‘The Shame Games’: a textual analysis of Western press coverage of the Commonwealth Games in India

Abstract

This study examines the news coverage of the Commonwealth Games in India in major newspapers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Textual analysis of news articles reveals a heavy focus on issues of mismanagement and deficiencies in game preparations, and the use of negative stereotypes of India. The article draws attention to the bias in coverage of events in developing countries and calls attention to the hegemonic function of the Western press in perpetuating old social attitudes and prejudices that undermine the success and achievements of events in developing countries like India.

Notes

1 JW Jun & HM Lee, ‘Enhancing global-scale visibility and familiarity: the impact of World Baseball Classic on participating countries’, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 3(1), 2007, pp 42–52.

2 ‘Past Commonwealth Games’, 2011, at http://www.thecgf.com/games/games_index.asp.

3 See DR Black & J van der Westhuizen, ‘The allure of global games for “semi-peripheral” polities and spaces: a research agenda’, Third World Quarterly, 25(7), 2004, pp 1195–1214; JA Mangan, ‘Prologue: Britain's chief spiritual export—imperial sport as moral metaphor, political symbol and cultural bond’, in Mangan (ed), The Cultural Bond: Sport, Empire and Society, Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1992, pp 1–10; and K Moore, ‘“The warmth of comradeship”: the first British Empire Games and imperial solidarity’, in Mangan, The Cultural Bond, pp 201–210.

4 See Moore, ‘“The warmth of comradeship”’.

5 Mangan, ‘Prologue: Britain's chief spiritual export’, p 4.

6 S Hall, ‘The spectacle of the “other”’, in Hall (ed), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997, pp 223–290; and TA van Dijk, ‘Ideology and discourse: a multidisciplinary introduction’, 2003, at http://www.discourses.org/UnpublishedArticles/Ideology%20and%20discourse.pdf.

7 A Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1971.

8 L Althusser, ‘Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation)’, in B Brewster (trans), Lenin and Philosophy, and Other Essays, London: Monthly Review Press, 1971, pp 127–186.

9 See Black & van der Westhuizen, ‘The allure of global games for “semi-peripheral” polities and spaces’; AC Billings & ST Eastman, ‘Framing identities: gender, ethnic, and national parity in network announcing of the 2002 Winter Olympics’, Journal of Communication, 53(4), 2003, pp 569–586; F Desmarais & T Bruce, ‘Sports broadcasts the power of stereotypes: anchoring images through language in live sports broadcasts’, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29(3), 2010, pp 338–362; and P Dimeo & J Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”: a case study of the 1996 South Asia Cricket World Cup’, Third World Quarterly, 25(7), 2004, pp 1263–1276.

10 See AE Kaplan, Looking for the Other: Feminism, Film, and the Imperial Gaze, New York: Routledge, 1997; H Mowlana & L Wilson, The Passing of Modernity: Communication and the Transformation of Society, White Plains, NY: Longman, 1990; and E Shohat & R Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media, New York: Routledge, 1994.

11 S Ramasubramanian, ‘A content analysis of the portrayal of India in films produced in the west’, Howard Journal of Communications, 16(4), 2005, pp 243–265; and Dimeo & Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”’.

12 TA van Dijk, ‘The mass media today: discourses of domination or diversity’, at http://www. discourses.org/OldArticles/The%20mass%20media%20today.pdf; Dimeo & Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”’; and S Ramasubramanian, ‘A content analysis of the portrayal of India in films produced in the west’.

13 U Narayan, Dis-locating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third-world Feminism, New York: Routledge, 1997.

14 See A Mitra, India through the Western Lens: Creating National Images in Film, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999; and R Shome, ‘Race and popular cinema: the rhetorical strategies of whiteness in City of Joy’, Communication Quarterly, 44(4), 1996, pp 502–518.

15 See JW Jun & HM Lee, ‘Enhancing global-scale visibility and familiarity’; and Dimeo & Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”’.

16 See R Fowler, Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press, New York: Routledge, 1991; RM Entman, Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004; TA van Dijk, News Analysis: Case Studies of International and National News in the Press, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988; TA van Dijk, ‘The interdisciplinary study of news as discourse’, in KB Jensen & NW Jankowski (eds), A Handbook of Qualitative Methodologies for Mass Communication Research, New York: Routledge, 1991; PJ Shoemaker & SD Reese, Mediating the Message, White Plains, NY: Longman, 1996; and G Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality, New York: Free Press, 1978.

17 SD Ross, ‘Unconscious, ubiquitous frames’, in PM Lester & SD Ross (eds), Images that Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003, pp 29–40; and R Fowler, Language in the News.

18 See TA van Dijk, ‘Ideology and discourse’; van Dijk, News Analysis; and SD Ross, ‘Unconscious, ubiquitous frames’.

19 See C Bronstein, ‘Representing the third wave: mainstream print media framing of a new feminist movement’, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(40), 2005, pp 783–903; M Hasian & L Flores, ‘Mass mediated representations of the Susan Smith trial’, Howard Journal of Communications, 11(3), 2000, pp 163–178; CM Liebler, J Schwartz & T Harper, ‘Queer tales of morality: the press, same-sex marriage, and hegemonic framing’, Journal of Communication, 59(4), 2009, pp 653–675; KC Smith & M Wakefield, ‘Textual analysis of tobacco editorials: how are key media gatekeepers framing the issues?’, American Journal of Health Promotion, 19(5), 2005, pp 361–368; and LR Tucker, ‘The framing of Calvin Klein: a frame analysis of media and discourse about the August 1995 Calvin Klein jeans advertising campaign’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 15(2), 1998, pp 141–157.

20 KB Jensen & NW Jankowski, A Handbook of Qualitative Methodologies for Mass Communication Research, New York: Routledge, 1991.

21 Bronstein, ‘Representing the third wave’, p 789.

22 Tucker, ‘The framing of Calvin Klein’, p 146.

23 See van Dijk, ‘Ideology and discourse’.

24 P Arnaud & J Riordan, Sport and International Politics: The Impact of Fascism and Communism on Sport, New York: Routledge, 1998.

25 See Hall, ‘The spectacle of the “other”’; van Dijk, ‘Ideology and discourse’; and van Dijk, News Analysis.

26 van Dijk, ‘Ideology and discourse’, p 44.

27 Hall, “The spectacle of the “other”’, p 258.

28 T Linn, ‘Media methods that lead to stereotypes’, in Lester & Ross, Images that Injure, pp 23–28.

29 Ross, ‘Unconscious, ubiquitous frames’, p 33.

30 Fowler, Language in the News, p 16.

31 Black & van der Westhuizen, ‘The allure of global games for “semi-peripheral” polities and spaces’, p 1209.

32 Dimeo & Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”’, p 1266.

33 Fowler, Language in the News, p 16.

34 S Mishra, ‘Projections of power, news framing, and India's 2010 Commonwealth Games’, mimeo, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 2012.

35 Hall, “The spectacle of the “other”’, p 258.

36 ST Fiske, ‘Controlling other people: the impact of power on stereotyping’, American Psychologist, 48(6), 1993, pp 621–628.

37 JS Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs, 2004.

38 Dimeo & Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”’.

39 van Dijk, ‘The mass media today’, p 27.

40 Nye, Soft Power, p x.

41 B Arnoldy, ‘Commonwealth Games: Best and worst of times for India to attract foreign capital'. Christian Science Monitor, 14 October 2010.

42 van Dijk, ‘Ideology and discourse’, p 54.

43 Dimeo & Kay, ‘Major sports events, image projection and the problems of “semi-periphery”’, p 1265.

44 PJ Shoemaker & AA Cohen, News around the World: Practitioners, Content and the Public, New York: Routledge, 2006.