Telling the Story: Narrative in Newspaper Accounts of a Men's Collegiate Basketball Tournament

Abstract

The concept of narrative or story is increasingly being used as a theoretical model for informing research dealing with a wide array of sociocultural phenomena, especially those concerned with communication. Narrative is prevalent in mass media accounts of many different kinds of events. The inherent serialized structure of sport is conducive to media coverage in narrative form. This article uses a narrative perspective to examine journalistic accounts of the 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) men's basketball tournament. We found that the accounts contain three major components of narrative: theme, plot, and characters. Winning is the central theme, and it contributes to shaping the plot and characters. The plot is simple and straightforward and centers on the question, “Who will win?” The characters are relatively flat and lack robustness—players offer exceptional athletic skills to coaches who strategically Mend their talents. A breakdown occurs between the goal of winning and the goal of entertaining spectators, and this highlights the short-term importance of winning and the longer term importance of performing to entertain spectators. The narrative supports capitaüstic economic relations, stemming from the central theme of winning and its ties to competitive individualism, teamwork, and consumerism.

Key Words:

• narrative
• media
• performance
• journalism
• sport
• capitalism
• basketball