Vancouver's Prime Time Olympic Glory On

What’s The Gendered Story? Vancouver’s Prime Time Olympic Glory on NBC

James R. Angelini, Paul J. MacArthur, and Andrew C. Billings

Previous Olympic media studies have shown that NBC’s Winter Olympic telecast is far more likely to promote and advance men athletes and sports than women athletes and sports (see Billings, 2008b), and this study of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic telecast again reveals gender divisions. Analysis of all 64 hours of NBC’s prime time telecast revealed that (a) when excluding mixed-gender pair competitions, men received more than three- fifths of the remaining airtime, (b) 75% of the most-mentioned athletes were men, and (c) sportscasters again employed dialogue differences in key areas including that men were more likely than women to be portrayed as succeeding because of their experience, while women were more likely than men to be depicted as succeeding because of courage and failing because they lacked commitment. Contextualization is also offered related to intervening factors such as (a) Olympic participation rates and (b) U.S. medal successes by gender.

As the proliferation of cable networks and online video continues to cause audience fragmentation, the Olympic telecast remains one of the few events that can consistently draw large international audiences. Worldwide, the 2010 Winter Games were shown in 220 territories, reaching an unduplicated cumulative audience of 1.8 billion viewers, and averaging 90.4 million viewers in prime time (International Olympic Committee, 2010)—lending further credence to the claim

James R. Angelini (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Delaware.His research interests include the cognitive processing of media with separate foci on sports and advertising. Paul J. MacArthur (M.P.S., Syracuse University) is an associate professor and Chair of the Public Relations and Journalism Department at Utica College. His research interests include mediated sports, cable television, media law, media history, and sports history. Andrew C. Billings (Ph.D., Indiana University) is a professor and the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting at the Department of Telecommunication & Film at the University of Alabama. His research interests lie in the intersection of sports media, megaevents, and identity.

© 2012 Broadcast Education Association Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56(2), 2012, pp. 261–279 DOI: 10.1080/08838151.2012.678515 ISSN: 0883-8151 print/1550-6878 online 261 262 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012 that the Olympics are the ‘‘biggest show on television’’ (Billings, 2008b, p. 1). For its part, NBC Universal provided more than 835 hours of Olympic coverage across five networks and a Web site, with 193.5 (23.2%) of those hours on the NBC broadcast network (NBC Universal, 2010a). NBC Universal’s five-network 190 million cume for the 2010 Games (NBC Uni- versal, 2010b) surpassed Super Bowl XLIV’s (153.4 million) by 24% (Dougherty, 2010). NBC’s prime time coverage of the Olympics averaged 24.4 million viewers— 2.2 million more than the combined prime time average of FOX, CBS, and ABC for the same time period (NBC Universal, 2010b). This success led Dick Ebersol, then chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, to proclaim, ‘‘The Olympics have yet again proved the power of the big events on network television’’ (NBC Universal, 2010b, para. 2). One possible reason for the telecast’s popularity was the preponderance of compelling stories in Vancouver. The Games began tragically when 21-year-old Geor- gian luger, Nodar Kumaritahsvili, was killed on the first day during a practice run. More positive stories took shape in the form of Simon Ammann tying Matti Nykänen’s record of four gold medals in ski jumping and Torah Bright winning snowboard halfpipe gold less than 3 weeks after missing the Winter X Games due to multiple concussions. U.S. skiing teammates Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn provided a moment of minor controversy with some tame verbal jousting (see Davis, 2010), and Apolo Ohno accumulated historic career medal numbers for both short track speed skating and a U.S. Winter Olympian. With an abundance of gripping stories, and 17 nights to tell them, NBC had again hit episodic television gold. What stories NBC chose to tell, and how it told them, is particularly interesting when analyzed through a gendered lens. No other telecast featuring women’s sports approaches the broad reach of the Olympic Games. For example, the finals of the 2010 NCAA Women’s basketball tournament averaged 3.5 million viewers (ESPN, 2010), roughly 14% of the 2010 prime time Olympic average. Additionally, women traditionally account for the majority of the Olympic viewing audience (Billings, 2008b), a rarity in sports programming, Thus, the Olympics offer a unique megasporting opportunity in which women represent the majority of viewers and women athletes have, by far, their biggest media platform. One might assume that these two facts would mean that women represent at least half of the coverage; such an assumption would be wrong (see Billings, 2007). One might also assume that gender stereotyping would be less- ened because of the enhanced respect Olympic medal-winning women inherently demand; such an assumption would also be wrong (Billings & Eastman, 2002; Daddario & Wigley, 2007; Higgs, Weiller, & Martin, 2003). Previous work (see Billings, Angelini, & Duke, 2010; Billings, et al., 2008; Billings & Eastman, 2003; Eastman & Billings, 1999; Higgs & Weller, 1994; Tuggle & Owen, 1999) has shown that while women receive far more coverage in the Olympics than any other sports media event in the US, women still fail to receive equal clock-time and descriptions of women athletes are not free of gender differences, with scholars Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 263 such as Billings (2008b) noting that the Winter Olympics routinely feature a larger clocktime gender gap than the Summer Olympics. As such, it is critical to investigate the self-proclaimed ‘‘flagship’’ of the NBC Universal Olympic enterprise—the prime time telecast—through a gendered lens to determine if coverage of women athletes progressed, regressed, or remained stagnant within the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic coverage.

Related Literature

Agenda setting (McCombs & Shaw, 1972) and framing (Goffman, 1974) theories have been used to enhance the understanding of gender-related coverage in broadcast sports (e.g., Billings, Angelini, & Duke, 2010; Billings & Eastman, 2003; Billings et al, 2008; Messner, Duncan, & Wachs, 1996) and are central to this study. Hypothesizing that ‘‘the mass media set the agenda : : : influencing the salience of attitudes,’’ (p. 177), McCombs & Shaw, quoting Bernard Cohen (1963, p. 13), argue that the media ‘‘may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its (audience) what to think about’’ (1972, p. 177). Frames are vehicles for producers to organize viewing experiences and are based on those producers’ perceptions of reality. Expanding on the concept of framing, Gitlin (1980), wrote, ‘‘Frames are principles of selection, emphasis and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens, and what matters’’ (p. 6). He distilled media frames as ‘‘persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation of selection, emphasis, and exclusion : : : ’’ (p. 7). Gitlin argues that, ‘‘for organizational reasons alone, frames are unavoidable,’’ (p. 7) as they are necessary for media gatekeepers to efficiently decide how and what information convey to their audience. Information is infinite; airtime is not. Framing, consequently, is used to bridge the difference. NBC’s agenda setting and framing are utilized with the objective of maximizing ratings. This is then balanced, NBC argues, with the hopeful aims of authenticity and fairness to the global event and the ability to properly chronicle history (see Billings, 2008b). Regardless of NBC’s motives, by choosing which sports/athletes receive emphasis and which ones do not, the network suggests to the audience what is and is not important. For example, the network’s decision to give women’s snowboarding significant prime time coverage while omitting women’s cross-country skiing may be done for aesthetic (snowboarding is a more dynamic spectacle), programming (snowboarding draws more viewers), nationalistic (Americans have rarely fared well in cross-country), and practical (winners of cross country may not speak English, thereby providing poor interview potential) television reasons. This follows Gitlin’s model of selection (airing snowboarding in prime time), emphasis (profiling snowboarders and giving the sport significant airtime), and exclusion (lack of cross-country coverage). Yet, in so doing, NBC creates the impression that one sport and its athletes should take precedence over the other. 264 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012

Scholars have found gender to be a primary issue within media frames (see Hardin, Lynn, Walsdorf, & Hardin, 2002), particularly within sport, where the exclusion frame has frequently been implemented in regard to women’s sports. ESPN’s SportsCenter, for instance, typically devotes 1.4% of its airtime to women’s sports (Messner & Cooky, 2010). In Olympic telecasts, the exclusion function is not as drastically employed. Between 1996 and 2008, women received anywhere from 35.3% to 49.3% of the coverage (see Billings, 2008b; Billings et al., 2010). Nonetheless, the Olympic telecasts still emphasize men’s athletics at the exclusion of women’s. Still, the Olympics provides a rare opportunity for women athletes to be shown (and analyzed by scholars) in a much more robust framing focus simply because they are a substantial focus. Comparing televised men’s and women’s track and field coverage at the 2004 Games, Greer, Hardin, and Homan (2009), found the men’s treatment to be more dynamic in that, on a per minute basis, it contained more shot types, camera angles, and motion special effects. The decreased production values for the women’s events have the potential to reinforce perceptions that women are inferior athletes. Examining the telecasts of the 2010 Games, Billings, Angelini, and Duke (2010) noted that when focusing on specific frames, ‘‘dialogues diverge in substantial ways depending on the gender of the athlete being described’’ (p. 20). This coincides with Billings (2009) finding that many Olympic reporters ‘‘admitted a difference in how men and women are portrayed’’ (p. 18).

Olympic Storytelling

Between rights fees and production costs, NBC Universal spent approximately $1 billion on the 2010 Olympics and posted a $223 million loss (Associated Press, 2010). With a billion dollars and 17 days’ worth of prime time real estate at stake, NBC producers are under tremendous pressure to attract the largest possible audience. Despite the use of multiple cable networks and a Web site, the NBC prime time broadcast remains the company’s focal point. As David Neal, executive vice president of NBC Olympics, states:

It’s no secret: the primetime show is the flagship. That show has to be protected. That show has to be compelling every night. That is the mother ship, and we have to maintain it as an attractive vehicle no matter what. (Deitsch, 2010, para. 3)

NBC protects this broadcast—one that, by design, attracts a diverse audience of hardcore and casual sports fans—through its heavy emphasis on storytelling. Borcila (2000) notes that, ‘‘Based on 10,000 interviews, NBC researchers had found out that people want stories; and their coverage would deliver’’ (p. 118). This makes intuitive sense, as the highest-rated Olympic evening in U.S. history featured figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, who were involved in a real-life tabloid story that most closely resembled a professional wrestling script. Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 265

While NBC’s emphasis on storytelling has been addressed in both mainstream media (e.g., Carter, 1992; Carlson, 1996; Kent, 2010; Remnick, 1996) and academic literature (e.g., Andrews, 1998; Billings, 2008b; Borcila, 2000), the tactic is an Olympic broadcast tradition. The late sports announcer, Jim McKay, who hosted ABC’s ‘‘Up Close and Personal’’ Olympic profiles once observed, ‘‘I’m the storyteller of the Olympics. Here are all these disjointed events. My job is to link them together and see which story is beginning to tell itself’’ (Taaffe, 1984, para. 52). NBC Olympic announcer, Tom Hammond, echoed McKay’s sentiment nearly 25 years later when he said:

It’s our job to give the stories, whether they’re good stories, bad stories, touching stories, or stories that might make someone angry. We have to create heroes and villains and all of those things by telling the individual stories. Especially in an event like the Olympics, storytelling is important. (Billings, 2009, pp. 7–8)

NBC’s focus on storytelling is also a calculated attempt to court women (Bianculli, 1996) with the network’s desire to reach women via Olympic programming well- documented (see Andrews, 1998; Billings, 2008b; Billings & Eastman, 2002; Dad- dario, 1997; Remnick, 1996; Tuggle & Owen, 1999). The storytelling tactic appears to be successful, as women have constituted the majority of the Olympic audience for decades (Billings, 2008b). Shortly before the 2010 Games, a Pew Research Center Survey (2010) showed that 63% of women were ‘‘especially looking forward to’’ the Winter Olympics compared to 50% for the Super Bowl, 37% for the Academy Awards and 18% for the World Cup.

Recent Female Participation and Olympic Success

According to the Women Sports Foundation (2010), the United States fielded a team of 93 women (43.4%) and 121 men (56.6%) in Vancouver. This distribution is within a few percentage points of participatory parity as 52.3% of all 2010 Winter Olympic medal events were men-only, 44.2% were women-only, and 3.5% were mixed gender events. Women were not allowed to compete in Olympic ski jumping, Nordic combined, or four-man bobsleigh. From a medal standpoint, U.S. women have not fared as well in the Winter Games as the Summer Games. U.S. men and women won medals at an even pace at the 2008 Summer Games, equally dividing 106 medals with four more claimed by mixed-gender teams (Billings et al., 2010). The past three Winter Games, however, have not yielded similar results. Between 2002 and 2010, women won 31 (32.3%) of Team USA’s 96 Winter Olympic medals, U.S. men won 63 medals (65.6%), and U.S. mixed-gender teams won two medals (2.1%). Ski jumping, did not pad the U.S. men’s medal count, as no American has won an Olympic ski jumping medal since Anders Haugen in 1924 (Wallechinksy & Loucky, 2010). U.S men did, however, take home two four-man bobsleigh medals in 2002 and one in 2010, and four Nordic combined medals in 2010. 266 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012

Airtime Parity

When addressing how NBC approaches airtime parity, David Neal says, ‘‘The Olympics, by their very nature have a high level of gender equity, so it’s not a daily consideration one way or the other’’ (Billings, 2009). At the same time, NBC’s Bob Costas believes there is a practical reason for the network to provide coverage of women athletes: ‘‘People don’t expect the women’s college basketball tournament to get the same amount of coverage as the men’s, but they expect some parity in the Olympics’’ (Billings, 2008b). While Costas may feel that the audience expects airtime parity, and believes NBC makes an attempt to provide equal coverage (see Billings, 2008b), researchers have consistently found that Olympic men receive the majority of prime time coverage (see Billings et al., 2010, Billings et al., 2008, Billings & Eastman, 2002, 2003; Eastman & Billings, 1999; Higgs & Weller, 1994; Tuggle & Owen, 1999; Tuggle, Huffman, & Rosengard, 2002, 2007). Billings’s longitudinal study of the 1996-2006 Games showed men athletes and men’s events received the majority of clock time in all six prime time telecasts, with women faring better in the Summer Games than Winter Games (2008a). Men also received more clock time in the 2008 Games (see Billings et al., 2010). During the 2004 Summer Games, Olympic men received 52.3% of the clock time (Billings, 2008a), and in 2008, they received 54.2% of the clock time (Billings et al., 2010). The past two Winter telecasts have more heavily favored Olympic men than the Summer broadcasts, with men receiving 64.7% and 60% of the clock time, when excluding mixed pairs, in 2002 and 2006 respectively (Billings et al., 2008). According to the Women’s Sports Foundation (2010), men accounted for 57.1% and 57.4% of U.S. Olympians during the 2002 and 2006 Games respectively. When excluding mixed pairs, 55.2% of the events in 2002 and 54.3% in 2006 were men-only events (Women Sports Foundation, 2006). During the Winter 2010 games, 54.2% of non-mixed pairs events were men-only (Women Sports Foundation, 2010). Thus, in terms of the percentage of events and U.S. participation, NBC’s Winter clock time numbers favor men. If Team USA’s medal performance is the determining factor for coverage, then NBC’s Winter telecasts have been favoring women.

H1: When excluding mixed-pair events, men athletes will receive more than 60% of the clock-time in NBC’s prime time telecast of the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Gender Mentions

Another measure of Olympian gender-based treatment is how often they are mentioned (a salience function). Men received more network mentions in all six of the prime time Olympic broadcasts held between 1996 and 2006 (Billings, 2008b). Men have also typically been the more hyped athletes, accounting for the majority Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 267 of the 10 most-mentioned athletes in both 1996 and 1998. In 2002, 70% of the 20 most-mentioned athletes were men (Billings & Eastman, 2003) and in the 2004 and 2006 Games, men accounted for 60% of the 20 most-mentioned athletes (Billings & Angelini, 2007; Billings et al., 2008). Men and women evenly split the top 10 list in 1994 and 2000 (see Eastman & Billings, 1999; and Billings, 2008b). While certain sports will generate more mentions than others because of the way they are called by network announcers—short track speed skating play-by-play, with its potential for multiple lead changes and need to identify who’s in first will generate more mentions than figure skating play-by-play where, because of the artistic/musical component, announcers are often quiet for extended periods of time—if men and women are receiving equal treatment, the overall database should reveal close to equal emphasis.

H2: Men athletes will receive more mentions than women athletes in NBC’s prime time telecast of the 2010 Vancouver Games. H3: The majority of the 20 most-mentioned athletes in NBC’s prime time telecast of the 2010 Vancouver Games will be men.

Presentation of Gender

Before the Vancouver Games began, Olympic men and women were already being portrayed differently in print media. Lindsey Vonn’s sexualized ski pose on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Olympic preview edition created controversy (see Chase, 2010; Parry, 2010) and was in direct contrast to the non-sexual nature of Shaun White’s Sports Illustrated for Kids and ESPN the Magazine Olympic preview cover shots. Differences in the portrayal of men and women athletes extends to Olympic telecasts, where researchers have consistently found variances in how men and women athletes are depicted (Billings et al., 2010; Billings & Eastman, 2002; Dad- dario, 1997; Eastman & Billings, 1999; Higgs & Weiller, 1994; Tuggle et al., 2002). These differences, however, are not consistent from Games to Games. During the 2002 Salt Lake Games, women were more likely than men to have their success attributed to athletic skill and their failure credited to lack of experience (Billings & Eastman, 2003). At the 2006 Torino Games, men’s failure was more often blamed on lack of commitment, while women’s failure a result of lack of strength. Successes were more likely to be credited to composure and intelligence for men and courage for women (Billings et al., 2008).

H4: NBC employee depictions of men and women athletic successes and failures will be taxonomically different in at least one-third of the categories examined. H5: NBC employee depictions of men and women physicality and personality characterizations will be taxonomically different. 268 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012 Method

In order to answer the five hypotheses, all 64 hours of NBC’s prime time coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympic telecast, broadcast over 17 nights (February 12– 28, 2010), were analyzed. Only those comments, descriptors, and athlete mentions spoken by individuals employed by NBC were analyzed because such dialogue can be scripted and directed by NBC producers (see Eastman, Brown, & Kovatch, 1996). NBC employees during the Vancouver Winter Olympic telecast included host commentators (i.e., Bob Costas), on-site reporters (such as Andrea Joyce), special assignment reporters (such as Mary Carillo and Cris Collinsworth), color commentators (such as Scott Hamilton and Chad Salmela), and all play-by-play announcers for both individual and team sports (from ice hockey to snowboarding to figure skating to alpine skiing). Three methods of coding were applied to each hour of Olympic coding. The unit of analysis for the first method was the descriptor (defined as any adjective, adjectival phrase, adverb, or adverbial phrase), and all descriptors were coded for (a) the sex of the athlete (man or woman), (b) the ethnicity of the athlete (Asian, Black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, White, or other), (c) the nationality of the athlete (American or non-American), (d) the sex of the announcer (man or woman), (e) the word-for-word descriptive phrase, and (f) the athlete’s sport. All descriptors were then classified using the Billings and Eastman (2003) taxonomy. This taxonomy divides commentary into three categories: (a) attributions of success or failure (i.e., descriptions of the athletic performance), (b) depictions of an athlete’s personality or physicality (i.e., descriptions of external variables not attributable to the athletic performance), and (c) neutral comments (i.e., comments that do not describe the athletic performance or depict the athlete’s personality and/or physicality; often factual play-by-play dialogue). In all, descriptors were classified into 1 of 16 categories for this analysis, encompassing comments pertaining to (a) concentration (i.e., ‘‘honed and focused’’), (b) strength-based athletic skill (i.e., ‘‘didn’t have the power’’), (c) talent/ability based athletic skills (i.e., ‘‘phenomenal technique’’), (d) composure (i.e., ‘‘what poise he’s shown’’), (e) commitment (i.e., ‘‘she fought through’’), (f) courage (i.e., ‘‘gutsy skiing’’), (g) experience (i.e., ‘‘won the world championship here last year’’), (h) intelligence (i.e., ‘‘she has not figured this out’’), (i) athletic consonance (i.e., ‘‘she got no benefit of the doubt’’), (j) outgoing/ extroverted (i.e., ‘‘very animated’’), (k) modest/introverted (i.e., ‘‘shyness is part of her charm’’), (l) emotional (i.e., ‘‘looks majorly disappointed’’), (m) attractiveness (i.e., ‘‘very, very stylish’’), (n) size/parts of the body (‘‘smaller than most big downhill skiers’’), (o) background (‘‘Idaho native’’), and (p) other. Using Cohen’s (1960) formula, a second researcher coded approximately 20% of the database and reliabilities were determined to be the following for each variable: (a) the sex of the athlete (Ä D 1.00), (b) the ethnicity of the athlete (Ä D 1.00), (c) the nationality of the athlete (Ä D .98), (d) the sex of the announcer (Ä D 1.00), (e) the word-for-word descriptor or descriptive phrase (Ä D .79), and (f) the athlete’s sport (Ä D 1.00). Overall intercoder reliability using Cohen’s kappa exceeded 96%. Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 269

The second method of coding examined the total amount of time devoted to men’s, women’s, and mixed gender sports. A single researcher, utilizing a stopwatch and DVD timecodes, measured (to the millisecond) the total amount of time devoted to each event. Any time spent at the actual athletic site, on a profile about an athlete, of that sport, or host commentary about a specific sport or athlete was recorded. The final type of coding looked at the commentator’s actual use of the athlete’s names. Thirteen coders watched each evening’s broadcast and logged/counted every mention of every athlete by any employee of NBC. Once all data were analyzed and tables were created, chi-square analysis was employed to determine significant differences between groups by using the percentage of overall comments as expected frequencies. For example, because 62.3% of all attributions for success were about men athletes, it was expected that roughly the same proportion (62.3%) of comments about concentration, skill, composure, commitment, attractiveness, and so on should be established as expected frequencies for men athletes, and that significant deviations would be substantially more meaningful than employing .50 as an expected frequency for each individual category (see Billings & Eastman, 2003).

Results

H1 predicted that, when excluding mixed pairs, men athletes would receive more than 60% of the overall clock time within NBC’s prime-time coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Table 1 contains the amount of clock-time given to each sport for both genders with support for this hypothesis. Overall, men received 22 hours, 54 minutes, 29 seconds (62.2%) of prime time coverage while women received less—13 hours, 53 minutes, 49 seconds (37.8%), when excluding mixed pairs events. Men’s sports received nearly 70% more clock- time than women’s sports. Five men’s events were shown significantly more for men than women (bobsled, cross country skiing, ice hockey, luge, and short track speed skating) while an equal number of events were shown significantly more for women than men (alpine skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, skeleton, and snowboarding). These results confidently support H1. H2 predicted that men athletes would receive more overall mentions than women athletes during NBC’s prime-time telecast of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. In total, athletes were mentioned 9,867 times during the broadcasts. Of those mentions, 6,283 (63.7%) were for men athletes while 3,584 (36.3%) were for women athletes, offering a clear confirmation of H2. H3 predicted that the majority of the 20-most mentioned athletes during the prime- time telecast would be men. Table 2 affirms this prediction. Seventy-five percent of the top-20 mentioned athletes were men, including eight of the top ten. Of the top-20 mentioned athletes, men athletes on the list received 336% more mentions (2,277) than the women athletes on the list (677). While gold- and bronze-medal winning alpine skier Lindsey Vonn was the second Table 1 Clock-Time by Gender in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

Event Men Women Pair Total 2, df, p

Alpineskiing 3:00:32 3:31:37 — 6:32:09 2629.07,1,.001 Biathlon 0:00:32 0:00:23 — 0:00:55 Bobsled 1:58:28 1:01:18 — 2:59:46 61.43,1,.001 Crosscountry 0:25:33 0:00:44 — 0:26:17 820.51,1,.001 Curling 0:00:07 0:00:02 — 0:00:09 Figureskating 4:21:12 3:38:52 6:56:10 14:56:14 751.92,1, .001 Freestyleskiing 2:10:34 2:07:04 — 4:17:38 879.34,1,.001

270 Icehockey 0:36:22 0:04:41 — 0:41:03 727.64,1,.001 Luge 1:04:13 0:10:11 — 1:14:24 1100.58,1,.001 Nordiccombined 0:52:09 0:00:00 — 0:52:09 Shorttrack 3:57:55 0:39:29 — 4:37:24 3919.41,1,.001 Skeleton 0:02:52 0:17:29 — 0:20:21 1204.77,1,.001 Skijumping 0:59:23 0:00:00 — 0:59:23 Snowboarding 2:09:19 1:35:06 — 3:44:25 122.20,1,.001 Speedskating 1:15:18 0:46:53 — 2:02:11

Total 22:54:29 13:53:49 6:56:10 43:44:28 Overallpercentage 52.3 31.8 15.9 Whenexcludingpairs 62.2 37.8

Note. *At the time of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics there were no women’s events in the disciplines of Nordic combined and Ski jumping. Table 2 Top 20 Most Mentioned Athletes in the 2010 Winter Olympics

Name Sport Gender Nationality Mentions

1.ApoloAntonOhno Shorttrack M UnitedStates 558 2.LindseyVonn Alpineskiing F UnitedStates 263 3.BodeMiller Alpineskiing M UnitedStates 212 4.SteveHolcomb Bobsled M UnitedStates 184 5.JuliaMancuso Alpineskiing F UnitedStates 169 6.CharlesHamelin Shorttrack M Canada 155 7.ShaunWhite Snowboarding M UnitedStates 135

271 8.ShaniDavis SpeedSkating M UnitedStates 129 9.LeeHo-Suk Shorttrack M SouthKorea 124 10.J.R.Celski Shorttrack M UnitedStates 122 11.EvanLysacek Figureskating M UnitedStates 109 12.AkselLundSvindal Alpineskiing M Norway 106 13.SungSi-bak Shorttrack M SouthKorea 104 14.EvgeniPlushenko Figureskating M Russia 97 15.MariaRiesch Alpineskiing F Germany 91 16. Bill Demong Nordic combined M United States 86 T-17.AndreLange Bobsled M Germany 79 T-17.KatherineReutter Shorttrack F UnitedStates 79 19. Charlie White Figure skating M United States 77 20.KimYu-Na Figureskating F SouthKorea 75 272 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012 most-mentioned athlete overall, she received less than half of Apolo Anton Ohno’s mentions. H3 is strongly supported. Within the dialogue of NBC employees during the 2010 broadcast of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver a total of 5,009 descriptors were coded and categorized. Three-hundred-thirty-nine descriptors were of mixed gender pairs and were ex- cluded, leaving 4,670 descriptors for inclusion in the analyses. Of this total, 2,883 (61.7%) were categorized as attributions of success or failure, 1,492 (31.9%) were categorized as neutral, background, or otherwise unclassifiable information, and 295 (6.3%) were categorized as depictions of physicality or personality. H4 predicted that at least one-third of the categories examined for NBC employee depictions of men’s and women’s athletic successesand failures would be taxonomically different. An examination of Table 3 shows significant differences for three categorizations of descriptors. Two significant differences are observed when analyzing descriptions of successes during the NBC prime-time telecast. Commentators were more likely to attribute men athletes’ successes to experience ( 2 D 5.02, df D 1, p D .03) than they were for women athletes, while they were more likely to attribute women athletes’ 2 successes to courage ( D 8.27, df D 1, p D .005) more frequently than for men athletes. One significant difference was found regarding attributions of failure. Commentators were more likely to attribute women athletes’ lack of commitment

Table 3 Descriptive Analysis of Success/Failure by Gender

Gender

Ratio of Success Success Failure to Failure

Men Women Men Women Men Women

Concentration 63 33 24 10 2.6 3.3 Athleticstrength 65 51 22 10 3.0 5.1 Athleticskill 558 328 265 175 2.1 1.9 Composure 99 62 58 37 1.7 1.7 c c Commitment 75 63 10 16 7.5 3.9 Courage 33a 39a 7 9 4.7 4.3 Experience 344b 169b 74 34 4.6 5.0 Intelligence 35 14 4 1 8.8 14.0 Consonance 35 17 24 20 1.5 0.9

Total 1307 776 488 312 2.7 2.5

Note. a 2 D 8.27, df D 1, p D .005; b 2 D 5.02, df D 1, p D .03; c 2 D 6.27, df D 1, p D .02. Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 273

Table 4 Descriptive Analysis of Personality/Physicality Descriptors by Gender

Gender

Men Women

a a Outgoing/Extroverted 33 15 Modest/Introverted 9 4 Emotional 61b 72b Attractiveness 19 20 Size/PartsofBody 30 32 Background 461 361 Other/Neutral 362 308

Total 975 812

Note. a 2 D 3.90, df D 1, p < .05; b 2 D 4.06, df D 1, p < .05.

( 2 D 6.27, df D 1, p D .02) as a reason for their lack of success than they were for the failures involving men athletes. These results are noteworthy and are worthy of discussion, but do not support H4, as the supermajority of the categories of descriptors yielded no significant differences. H5 predicted a taxonomical difference in NBC employee depictions of men and women physicality and personality. An examination of Table 4 shows significant differences were found for two categorizations of descriptors. There were significantly more descriptions of men athletes being outgoing/extroverted 2 ( D 3.90, df D 1, p < .05) than there were for women athletes, while there were significantly more descriptors about women athletes’ emotions ( 2 D 4.06, df D 1, p < .05) than for men athletes. These significant results show partial support for the prediction of H5.

Discussion

The major results of this study revealed some recurrent findings along with some newly discovered ones. From the perspective of agenda-setting, Cohen’s notion of the media being ‘‘stunningly successful in telling its (audience) what to think about’’ (p. 13) is strongly the case in this analysis of the Winter Olympic telecast. For instance, the analysis once again revealed a gender divide in terms of overall exposure (measured in clock-time). Not only does the clock-time divide strongly favor men (62.2% for men’s events, 37.8% for women’s events, excluding the time allotted for mixed-pair events, for a 24.4% overall difference) but the disparity is 274 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012 also statistically significantly wider than the Summer Olympic telecast gender gap, even though it was hosted by the same network with largely the same production team. While men constituted 59.6% of the overall participants in the 2010 Games and 56.6% of Team USA (Women Sports Foundation, 2010), equating part of this gender divide to participation rates would largely be in error, as the prime time telecast almost exclusively features the final rounds of competitions in which those imbalances have been equalized (e.g., there are just six skaters in the ‘‘final’’ highlighted group for both men’s and women’s figure skating regardless of the initial number of overall entrants). When NBC Producer Molly Solomon was confronted with similar gender differences for the 2006 Torino Games, she was surprised, noting that with fewer events and still 17 full prime time nights to fill, ‘‘nothing was left on the floor’’ (Billings, 2008b, p. 48). Such a comment may equate to gender differences in terms of placement and programming choices more than the framing function of exclusion (see Tankard, 2001). If little to no coverage was left on the cutting room floor, gender biases still exist, but likely are the result of women’s sports being shunted to ancillary networks or less desirable time slots in a disproportional rate to that of men’s sports. In any other sports offering, one could conclude that this was a necessary function of NBC’s desire for high ratings as men’s sports clearly yield higher ratings than women’s sports in virtually all other television events. The Olympics, however, has always been the anomaly with women not only constituting the majority of the viewership but also receiving fanship commitment at levels far more escalated than any other form of women’s sport. Whatever the explanation of this trend may be, it is clear that the gender difference is far from a single statistical anomaly. Previous research (see Billings, Angelini, & Wu, 2011) would claim gender as a secondary bias that arises as a result of the primary bias of nationalism in that strong performances of U.S. men are having a significant impact on gendered clock-time. That related impact, however, is not under the purview of the current study. In a similar vein, the descriptors seemed to fit into taxonomical patterns that were different by gender of athlete. Some of these trends have been seen before (such as men succeeding because of experience) and others are newfound trends (women perceived as failing due to a lack of commitment). Every Olympic content analysis of the past 2 decades has found divergent dialogues based on athlete gender (see Billings, 2008b), yet categories in which these differences occur differ with each Olympic Games. Thus, this study contributes to the belief that sportscaster dialogue employs different types of commentary based on gender, but these should be classified as gender differences rather than stereotypes. For instance, gender- based research typically has not concluded that women are stereotyped as having more courage than men, yet in terms of athletic success, that is a finding within this study and the second time it has been found in Winter Olympic coverage. Such differences matter, yet provide a more nuanced understanding of the manner in which men and women are classified in different ways even if they do not function in overtly dominant/submissive functions articulated by other gender scholars. Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 275

When merging these findings within the larger theoretical realm, one seemingly witnesses framing at multiple levels. There is certainly selection that is basedon sport popularity, national biases, and television-ready aspects (i.e., timing/length of the events, visual spectacle, etc.). There is emphasis, without question, both in terms of highlighting popular sports such as figure skating, snowboarding, and skiing and in terms of profiling compelling athletes such as Apolo Anton Ohno, Lindsey Vonn, and Shaun White. There is also exclusion both in terms of the participating countries at the Games itself (resulting in an overly Caucasian and Euro-centric telecast) and also in the nations whose athletes are more likely to be highlighted (showing American athletes half the time inherently necessitates that 91 other nations share the other half of the coverage, see Billings, 2008b). Even beyond that overarching notion of framing, profiles of athletes (and, thus, composite notions of nation states) are seemingly tinged and/or shaped by the gender of the athlete being telecast. Gender influences what sports will be shown, who is shown, the amount that they are shown, and the language that will be used to set the terms of this mediated debate which amounts to a post-mortem focused on the following tenets that are all potentially influenced by gender:

Was the immediately observed athletic performance successful? Why or why not? To what degree is the performance representative of the capabilities of the athlete? Were there aspects outside of the immediately observed performance that are relevant to the overall evaluation? Should these outside aspects be typified in a positive or negative manner?

Beyond the theoretical, it is important to note the potentially intervening role of (a) individual celebrities, (b) predicted success, and (c) other forms of identity beyond athletic gender. First, individual celebrity can impact overall measures of exposure and description. Billings, Angelini, and Duke (2010) noted the exaggerated case of Summer Olympian Michael Phelps, whose quest for eight gold medals made him a regular in the prolonged Olympic experience and represented approximately one-eighth of the overall database. Such icons can skew a database that is otherwise spread over hundreds of others in each gendered category. While this still holds true in Vancouver (see Apolo Ohno), it is fair to conclude (based on most-mentioned athletes and overall medal performances) that no athlete rose to the level anywhere near what Michael Phelps was in the Beijing Games. For instance, the ‘‘Flying Tomato’’ Shaun White was again a star performer in the halfpipe, yet his performance was of a singular nature (one gold medal) in a single night of coverage. While his performance was previewed in previous nights and then subsequently discussed in future nights, his role in the Winter Olympic telecast was much less integral than that of a multi-medal event performer such as Phelps. Other Winter Olympians, such as Ohno, competed and were successful in multiple events, yet the nature of the Winter Games makes this situation less common than in the Summer Games. In 276 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2012 sum, there will always be star athletes who are offered by a network in a featured role, yet they differ in magnitude based not only on their achievements but also the nature of the sport in which they play as some feature a single medal competition while others offer a multitude of permutations in which athletes can be competing for a medal for many consecutive nights. The combination role celebrity and predicted success play in network emphasis is evident when White’s coverage is compared to his USA women’s snowboard halfpipe team counterparts. White’s 135 mentions during the Games were more than fellow Americans Hannah Teeter (38), Kelly Clark (32), and Gretchen Bleiler (28), combined. Gender might be considered a key reason for this discrepancy, but closer inspection suggests that is not the case. White’s performance at the 2006 Winter Games was part of an unprecedented perfect season where he won all of the 12 events he entered (MacArthur, 2010) and his Olympic success was considered an ironic contrast to the Bode Miller disappointment (MacArthur, 2009). After dominating the sport for the next 4 years, White headed into the 2010 Games as the gold medal favorite with both mainstream visibility and high profile endorsement deals. With White, NBC had the perfect narrative: a popular celebrity, with an interesting back-story, who wears the U.S. flag : : : and wins. Conversely, the U.S. women’s halfpipe team lacked White’s star power. None of the previous active U.S. halfpipe medalists—Bleiler (2006), Clark (2002), and Teeter (2006)—had reigned over the women’s snowboarding circuit since Torino. None had White’s level of mainstream publicity, Teeter’s appearance in the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue notwithstanding. With no iconic, clear-cut Gold medal favorite, NBC presented the three U.S. riders as both friends and a team—a direct contrast to White’s loner image (see Murphy, 2010). In terms of the role that other forms of identity enact within the gendered analysis of the Olympics, no factor influences coverage as much as the national affiliation. For example, during the ski jumping competition—an event where the US has been unremarkable for almost 8 decades—NBC aired a feature on Phelps, who was not even competing in the Winter Games. Another example of blatant nationalism would be the almost complete absence of Marit Bjørgen on the telecast. It’s difficult to believe her Winter Games topping five-medal performance would result in only two prime time mentions on the NBC telecast if she were an American athlete. Regarding future research, scholars (see Bairner, 2001; Billings, 2008b) have concluded that the flag under which an athlete competes is critical to fan and media consumption. Subsequent research should combine the roles of gender and nationalism to see if it is the case that gender does not drive the Olympic media mechanism as much as nationality. Moreover, future studies would be wise to use the growing number of gender-based Olympic content studies to analyze media effects. Given the relative consistency of the gender dialogue differences (even if such divergences seem to arise in different categories each time), a next logical step would be to systematically survey heavy, light, and non-viewers of the Olympic Games in an attempt to ascertain whether these content-based differences have cultivation-oriented effects. Angelini et al./GENDER AND VANCOUVER OLYMPICS 277

If one is to concur with the assertion that the Olympics are the biggest show on television, one must also agree that the Olympics provides the most salient and significant glimpse into gender issues within all of modern media. This study has underscored some previous findings, refuted others, and offered fruitful areas for future investigation. Future Olympic telecasts will offer more hours of coverage in a myriad of formats, making the assessment of gender issues more difficult to pursue, but also making them perhaps more critical for societal understanding in an increasingly pervasive sports media industry.

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