View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Lirias FRAMING RIO 2016 An analysis of media coverage and framing of Rio as host of the Olympics 2016 in Belgian and Dutch newspapers Sarah Van den Broucke Project management: Tine Van Regenmortel FRAMING RIO 2016 An analysis of media coverage and framing of Rio as host of the Olympics 2016 in Belgian and Dutch newspapers Sarah Van den Broucke Project management: Tine Van Regenmortel Research commissioned by FWO – Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Gepubliceerd door KU Leuven HIVA ONDERZOEKSINSTITUUT VOOR ARBEID EN SAMENLEVING Parkstraat 47 bus 5300, 3000 LEUVEN, België [email protected] www.hiva.be D/2017/4718/003 – ISBN 9789055506200 © typ het jaartal HIVA KU Leuven Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden verveelvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm of op welke andere wijze ook, zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. 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Contents List of tables 5 List of figures 7 Introduction 9 1 | Methodology 11 1.1 Data Sources 11 1.2 Data collection 12 1.3 Coverage analysis 12 1.4 Framing analysis 13 2 | Coverage analysis 16 2.1 Research Questions 1 16 2.2 Topics covered 16 2.3 Comparison of coverage by country and source (quality vs. popular press) 21 2.4 Tone of coverage 23 2.5 Evolution through time 25 3 | Framing analysis 29 3.1 Research Questions 2 29 3.2 Use of frames in Rio 2016 coverage 29 3.3 Comparison of frames by country and source (quality vs. popular press) 29 3.4 Dominant frame per topic 30 3.5 Evolution of applied frames 39 Conclusion 41 - APPENDIX - 43 appendix 1 List of articles 45 References 57 CONTENTS 3 List of tables Table 1.1 Average number of printed issues of paid newspapers in the sample 11 Table 1.2 Operationalisation of frames 15 Table 2.1 Comparison of topics covered in Belgian and Dutch press 22 Table 2.2 Comparison of topics covered in quality newspapers and public newspapers 23 Table 3.1 Comparison of frames used in Belgian and Dutch press 30 Table 3.2 Comparison of frames used in quality newspapers and public newspapers 30 LIST OF TABLES 5 List of figures Figure 2.1 Share of topics covered in Belgian and Dutch press 17 Figure 2.2 Tone of topics covered in Belgian and Dutch press 24 Figure 2.3 Comparison of tones of topics covered in Belgian and Dutch press 24 Figure 2.4 Evolution in number of articles in Belgian and Dutch press 25 Figure 2.5 Number of articles per category through time in Belgian and Dutch press 27 Figure 3.1 Share of frames used in Belgian and Dutch press 29 Figure 3.2 Frame use in articles on Social affairs & Public services in Belgian and Dutch press 31 Figure 3.3 Frame use in articles on Finance & Economy in Belgian and Dutch press 32 Figure 3.4 Frame use in articles on Environment & Health in Belgian and Dutch press 33 Figure 3.5 Frame use in articles on Infrastructure & Logistics in Belgian and Dutch press 34 Figure 3.6 Frame use in articles on Criminality & Safety in Belgian and Dutch press 35 Figure 3.7 Frame use in articles on Culture & Tourism in Belgian and Dutch press 35 Figure 3.8 Frame use in articles on Politics in Belgian and Dutch press 36 Figure 3.9 Frame use in articles on Labour in Belgian and Dutch press 37 Figure 3.10 Comparison of used frames per topic in Belgian and Dutch press 38 Figure 3.11 Frames use trough time in Belgian and Dutch press 40 LIST OF FIGURES 7 Introduction “Rio is as a host having guests when his house is on fire” (De Telegraaf, 20 June 2016, p. 2; translated from Dutch) “Never did an organiser of the Games receive as much negative publicity as Rio. And that is about the very last intention [...] The expensive - 11 billion euro according to organisers, double according to critics - event has to radiate positively on a country.” (De Standaard, 5 august 2016, p. 2; translated from Dutch) Mega-events offer a unique opportunity to conquer ‘the spotlight’ and promote a distinctive image of a host city or country to a global audience (Hiller, 2006). Therefore, mega-events have tremendous significance as a symbolic platform for ‘exposure’ (Salazar, 2016). Improving the ‘image’ and building a city or country ‘brand’ is one of the central goals of many mega-event hosts today (Müller, 2015). Organising large-scale events is part of a deliberate strategy to attract investors and tourists, promote economic growth and obtain a position on the global stage (Salazar, 2016). To pursue these goals, mega-events involve the representation, branding and ‘imagineering’ of cities, regions or countries for local-to-global consumption (Cornelissen, 2010). The general research question underlying this study is how a mega-event is given shape (‘constructed’) intangibly in imaginaries the public holds of the host city or country. Imaginaries can be defined as socially transmitted representational assemblages that interact with people’s personal imaginings and that are used as meaning-making and world-shaping devices (Salazar, 2012). The promotion of posi- tive imaginaries on a host city or country is widely acknowledged as one of the primary objectives of a mega-event. Although the positive image that events are believed to portray to the public explains the lengths to which authorities will go to host a mega-event, there is little evidence of such ‘image value’ and of mega-events making a significant and long-term difference. (Salazar, 2016). Scholarship increasingly points to the role of media in the creation of meanings that surround mega- events (Dayan and Katz, 1994; Sebastião et al., 2016; Hiller, 2016). Mega-events are broadcast to large audiences, including local and international viewers. Thus, media provide access to the event as well as an interpretation for the event with reports, comments and framing (Sebastião et al., 2016). To gain insight into the mobile character of imaginaries and the ‘image value’ of a mega-event, empirical analysis of media coverage and framing can provide a relevant contribution to mega-event scholarship (Van den Broucke et al., 2016). News items do not present the reality itself, but a picture of the world, a frame of reality, shaping people’s knowledge and opinions about events and developments (Sebas- tião et al ., 2016, McCombs 2014). Journalists ‘gather, produce, send’ information but there are several factors that influence the way they practice their job – job routines, media organisation rules, political, economic, social and cultural settings (McCombs et al., 2011, p. 26). In this research, we study media coverage disseminated by western media - Belgian and Dutch written press - about Rio and Brazil as host of the Olympics 2016. The study departed from a research interest in the social context in which a mega-event takes place and the social or other impact faced by the local population. A general underlying research question is whether and how imaginaries of social INTRODUCTION 9 dimensions of mega-events travel through global mass media. It involves an empirical analysis of the ‘construction’ of the social image of a mega-event host. This image construction is in itself a mobile and social process. From prior conceptualisation of a mega-event as a disruptive media event in pre- vious publication (Van den Broucke et.al, 2016; Sebastião et al., 2016), we have a special interest in the conflicting interpretations mega-events evoke, dividing rather than uniting people. To borrow from Gotham (2011, p. 197), mega-events are “spectacles of contestation that embody contradictory tendencies and articulate conflictual and opposing meanings”. However, conflicting interpretations are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but can lead to nuanced stances combining elements of polar- ised imaginaries (Van den Broucke et al, 2016). In this research, we approach media coverage as a channel for dissemination of a wide variety of imaginaries on the mega-event host. The study has particular attention for the position of social issues in relation to other aspects covered with regard to the host of a mega-event (such as financial aspects, safety issues or political context). Secondly, we look into the extent to which a rights approach - ‘rights framing’ - is applied, to social as well as other dimensions in the image constructed of the host. In a deductive framing exercise, ‘rights framing’ is juxtaposed to ‘promotional framing’ inspired by the discussed theory on the central promotional objective, next to other common media frames (‘conflict’, ‘consequence’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘human interest’ framing). After an introductory chapter 1 on the used data sources and applied methodology of data collection and analysis, chapter 2 presents a coverage analysis responding to the questions of which topics on Rio and Brazil as host of the Olympic Games 2016 are covered in Belgian and Dutch newspapers, which tone dominates this coverage and how coverage differs through time and between sources. Chapter 3 goes into the results of the framing analysis, in response to questions of which frames dominate Flemish and Dutch newspaper coverage on Rio and Brazil as host of the Olympic Games 2016, and how the framing differs through time and between sources or countries. A summary of the main findings is presented in the conclusion. 10 INTRODUCTION 1 | Methodology 1.1 Data Sources To conduct this media analysis, data was collected from 6 Belgian and 10 Dutch national newspapers.