Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television
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Olympic Media Located in the United States, NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is the biggest and most powerful Olympic network in the world, having won the rights to televise both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games. By way of attract- ing more viewers of both sexes and all ages and ethnicities than any other sporting event, and through the production of breathtaking spectacles and absorbing stories, NBC’s Olympic telecasts have huge power and potential to shape viewer perceptions. Billings’s unique text examines the production, content, and potential effects of NBC’s Olympic telecasts. Interviews with key NBC Olympic producers and sportscasters (including President of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics Dick Ebersol and primetime anchor Bob Costas) outline the inner workings of the NBC Olympic machine; content analyses from ten years of Olympic telecasts (1996–2006) examine the portrayal of nationality, gender, and ethnicity within NBC’s telecast; and survey analyses interrogate the extent to which NBC’s story- telling process affects viewer beliefs about identity issues. This mixed-method approach offers valuable insights into what Billings portrays as “the biggest show on television”. Andrew C. Billings is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication Studies, Clemson University, USA. Routledge Critical Studies in Sport Series Editors Jennifer Hargreaves and Ian McDonald University of Brighton The Routledge Critical Studies in Sport series aims to lead the way in developing the multi-disciplinary field of Sport Studies by producing books that are interrog- ative, interventionist and innovative. By providing theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded texts, the series will make sense of the changes and challenges facing sport globally. The series aspires to maintain the commitment and promise of the critical paradigm by contributing to a more inclusive and less exploitative culture of sport. Also available in this series: Understanding Lifestyle Sports British Asians and Football Consumption, identity and difference Culture, identity, exclusion Edited by Belinda Wheaton Daniel Burdsey Why Sports Morally Matter Culture, Politics and Sport William J. Morgan Blowing the Whistle, revisited Garry Whannel Fastest, Highest, Strongest A critique of high-performance sport The Cultural Politics of the Rob Beamish and Ian Ritchie Paralympic Movement Through an anthropological lens Sport, Sexualities and Queer Theory P. David Howe Edited by Jayne Caudwell Physical Culture, Power, and the Body Edited by Jennifer Hargreaves and Patricia Vertinsky Olympic Media Inside the biggest show on television Andrew C. Billings First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Andrew C. Billings All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Billings, Andrew C. Olympic media : inside the biggest show on television / Andrew C. Billings. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-415-77251-8 (softcover) -- ISBN 978-0-415-77250-1 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-0-203-93335-0 (ebook) 1. Television broadcasting of sports--United States. 2. Olympics. 3. National Broadcasting Company, inc. 4. Sports--Social aspects. I. Title. GV742.3.B55 2007 796.48--dc22 2007027037 ISBN 0-203-93335-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN-10: 0–415–77250–8 (hbk) ISBN-10: 0–415–77251–6 (pbk) ISBN-10: 0–203–93335–4 (ebk) ISBN-13: 978–0–415–77250–1 (hbk) ISBN-13: 978–0–415–77251–8 (pbk) ISBN-13: 978–0–203–93335-0 (ebk) For Angela, with love Contents List of illustrations viii Series editors’ foreword ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii 1 Investigating the biggest show on television 1 2 Meet the “framers”: the Olympic producers 22 3 Chronicling history: the Olympic sportscasters 55 4 The star-spangled Games?: nationalism and the Olympic telecasts 90 5 Competing on the same stage: gender and the Olympic telecasts 106 6 Dialogue differences in black and white?: ethnicity and the Olympic telecasts 124 7 What do American Olympic viewers think happened in Torino?: examining media effects 138 8 Looking forward by looking back: reflections on the Olympic telecasts 148 References 162 Index 177 Illustrations Figures 4.1 Percentage of coverage devoted to US athletes in the 1996–2006 Olympics 97 7.1 Estimations of US achievement in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics 141 Tables 4.1 Sources and distribution of athlete mentions by nationality in the 1996–2006 Olympics 96 4.2 Most-mentioned athletes in primetime Olympic telecasts (1996–2006) 98 5.1 Clock-time for men in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics 113 5.2 Clock-time for women in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics 114 5.3 Clock-time for men in the 1998, 2002, and 2006 Winter Olympics 115 5.4 Clock-time for women in the 1998, 2002, and 2006 Winter Olympics 116 5.5 Sources and distribution of athlete mentions by gender in the 1996–2006 Olympics 117 6.1 Sources and distribution of athlete mentions by ethnicity in the 1996–2006 Olympics 132 7.1 Estimated percentage of medals won by each ethnic group in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics 143 7.2 Top ten most-remembered Olympic moments by testing frame 144 Series editors’ foreword The social and political significance of the Olympic Games has been a major preoccupation for many scholars in Sport Studies. Equally, the cultural impact of media sport – most especially televised sport – has been subject to analysis in numerous critical texts. Yet surprisingly few texts have engaged in a systematic and detailed way with the actual production processes of television coverage of the Olympic Games. In writing Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television, Andrew Billings has recognised the huge influence of the Olympic telecast and by tak- ing a creative approach, he has produced a highly original text that tells an ‘insider’ story of its production. Moreover, he has done so by looking specifi- cally at America’s NBC telecast which is by far the most influential Olympic network in the world, having paid $894 million for the US rights to the 2008 Beijing Games and whose Chairman of Sports and Olympics, Dick Ebersol, negotiated for live prime-time events for American audiences. As a result, the final of the 400-meter individual swimming medley in Beijing will take place just a little after 10 a.m. – ‘an ungodly hour for an Olympic swimming final, but a perfect time for NBC: 7 p.m. in Los Angeles, 8 p.m. in Denver, 9 p.m. in Chicago and 10 p.m. in New York’. This decision will disadvantage European viewers – it will be 3 a.m. in London and 6 a.m. in Moscow. Gaining access to key protagonists in these decision-making processes is extremely difficult, especially for critical scholars. So it is a real coup for this Routledge Critical Studies in Sport series that Andrew Billings was able to inter- view Dick Ebersol himself and also NBC’s primetime anchor, Bob Costas, as well as other key NBC professionals. The result is that you will be able to read about their very personal opinions on Olympic sport, and about their eventful and challenging roles as producers and sportscasters. Readers will gain a unique insight into how and why decisions are made about what the viewers see and the language accompanying the television images. Another original feature of the book is the content analysis of data that were meticulously collected over a period of ten years, concerning the depictions of nationality, ethnicity and gender in Olympic telecasts. The two very different research approaches complement one another, and together tell a fascinating story of the actual workings and hidden effects of a major television sports x Series editors’ foreword extravaganza that most viewers in America take for granted. With its innovative research approach, Andrew Billings’ book will undoubtedly make an important contribution to the study of sport and the media, and sets the scene for further investigation and analysis of the processes of production and the cultural and social impact of sport on television. Jennifer Hargreaves (University of Brighton) Ian McDonald (University of Brighton) Preface February 22, 1980 LAGRANGE, INDIANA (USA)––I am seven years old, riding home from the local K-Mart with my father when we witness something odd occurring in a road- side clearing. Three cars are parked; all appear to be in working order. A group of eight disparate people seem to be celebrating. My father dismisses them as “high on something” and we continue home. A few hours later, we are watching the Lake Placid Winter Olympics on tape delay. The United States ice hockey team is playing the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the medal round. Gradually, we see the events unfold and the improbable 4–3 US victory becomes reality. We wonder about those eight people along the side of the road. Had they known? Maybe they were “high”, but with- out chemical inducements. Later, I read in the newspapers about the sporting phenomenon that had occurred that evening when total strangers were celebrat- ing a victory in a sport that did not have a widespread following in the country––people of different racial, economic, and social backgrounds bonding over the commonality of being proud Americans.