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Drama in Sports Commentary
... The first statement, an objective report on the opponents scheduled to play in a particular game, does not carry the implications of the second, a somewhat indirect assertion that the stronger team (Rams) will likely beat the less competent team (Eagles). The descriptive as well as the dramatic or humorous features of commentators" discourse are also noted in Bryant, et al. (1977). ...
... informing, requesting, rewarding, responding, criticizing with sportspecific jargon (Masterson, et al., 2006); Commentator expert speaker voice (Thornborrow, 2001); play by play game narration (descriptive) (Bryant, et al., 1977;Williams, 1977;Ferguson, 1983;Hansen, 1999); interjection of emotion/bias in color commentary (interpretive) (Bryant, et al., 1977;Williams, 1977;Ferguson, 1983;Hansen, 1999); narrative remarks prior or in response to commentator"s statements (Gerhardt, 2006); The researchers" initial coding decisions were remarkably similar resulting in a rough calculation of 93% consistency; that is, in 93% of coding instances, the researchers independently categorized highlighted speech as representing the same voice. In the handful of cases on which they did not initially agree, the researchers deliberated over the relevant speech characteristics and reached a consensus. ...
... informing, requesting, rewarding, responding, criticizing with sportspecific jargon (Masterson, et al., 2006); Commentator expert speaker voice (Thornborrow, 2001); play by play game narration (descriptive) (Bryant, et al., 1977;Williams, 1977;Ferguson, 1983;Hansen, 1999); interjection of emotion/bias in color commentary (interpretive) (Bryant, et al., 1977;Williams, 1977;Ferguson, 1983;Hansen, 1999); narrative remarks prior or in response to commentator"s statements (Gerhardt, 2006); The researchers" initial coding decisions were remarkably similar resulting in a rough calculation of 93% consistency; that is, in 93% of coding instances, the researchers independently categorized highlighted speech as representing the same voice. In the handful of cases on which they did not initially agree, the researchers deliberated over the relevant speech characteristics and reached a consensus. ...
Underrepresented in sport discourse literature, the usually private interactions among television viewers provided the context for this research. The present study built directly on previous findings regarding TV viewer interaction, sport discourse, and speakers’ multiple identities by analyzing the linguistic features of interactions among four male family members while watching televised football in their home. Participants used prosodic features to frame utterances while taking on the voice of fan, coach, or commentator and talking to, for, or about the TV. In general, these viewers talked ‘to’ the TV as fans and coaches, ‘for’ the TV as commentators, and ‘about’ the TV in all three roles. The findings are of potential interest to researchers as well as marketing and advertising companies.
... One element that may potentially influence the formation of affectations and influence enjoyment is commentary. Past research on event commentary has only examined the influence of home versus away commentators and dramatic language, and the effect those variables had on enjoyment (Bryant, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1977;Bryant & Raney, 2000;Rainville & McCormick, 1977). ...
... Broadcast commentaries help to add drama in sporting contests, and the commentary can then lend itself to the feelings of enjoyment. Bryant, Comisky, and Zillmann (1977) found sport commentators made use of dramatic statements and highlighted conflict to increase enjoyment levels among fans. Cheska (1981) noted elements of drama-the participants, the ritual, the plot, the production, the symbolism, and the social message are all choreographed into the sports spectacular. ...
... Wenner (1989) argued examining the substance of commentary in mediated content may highlight factors of cultural significance. Interpersonal drama is built in to commentary by making derogatory statements about opponents (Bryant et al., 1977). In addition, positive and negative commentary can be used to build reputations for players. ...
Disposition theory research within mediated sporting events has traditionally looked at the relationship between enjoyment and outcome. A gap currently exists in the theory concerning the effect of the different elements of the mediated content. The purpose of this study was to examine one such element of mediated content. This study used a 2 × 2 × 2 between subjects and an experimental design to test the effects of commentary from a United States broadcast on enjoyment. Within the experiment, commentary and outcome were manipulated for two teams of different nationalities. Results showed commentary did have an effect on enjoyment; however, commentary was a stronger predictor of enjoyment than was outcome. In addition, it was found that nationality alone did not have an effect on enjoyment, but commentary and nationality combined did have such an effect. Findings from this study have implications for disposition theory and future research on factors affecting enjoyment.
... In television broadcasts of sports events, announcers provide the spectators with more than a restatement of what they just saw: they embellish the drama and actively shape the viewers' perceptions of the action (Comisky et al., 1977). The extent of such subjective commentary, defined as dramatic or evaluative commentary that differs from factual description of play, fluctuates between 27 and 41% in different cultures (Bryant et al., 1977; Woo et al., 2010). Events that feature individuals or teams representing a nation attract many viewers that might otherwise be oblivious to (mediated) sports: the participation of athletes designated as their representatives make them stakeholders. ...
... In the overall composition of the comments, factual and background descriptors represented 53% of the total commentary. This is less than the share recorded in team sports telecasts in other cultures , which ranged between 59 and 73% (Bryant et al., 1977; Woo et al., 2010). Evaluative commentary comprised 44% of the Slovenian commentary. ...
... Slovenian sportscasters devote a substantial amount of their on-air dialogue to evaluative commentary. The 44% share of interpretive dialogue found in this research exceeds the amount of interpretation found in previous studies conducted on team sports in Asian and North American cultures (Bryant et al., 1977; Woo et al., 2010). The topics discussed by the announcers depend on the gender and the nationality of the athletes. ...
Television is a cultural service and its national renderings of the Olympic Games contribute to the viewers’ understanding of themselves and the world. This study examines the representation of nationality and gender within Slovenian broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Results show that evaluative commentary comprised as much as 44% of the dialogue. ‘Home’ athletes were given more prominence, while foreign athletes were largely portrayed through quantifiable features. Male athletes received more commentary than females. Announcers favoured analysing results and predicting outcomes for men, and resorted to personality and physicality depictions in women. A critical discourse analysis uncovered notions about gender and nationality that would be deemed inappropriate in many societies. Sports journalists and broadcasters at TV Slovenija do not have explicit editorial policies addressing chauvinistic dialogue. The absence of a policy is not perceived as an issue as individual announcers abide to their personal, at times conflicting, understandings of proper announcing.
... The commentator has a huge impact on how viewers perceive a soccer match. Thus, a reality of the sporting event is constructed that is dependent on the commentary (Bryant et al. 1977;Schaffrath 2003), as the commentator sets the frame of the match (Barnfield 2013, p. 331). However, the commentator is not solely responsible for the viewers' perception of the match. ...
... This includes, but is not limited to, forms of intensification, emotional expression, and linguistic hysterization (Kroppach 1978, p. 137). In fact, entertaining elements such as side stories or dramatic elements, or 'color commentary', has been found to increase the audience's intention to watch other events "on the same channel or with the same commentators" (Lee et al. 2016;Bryant et al. 1977). As Lee and Bulitko (2010) noted, while color commentary may be added by one single commentator, along with play-by-play information, it is most often provided by experts, such as former professional players, who may add their past experiences or any kind of trivia that fits the situation at hand (Kuiper and Lewis 2013, p. 39). ...
The boundaries of sports journalism continue to expand as non-traditional actors
emerge and proliferate in the digital environment. This outstanding and vital specialist
area within the news industry faces increasing pressure from adjacent fields. Amateur
sports enthusiasts (bloggers, streamers or influencers) and team media for sports
organizations adopt many of the roles and tasks historically attributed to sports
journalism and engage in activities that may be perceived and regarded as journalistic by
audiences.
The arrival of new actors around the journalistic field, the heavy use of social media and
its impact on sports consumption patterns, the search for new business models for news
organizations, and the disrupting technology that is being explored and applied in sports
coverage all require new conceptual approaches to better understand the sports news
industry in the digital age.
All of these considerations led eighteen authors from nine countries (Greece, Portugal,
Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Australia, Ireland, and Sweden) to publish
their research contributions and broaden the discussion in this MDPI reprint about the
current trends in the sports media landscape and the most pressing challenges that
sports journalists need to face in the years to come.
... The commentator has a huge impact on how viewers perceive a soccer match. Thus, a reality of the sporting event is constructed that is dependent on the commentary (Bryant et al. 1977;Schaffrath 2003), as the commentator sets the frame of the match (Barnfield 2013, p. 331). However, the commentator is not solely responsible for the viewers' perception of the match. ...
... This includes, but is not limited to, forms of intensification, emotional expression, and linguistic hysterization (Kroppach 1978, p. 137). In fact, entertaining elements such as side stories or dramatic elements, or 'color commentary', has been found to increase the audience's intention to watch other events "on the same channel or with the same commentators" (Lee et al. 2016;Bryant et al. 1977). As Lee and Bulitko (2010) noted, while color commentary may be added by one single commentator, along with play-by-play information, it is most often provided by experts, such as former professional players, who may add their past experiences or any kind of trivia that fits the situation at hand (Kuiper and Lewis 2013, p. 39). ...
This article examines the tension between journalistic and entertainment values in live soccer TV commentary from the perspective of German commentators. We situate journalistic and entertainment values within the commentators’ wider understanding of their roles as sports journalists and commentators, looking at a specific type of sports journalist who has different responsibilities from the general sports reporter. We asked how soccer commentators assess the role of journalistic and entertainment values in their work, and what constraints they face, such as how the perceived expectations of their employer affect this assessment. We interviewed 28 TV commentators, one radio commentator, and one expert working for relevant German TV channels and streaming platforms, such as ZDF, Sky, and DAZN. While all interviewees see themselves as companions telling the story of the match, most commentators in the sample value journalistic values over entertainment values, a surprising finding in the hyper-commercialized world of sports television. Well-founded journalistic expertise and soccer knowledge are considered most important. However, this assessment depends on factors such as the broadcaster’s guidelines and the nature of the match. In summary, the role of the commentator is either an ‘objective mediator’ or an ‘emotional entertainer’, but this is a balancing act.
... Research has shown players value not only the attributes of video games (e.g., play mechanics, aesthetics) but also the actors and institutions that build and support the gaming community [37,38]. According to Cheung and Huang and Bryant et al., from the perspective of audience enjoyment and understanding of the game, casters arguably have the greatest impact in the production of esports events [2,5]. However, despite the convergence of readily accessible technologies such as high quality webcams and microphones coupled with social video streaming services like Twitch making casting a viable skill for any esports enthusiast, little work has focused exclusively on the practices of casters. ...
... Play-by-play casting recounts action as it is happening to the point where audience members at events will listen to a broadcast to confirm what they are seeing live [6]. Color casting is also a means to increase the drama of the action [2] by weaving stories about the action happening on the field [1]. In esports, casters are both spectators and performers [5], much as traditional sports casters both watch the game and perform for their audience. ...
Casters commentate on a live, streamed video game for a large online audience. Drawing from 20 semi-structured interviews with amateur casters of either Dota 2 or Rocket League video games and over 20 hours of participant observations, we describe the distinctive practices of two types of casters, play-by-play and color commentary. Play-by-play casters are adept at improvising a rich narrative of hype on top of live games, whereas color commentators methodically prepare to fill in the gaps of live play with informative analysis. Casters often start out alone, relying upon reflective practice to hone their craft. Through examining challenges faced by amateur casters, we identified three design opportunities for game designers to support casters and would-be casters as first-class users. Such designs would provide an antidote to the challenges faced by amateur casters: those of the lack of social support for casting, camerawork, and data availability.
... In the broad scheme of narratives, the range of themes spans all of human experience. In baseball, these themes are limited, and they include: Spirit, Human Interest, Pity, Gamesmanship, Overcoming Bad Luck, Old-College-Try, and Glory [31], [7]. Matching game states and stories thematically (or categorically) can be used to help gauge similarity between the two and we investigate this in our approach. ...
... Rhodes [26] describes a system that follows this pyramid and adds dramatic commentary to sports video games by using language with different levels of emotional connotation depending upon the game situation. Values for the different motifs (themes) [7] are stored, and a vocabulary for each that changes as their level of intensity increases. Each theme has a set of actions that can occur in the game that either increase its intensity (Freytag's rising action) or decrease its intensity (Freytag's falling action). ...
Automated sports commentary is a form of automated narrative. Sports commentary exists to keep the viewer informed and entertained. One way to entertain the viewer is by telling brief stories relevant to the game in progress. We present a system called the sports commentary recommendation system (SCoReS) that can automatically suggest stories for commentators to tell during games. Through several user studies, we compared commentary using SCoReS to three other types of commentary and show that SCoReS adds significantly to the broadcast across several enjoyment metrics. We also collected interview data from professional sports commentators who positively evaluated a demonstration of the system. We conclude that SCoReS can be a useful broadcast tool, effective at selecting stories that add to the enjoyment and watchability of sports. SCoReS is a step toward automating sports commentary and, thus, automating narrative.
... In sportscasting, the voice-over provided by professional announcers and analysts not only provides information and entertainment, but also influences the way a game and its actors are perceived (Bryant et al., 1977). Audience reception of media portrayals is an intertextual and dialogic process: stereotypical depictions of individual ethnic groups are perceived as more realistic by viewers that have little or no exposure to that specific group. ...
... Viewers' understandings of issues surrounding (their own and others') nationality can be altered by television's manipulations, especially if repeated over long periods of time (Eastman and Billings, 2000). Studies have shown that subjective or 'color' commentary in sports broadcasts fluctuates between 27 and 41% in different cultures (Bryant et al., 1977;Woo et al., 2010), so there seems to be ample room to shape understandings of identities. ...
Sports broadcasts showing national teams frequently have been found to engage in biased and
patriotic coverage. However, little is known about the announcers’ discourse in club franchise
competitions. This study examines discursive framing of nationality within Slovenian broadcasts of
international men’s basketball and women’s team handball matches. Results show that announcers
devote Slovenian-based teams just under 60% of all team-related comments. Team affiliation
significantly influences explanations of success and failure, as well as personality and physicality
descriptions, and ‘rival’ teams were devoted significantly more positive attribution. Slovenian
sports broadcasters emphasized national identity through differentiating team identification,
overt cheering for Slovenian-based teams, and influencing the way results and performances are
interpreted. Nation-centric discourse is thus applied even in professional sports involving city
franchises, as club teams are perceived as year-round substitutes for national teams. This likely
derives from the role attributed to sports franchises in federal Yugoslavia. In Slovenia, televised
promotion of nationhood nurtures a sense of national identity in a country that lacks a longstanding
tradition of sovereignty. Public service broadcasters inaccurately perceive this approach
as universal.
... Innovative imaging techniques and camera resolution are employed to enhance the spectators' media experience. Although viewers are likely to be affected by the visual and auditory features of broadcasts while watching sports on TV, broadcaster commentaries are considered to increase viewer attention and excitement the most [22,33,34,[36][37][38]. For example, ice hockey commentaries that highlight violence were found to provide more entertainment than commentaries that de-emphasized the violence [39]. ...
The NBA has undergone formative changes since commissioner David Stern began his tenure. Stern has endeavored to make the NBA a consumer-friendly and marketable league by implementing sanctions on physical violence. This study takes a closer look at Stern’s efforts by examining the interplay between two forms of violence in NBA basketball players on the court: “old fashioned” physical violence (PV) and symbolic violence (SV). Of the 117 NBA finals broadcast for twenty years from 1998 to 2018, a stratified random sample (36 games or 30.8%) of the violations and commentators’ comments were coded, providing a wide perspective on forms of violence over time. The findings reveal that although the number of PV incidents decreased, SV increased starting in 2014, to the extent that SV incidents were more frequent than PV. A thematic analysis of the commentators’ remarks associated with these incidents showed that they support and encourage PV, whereas SV tends to be perceived as harmless and therefore permissible to ignore. Unlike PV, SV is not perceived to be as worthy of media coverage. The relative lack of commentator interest is indicative of the lack of “glamour” of SV in the NBA league. It is suggested that since viewers of professional sports often emulate the players, the increase of SV within the NBA is likely to be mirrored in fans in their everyday lives and in amateur basketball players. Although the rise in SV causes fewer physical injuries in professional basketball players, it nevertheless can cause psychological harm.
... 150-151). In fact, Bryant et al. (1977) found that broadcast commentary affected viewers' perception of roughness and violence in televised ice hockey matches, as well as viewers' enjoyment of the game. ...
... They found that those who watched the clips with the audio commentary perceived their levels of enjoyment to be higher and substantially altered versus those who watched video clips without any audio commentary. Similarly, Bryant et al. (1977) found that intense language, high competition, and strong effort were repeatedly relied upon by sports broadcasters to seemingly enhance the television viewers' level of enjoyment and perceived intensity of the game (Vineyard, 2013). This paper discusses war metaphors from aspects of form, frequency and function. ...
... Billings & Angelini, 2019;Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell, & Smith, 2014;MacArthur et al., 2016) shows a continual pattern of female athletes being described in different ways than their male counterparts. Previous work has focused on the role commentary plays in enhancing emotional responses of sports broadcast audiences (Bryant, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1977;Han & Ahn, 2010). Commentary has a significant influence on viewer enjoyment and absorption (see Smith, 2013;Owens & Bryant, 1998;Yoo, Lee, & Yeo, 2012). ...
Televised coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games featured a record number of female athletes competing. However, NBC and its commentators faced public scrutiny for their use of sexist language in discussing these athletes. A within-subjects experiment (N = 78) featuring NBC video of three different 2016 Olympic events tested the relationship between such commentary and enjoyment, anger, and intentions to view future Olympic coverage. Real-time enjoyment increased during commentary and stayed elevated following sexist commentary. Results also revealed differences between the biological sex of participants, with women being more likely to enjoy the video clips. Anger predicted decreases in both video and commentary enjoyment, but did not have a significant direct effect on attitudes or intentions.
... Linguistic research on sports coverage and football coverage in particular has shown that it is hardly ever limited to objective reports on the course of the games and the results. Even match reports have to be designed as exciting stories that allow the readers to re-experience the games, and especially live commentary is characterized by a high number of dramatic enrichments (Bryant, Comisky & Zillmann 1977) by lexical and prosodic means (Kern 2010). Since the target audience of football coverage is the fans who have an emotional connection to 'their' team or to football in general, 1 the games have to be staged as highly emotional and emotionalizing spectacles that convey the experience of 'being there' even to a non-present audience (Kirschner & Wetzels 2017:261f.). ...
Since writers of football live text commentaries and online match reports have to write under high time pressure, they make extensive use of formulaic sequences. Still, they have to stage the games as emotional and emotionalizing events and therefore have to avoid the impression of being routinized. Based on large corpora of German and English data, the present article makes use of data-driven methods to investigate the writers' strategies to meet this challenge. Recurrent syntactic patterns serve as templates for describing recurrent events and can be enriched by a noteably large set of mostly expressive lexical items. Moreover, idioms are frequently used for giving summarizing and evaluating accounts of the games. Beyond the cross-linguistic differences with regard to the lexis and some syntactic details, the linguistic routines used by the writers are rather similar in both languages.
... We found evidence of few factual or predictive accounts of information used, and those that were expressed stated that a concussion occurred with no information about the player's symptoms or receiving appropriate management. This is contrary to findings made by other studies (Bryant, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1977;Desmarais & Bruce, 2009;Zhou et al., 2013), where factual information was used as, or even more, frequently than dramatic statements. Differences in commentators may to some extent reflect regional differences (i.e., US vs Australia, as well as specific sports being commentated [i.e., NRL vs football]). ...
Concussion is poorly understood by the general public who are regularly exposed to this type of injury via televised sports such as the National Rugby League (NRL). This study investigated media representations of concussion by examining the terminology used by the commentators during the 2010 and 2011 NRL seasons. Data was obtained through a surveillance design where commentary statements were recorded for each observable concussion. Dramatic terminology was the most frequently used followed by entertaining and humorous terminology. Commentators often portrayed the way the incident had occurred and the player's reaction to being concussed. However, information about a player sustaining an injury that required medical attention was rarely conveyed. Media tend to trivialise concussion and this may have an impact on the public's knowledge of, and influence their response to, concussion.
... Although the frequency of specific types of descriptors changed, overall proportions remained similar to those recorded in U.S. Olympic broadcasting four years earlier (Billings and Angelini, 2007). Television broadcasters dramatize their narrative and provide interpretation of the events shown on screen (Comisky, Bryant and Zillman, 1977). Different studies showed that the ratio of informative vs. evaluative dialogue varies considerably between societies; in different nations in Asia, Europe and the United States, subjective commentary amounted to between 27 and 41 percent (Bryant, Comisky and Zillman, 1977; Ličen and Doupona Topič, 2008; Woo, Kim, Nichols and Zheng, 2010). ...
Televised sports images are complemented by the speech of network-employed announcers who dramatize the narrative and interpret the on-screen events. The purpose of this study was to analyze Slovenian coverage of artistic gymnastics events at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Over 7 hours of broadcasts were recorded and analyzed. All references to athletes or teams spoken by the commentators were transcribed and coded according to a 17-item taxonomy to study discursive framing in sports broadcasting. Frequencies of each category of descriptors were then calculated and compared between groups. A total of 4,472 descriptors were transcribed and coded: 56% were spoken by the play-by-play announcer and 44% by the technical commentator. The color commentator provided more evaluative descriptions and background information (especially concerning the gymnasts' routines), while the play-by-play announcer offered more factual commentary, as well as more attributions of personality. Evaluative commentary most often relied on assessments of athletic talent and ability, experience, and consonance. It also featured emphases on national feelings. The share of broadcasters' subjective commentary in gymnastics is considerably higher than that found in team sports. Commentators wield tremendous narrative power with the masses as their dialogue transcends topics in sports.
... Scholars have long observed that broadcasters employ varied techniques to enliven sports competition, such as commentary (Bryant, Brown, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1982;Bryant et al., 1977;Comisky et al., 1977;Sullivan, 1991) or visual production techniques (Cummins & Hahn, 2013;Greer et al., 2009;Hallmark & Armstrong, 1999). However, these studies demonstrate that such techniques are sometimes dependent upon intrinsic properties of the event. ...
Despite its ubiquitous presence in mediated sports, the influence of in-stadium crowd response on media audiences has escaped inquiry. Considerable evidence from both within and beyond the context of sports suggests that a co-spectator’s behavior can generate “intra-audience effects” that enhance perceptions of and response to game events. To test this in the context of broadcast sports, an experiment was conducted whereby participants provided moment-to-moment evaluations of radio broadcasts of soccer where mediated spectator response was systematically altered. Results demonstrate mediated intra-audience effects that yielded both inflated perceptions of the exiting nature of play and increased sense of spatial immersion in the mediated environment. The effect was most pronounced when game events were not intrinsically exciting.
... Yet what of the avatars themselves, the players controlled by the operator? As noted by Bryant et al (1977), much of sports commentary focuses upon the game as individual against individual, 'In the networks combined, the sports announcers relied most heavily on intrapersonal conflict to create the "drama of sports."' (p.146, bold in original). ...
... 272). His observation was justified by empirical evidence regarding enjoyment of televised sports violence (e.g., Bryant, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1981; Comisky, Bryant, & Zillmann, 1977; Sullivan, 1991). More recent studies continue to support this positive relationship between sports violence and enjoyment (DeNeui & Sachau, 1996; Raney & Depalma, 2006; Raney & Kinnally, 2009; Westerman & Tamborini, 2010). ...
Scholars have asserted that instant replay profoundly impacted the practices and conventions of televising athletic competition. However, empirical explorations of how this technique impacts viewer response are scarce. This experiment was designed to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between instant replay, perceived violence, and enjoyment across both exciting and dull game play. Results suggest that replay impacts perceived violence such that viewing dull play followed by replay increased perceived violence, whereas the opposite was true for exciting play. Moreover, perceived violence more strongly contributed to enjoyment of dull play relative to exciting play. Taken together, these findings illustrate the potential utility of replay to impact viewer perception of mediated sports.
... From this perspective, the role of television in this process should not be underestimated. In addition, television probably enforces such phenomena, as emotionalized broadcasting strategies are routinely employed (Bryant, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1977). ...
Television viewers attend to sports programs primarily to gain emotional rewards. As not only wins but also defeats are inherently rooted in sport competitions, television viewers can be positively as well as negatively affected in their feelings when watching sports on television. Interestingly, some studies were able to show that the feelings evoked by watching sport television also influence viewers’ judgments, following feeling-as-information theory. The present study builds on these results by investigating the mood effect of viewing televised football Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup games on personal as well as economic estimations of viewers. A quasi-experimental design was employed, assessing the moods and estimations of viewers before and after a win and a defeat of the German national team. The results support feeling-as-information theory, as viewers reported enhanced mood and estimations after watching the victory. Results of previous studies are extended, as longer term effects are included and the mediating role of mood was explicitly tested and supported.
... The drama in sports commentary Ever since Bryant, Comisky and Zillmann's (1977) seminal analysis of sportscasters' descriptions of American football action, it has been clear that a sizable portion of the commentary was devoted to 'a dramatic embellishment of the game' 5 by playing up their narrative and interpreting the events. Specifically, international research shows that the share of dramatic or interpretive commentary in television sports broadcasting amounts to between 27 and 41% in different countries and TV markets. ...
Over the past 20 years, soccer in Slovenia has experienced a shift in role and perception from ‘Balkanite’ to mainstream. The purpose of this study is to understand how identity is negotiated in televised broadcasts of the domestic soccer league in this former Yugoslav country. The study uses content and discourse analyses to examine the commentary spoken during national soccer championship broadcasts on Slovenian public television and the ways players of different nationalities are represented in these games. Results show that interpretive commentary accounted for 29.2% of the total commentary, most (59.5%) of which was positive in nature. International players received significantly more overall comments, as well as more comments about athletic strength, speed and body size; home nationals in turn received more descriptions about concentration, experience and consonance. Announcers put considerable emphasis on nationality and used it to consolidate the status of Slovenia as an independent country and one within the European Union despite romantically recalling a shared soccer history with Yugoslavia. Finally, references to nationality were used as a neutral substitute to acknowledgement of race. Findings show that national league broadcasting can differ significantly from the play-by-play of international sports. In addition to reinforcing national awareness, sports broadcasts also have a unifying and ‘Europeanizing’ potential.
... Sport play-by-play and color commentators play an important role in influencing attitudes, experiences, and impact of the game experience for viewers listening or watching from home. Dramatic commentary is important to the perception and appreciation of a broadcast game, and dramatizations from television commentators' substitute for the viewer at home who is not actually at the game, and adds emphasis for the viewer to know what is happening due to the visual limitations of television (Bryant, Comisky, & Zillman, 1977). The commentator is not only reporting, but "he¹ has the additional duty of complementing the drama on the field and, presumably, of generating involvement and excitement for the television spectator" (Bryant et al., 1997, p. 144). ...
PURPOSE This study examined how consumers' visual attention to ads during eSports media consumption varies over time.METHODS An experimental study with a single factor, three-level within subject experimental design was conducted, utilizing an eye-tracker to measure visual attentions, including fixation count and duration. Seventy-eight students from a national university in city B participated in the experiment. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted using the open-source statistical program R to test the research hypothesis.RESULTS Both the fixation count and duration were highest for the first ad and then gradually decreased for the second and third ad.CONCLUSIONS It is recommended that eSports sponsors should consider differentiating ad pricing based on the order of exposure, then expose the first ad presented more frequently and for extended periods, and consider different shapes, colors, and movements to prevent adaptation to the initial allocation of attention.
Die Interrelationen zwischen Journalismus und Sport sind geprägt von facettenreichen Wechselbeziehungen und symbiotischen Verhältnissen, deren theoretische Einordnung und empirische Erforschung bislang deutlich geringere wissenschaftliche Aufmerksamkeit fanden im Vergleich zu anderen Journalismusbereichen. Die Beschreibung der Beziehungen erfolgt mittels der Systemtheorie und der Akteurtheorie. Das Spektrum der Interrelationen reicht von konstruktiven Interaktionen über kooperative Interdependenzen bis zu kontraproduktiven Instrumentalisierungen. Die Popularität einer Sportart oder eines Athleten sowie die Publikationsmacht und Reichweite eines Mediums beeinflussen die Richtung der Abhängigkeiten, bestimmen die Qualität der Anpassungen und entscheiden über Verbleib oder Verlust von Autonomie.
In an age of ubiquitous new/mobile media options, television remains the preeminent form of media consumption for sports fans worldwide. This chapter explores the reasons for television’s entrenched domination in a broadening media landscape, along with the constrictions inherent within the legacy platform. It also articulates the political-economic drivers, the content shaping, and the complexities of audience engagement within televised sport. The argument advanced is that while televised sport has evolved dramatically over time, the structures underpinning the rendering of it have stayed remarkably constant. Ultimately, the symbiotic relationship between sport stakeholders (athletes, teams, sponsors, organizations, etc.) and the television networks facilitating sports media products reifies the reason why sports television remains the de facto heuristic for facilitating sport fandom and consumption.
Vorwort
Dieser Band zur „Medialisierung“ des Sports ist Herbert Haag zu seiner Emeritierung im Jahr 2002 gewidmet.
Es ist guter akademischer Brauch, dass ehemalige Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter dem Leiter der wissenschaftlichen Abteilung, an der sie viele Jahre gearbeitet und ei- nen wichtigen Teil ihrer Laufbahn verbracht haben, bei dessen Ausscheiden aus der Universität eine Festschrift widmen.
Wir als die drei Herausgeber dieses Bandes – Bernd Strauß, Michael Kolb und Martin Lames – waren in den 90er Jahren alle etwa zur gleichen Zeit Habilitationsassistenten von Herbert Haag, dem Leiter der Abteilung Sportpädagogik am Institut für Sport und Sportwissenschaft der Universität Kiel, bis wir uns in der zweiten Hälfte der neunziger Jahre etwa im Jahresabstand an der Philosophischen Fakultät mit der tatkräftigen Un- terstützung von Herbert Haag habilitieren konnten. Mittlerweile ist jeder von uns selbst Universitätsprofessor geworden: Bernd Strauß seit 1998 in Münster als Profes- sor für Sportpsychologie, Michael Kolb seit 2000 in Wien als Professor für Bewe- gungs- und Sportpädagogik sowie Martin Lames von 1996 bis 2002 in Rostock als Professor für Trainingswissenschaft/Theorie und Praxis der Sportarten und seit 2002 als Professor für Trainingswissenschaft in Augsburg.
Herbert Haag hat zweifelsohne einen wichtigen Beitrag zu unserem wissenschaftlichen Weg geleistet. So ist es uns als den drei Mitarbeitern, die Herbert Haag zuletzt habili- tiert hat, ein Bedürfnis und eine Freude, ihm mit dieser Festschrift zu danken.
Das Thema für diese Festschrift sollte - wie in solchen Fällen üblich - mit der lebens- langen Forschungsarbeit des Ausscheidenden im Zusammenhang stehen und diese bündeln. Wieso nun ein Band zur „Medialisierung“, also zur zunehmenden Prägung und Durchdringung des Sports durch die Medien?
Lässt man die Themen Revue passieren, die Herbert Haags Arbeit sein wissenschaftli- ches Leben hindurch begleitet haben, so kristallisieren sich neben der Auseinanderset- zung mit dem Bereich der Forschungsmethoden in den Sportwissenschaften und der Philosophie des Sports die modernen Medien in all ihren Facetten heraus.
So hat Herbert Haag schon früh die Möglichkeiten erkannt, die in der Erfassung sportwissenschaftlichen Wissens mit Hilfe der neu entstehenden Formen der elektroni- schen Datenverarbeitung liegen. Sein besonderes Anliegen im Rahmen der viele Jahre andauernden Mitarbeit im Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft galt dem Aufbau eines Begriffs-Thesaurus, ohne den eine systematische Dokumentation und ein geordneter Zugriff auf Forschungsergebnisse und Wissensbestände der Sportwissenschaften nicht möglich ist.
Noch in zwei weiteren Aspekten ist das Thema der Medien mit Herbert Haags Interes- sensgebieten verknüpft: in der von ihm verfolgten interdisziplinären und internationa- len Ausrichtung der Sportwissenschaften. So lassen sich Phänomen und Wirkungswei- sen der Medien in einer ausschließlich disziplinspezifischen Sicht kaum adäquat erfas- sen. Zudem haben vor allem die Medien dazu beigetragen, dass insbesondere interna- tionale sportliche Wettkämpfe wie Weltmeisterschaften und Olympische Spiele zu weltumspannenden, internationalen Ereignissen geworden sind.
Dies trifft sich mit zentralen, von Herbert Haag ein Leben lang verfolgten Zielsetzun- gen: Der Wunsch nach internationaler Verknüpfung der Sportwissenschaft über Län- der- und Sprachgrenzen hinweg sowie nach Austausch sportwissenschaftlicher Er- kenntnisse haben ihn nicht nur stets aufs Neue in die Welt hinaus getrieben, sondern haben auch in konkreten Buchprojekten ihren Niederschlag gefunden. Dabei hat er immer wieder den Versuch unternommen, die Enge disziplinspezifischer Blickweisen zu überwinden und Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler unterschiedlichster Provenienz einzubinden.
Als ehemalige Assistenten bleibt uns Herbert Haag und die an der Abteilung Sportpä- dagogik des Instituts für Sportwissenschaften der Universität Kiel gemeinsam ver- brachte Zeit in vielerlei Hinsicht in guter Erinnerung. Hervorzuheben ist, dass er sei- nen Assistenten schon früh die Verantwortung für eine eigenständige universitäre For- schung und Lehre übertragen hat. Er ließ stets den Freiraum und schenkte das Ver trauen, das notwendig ist, um einen eigenen Weg in der Wissenschaft gehen zu können. Er förderte und forderte durch die Einbindung in gemeinsame Veröffentlichun- gen. Auch als Zuhörer und Ratgeber war er immer da, wenn man ihn brauchte. Doch mehr noch zählt, dass er die Zusammenarbeit der Assistenten wohlwollend begleitet hat.
Ein solcher Weg der Förderung des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses lässt sich nur er- folgreich beschreiten, wenn man ein sicheres Gespür bei der Zusammensetzung seines Teams zeigt. Ein besonderes Verdienst von Herbert Haag liegt sicherlich darin, dass er Assistenten unterschiedlicher sportwissenschaftlicher Herkunft an sich gebunden hatte, denen es in interdisziplinären Projekten gelungen ist, Verständnis für die Perspektive des jeweils anderen zu entwickeln.
In dieser Hinsicht hat Herbert Haag einen ganz persönlichen Beitrag zu der von ihm stets vertretenen Interdisziplinarität in der Sportwissenschaft geleistet.
Diese Festschrift wäre nicht ohne die Unterstützung verschiedener Institutionen und Personen zustande gekommen.
Wir danken dem Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft und ganz besonders seinem Leiter, Herrn Dr. Martin-Peter Büch, das durch ideelle und finanzielle Förderung das Buchprojekt möglich machte.
Wir danken dem Hofmann Verlag, dass es uns möglich gemacht wurde, diese Fest- schrift zu publizieren.
Wir freuen uns, gerade mit dem Bundesinstitut und dem Hofmann Verlag zwei Förde- rer für diese Veröffentlichung gefunden zu haben, die in den letzten Jahren vielfältig und erfolgreich mit Herbert Haag zusammengearbeitet haben.
Entsprechend der Leitideen von Herbert Haag – Interdisziplinarität und Internationali- tät – haben wir eine Autorin sowie Autoren aus den unterschiedlichsten wissenschaftli- chen Disziplinen für diesen Band gewinnen können. So sind unter den Autoren Sport- pädagogen, Sportsoziologen, Sportpsychologen, Kommunikationswissenschaftler, Mo- torikforscher, Trainingswissenschaftler und Informatiker zu finden. Sie arbeiten in Deutschland, Österreich, der Schweiz und den USA. Wir möchten an dieser Stelle al- len für die professionelle und angenehme Zusammenarbeit danken.
Schließlich dürfen wir uns bei Frau Ursula Schröer-Hüls, Frau Katrin Rolfes und ganz besonders bei Frau Dr. Maike Tietjens für die redaktionellen Hilfen bedanken.
Bernd Strauß, Universität Münster
Michael Kolb, Universität Wien
Martin Lames, Universität Augsburg
This study analyzed the frequency with which the regional broadcasts of the 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams featured traditional and modern/advanced statistics. To understand these portrayals, 60 games, two from each MLB team, were coded. The coded content consisted of any on-screen graphic featuring one or multiple baseball statistics, as well as any comment from the broadcasters about statistics. The results indicated a clear spectrum of teams, with some featuring a high level of advanced metrics in their graphics and commentary, while some were substantially more traditional. Through the lens of framing, potential ramifications for statistical knowledge within different fan bases were discussed.
This study focuses on 2 sound elements of sports broadcasting. Specifically, this study sought to explore the differential and combinational effects of commentary sound and on-site spectator sound on the motor resonance and attentional process of viewers. To analyze, this study selected electroencephalogram (EEG) time-frequency analysis using wavelet transforms as a method to observe the viewers’ direct brain responses. The overall findings suggest that delivering on-site spectator’s sound needs to be regarded as important as it can have a significant effect on viewers’ sports-viewing experience.
This research explores the memes from the 2015 Deflategate controversy shared via Twitter. Through the lens of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT), and its associated method of Fantasy Theme Analysis, these memes illustrate four distinct fantasies that led to their creation: a fantasy related to mistrust of corporate powers, a fantasy relishing in the punishment of one of the NFL’s top football stars, a fantasy conceiving of Quarterback Tom Brady as an underdog hero, and a fantasy that conceives of Brady as a redeemed innocent. Most memes had a negative connotation rooted in the disposition theory of sports spectatorship, given that the “rules of the game” had been violated, regardless of the source, and this affects the vital, perceived “fairness” of the game. Overall, the memes showcase concern over the perceived heavy-handed enforcement by the NFL commissioner.
Football’s (soccer’s) EURO 2016 in France marked a high point for sport journalism and broadcasting. Due to the implementation of a uniform multilateral image feed by the European Football Association (UEFA), differences in the verbal live commentary became significant. This study investigated commentary of the live television broadcasts of 4 matches in a specific country. Using social identity and self-categorization, a mixed-methods analysis was employed to quantitatively analyze the commentary and qualitatively assess content for notions of nationalism, patriotism, or globalization. Instead of notions of ideological nationalism, coverage emphasized sporting action and Europeanization of the event. Excluding forms of “banal nationalism” like introducing the teams and playing national anthems, live commentary presented fair or positive patriotism, together with remarks of transnational friendship and comradeship of the players. Based on the increasing frequency of sport organizations using similar image feeds in the future, a decreasing relevance for live commentary by national broadcasters is discussed.
Sport in general and football in particular have become the most popular form of amusement nowadays throughout the special performance of the commentators who comment on the game. Their duty is to provide the audience with the relevant information about what is happening during the game and to amuse them at the same time. They often do that by using specific linguistic features. The present study mainly tackles amusement in British football commentary language from a pragmatic point of view by selecting (2) football matches of (4) British commentators who are Martin Tyler, Andy Gray, Alan Perry and Gary Neville. As such, it is carried out with the aim of exploring the phases of commentaries according to which the football commentary is considered amusing, identifying the strategies of commentary used by the commentators in each phase, specifying the pragmatic devices used in each strategy of football commentaries which make these commentaries amusing. On the basis of the analysis, the following conclusions can be made: The commentaries are achieved in three phases, i.e., play-by-play, colour commentary and action replay which make the commentaries as amused, the commentaries are structured out of three strategies, descriptive, dramatic and humorous, and in the whole pragmatic structure of amusement in football commentaries, each strategy is variously fulfilled by means of certain pragmatic devices associated with it to achieve amusement.
Though visual features such as slow motion, camera angle, or the cutting rate are considered to have great importance for professional media presentation of sports broadcasts and their influence on viewers, there has as yet been little research on the effects of fundamental visual parameters on viewer perception in the field of sport communication. In its primary step, this study researches the effect cutting rates have on the liking of live soccer broadcasts. To this end, an experiment (between-subjects design) with three groups (N = 92) was conducted. All participants received an identical excerpt of a soccer match; however, the number of cuts was systematically altered. A MANCOVA revealed significant effects—for example, a lower cutting rate leads the consumer to perceive less aesthetic appeal and the influences of effects are moderated by fandom. Implications are discussed.
Aufgrund der Bedeutung des Markenmanagements mit und im Sport, werden im Rahmen dieses Aufsatzes einige der wichtigsten charakteristischen Hintergründe beleuchtet, die dieses gesellschaftliche Handlungsfeld und die zugehörigen Erwartungen prägen. Hierzu wird zuerst der Frage nachgegangen, welche charakteristischen Erwartungen und Muster den Sport allgemein prägen, um dann die Hauptakteure des modernen Mediensports in den Fokus der Betrachtungen zu rücken. Bezüglich dieser „Helden auf Zeit“ hielten Holt und Mangan fest: „A sport without a hero is like Hamlet without the Prince and yet varieties and purposes of sporting heroism are rarely examined“ (1996, 5). Obwohl sich in jüngerer Zeit einige wissenschaftliche Publikationen dem Phänomen des sozial exponiert agierenden Sportlers widmeten, finden sich noch immer nur relativ wenige Betrachtungen hierzu. Folglich soll herausgearbeitet werden, welchen zentralen „großen Aufgaben“ Sportler sich stellen und welchen Erwartungen sie dabei entsprechen müssen. Anschließend werden die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse anhand von vier Fallbeispielen plastisch aufgearbeitet, von denen zwei dem Markenmanagement mit Sport und zwei demjenigen im Sport entstammen. Abschließend folgt die Schlussbetrachtung, welche der Zusammenfassung zentraler Punkte und dem Aufzeigen weiterer Schlüsse für das Markenmanagement mit und im Sport dient.
This study, based on previous work, investigated the interaction of camera angle, arousing content, and an individual’s general and school-specific fanship on the cognitive processing of and emotional reactions to sport communication from a top-down and bottom-up perspective. Cognitive processing was defined as the resources available for encoding and was indexed using secondary-task reaction times, and self-reported positivity, negativity, and arousal were also measured as an index of emotional reactions. Results indicate that general and school-specific fanship have differential effects on cognitive processing and emotional reactions. In addition, in a replication of previous work, it would appear that different camera angles do not have different effects on cognitive processing. The implications of the top-down and bottom-up approach for the sport communication experience are discussed for both sport researchers and sport communication practitioners.
While research has revealed the important role of television commentators in sports broadcasts, no model has been established which comprehensively examines the relationship between sports commentary, audience perceptions, and consumption behavior (e.g., re-viewing intentions). Thus, the current study tested a conceptual model to better explain commentary and its relationship with audience perceptions (i.e., perceived quality and satisfaction) and future intentions. This study included data from a convenience sample of 80 undergraduate students from physical activity courses at a large private university in Seoul, Korea. In order to test the model, two commentary experimental conditions (i.e., color commentary and objective commentary) were employed and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings suggest that color commentary significantly increases audience enjoyment and re-viewing intentions. Also, the findings of the study imply that audiences who are satisfied with the quality of the broadcast showed greater likelihood of re-consuming the televised sports program. The results of this investigation add to the body of knowledge in sport communication as well as highlight the significant role of sports commentators and the relationships between commentary, perceived quality, satisfaction, and re-viewing intentions.
Located in the United States, NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is the biggest and most powerful Olympic network in the world, having won the rights to televise both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games. By way of attracting more viewers of both sexes and all ages and ethnicities than any other sporting event, and through the production of breathtaking spectacles and absorbing stories, NBC's Olympic telecasts have huge power and potential to shape viewer perceptions. Billings's unique text examines the production, content, and potential effects of NBC's Olympic telecasts. Interviews with key NBC Olympic producers and sportscasters (including NBC Universal Sports and Olympics President Dick Ebersol and primetime anchor Bob Costas) outline the inner workings of the NBC Olympic machine; content analyses from ten years of Olympic telecasts (1996-2006) examine the portrayal of nationality, gender, and ethnicity within NBC's telecast; and survey analyses interrogate the extent to which NBC's storytelling process affects viewer beliefs about identity issues. This mixed-method approach offers valuable insights into what Billings portrays as "the biggest show on television".
The International Federation Football Association (FIFA) takes over the most homogeneous developing of football as a sport across the world. Even so, players, coaches, audiences and different latitudes stages, shape very different competitions. Sport viewers, using the Media globalization possibilities, are able to distinguish different ways of showing football matches on screen. Forty years ago, Image scholars wondered whether it was possible to recognize signs of style in directing sports, and specifically in the case of football, confronting German and British broadcasting practices. Updating the same objectives, some representative matches of the saudi arabian, spanish and english league have been chosen from the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons, and have been compared shot by shot. Despite the development of technologies and techniques, the conclusions of researchers like those of Brien R. Williams are still operative, and it is possible to detect some differences that make explicit and distinct points of view about football.
This study investigated the effects of sports game outcomes on spectators` Ad recall, and the sports game induced suspense was also investigated for its moderating effects between the variables. On the day after the 2012 London Olympic soccer games, university students (N
This study investigated suspense as a predictor of sports video game enjoyment by including the variable as a key part of a working model that also included presence, fanship, disposition, skill, and outcome. Results of a path analysis indicate a complex network of relationships impacting enjoyment. Suspense strongly impacted presence, which was an important determinant of enjoyment, while skill and outcome also explained a large portion of variance in enjoyment. The study highlights the complexity of the enjoyment experience as it relates to video games, and provides direction for future work on a theoretical model of video game enjoyment.
much neglected area of research into game sound (and computer games in general) is the use of sound
in the games on electronic gambling machines (EGMs). EGMs have many similarities with commercial
computer games, particularly arcade games. Drawing on research in film, television, computer games,
advertising, and gambling, this chapter introduces EGM sound and provides an introduction into the
literature on gambling sound in general, including discussions of the casino environment, the slot machine
EGM, and the physiological responses to sound in EGMs. Throughout the article, we address how the
study of EGM sound may be relevant to the practice and theory of computer game audio.
This research considers the idea that selective perception influences a listening audience's evaluation of a radio play-by-play announcer's capabilities. The study examines selective perception in relation to how a particular team performs in a contest, as well as the intensity of fanship among those listening. Results show the level of fanship has a significant impact in how listeners evaluate the performance of a play-by-play announcer. Research also suggests that the play-by- play announcer may exercise selective perception in his or her description of the game.
Several theories, including disposition-based theories, depend on moral judgments about narrative characters' actions to describe how audiences understand characters in media narratives. However, more needs to be known about how moral judgments about characters' actions are made and affective dispositions toward characters are formed and change as a story unfolds. There is evidence that the intentionality underlying a character's actions is an important judgment that audiences use to understand a character's actions. We propose two sequences: a rationalist sequence in which perceived intentionality of a character's actions informs moral judgments and affective dispositions, and an intuitionist sequence in which affective dispositions are determined first and moral and intentionality judgments are made congruent with that judgment. Implications for narrative theories are discussed.
Due to the degradation by hydrogen, the mobilities near the top and bottom insulator/channel interfaces are lower than those at the central amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (alpha-IGZO) channel, reflecting the mobilities of 10.2, 7.5, and 1.8 cm(2)/V . s for double-gate (DG), bottom-gate, and top-gate operations, respectively. DG operation can push more electrons into the central channel than single-gate (SG) operation. Based on the secondary ion mass spectroscopy, hydrogen has a higher concentration near the top and bottom interfaces than at the central region. Based on the first-principle calculations, the hydrogen can form shallow donor states and degrade the mobility of alpha-IGZO thin-film transistors. The DG operation also creates a larger lateral electric field along the channel direction than SG operation. Both mobility enhancement and lateral electric field increase lead to significant drive current enhancement.
In this essay, Michael Real reflects on why communication about sport is of cultural importance and worthy of critical study. The early part of the essay reflects on challenges faced in the development of the study of communication and sport and the author’s involvement in that development. The author reflects on his choice to focus on spectacle and mega-events, such as media treatment of the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games. The essay traces significant influences and “schools” of critical approaches to communication and sport, from small beginnings in the 1970s through rapid expansion of topics and methods in the 1980s and since. Key historic contributions that have influenced research on communication and sport are examined along with conflicts about how to best approach this subject. The focus section of the essay assesses a number of broad theoretical lenses that have value in studying mediated sport’s mega-events as spectacle. Considered here are a Geertz style approach to ritual analysis, Debord’s society of the spectacle, and Roche’s theory of mega-events. The essay closes with comment on the road ahead for scholarly research on communication and sport.
A solution is suggested for an old unresolved social psychological problem.