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ABSTRACT
Drawing from an analysis of media coverage of the Olympics from 2012 to 2022, the study posits that international media outfits tend to underreport the performance of non-democratic states despite considerable medal success, and overreport the sporting activities of democracies even if they underperform. We argue that this is due to the international media’s normative bias towards a world order that privileges liberal democracy and its adjacent values. Our findings indicate strong support for our hypothesis that the media is not a level playing field in the coverage of sporting events, and that it pays to be a democracy when it comes to soft power gains. Overall, the study contributes to the growing body of literature examining sports as an arena of political contestation.
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Funding
This study is not a recipient of a grant or any third party institutional or financial support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rogelio Alicor L. Panao
Rogelio Alicor L. Panao is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He is a member of the Philippine Bar.
Adrian Justin L. Gache
Adrian Justin L. Gache graduated with honors from the BAMA in Political Science program in the Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines Diliman. This study utilized data Gache originally collected for his Advanced Quantitative Methods class (Social Sciences 203) supervised by Dr. Panao in 2022.