An examination of past Olympic Games television coverage shows notable differences in the way sports commentators talk about athletes, depending upon the athletes' races, gender and nationalities.
Two studies by University of Delaware Professor James Angelini published this month in academic journals show particular biases. The first details differences in coverage of male and female athletes.
"It's all about luck with the females. It's all about ability with the males," said Angelini, assistant professor of communication.
See Angelini talk about his findings in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSANOCV1rw&list=PLBA031BFD16C493BD&index=1&feature=plcp
The second study shows NBC disproportionately covers American athletes. While it's no surprise that NBC, the network with exclusive rights to the games in the U.S., heavily focuses on Americans, Angelini's findings show it goes far beyond national pride. NBC highlights Americans at three to four times the rate their successes would suggest.
"You see all this coverage of American athletes even when they fail and there's so little coverage of the gold, silver and bronze medal winners (in certain sports)," he said.
Angelini and his research partners record NBC's primetime coverage of each day's games on its flagship channel and code the footage based on 17 categories. The categories include athletic ability, strength, commitment to the sport, intelligence and luck. For the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, they did the same with China's CCTV coverage. This year, they'll also be screening the BBC during the London Games (July 27-Aug. 12).
"The British broadcasts will probably be a bit more balanced than the American broadcasts on NBC," Angelini said. "It won't be fully equitable, but I think it may be better."
The gender-based study published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media found:
The nationality study published in the International Journal of Sport Communication found:
Angelini's findings also included marked differences in commentators' treatment of race:
The danger in these skewed representations, according to Angelini, could be in their effects on viewers' perceptions. People build their belief systems about gender, races and ethnicities, based in part, by what they see on television. Sports tend to draw large audiences, particularly amongst young men. And, the Olympics are by far the largest sporting event worldwide. He worries about how the messaging will interplay with the audience's view of the world.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media