University of Colorado at Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Brian Frederick (Ph.D. ’07) Deputy Editorial Director, Media Matters for America

Dissertation Title ‘This Ain’t NASCAR’: Framing the Pacers-Pistons Brawl

Committee Elizabeth A. Skewes, Chair Shu-Ling Berggreen Michael McDevitt Marguerite Moritz Timothy Oakes (Geography)

Abstract This dissertation examines the media coverage of the brawl that occurred between the Indianapolis Pacers and the Detroit Pistons on the night of November 19, 2004, at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Video of the brawl was replayed numerous times on television in the days that followed, so that the brawl became a "media event." Content analyses and textual analyses were performed on a sample of articles from major U.S. newspapers, including the Indianapolis Star and the Detroit Free Press. The portrayals of the key actors involved in the brawl were examined at the sentence level and coded as positive, negative or neutral. The number of words in direct quotes attributed to each actor was also counted. The study found that most journalists adopted NBA commissioner David Stern's framing of the brawl. Stern placed some of the blame on the fans, but the majority of the blame on the Indianapolis Pacer players, and specifically, on Ron Artest, who received a season-long suspension. Stern's decision to deal such a severe punishment to Artest seems designed to appease white corporate sponsors and white audiences, who have begun to feel threatened by the hip-hop culture the league once embraced. Once Stern had framed the brawl, there were virtually no other alternate frames present in the media, thus providing further evidence of the relationship between sports and the media as a mutually beneficial one. In such a relationship, it is in the best interests of the one not to be critical of the other.

The legacy of the brawl will remain the video of Artest jumping into the stands, thus reinforcing Stern's framing of Artest as being out of control and deserving of serious punishment. The racial implications of this legacy are profound: Artest appears as the out-of-control black athlete that threatens white suburban audiences and Stern appears to be the white disciplinarian who restores order and punishes him. White sportswriters appear to be complicit in this framing because of their reliance on direct quotes from the few authoritative figures in the NBA: Stern, and to a lesser extent, the head coaches involved. The project did suggest that black sportswriters were not as likely to portray Ron Artest and the Indianapolis players negatively, but further analysis is needed.