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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2009 Domesticating Chien-Ming Wang: A Comparative Study of the Media Coverage of Sports Performance Hsing-Ju Chang Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION DOMESTICATING CHIEN-MING WANG: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF SPORTS PERFORMANCE By HSING-JU CHANG A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded Summer Semester, 2009 The members of the Committee approve the Thesis of Hsing-Ju Chang defended on April 10, 2009. __________________________ Stephen D. McDowell Professor Directing Thesis __________________________ Steven McClung Committee Member __________________________ Jennifer M. Proffitt Committee Member Approved: ______________________________________________________ Stephen D. McDowell, Chair, Department of Communication ________________________________________________________ Gary Heald, Interim Dean, College of Communication The Graduate School has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEGEMENT My deepest thanks and appreciation are given to Dr. McDowell. He provided the perfect complement of analytical reasoning, encouragement, constructive criticism, and expediency throughout this process. You have been a wonderful mentor. Thank you for reading all those drafts and editing my work so willingly. There could not have been a better chair for my thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. McClung, for providing keen insight throughout this project. Your advice has been and will always be invaluable. Dr. Proffitt, thank you for serving as the methodological expert of my committee and helped immensely throughout the difficult stages of finalizing a prospectus. I thank you all for your continuous assistance in helping me complete this project. Without you this thesis would not have been possible. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….vi I. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................1 Introduction………………............................................................1 Chapter Organization.....................................................................2 II. LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................4 Introduction...................................................................................4 Sports Journalism vs. News Journalism.........................................4 Media Framing...............................................................................6 Defining Domestication...............................................................11 Positivity Bias..............................................................................14 Cultural Comparisons...................................................................16 Two Research Questions & Two Central Hypotheses.................20 III. METHODOLOGY..............................................................................23 Introduction…………………......................................................23 Media Selection............................................................................24 Sampling and Data Collection......................................................26 Coding Procedure……………………………………………….27 Qualitative Framing Analysis.......................................................29 Inventory Variables......................................................................29 Content Variables.........................................................................29 Tone Variables.............................................................................29 IV. FINDINGS..........................................................................................32 Introduction................................................................................32 Dominant Themes & Frames from Qualitative Data Analysis..35 1.1. How to Domesticate and Frame.....................................35 1.2. Emphasizing Traditional Country Traits……………….38 1.3. Non-task Relevant Commentary……………………….39 1.4. Issue-specific frames.......................................................41 1.5. Exemplars........................................................................43 1.6. Catchphrases.……………………...................................45 2.1. Face-enhancing Bias…….…...........................................47 2.2. Creating National Heroes and National Identities……..49 2.3. Coverage of Wang in an Appropriate Sporting Role…..51 2.4. Face-protecting bias........................................................53 2.5. Invisibility of Wang’s Losing Games……………….…55 iv 2.6. Communicating Pain, Anguish, and Sacrifice in Sport.57 3.1. Metaphor…………………………………...................59 3.2. Generic Frames……………….....................................62 3.3. The Trivialization of Wang’s Accomplishments in Sport…64 3.4. Cultural Strategies……………………………….........64 V. SUMMARYAND DISCUSSION……………………………….....67 Summary......................................................................................67 Hypothesis1a &1b........................................................................67 Hypothesis 2.................................................................................68 Research Question 1.....................................................................69 Research Question 2.....................................................................71 Discussion....................................................................................72 Limitations...................................................................................74 Contribution.................................................................................76 Future Research............................................................................76 APPENDICES.............................................................................................................77 A: Protocol, Framing of Chien-Ming Wang’s Articles……………………….............77 B: Newspaper Sources Used…………………………………....................................79 C: Open Letter from Chien-Ming Wang to the Taiwanese Media...............................89 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH…………………………………………………………98 v ABSTRACT The purposes of this study are three-fold. The primary goal is to examine the narratives that two mainstream newspapers in Taiwan and America, Li-Tai Sports Newspaper (LT) and The New York Times (NYT), used when covering the performance of the athlete Chien-Ming Wang. The second purpose is to see how the presence of news frames varies in the two countries. That is, this research provides an examination of newspaper sportswriters’ use of distinct framing points when covering Wang’s performances. Finally, this study analyzes the coverage employed by reporters who wrote about Wang. This study examines how Wang’s performance has been framed and domesticated by both countries’ newspaper coverage in the same time period. The cross-cultural perspective adopted in the study draws upon ideas about the construction of social reality. A review of original articles on framing, such as the work of Scheufele and Goffman, provides the basis for the analysis. The analysis considers LT’s and NYT’s construction of the news about Wang as a way to understand how sports news is framed within t globalization. The methodology used in this study is a framing analysis of the stories prepared by sportswriters commenting on Wang. The findings are discussed with regard to domestication, positivity bias, and cross-cultural differences. vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction The mass media portray the dominant images in societies of the industrialized world and depict life in our society (Creedon, 1998). Coakley (2004) cites agenda-setting theory, noting that mass media may not be able to tell people how to think, but they definitely tell individuals what issues are important to think about. This study aims to uncover how Chien-Ming Wang is portrayed by two leading newspaper organizations in Taiwan and America. Chien-Ming Wang is a 28-year-old Taiwanese pitcher for Major League Baseball’s (MLB) New York Yankees. Signed for the 2005 season, he soon became known as the Yankees’ ace pitcher. Wang is a celebrity in Taiwan, whose prominence resides not only in sports, but also in his extended influence. Until 2008, he has been a spokesperson for numerous advertisements: five Nike, two Ford, one Taiwan-Image, one Youth-baseball, two Public-ads, three McDonalds, one Bank, one Acer Notebook, one Milk, one Easy Card, and The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung ads. Wang has not endorsed any products in the United States. We can see the great emphasis Taiwan has placed on Wang by looking at the numbers of products he endorses. A poll in Taiwan shows that people easily recognize him and connect Wang to the products he endorses. There is a significant relationship between media attention on him and the salience of his relationship to the public. This paper examines a period of time in which Wang was given intensive newspaper coverage. The development of technology and news systems has expedited sports news communication in the world. The connection and exchange of information form a cultural reflexive mirror and make every sports news choice a conscious or unconscious cultural effort. “The American

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