The representation of athletes during Paralympic and Olympic Games: a Foucauldian analysis of the construction of difference in newspapers

Our first aim was to evaluate the representation of athletes in the top newspapers in a continental European country during two editions of the Paralympics and Olympics Games (London 2012 and Rio 2016), by means of quantitative content analysis. The second aim was to critically analyse how athletes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Disability & society 2023-07, Vol.38 (6), p.1053-1075
Main Authors: Martínez-Bello, Vladimir E., Bernabé-Villodre, María del Mar, Cabrera García-Ochoa, Yolanda, Torrent-Trilles, Laura, Vega-Perona, Herminia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
21st century
Athletes
body
Content analysis
Democracy
disability
Foucauldian analysis
Foucault
Olympic games
Paralympic and Olympic Games
Sports
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Summary:Our first aim was to evaluate the representation of athletes in the top newspapers in a continental European country during two editions of the Paralympics and Olympics Games (London 2012 and Rio 2016), by means of quantitative content analysis. The second aim was to critically analyse how athletes are constructed in newspapers using Michel Foucault's theoretical framework on the construction of subjectivities and difference. The newspapers acting as an instrument, use a set of strategies to reinforce the differential treatment of Paralympic versus Olympic athletes: focusing on the effort, dedication and suffering only of athletes participating in the Paralympic Games, newspapers construct a discourse in which they separate, in an apparently natural way, some (Paralympic) athletes from other (Olympic) athletes. Two decades into the 21st century, even the newspapers of a liberal European democracy are using the same pathological model to cover Paralympic athletes who actively participate in sports competitions.
ISSN:0968-7599
1360-0508
DOI:10.1080/09687599.2021.1983413