The Media Discourses of Concussions in the National Hockey League By
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The Media Discourses of Concussions in the National Hockey League by Jonathan Cabot Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctural Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Human Kinetics School of Human Kinetics Faculty of Health Sciences University of Ottawa ©Jonathan Cabot, Ottawa, Canada, 2017 Abstract The North American ice hockey world has come to realise that concussions are a major problem and a threat to the sport and to the National Hockey League (NHL). The media coverage of the concussions suffered by several NHL stars and of the scientific advancements in the detection and long-term effects of concussions has intensified over the last 20 years. A discourse analysis of Canadian newspaper coverage of concussions in the NHL in 1997-1999 and 2010-2012 focusing on the production of discursive objects and subjects reveals two important discourses. On the one hand, emerging objects of the discourses of blame and responsibility for the concussions in the NHL gained prominence in the later timeframe, especially blame on the NHL, the rulebook and hockey’s violent and risk-taking culture. On the other hand, a shift in reporting saw the emergence of a new subject position for the concussed hockey player, that of a frail and vulnerable subject. More NHL players are covered as ‘suffering’ subjects concerned with both physical pain and the mental health problems associated to concussions, rather than merely as athletes. Indeed, the impact of concussions on the personal lives of players is now an object of discourses that also produce the NHL player as a family member. Finally, former hockey players’ stories who have suffered serious concussions are recounted as a cautionary tale, opposing early retirement as a result of health issues to persistence in playing despite such health concerns. ii Acknowledgements I would like to send a sincere thank you to my father, Jean-Louis Schwartz, for his unequivocal support, guidance, wisdom and belief in his son. His wealth of knowledge as a scholar and researcher was crucial in helping me navigate through the challenges of completing a thesis. And to my supervisor, Christine Dallaire, I will always be thankful for her unwavering patience, support, honesty and guidance that allowed me to submit this thesis. I am lucky to have had you as my supervisor. Thank you. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 7 Media representations of violence and injury in sport ................................................................ 8 Risk and injury in sport ............................................................................................................. 12 Chapter 3: The Study .................................................................................................................... 17 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 18 Discourse and Power ............................................................................................................. 18 Power/Knowledge ................................................................................................................. 20 Subjects and Subjectivity....................................................................................................... 21 Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Data Collection ...................................................................................................................... 22 Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................................ 26 Doing a discourse analysis .................................................................................................... 27 Discourse of blame ................................................................................................................ 31 Frailty and vulnerability of players ....................................................................................... 32 Table 1. Summary of analytical themes .................................................................................... 34 Chapter 4 / Article 1: Who or what is to blame for concussions in the NHL? A Canadian print media analysis ............................................................................................................................... 35 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................... 40 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 45 Data collection and analysis .................................................................................................. 47 Shifting discourses: new objects, different blame ..................................................................... 50 Rules, Regulations & Equipment .......................................................................................... 50 Who (or what) is to blame? ................................................................................................... 59 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 68 Chapter 5 / Article 2: The emergence of a new angle in sport media coverage of concussions in the NHL: The frailty and vulnerability of the athlete ................................................................... 71 The Study .................................................................................................................................. 74 iv Research on media coverage of work-place injuries or health issues ....................................... 79 Sports media coverage of the vulnerability or frailty of concussed NHL players .................... 80 From physical pain to struggling with mental health ............................................................ 81 The importance of family duties ............................................................................................ 85 Retired players and the prospect of early retirement ............................................................. 91 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 94 Chapter 6: Conclusion................................................................................................................... 98 References ................................................................................................................................... 104 v Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Canada invented ice hockey and has regularly produced many of the best players in the world, entrenching the sport’s national status and Canadians’ sense that hockey is “their” sport (Gruneau & Whitson, 1993). Hockey’s importance in Canadian culture has also been established and reproduced through considerable media coverage, especially of hockey’s premier professional league, the National Hockey League (NHL). Since hockey is a physical and violent sport that leads to many injuries, the intense media coverage of hockey in Canada has meant that Canadians have been exposed to many discourses of violence and injuries. In particular, this study looked at the media discourses of concussions in hockey in Canada, comparing the discourses from two different eras to gain a better understanding of the shifting meanings the media produced on concussions and violence in hockey. Concussions are a common occurrence in hockey, but for a long time, they were seen as just another injury that a player had to manage. Players routinely had “their bell rung”, but just as with other injuries, players were eager to get back onto the playing field, often returning before it was safe to do so. It was only in the last decade or two that the public slowly began to take notice of the dangers of concussions. In the U.S.A., the concussion dialogue started in the early 2000s, when a deceased former National Football League (NFL) football player was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease which is the result of repeated head trauma or concussions (Laskas, 2015). This disease’s symptoms start with such problems as headaches, dizziness, disorientation and memory loss and gradually lead into early on-set dementia and depression, amongst other serious symptoms (Laskas, 2015). The mid 2000s saw the doctor that originally found CTE in the deceased football player, Dr. Bennet Omalu, publish a paper making the link between CTE and NFL players (Omalu, Dekosky, Minster, Kamboh, Hamilton, & Wecht, 2006). Twelve more deceased NFL players between 2008 and 2 2010 were found to have signs of CTE. This was the start of the “Concussion