This book examines how women athletes were represented in international media coverage during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Through feminist theorising and qualitative textual analysis, the contributions examine the type of media coverage women received in such culturally diverse places as Canada, United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom, various countries in Europe, China and South Korea. The book serves as a comprehensive introduction to previous research on women's sport media, different feminist perspectives to media analysis and textual analysis as a method for media research on women and sport. The authors identify how media narratives shape an athletic feminine identity in the intersections of marketable 'sex-appeal', the search for national heroines, emotional displays of success and failure, portrayals of the athletes' personal lives as mothers, sisters or daughters and differing visibility for a range of sports such as beach volleyball, wrestling and weightlifting.
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction; P.Markula
Reading Media Texts in Women's Sport: Critical Discourse Analysis and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis; J.Liao & P.Markula
Opening up the Gendered Gaze: Sport Media Representations of Women, National Identity and Racialized Gaze in Canada; M.MacNeill
From 'Iron Girl' to 'Sexy Goddess': An Analysis of the Chinese Media; P.Wu
'Acceptable Bodies': Deconstructing the Finnish Media Coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games; P.Markula
Double Trouble: Kelly Holmes, Intersectionality and Unstable Narratives of Olympic Heroism in the British Media; L.Hills & E.Kennedy
Different Shades of Orange?: Media Representations of Dutch Women Medallists; A.Elling & R.Luijt
Winning Space in Sport: The Olympics in the New Zealand Sports Media; T.Bruce
Heroes, Sisters and Beauties: Korean Printed Media Representation of Sport Women in the 2004 Olympics; E.Koh
An Analysis of AmayaValdemoro's Portrayal in a Spanish Newspaper During Athens 2004; M.Martin
The Media as an Authorizing Practice of Femininity: Swiss Newspaper Coverage of Karin Thürig's Bronze Medal Performance in Road Cycling; N.Barker-Ruchti
Reproducing Olympic Authenticity: Representations of 2004 'Olympic Portraits of U.S. Athletes to Watch'; N.Spencer
PIRKKO MARKULA is Professor of Socio-cultural Studies of Sport and Physical Activity at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her research interests include poststructuralist feminist analysis of dance, exercise and sport, ethnography, autoethnography and performance ethnography. She is the co-author, with Richard Pringle, of Foucault, Sport and Exercise: Power, Knowledge and Transforming the Self, editor of Feminist Sport Studies: Sharing Joy, Sharing Pain, and co-editor of Critical Bodies: Representations, Identities and Practices of Weight and Body Management and of Moving Writing: Crafting Movement in Sport Research.
Description
This book examines how women athletes were represented in international media coverage during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Through feminist theorising and qualitative textual analysis, the contributions examine the type of media coverage women received in such culturally diverse places as Canada, United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom, various countries in Europe, China and South Korea. The book serves as a comprehensive introduction to previous research on women's sport media, different feminist perspectives to media analysis and textual analysis as a method for media research on women and sport. The authors identify how media narratives shape an athletic feminine identity in the intersections of marketable 'sex-appeal', the search for national heroines, emotional displays of success and failure, portrayals of the athletes' personal lives as mothers, sisters or daughters and differing visibility for a range of sports such as beach volleyball, wrestling and weightlifting.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction; P.Markula
Reading Media Texts in Women's Sport: Critical Discourse Analysis and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis; J.Liao & P.Markula
Opening up the Gendered Gaze: Sport Media Representations of Women, National Identity and Racialized Gaze in Canada; M.MacNeill
From 'Iron Girl' to 'Sexy Goddess': An Analysis of the Chinese Media; P.Wu
'Acceptable Bodies': Deconstructing the Finnish Media Coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games; P.Markula
Double Trouble: Kelly Holmes, Intersectionality and Unstable Narratives of Olympic Heroism in the British Media; L.Hills & E.Kennedy
Different Shades of Orange?: Media Representations of Dutch Women Medallists; A.Elling & R.Luijt
Winning Space in Sport: The Olympics in the New Zealand Sports Media; T.Bruce
Heroes, Sisters and Beauties: Korean Printed Media Representation of Sport Women in the 2004 Olympics; E.Koh
An Analysis of AmayaValdemoro's Portrayal in a Spanish Newspaper During Athens 2004; M.Martin
The Media as an Authorizing Practice of Femininity: Swiss Newspaper Coverage of Karin Thürig's Bronze Medal Performance in Road Cycling; N.Barker-Ruchti
Reproducing Olympic Authenticity: Representations of 2004 'Olympic Portraits of U.S. Athletes to Watch'; N.Spencer
Authors
PIRKKO MARKULA is Professor of Socio-cultural Studies of Sport and Physical Activity at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her research interests include poststructuralist feminist analysis of dance, exercise and sport, ethnography, autoethnography and performance ethnography. She is the co-author, with Richard Pringle, of Foucault, Sport and Exercise: Power, Knowledge and Transforming the Self, editor of Feminist Sport Studies: Sharing Joy, Sharing Pain, and co-editor of Critical Bodies: Representations, Identities and Practices of Weight and Body Management and of Moving Writing: Crafting Movement in Sport Research.
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