a policy is not perceived as an issue as individual announcers abide to their personal, at times conflicting, understandings of proper announcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study used theories of agenda setting and framing to examine NBC's Americanized telecast in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Five sports (gymnastics, diving, swimming, track and field, and beach volleyball) received more than 90% of the prime-time coverage, which set an agenda about which sports were most relevant for Americans to watch. The limited scope within NBC's televised agenda, in turn, facilitated the gendered framing of Olympians through sport commentator accounts. Gendered differences were statistically present in only four sports; diving had no significant differences, whereas beach volleyball contained the most differences. Implications and directions for future research are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of all 348 prime-time hours of the 1996-2006 Olympic telecasts (three Summer, three Winter) pinpointed trends in coverage of men's and women's sports. Results indicate that while men athletes and events received the majority of clock time in all six Olympic telecasts, the Summer Olympic telecasts treated women far more equitably than the Winter Olympic telecast. The longitudinal study does not offer any reason to feel that coverage of women's athletics is improving over time, finding that the proportion of clock time devoted to men's and women's sports is relatively the same in 2006 compared to ten years earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lower-than-expected ratings made the 2000 Sydney Olympics an unusual promotional platform and led the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to alter its on-air plans for mar keting its fall 2000 prime-time schedule while the event was proceeding. This study assessed the impact of the prime-time promos carried in the 2000 Games on post Olympics program ratings. A comparison of before-and-after difference scores for each promoted program showed that only one-quarter of its promoted programs rose in the ratings after the event, half stayed flat, and one-third went down, despite NBC's having the top-rated shows at the time. Ten factors were identified that potentially affected the promos' collective impact. From a theoretical perspective, the findings suggested two new variables that might be incorporated in salience theory and from a practical perspective, suggested that NBC's unusual promotional practices led to too little exposure time and repetition for effective promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Past research of American Olympic telecasts has suggested that gender, ethnic, and national biases may hide within prime-time network telecasts. Analysis of host and reporter commentary in the 2000 Sydney Olympics confirmed that men athletes, Whites, and Americans continued to be the most-mentioned and most-positively portrayed in the television coverage, yielding more than their fair share of coverage. Analysis of gendered coverage showed that men were characterized as being more athletic and more committed than women athletes, and, in addition, men received over half of all airtime and of all mentions of athletes. Analyses of ethnicity showed that White athletes were portrayed as succeeding because of commitment, whereas Black athletes succeeded because of mate athletic skills. Analyses of nationalism found that the most-mentioned athletes and half of all athletes mentioned were American participants. Such differential treatment has significant implications for the development of American viewers' self-identity, particularly for children and teenagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]