Lost in Translation—and Transmission: Contrasting Chinese and U.S. Gymnastics Television Coverage in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

Andrew Billings, Qingru Xu, James R. Angelini, Paul J. MacArthur

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gymnastics is one of the most popular sports at the Summer Olympics in both the United States and China. This study content analyzes more than 23 hours of Olympic gymnastics at the 2016 Rio Games on NBC and CCTV, examining potential framing differences pertaining to nationality and biological sex. Findings reveal that, in terms of name mentions, NBC favored female and domestic gymnasts, yet CCTV devoted more mentions to male and nondomestic gymnasts. Regarding word-by-word descriptors, multiple significant differences strongly suggest that the two networks depict gymnasts in substantially different manners. Discussions and research directions are also offered.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)159-173
Number of pages15
JournalCommunication Reports
Volume31
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Western States Communication Association.

Keywords

  • Biological Sex
  • Gymnastics
  • Media
  • Nationality
  • Olympics
  • Telecast

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Communication
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Lost in Translation—and Transmission: Contrasting Chinese and U.S. Gymnastics Television Coverage in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this