ISSN: 1329-878X

The Olympics: Media, Myth, Madness No 97 November 2000 Order form Abstracts

Contents

Abstracts

Global media events and the positioning of presence - David Rowe
This article engages with the 'canonical' work of Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz (1992) in re-examining aspects of the phenomenology of the media event, especially those of a global sporting nature. It considers a range of questions of 'gain' and 'loss' in 'being there', and of television-inspired changes to the experience of in-person attendance. Innovations in the viewing possibilities at global media events are considered in relation to forms of sociality during competitions such as the Olympic Games and the soccer World Cup. The discussion also notes the existence of significant variations in the 'script forms' of apparently similar media event types. Finally, it identifies interacting areas of focus important for an effective analysis of the dialectics of remote and proximate experience of global media events like the recent Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Hosting the Olympic broadcast - Helen Wilson
The host broadcaster is a peculiar, temporary but complex media institution which takes its most developed form in the case of the Olympic Games. The Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (SOBO) was the host broadcaster for the Sydney Olympics, providing vision for world television networks. Its political economy is examined from the point of view of the changing dynamics of television technologies and the Olympic Movement's assignment of intellectual property, including broadcast rights. The concept of a host broadcaster is shown to be a product of a particular moment in television history and in this respect it is compared to other hosting functions that the media provide for such an event.

More than an old flame: National symbolism and the media in the torch ceremony of the Olympics - John Sinclair
This article explores the symbolism of the ceremonial torch relay and ceremony in the Olympics, and offers an analysis of its conduct in the Sydney Olympics, and its reporting in the media. The torch ceremony provides a striking example of what has been called 'the invention of tradition', which has undergone much adaptation from one Olympiad to another, in line with the cultural and sometimes political expression of the national identity of the host city. This article considers the symbols and values of national belonging built into the planning of the torch ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and by closely following the media coverage it was given, principally in the national press, shows how news stories were generated in the tension between these symbols and values, and the social issues of the day.

The sporting gamble: Media sport, drama and politics - Cathy Greenfield and Peter Williams
Sport is historically developed, institutionally organised, politically charged and culturally communicated. Sport is also about time and space and bodies. Media sport - configured as drama - routinely presents audiences with particular, persuasive ways of understanding these materialities, in ways that work over and consolidate social relations of power between genders, nationalities, 'races'. We note some pre-Sydney 2000 media examples which make their own arguments about the Olympics, and then some of the varied media presentation and reportage of Sydney 2000 in order to consider this media event as part of ongoing gender, 'race' and national politics.

Performance technologies: Drugs and Fastskin at the Sydney 2000 Olympics - Tara Magdalinski
Throughout preparations for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, there was substantial discussion of a range of technological innovations in sport. On the one hand, performance-enhancing drugs have been rejected as 'unfair' or 'unhealthy' whilst other technologies have been welcomed with little critique. The debate around drugs in sport and Fastskin bodysuits exposes key elements and contradictions within dominant discourses of sporting performance. At the same time that most athletes and administrators were arguing that equality of access by all Australian team members was the key factor in determining whether Australian swimmers should use bodysuits, other athletes clearly recognised the potential criticism that these suits represent some sort of 'unnatural' body enhancement. The issue of performance enhancement was effectively isolated from debates around performance-enhancing drugs by the distinction between the ingestion of drugs and the wearing of suits. As such, the use of the Fastskin suit was depicted as a temporary and function-specific enhancement of the body's 'natural' ability and form, rather than a complete molecular transformation of the body - and therefore 'unnatural'. In this debate, the Fastskin bodysuit and its performance-enhancing potential are presented and legitimated as an acceptable application of human scientific endeavour to the improvement of athletic achievement.

Crippling Paralympics? Media, disability and Olympism - Gerard Goggin and Christopher Newell
While clearly not intended to do so, the Paralympics and the notion of disability associated with them provides significant opportunity for ethical reflection on how far society has not come regarding disability. Yet, this opportunity to explore disability has rarely been taken up. Instead, the overwhelming representation of people with disability within mainstream media is found in portrayals of brave, elite athletes who overcome their disability. As has been suggested by earlier studies of media and disability, such media representations fit well within the established power relations which oppress people with disability in society. While there have been some changes and improvements, we contend that, overwhelmingly, the separation between the Paralympics and Olympics is not questioned, and that if the Paralympics are reported at all, disabling media representations still very much persist.

Oi, Oi, Oi, Oilympics! Reflections of a Sydneysider - Di Powell
In the midst of the Sydney 2000 Games, one Sydneysider stopped to reflect on what was happening around her .

ABC Online: A prehistory - Maureen Burns
This article analyses how ABC Online's early history might be used for thinking about future directions. While this history is contingent, it nevertheless leaves traces in the current structure which will affect decision-making about the future of ABC Online. There is no doubt that ABC Online is valuable. The question is how to exploit that value.

Bondi cinderellas: Storytelling and gatekeeping in the press - Rosalind Turner
The engagement of Kate Fischer, actress, and Jamie Packer, media executive and son of Australia's richest man, ended in October 1998. In the week following the split, Packer signed over in entirety the Bondi apartment he had shared with Fischer. He was also sighted dining with another model, Jodie Meares (whom he later married). Also that week, Fischer left Australia for Hollywood. Sydney press coverage of these events continued for over a month. This paper is a case study of news stories about the break-up. Storytelling in the news is the initial focus, including consideration of ways in which Cinderella themes were embedded in several accounts. Conventional distinctions between soft news and hard news are also considered, because many accounts were located in sections of newspapers conventionally devoted to hard news. Placement and timing of the stories are also considered in terms of the gatekeeper metaphor. The concept of scandal is also briefly investigated.

'It was a serious kitchen knife': Witnessing and reporting horror crime - Grahame Griffin
News reports of major crime can be linked to popular fiction genres. This linkage extends to the role of the crime witness and to the reporter as witness of crime and its aftermaths. It is argued that audience identification with witnesses and witnessing creates a 'breathing space' for reconsideration and reassessment of the crime. To illustrate how this might work in the reporting of horror and atrocity crimes, some newspaper 'horror' stories, and their relationship with horror fiction conventions, are discussed along with the television 'eyewitness' reporting of international atrocity stories.

The X-Files, X-Philes and X-philia: Internet fandom as a site of convergence  - Amanda Howell
This paper surveys the representation of the X-Files Internet fandom in order to show how the structural positioning of television fans is altered by Internet technology and culture. Additionally, the representation of fans in promotional materials and the series itself, when considered in light of the conflicts between fans and Fox, highlights the difficulties Fox has had in translating its promotional strategies to the Internet.