Media Portrayals of Nfl Players' Suicides
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SUICIDE ON THE SIDELINES: MEDIA PORTRAYALS OF NFL PLAYERS’ SUICIDES FROM JUNE 2000 TO SEPTEMBER 2012 By NICKI KARIMIPOUR A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Nicki Karimipour 2 For Rob 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am immensely grateful to Dr. Debbie Treise for her constant and invaluable guidance in all aspects of the master’s program. Always there when I needed her, she has helped me become a better researcher, student and person. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. She has inspired and influenced me more than she’ll ever know. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Lisa Duke and Claire Baralt for their insight, advice and support along the way. Immense thanks are due to my parents, Reza and Ashie Karimipour. They have my sincerest gratitude for their unwavering care and guidance throughout my academic career and supporting me wholeheartedly in all of my dreams and endeavors. Particularly, I realize that I am forever indebted to my mom, who convinced me to pursue journalism in the first place, who is never too busy to answer my phone calls, and is the person I strive to be one day, if I should ever be so lucky. To my little brother Cameron, thank you for always being proud of me. I hope I’ll continue to give you something to brag to your friends about. I could not have come this far without the support and encouragement of the College of Journalism and Communications professors and administrative staff; in addition to my family, friends and loved ones who have helped me along this journey. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 14 The Stigma of Suicide and Mental Illness ............................................................... 14 Suicide Risk Factors ............................................................................................... 16 Suicide Contagion ................................................................................................... 17 Suicide Prevention .................................................................................................. 18 Anthropology of Sport ............................................................................................. 20 History of the National Football League (NFL) ........................................................ 21 Presence of Masculinity and Heroism Mythos in Sports ......................................... 23 Hegemonic Masculinity and Football ...................................................................... 24 Suicide among Athletes .......................................................................................... 26 NFL Athletes’ Suicides from 2000 to 2012 .............................................................. 27 Motivations for Sport Participation .......................................................................... 29 Sport-related Injuries; Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) .......................... 30 Suicides and CTE ................................................................................................... 32 External Factors for Suicide .................................................................................... 34 Sports and the Media .............................................................................................. 36 Framing Theory ...................................................................................................... 37 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 40 Qualitative Content Analysis ................................................................................... 40 Framing Analysis .................................................................................................... 41 Qualitative Coding Process ..................................................................................... 42 Source Selection ..................................................................................................... 44 Article Selection ...................................................................................................... 47 4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 49 Results of Article Collection .................................................................................... 49 Results of Qualitative Framing Analysis.................................................................. 51 RQ1: What are the Commonly Appearing Frames Found in the Articles? ....... 51 Causes ....................................................................................................... 52 Character: Masculinity ............................................................................... 54 5 Character: Reputation ................................................................................ 57 Medical: Prevention ................................................................................... 60 Medical: Research ..................................................................................... 61 Medical: Last wishes .................................................................................. 63 Legal .......................................................................................................... 65 Religious .................................................................................................... 66 RQ2: How Does the Coverage of Suicides Change over Time (2000-2012)? .. 68 RQ3: What Specific Language and Framing Tools Do the Media Use to Discuss These Suicides (i.e., Specific Buzzwords And Phrases), and How Often Do They Occur? .................................................................................. 70 5 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 73 Analysis of Commonly Appearing Frames .............................................................. 73 Changes over Time ................................................................................................ 81 Buzzwords Used as Framing Tools ........................................................................ 82 Importance of the Issue .......................................................................................... 86 Theoretical and Practical Implications .................................................................... 88 Limitations and Future Research ............................................................................ 94 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 97 APPENDIX: CODING GUIDELINES ............................................................................. 99 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 129 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 4-1 Description of final sample by source ...................................................................... 50 4-2 Articles by yearly publish date ................................................................................. 51 4-3 Information about commonly appearing frames ...................................................... 52 4-4 Appearance of athletes’ names in articles ............................................................... 69 4-5 Description of framing tools ..................................................................................... 71 7 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts in Mass Communication SUICIDE ON THE SIDELINES: MEDIA PORTRAYALS OF NFL PLAYERS’ SUICIDES FROM JUNE 2000 TO SEPTEMBER 2012 By Nicki Karimipour August 2013 Chair: Debbie Treise Major: Mass Communication From 2000 until 2012 there have been more than a dozen suicides by current or retired NFL athletes. Stories about these suicides have made their way into mainstream news and sport-related media coverage. Current research does not fully account for all of the important aspects related to suicide among athletes—especially NFL athletes— nor does it explore the ways in which the suicides have been covered by mass media. Furthermore, there has not been a comprehensive analysis to identify the way in which the media covered the stories or what themes exist in the coverage. This study examines media coverage of NFL athlete suicides from June 2000 to September 2012 in six sources: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post (print); ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report (online). The study discusses the results of qualitative content analysis performed on the 176 articles,