Gender,Sports, and New Media: Predictors of Viewing during the 2008 Beijing Olympics

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was the most watched television event in U.S. television history, and represented a broad expansion and emphasis on online sports content. This study examined audience's multiplatform experience with the 2008 Beijing Games, particularly the interactions between and among gender groups, viewing the Olympics, and use of new media. Results indicate that although men and women were significantly different in sports viewing and media use in general, they shared similarities in seeking Olympic content on various media platforms.     

From Pride to Smugness and the Nationalism Between: Olympic Media Consumption Effects on Nationalism Across the Globe

To measure relationships between Olympic media viewing and nation-based attitudes, 6 nations (Australia, Bulgaria, China, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United States) were surveyed in the 5 days immediately after the 2012 London Olympics. A total of 1,025 respondents answered questions pertaining to four measures of nationalism: patriotism, nationalism, internationalism, and smugness. The amount of Olympic viewing resulted in significantly higher scores for patriotism, nationalism, and smugness, but not internationalism. In addition, differences by nation are reported, revealing considerable differences in nationalism measures among the 6 nations studied; for instance, the United States was the lowest of the 6 nations regarding internationalism yet highest of the 6 nations regarding smugness. Conclusions related to theory and the role of Olympic media content are offered.     

Creating a Competitive Identity: Public Diplomacy in the London Olympics and Media Portrayal

Sports events such as the Olympics are ideal venues for a country to exercise public diplomacy and to promote a competitive identity. Along this line of theorizing, the present study examined how Britain planned and presented the opening ceremony of the London Olympics and how the media in Britain, the United States, and China portrayed the show, specifically focusing on the salience of media coverage, valence of particular attitudes expressed, and differences in themes coverage. A content analysis was conducted on 221 news stories sampled from major media outlets in these countries. Results showed only a few themes with unique Britishness were prominently and positively covered, whereas others without distinctive British characteristics were less mentioned. Implications for public diplomacy are discussed.     

The Invisible Woman?

While the coverage of women's sport in UK media rises to comparable levels to men's sports during large sporting events like the Olympics, academics agree that “routine” women's sports coverage is under-represented. According to the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation, “81% of people think that the female athletes at London 2012 make better role models for young girls than other celebrities.” This article examines the representation of women in sport and compares routine coverage of women's sports in the UK national press across a week in February 2012, six months before the London Olympics, with coverage in a week in February 2013, six months after the Olympics, to see if there has been an Olympic “legacy” that increased coverage. It also examines coverage at the same time of year a decade earlier, to see how far, if at all, women's sports coverage in newspapers has progressed. The results suggest that there has been minimal change in everyday coverage of women's sports after the Olympics, and that female athletes continue to be hugely under-represented in the UK press.     

The Evolution and Fragmentation of Olympic Media Consumption and Its Impact on the Entertainment Value of the 2018 Winter Olympics

This fragmentation of Olympic media is a fascinating trend to explore on an international level to examine if there are similarities in how citizens of different countries consume Winter Olympic media. Another curiosity is the amount of entertainment value different media platforms add to the experience of the Winter Olympics. Using an international sample of 2,245 participants across six countries, a survey was conducted to explore the differences in media consumption during the 2018 Winter Olympics among citizens in six countries, as well as what media consumption habits predict one’s perception of the entertainment value of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Results showed that while participants are adopting more digitally based means to consume Olympic media, television and print media were the strongest predictors of entertainment value.     

国内媒介的北京奥运观探析

奥运会进入北京周期后,媒体有关奥运的报道不断升温。在这个过程中,媒介的北京奥运观是把北京奥运这样一个重大的媒介事件作为一个难得的机遇和一次重大的挑战。     

仪式直播中“表演”的传播价值选择——对“奥运开幕式‘假唱’”事件的思考

北京奥运开幕仪式中的假唱事件引起了国内外的关注,引发了人们从法律法规、道德操守、国家形象等多方面的议论。本文从大众媒介传播法则、规律和仪式表演内在规定的双重角度,分析了此次仪式中的假唱在大众传播语境下的不合理性,试图通过这一案例的剖析,探讨仪式直播中表演的定位及其依据,以积累更合理的共识,促进仪式直播的健康发展。     

NATIONAL STATUS,THE 1908 OLYMPIC GAMES AND THE ENGLISH PRESS1

From their inception the modern Olympics have been characterized by controversy over the meaning of the games. The 1908 London games and their coverage in the Edwardian press illustrate the tension between the Olympic ideal of ‘friendly’ sporting competition and the reality of the intense national rivalry in Europe prior to the First World War. During the games, newspapers also addressed the parallel tension between amateur virtue and the desire to win. The press presented sporting achievement at the London games as a measure of national status and provided an introduction to issues surrounding international sporting competition which still persist today.     

奥运后备人才信息管理数据库构建的设想

从奥运后备人才信息管理数据库建设的目的和意义出发,阐述了建设该数据库的主要目标、建设原则、组织架构及其特点和作用。     

Health, sport and nutritional information: tailoring your approach

One of the intended legacies of the London 2012 Olympics is to increase the level of physical activity amongst the general population. Health information on the positive health benefits of sport and nutrition can assist in this goal and its positive benefit can been seen in communities within and beyond the United Kingdom, particularly within an educational context. In the United States, young people view their teachers as a valuable source of health information, and in Taiwan, teachers have been key collaborators in the development of a national Health e-Learning Network providing multimedia-learning modules for use in the classroom. However, classrooms are not the only source of health information and, with the reported inaccuracies in the translation of health information from academic papers to the popular press, school librarians have a role to play in facilitating students' ability to assess the quality of the health information they access, whatever the source.     

A Descriptive Analysis of NBC's Coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics

This study examines the amount of NBC's 2000 Olympics coverage devoted to women's athletics. Analysis showed that women received proportionately less coverage in 2000 than they did in 1996 on the U.S. network, and that coverage focused on individual events, with women competing in team sports receiving relatively little coverage. As was the case in 1996, women who competed in 2000 in sports involving power or hard physical contact received almost no attention.     

Just One More Episode: Predictors of Procrastination with Television and Implications for Sleep Quality

Sleep experts have raised concern over the effects of electronic media use on sleep. To date, few studies have looked beyond the effects of duration and frequency of media exposure or examined the underlying mechanisms of this association. As procrastinatory media use has been related to lower well-being, we used data from two survey studies (N₁ = 821, N₂ = 584) to investigate (a) predictors of procrastinatory TV viewing and (b) the link between procrastinatory TV viewing and sleep quality. Findings from both studies indicate that those with a stronger viewing habit, higher TV involvement, and an eveningness preference reported more procrastinatory TV viewing. Procrastinatory TV viewing was related to subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, and daytime dysfunction. This association was fully mediated by perceived stress. As sleep is key for the replenishment of self-control, procrastinators may be setting themselves up to fail at self-regulating, a situation exacerbated by the omnipresence of media in today’s society.     

The Framing of Sexual Difference in SI for Kids Editorial Photos

The 1996 Olympic games, billed as "the gender equity Olympics," held out promise for better media coverage of female athletes; during the games, women's sport and its audience reached record levels. However, did the success for women's sports during the Olympics translate to significant changes in sports media? This study examines post-1996 editorial photographs in SI for Kids (SIK) to determine whether post-Olympic female athletes received more favorable coverage than in the magazine's inaugural issues.     

Multitasking With TV: Media Technology,Genre, and Audience Influences

This study explored how media technologies, TV content genres, and demographic and trait individual differences influence the amount of media multitasking while viewing TV, or “second screen viewing,” among college undergraduates. A dual structural and audience factor approach examines influences on multitasking while viewing TV, and a limited capacity theory guides an examination of the effect of TV genre on multitasking while viewing. Survey data reveal that media technology access, sex, age, trait immersive tendency, and multitasking preference predict greater multitasking and that individuals are most likely to multitask during sports content and least likely to during dramatic content.     

Platform War vs. Platform Synergy? A Longitudinal Analysis of Media Substitution between Personal Computers and Mobile Devices

ABSTRACT

Research on media substitution theory has examined substitutional and/or complementary relationships between new and existing media. This study focuses on the growth of mobile platforms and investigates the relationship between mobile devices and personal computers. Using Nielsen’s panel data that provide electronically recorded media usage (N = 2,396), this study analyzes yearly changes in time allocation to mobile devices and PCs at total and content-specific usage levels during mobile 4G transition. Results suggest a complementarity dynamic between mobile devices and PCs; however, the patterns were more nuanced in light of the role of individual and structural factors when determining media choice.     

The Psychology of Marathon Television Viewing: Antecedents and Viewer Involvement

This study focuses on the expanding trend of marathon (“binge”) television viewing. It examines the personality antecedents of such media consumption (attachment style, depression, and self-regulation deficiency) as well as the psychological experiences of marathon viewers relative to the narrative (transportation, enjoyment) and its characters (parasocial relationship, identification). In a two-study design, theoretical models of media use and involvement, on one hand, and models of media addiction, on the other hand, are applied to predict the extent of marathon viewing and to compare it with “traditional” viewing. Results advance understanding of enjoyment and involvement theory and support cognitive theories of media addiction. At the same time, the study’s findings reveal that marathon television viewers are active both cognitively and emotionally during and after the media exposure, thus alleviating some concerns about the “problematic” nature of the “binge” viewing phenomenon.     

Need for Orientation and Third-Person Effects of the Televised Debates in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

The televised debates in the 2016 presidential election took place between two controversial candidates, Hillary Clinton and her opponent, Donald Trump, who faced a deeply divided electorate of highly opinioned voters that had already decided on their supported candidates. How did viewing the debates influence them? Would the debates reinforce their existing opinion, or provide them with useful information about the candidates? Drawing on Davison’s third-person effect hypothesis, this study aims to shed light on the question of how viewing the debates influences voters relative to others in the era of social media. The study focuses on the need for orientation as a predictor of debate exposure and the behavioral consequences of debate exposure for electoral engagement on social media. Findings show that partisans are not impacted by viewing the debates, but respondents perceived Independents to be most vulnerable. Further, need for orientation moderated the relationship between debate exposure and perceived effects of the debates on self, which prompted respondents to mobilize support for the candidate of their choice and to vote for their supported candidates.     

“Amoral universalism”: mediating and staging global and local in the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games

This paper is a case study that critically analyzes the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games. The Olympics are a gigantic global event, largely as a result of significant global media attention, particularly through television and corporate sponsors. However, these entities simultaneously need a specific locale in which to operate. Analytically, the paper focuses on interactions between the global media actors and the host city and its people. It argues that the commercialized nature of the Olympic Games controls not only the program, but also numerous aspects of the local host city to maximize benefit for the media. This paper reviews how historically and structurally the media were able to obtain such extensive control. Then, it argues how the media actually control the locale through the initial bid, the process of preparation, the Games, and even the aftermath.     

Family Television Viewing and Its Alternatives: Associations with Closeness within and between Generations

Audience research on family television viewing flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. These studies highlighted watching television as a family as a valuable family routine, structuring the rhythm of daily life and generating family harmony. Ever since, we have witnessed changes in both family structures and media structures, which have affected the ways television is consumed within the household. This begs the question whether earlier findings considering family closeness still hold up. Therefore, this study conducted a cross-sectional survey among a sample of 691 Belgian individuals, nested in 288 families. Drawing upon insights from literature on family rituals and media generations, the results of this study indicate that despite a robust prevalence of family viewing, alternative social patterns emerge coinciding with the appropriation of screen technologies beyond living room television. Further analysis reveals that deviations from family viewing are associated with lower closeness between generations. However, younger generations watching together do report higher levels of closeness with their generational counterparts.