A Social Analysis of Ctv's Production of the 1988 Winter Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
OLYMPIC POWER PLAYS: A SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF CTV'S PRODUCTION OF THE 1988 WINTER OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT Margaret MacNeill B.P.H.E., School of PHE, University of Toronto, 1 984 M.A., School of PE, Queen's University, 1 986 THESIS SUBMllTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION Q Margaret MacNeill 1994 Simon Fraser University January 1994. All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: Margaret E. MacNeill DEGREE: Ph.D. (Communication) TITLE OF THESIS: OLYMPIC POWER PLAYS: A SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF CTV'S PRODUCTION OF THE 1988 WINTER OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT EXAMINING COMMITTEE: CHAIR: Donald Gutstein, Senior Lecturer Dr. Richard Gruneau, Professor, Senior Supervi.mr Dr. Martin Laba, Assot. Prqfessor, Supervisor .. - - - - - Dr. Robert Hackett, Assoc. Professor, Supervisor Dr. ~&nDickkon, Professor, Internal Examiner Dr. Michael R. Real, Professor, External ~xanGer, Dept. of Telecommunication and Film, San Diego State University DATE APPROVED: 7 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of ThesisIDissertation: OLYMPIC POWER PLAYS: A SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF CTV'S PRODUCTION OF THE 1988 WINTER OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT Author: --. signature Margaret E. MacNeill name ABSTRACT OLYMPIC POWER PLAYS: A SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF CN'S PRODUCTION OF THE 1 988 WINTER OLYMPIC ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT This dissertation is a study of the Canadian Television Network's (CTV) production of the 1988 Winter Olympic ice hockey tournament. A critical cultural studies analysis of the production site, the crew, Olympic and network decision makers is conducted on a number of !evels including the political, economic and cultural spheres of broadcasting. On the broadest political-econom~ca.level, Olympic broadcasting is analyzed to question how + Canada's national private network strategically employed Olympic hockey as a spectacle of accumulation to boost ratings, expand market positioning, strengthen their media monopoly, and attract national sponsors while blocking national broadcasting competitors. To study the political-economic level, three methods are utilized including (1) interviews with network and Olympic officials, (2) document analysis of media and Olympic policies, papers, memos and texts, and (3) ethnographic observation of the media officials in the Broadcast Centre and at the SaddleDome hockey venue. Ethnographic observation of the labour process of the CTV hockey crew at the arena, iotic insights of critical communication studies, provides the second informed by th -. ( -9 eve1 of understanding, Olympic broadcasting as a spectacle of legitimation. These observations illustrate how the crew re-make the live sporting event into a series of cultural images to "sell" the national audience. These images are compatible with the commercial and sporting ideologies of the "Olympic family" (including the International Olympic Committee, media rights holders and exclusive sponsors), and broadcasts that are compatible with mythologies of the unofficial Canadian "national game". The ethnographic elements of production appraised in this study include the division of media labour, crew relations, the social-aesthetic use of broadcast technology, the conventional employment of sporting codes of commentary and visual codes of television mediation. Despite covering a losing Team Canada, which had been positioned as a medal hopeful by CTV programmers prior to the 1988 Games, this study demonstrates how the television crew laboured to reclaim--- hockey as "the" Canadian sport in order to reassert a self- proclaimed superiority in producing the television feed for all world broadcasters. The work to create Olympic telecast images of the sporting spectacle is revealed to be a social Process that legitimates select systems of meaning, reinforces particular modes of media production and strengthens monopolistic political-economic relationships: the circuit of P cultural production constructs a profoundly patriotic and patriarchal version of hockey that momentarily serves the economic and marketing interests of the CTV network and the r- Olympic movement, while (eproducin>he- cultural-economic power of the National Hockey ---_ -.. - League as the hockey reference system for broadcasting spectacles of this game. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Olympic ice hockey is a competitive contact sport, but writing a dissertation is truly an endurance event. I have many to thank for their support and feedback. Funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral fellowship and the SFU President's Research Stipend is gratefully acknowledged. The CTV network is extended a special thanks for granting me full access to the television production sites in order to conduct this ethnographic research. I am especially indebted to the CTV Domestic and Host Broadcasting crews at the Calgary Games for allowing me to intrude into their work world, patiently demonstrating their craft, and answering an endless slew of questions. I greatly appreciate the research assistance provided by the librarians at the Olympic House Library in Montreal, the critical insights into hockey and equipment loans provided by my training partner Raeffale in Vancouver, and the accomodation provided by the Cantelon family while in Calgary. In addition, I would like to thank to all my professors, fellow graduate students and colleagues at Simon Fraser University, Queen's University, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia for the interesting classes and stimulating debates that helped me to form a critical studies foundation for this research. Most of all, I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor Rick Gruneau for his critical insights, stimulating classes and mentoring during my graduate studies. And finally, I would like to thank my partner John and my family for their patience, encouragement and unrelenting support during this academic marathon. TABLE OF CONTENTS Front Pieces: Title Page ............................................................................... Approval ............................................................................... Abstract ............................................................................... Acknowledgements ................................................................... Table of Contents ................................................................... List of Tables ............................................................................... List of Charts ............................................................................... List of Illustrations ................................................................... List of Abbreviations ................................................................... Introduction 1 ( I ) A Social Analysis of CTV's Production .................... 3 ( I I ) Research Objectives .............................................. 11 ( I I I ) Methodological Overview .................................. t 2 (IV) Dissertation Outline .............................................. 14 PART I: APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF TELEVISED SPORT: Chapter One: Visions of the Televisual Sports Spectacle ( I ) Sport, Spectacle and the Critique of Mass Society ..... 18 ( I I ) The Televised Sport Spectacles as Normative , Ritual and Cultural Performance ............... 22 ( I I I ) Studies of Media Effect and Programming Content .... 44 (a) The Effects Tradition ................................ 47 (b) Examination of Televised Sport Content .................................................. 59 (c) Studying the "Symbiotic Relationship" Between Sport and Television .............. 62 / Chapter Two: Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of Television Sport Production 67 The Cultural Studies Perspective ................... 67 Ethnographies of Television Production ............... 69 Refining Ethnography: Employing Social Analysis ................................................... 79 Critical Cultural Studies Approaches To The Study of Sport ........................................ 83 Ideology as the Social Construction of Meaning ..... 97 Barthes. Ideology and Signification........................ 106 The Rediscovery of Ideology ................................ 107 Hegemonic Power. Ideology and the Study of Media Sports ........................................ 112 PART II: THE TELEVISUAL SPECTACLE OF ACCUMULATION Chapter Three: Spectacular Returns: The Political Economic Imperatives of Olympic Sports Television 116 ( I ) Spectacular Returns ............................................. 119 ( I I ) CTV Television Rights Agreements ..................... 129 ( I I I ) CTV-ABC Network Relationships ..................... 138 (IV) The Enabling Contribution of the Government to the Financial