Despite of the significant role and relationship between sports and media, some sporting events for people with disabilities are generally not fairly inclusive in mass media. For instance, although mass media coverage of the Paralympics and athletes with disabilities has slowly increased in recent decades in conjunction with the growth of the Paralympic movements since the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, the lack of quantitative media coverage and marginality of the Paralympics and athletes with disabilities still exists. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to analyze the TV news transcripts of the Paralympics through framing analysis. Specific research questions are following: (1) what types of issues have been discussed in TV news transcripts of the Paralympics, and elite athletes with disabilities; and (2) how the Paralympics and elite athletes with disabilities have been framed in TV news transcripts.
Method:
The current study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to draw a meaning of the data collected. The quantitative method applied to indicate types of issues and frames of the TV news transcripts in the periods of the Paralympics, while a qualitative analysis was utilized to analyze how contents of the TV news transcripts related to the types of issues regarding the Paralympics and athletes with disabilities were inferred (Bryman, 2001; Kang, Gearhart, & Bae, 2010; Thomas & Smith, 2003). Using the Lexis-Nexis Academic database, the current study collected TV news transcripts about the Paralympics and athletes with disabilities from 3 TV networks (ABC, CBS, and CNN) between the time periods of 1998 to 2012.
Analysis/Results:
The results of the current study revealed that issues of event facts, superhuman (e.g., “super-crip” story of the athletes), and optimism (e.g., educational role model, positive image of the Paralympics and athletes with disabilities) were most commonly highlighted in their coverage of the Paralympics. The study also revealed that TV news coverage focused more on the episodic frame by presenting a specific personal story or case study rather than broader societal issues.
Conclusions:
The study on the TV news coverage of the Paralympics identified how these TV news shape and influence target audience using the framing theory. Mass media studies in sport management are necessary to further explore coverage of the Paralympics and athletes with disabilities because of media effect that might influence social change and better public’s perceptions and attitudes towards inferior groups of sport participation.