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Abstract
The specifics of Olympic Games' volunteering are currently unclear, as more needs to be understood about who volunteers, why, what they do and what they gain from it. Hence media coverage of volunteering at the 2008 Beijing Olympics potentially offered insights into these important questions for the continued staffing of future mega-events and the possible achievement of their promised legacies. However, a comparison of English language, domestic and foreign press reports revealed acute differences in the discourses used in the representation of volunteering at the Games. This essay explores these distinctions and their implications and presents results which clearly relate to two different hegemonic discourses.
Notes
1 CitationWilson, ‘Volunteering’, 215.
2 CitationCnaan, Handy and Wadsworth, ‘Defining Who is a Volunteer’, 365.
3 CitationStebbins, ‘Volunteering’; CitationWilson and Musick, ‘Attachment to Volunteering’; CitationLiao-Troth, ‘Are They Here’.
4 CitationCuskelly, Hoye and Auld, Working with Volunteers.
5 CitationRoche, ‘Mega-events’, 1.
6 CitationBaum and Lockstone, ‘Volunteers’; CitationVolunteering England, ‘Volunteering England Statement’; CitationBOCOG, Facts and Figures. See, for example, ‘Smiling Volunteers Win Another Olympic Gold for Beijing’, China Daily, August 14, 2008.
7 Cuskelly, Hoye and Auld, Working with Volunteers, 145.
8 CitationPreuss, ‘The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Mega Sport’.
9 CitationMcCurley and Lynch, Essential Volunteer Management.
10 For example, see CitationBowdin et al. , Events Management; CitationVan der Wagen, Human Resource Management; see CitationElstad, ‘Continuance Commitment’; CitationCoyne and Coyne, ‘Getting, Keeping’; Cuskelly, Hoye and Auld, Working with Volunteers; CitationFlashman and Quick, ‘Altruism is Not Dead.
11 Stebbins, ‘Volunteering’.
12 For example, see Cuskelly, Hoye and Auld, Working with Volunteers; CitationSundeen and Raskoff, ‘Volunteering Among Teenagers’; CitationSax and Astin, ‘The Benefits of Service’.
13 For example, see Wilson and Musick, ‘Attachment to Volunteering’; CitationNichols, ‘Pressures on the UK sports sector’; CitationWilson, ‘Volunteering’.
14 CitationGladden, McDonald and Barr, ‘Event Management’.
15 Adapted from Baum and Lockstone, ‘Volunteers’.
16 CitationMitchell, ‘Representation’; CitationFairclough and Wodak, ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’.
17 CitationHarvey Brown, ‘Cultural Representation’.
18 CitationLa Ferle and Lee, ‘Can English Language Media’, 142.
19 CitationCotter, ‘Discourse in the Media’, 425.
20 For example, see La Ferle and Lee, ‘Can English Language Media’; Harvey Brown, ‘Cultural Representation’; CitationGeorge, Hartley and Paris, ‘The Representation of Female Athletes’; CitationCuneen and Spencer, ‘Gender representations related to sport celebrity’; CitationHartman, ‘Television and Movie Representations’; CitationMitissus and Elliott, ‘Representations, Text and Practice’; CitationGilkes, ‘Caring at a Distance’.
21 For example, see CitationRahman, ‘David Beckham’; CitationNeo and Savage, ‘Shades of Green’; CitationCrabbe, ‘THE PUBLIC GETS’; CitationCrolley and Teso, ‘Gendered Narratives’; CitationPederson, ‘Examining equity in newspaper photographs’; CitationMarschik, ‘Mitropa’; CitationPoulton, ‘Mediated Patriot Games’; CitationHowe, ‘From Inside the Newsroom’; CitationStaurowsky, ‘Getting Beyond Imagery’; CitationBruce, ‘Marking the Boundaries.
22 CitationPotter, ‘Discourse Analysis’, 146.
23 For example, see CitationPotter and Wetherell, Discourse and Social Psychology.
24 CitationGee, Situated language and learning.
25 Baum and Lockstone, ‘Volunteers’.
26 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, China Daily August 14, 2008.
27 ‘Worrying about Traffic, Not Who Wins the Gold’, New York Times, August 5, 2008.
28 ‘Olympics: London will Struggle to Match this Army on Volunteer Frontline’, The Guardian, August 19, 2008.
29 ‘Art of Deception’, The Baltimore Sun, August 7, 2008.
30 ‘Beijing huang yin nin: A Volunteer's Story’, Twin Cities Daily Planet, August 14, 2008.
31 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, China Daily, August 14, 2008.
32 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, ChinaView, August 14, 2008
33 ‘Weary Beijing Volunteers Verging on Mutiny’, Timesonline, August 22, 2008.
34 ‘Olympics’, The Guardian, August 19, 2008.
35 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, China Daily, August 14, 2008.
36 ‘Worrying about Traffic, Not Who Wins the Gold’, New York Times, August 5, 2008.
37 ‘Weary Beijing Volunteers Verging on Mutiny’, Timesonline, August 22, 2008.
38 ‘2008 and Beyond – Olympic Volunteer: My Part in the Games’, CCTV, August 7, 2008.
39 ‘80,000 Condoms in Beijing Olympic Village all Taken Away During Games’, China View, September 5, 2008.
40 ‘Olympics’, The Guardian, August 19, 2008.
41 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, China Daily, August 14, 2008.
42 ‘2008 and Beyond’, CCTV, August 7, 2008; ‘Pointing the Way to Olympic Glory’, China Daily, September 8, 2008; ‘Olympics’, The Guardian, August 19, 2008.
43 ‘Pointing the Way to Olympic Glory’, China Daily, September 8, 2008.
44 ‘Centenarian Olympic Volunteer Proud to See Games’, CCTV, August 6, 2008.
45 ‘2008 and Beyond’, CCTV, August 7, 2008.
46 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, China Daily, August 14, 2008.
47 ‘Weary Beijing Volunteers Verging on Mutiny’, Timesonline, August 22, 2008
48 ‘Weary Beijing Volunteers Verging on Mutiny’, Timesonline, August 22, 2008.
49 ‘Weary Beijing Volunteers Verging on Mutiny’, Timesonline, August 22, 2008
50 ‘Volunteering: The Influence is Subtle, but Lifelong’, China Daily, September 12, 2008.
51 ‘Smiling Volunteers’, China Daily, August 14, 2008.
52 ‘Art of Deception’, The Baltimore Sun, August 7, 2008; CitationFoucault, Discipline and Punish.
53 CitationFoucault, Discipline and Punish.
54 ‘Crowds Flock to Torch Parade in Olympic City’, The Earth Times, August 6, 2008.
55 CitationWasserstrom, ‘The year of living anxiously’.
56 ‘BEIJING BEAT: Empty Seats, Lack of Buzz’, Boston Globe, August 12, 2008.
57 ‘Empty Seats Unlikely in Beijing Olympics’, China Daily, May 15, 2008.
58 ‘’88 WINTER OLYMPICS: NOTEBOOK; Empty Seats Upset Residents’, New York Times, February 19, 1988.
59 ‘BEIJING BEAT: Empty Seats, Lack of Buzz’, Boston Globe, August 12, 2008.
60 ‘Beijing Is All Dressed Up, But No One Is Going’, Washington Post, August 13, 1988.
61 ‘Beijing Olympics: China Confused in the Art of Chanting’, The Daily Telegraph, August 21, 2008.
62 ‘BEIJING BEAT: Empty Seats, Lack of Buzz’, Boston Globe, August 12, 2008.
63 ‘Olympics-IOC to Learn Lessons from Empty Seats in Beijing’, Reuters, November 27, 2008.