Televised sport offers a rich context for investigating the processes that influence particular uses of language. Here, the authors consider how pressure on sport commentators to connect with audiences results in reliance on preestablished narratives that draw heavily on stereotypes. They investigate how television sport commentators negotiate tensions between stereotypes of a particular country’s playing style and on-field action that challenges those stereotypes. Their interdisciplinary approach—drawing from social psychology, communication, media studies, sport studies, and cultural studies—provides a textual analysis of New Zealand commentary in a pivotal Rugby World Cup game between France and New Zealand. The authors identify three different ways in which national stereotypes lead commentators to produce interpretations that do not always accurately represent the action on the field. They conclude that sport commentary in an international context operates to create and reinscribe symbolic differences between nations, even in the face of visual evidence that is ambiguous or actively contradicts the words used to describe it. The analysis demonstrates how powerfully national stereotypes influence commentators’ representational choices.
Bach, K., & Harnish, R.M. ( 1979). Linguistic communication and speech acts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2.
Bairner, A. ( 2001). Sport, nationalism, and globalization. New York, NY: SUNY.
3.
Barnett, S. ( 1990). Games and sets: The changing face of sport on television . London, UK: BFI.
4.
Barthes, R. ( 1977). Rhetoric of the image (S. Heath, Trans.). In S. Heath (Ed.), Image-music-text (pp. 32-51). London, UK: Fontana .
5.
Bassett, G. ( 1984). Screen play and real-play: Manufacturing sport on television . Sites, 9, 5-31.
6.
Belmore, S.M., & Hubbard, M.L. ( 1987). The role of advance expectancies in person memory . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 61-70.
7.
Billig, M. ( 1995). Banal nationalism. London, UK: Sage.
8.
Blain, N., Boyle, R., & O’Donnell, H. (1993). Sport and national identity in the European media. Leicester, UK: Leicester University Press.
9.
Bourdieu, P. ( 1996). Sur la télévision [On television] . Paris, France: Liber éditions .
10.
Bourdieu, P. ( 2001). Langage et pouvoir symbolique [Language and symbolic power]. Paris, France: Editions du Seuil.
11.
Bruce, T. ( 1998). Audience frustration and pleasure: Women viewers confront televised women’s basketball. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 22, 373-397.
12.
Bruce, T. ( 2004). Marking the boundaries of the "normal" in televised sport: The play-by-play of race. Media, Culture and Society , 26, 861-879.
13.
Bruce, T. ( 2005). Play-by-play announcing. In D. Levinson & K. Christensen (Eds.), Berkshire encyclopedia of world sport (Vol. 3, pp. 1188-1193). Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing.
14.
Bryant, J., Brown, D., Comisky, P., & Zillmann, D. ( 1982). Sports and spectators: Commentary and appreciation . Journal of Communication, 32, 109-119.
15.
Bryant, J., Comisky, P., & Zillmann, D. ( 1977). Drama in sports commentary. Journal of Communication, 27, 140-149.
16.
Bryant, J., Zillmann, D., & Raney, A.A. ( 1998). Violence and the enjoyment of media sports. In L. A. Wenner (Ed.), MediaSport (pp. 252-265). London, UK: Routledge .
17.
Burton, D., & Raedeke, T.D. ( 2008). Sport psychology for coaches. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
18.
Chester, R.H., & McMillan, N.A.C. (1990). The visitors: The history of international rugby teams in New Zealand. Auckland , New Zealand: Moa Publications.
19.
Chion, M. ( 1994). Audio-vision: Sound on screen (C. Gorbman, Trans.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
20.
Comisky, P., Bryant, J., & Zillman, D. ( 1977). Commentary as a substitute for action. Journal of Communication, 27, 150-153.
21.
Curtin, P.A., & Gaither, T.K. ( 2005). Privileging identity, difference, and power: The circuit of culture as a basis for public relations theory. Public Relations Review, 17, 91-115.
22.
Day, P. ( 1999). Sport, the media and New Zealand. In B. Patterson (Ed.), Sport, society and culture in New Zealand (pp. 93-102). Wellington, New Zealand: Stout Research Centre.
23.
Desmarais, F., & Bruce, T. ( 2008). Blurring the boundaries of sports public relations: National stereotypes as sport announcers’ public relations tool. Public Relations Review, 34, 183-191.
24.
Desmarais, F., & Bruce, T. ( 2009). The power of the local in sports broadcasting: A cross-cultural analysis of rugby commentary. International Journal of Sport Communication, 2, 129-145.
25.
Dine, P. ( 2001). French rugby football: A cultural history. Oxford, UK: Berg.
26.
Duncan, M.C., & Brummett, B. ( 1987). The mediation of spectator sport. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 58, 168-177.
27.
Duncan, M.C., & Brummett, B. ( 1993). Liberal and radical sources of female empowerment in sport media. Sociology of Sport Journal, 10, 57-72.
28.
Evans, M.D.R., & Kelley, J. ( 2002). National pride in the developed world: Survey data from 24 nations. International Journal of Public Opinion Research , 14, 303-338.
29.
Fairclough, N. ( 1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge , UK: Polity Press.
30.
Fairclough, N. ( 1995). Media discourse. London, UK: Edward Arnold.
31.
Ferguson, C.A. ( 1983). Sports announcer talk: Syntactic aspects of register variation. Language in Society, 12, 153-172.
32.
Fields, E.E. ( 1988). Qualitative content analysis of television news: Systematic techniques. Qualitative Sociology, 11, 183-193.
33.
Fisher, W.R. ( 1987). Human communication as narration: Toward a philosophy of reason, value and action. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
34.
Fiske, J. ( 1986). Television: Polysemy and popularity. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 33, 219-225.
35.
Fiske, J. ( 1987). Television culture. London , UK: Routledge.
36.
Fiske, J. ( 1989). Moments of television: Neither the text nor the audience . In E. Seiter, H. Borchers, G. Kreutzner , & E.-M. Warth (Eds.), Remote control: Television, audiences and cultural power (pp. 56-78). New York, NY : Routledge.
37.
Förster, J., Higgins, E.T., & Werth, L. ( 2004). How threat from stereotype disconfirmation triggers self-defense . Social Cognition, 22, 54-74.
38.
Foucault, M. ( 1971). L’ordre du discours [The order of discourse] . Paris, France: Gallimard .
39.
Gilbert, D.T., & Hixon, J.G. ( 1981). The trouble of thinking: Activation and application of stereotypic beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 60, 509-517.
40.
Giles, H., Mulac, A., Bradac, J., & Johnson, P. ( 1987). Speech accommodation theory: The first decade and beyond . In M. McLaughlin (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 10, pp. 13-48). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
41.
Greenpeace. (n.d.). The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about/history/the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-war
42.
Gruneau, R. ( 1989). Making spectacle: A case study in television sports production . In L. A. Wenner (Ed.), MediaSport (pp. 134-154). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
43.
Hall, S. ( 1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, media, language (pp. 128-138). London, UK: Hutchinson.
44.
Hall, S. ( 1984). The narrative construction of reality. Southern Review, 17, 3-17.
45.
Hall, S. ( 1997a). Introduction. In S. Hall (ed.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 1-11). London: Sage.
46.
Hall, S. ( 1997b). The spectacle of the other. In S. Hall (ed.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 223-290). London: Sage.
47.
Hall, S. ( 1997c). The work of representation. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 13-74). London, UK: Sage.
48.
Halone, K.K. ( 2008). The structuration of racialized sport organizing . Journal of Communication Inquiry, 32, 22-42.
49.
Halone, K.K., & Billings, A.C. (2004, May). The structuration of sport broadcast commentary: III. Examining the intergroup system and temporal structure of gendered athletic performance. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association , New Orleans, LA. Retrieved from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p113345_index.html
50.
Hamilton, D.L., Gibbons, P.A., Stroessner, S.J., & Sherman, J.W. ( 1992). Stereotype and language use. In G. R. Semin & K. Fiedler (Eds.), Language, interaction and social cognition (pp. 102-128). London, UK: Sage .
51.
Hansen, A.D. ( 1999). Narrating the game: Achieving and coordinating partisanship in real time. Research on Language and Social Interaction , 32, 269-302.
52.
Harwood, J. ( 2000). "SHARP!" Lurking incoherence in a television portrayal of an older adult. Journal of Language and Social Psychology , 19, 110-140.
53.
Hoberman, J. ( 1997). Darwin’s athletes. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.
54.
Hope, W. ( 2002). Whose All Blacks? Media, Culture & Society, 24, 235-253.
55.
Horne, J., Tomlinson, A., & Whannel, G. ( 1999). Understanding sport: An introduction to the sociological and cultural analysis of sport. London, UK: E & FN Spon.
56.
Hurley, B., Dickie, M., Hardman, C., Lardelli, N., & Bruce, T. ( 2006). Sports comedy shows and new lad culture in New Zealand: The Sportscafe guide to kiwi masculinity. Retrieved from http://www.sportsfreak.co.nz/show-column.asp?ID=230
57.
Jussim, L., & Fleming, C. ( 1996). Self-fulfilling prophecies and the maintenance of social stereotypes: The role of dyadic interactions and social forces. In C. N. Macrae, C. Stangor , & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping (pp. 161-192). New York, NY : Guilford.
58.
Katz, D., & Braly, K.W. ( 1933). Racial stereotypes of 100 college students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 280-290.
59.
Kidd, W., & Reynolds, S. ( 2000). Contemporary French cultural studies. London, UK: Arnold.
60.
Klatell, D.A., & Marcus, N. ( 1988). Sports for sale: Television, money, and the fans . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
61.
Kuiper, K. ( 1995). Smooth talkers: The linguistic performance of auctioneers and sportscasters. London, UK: Routledge.
62.
Leclerc, F., Schmitt, B.H., & Dubé, L. (1994). Foreign branding and its effects on product perceptions and attitudes. Journal of Marketing Research, 31, 263-270.
63.
Lehtonen, M. ( 2000). The cultural analysis of texts. London , UK: Sage.
64.
Lines, G. ( 2002). The sports star in the media: The gendered construction and youthful consumption of sports personalities. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Power games: A critical sociology of sport (pp. 196-215). London, UK: Routledge .
65.
Maas, A., & Arcuri, L. ( 1996). Language and stereotyping. In C. N. Macrae, C. Stangor , & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping (pp. 193-226). New York, NY : Guilford.
66.
Macrae, C. N., Stangor, C., & Hewstone, M. (Eds.). (1996). Stereotypes and stereotyping. New York, NY: Guilford.
67.
Main, V. ( 1999, November 3). French press celebrate victory. The Christchurch Press, p. 32.
68.
McGregor, J., & Melville, P. ( 1995). Bitter chocolate: gender equity and prime time magazine sport on New Zealand television. Metro (Film, Television, Radio, Multimedia), 102, 30-36.
69.
Meân, L.J.(2010). Making masculinity and framing femininity: FIFA, soccer and World Cup websites. In H. L. Hundley & A. C. Billings (Eds.), Examining identity in sports media (pp. 65-86). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
70.
Morley, D. ( 1989). Changing paradigms in audience studies. In E. Seiter, H. Borchers, G. Kreutzner, & E-M. Warth (Eds.), Remote control: Television, audiences and cultural power (pp. 16-43). New York, NY : Routledge .
71.
Morris, B.S., & Nydahl, J. ( 1985). Sports spectacle as drama: Image, language and technology . Journal of Popular Culture, 18, 101-110.
72.
Negus, K. ( 2002). The work of cultural intermediaries and the enduring distance between production and consumption. Cultural Studies , 16, 501-515.
73.
O’Donnell, H. ( 1994). Mapping the mythical: A geopolitics of national sporting stereotypes. Discourse & Society, 5, 345-380.
74.
Pêcheux, M. ( 1990). L’inquiétude du discours [Anxiety of speech] . Paris, France: Edition des Cendres . (Chosen by D. Maldidier from text by M. Pêcheux)
75.
Phillips, J. ( 1996). A man’s country? The image of the Pakeha male-A history (2nd ed.). Auckland , New Zealand: Penguin Books.
76.
Pociello, C. ( 1995). Les cultures sportives [Sport cultures]. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France.
77.
Pociello, C. ( 1999). Sport et sciences sociales: Histoire, sociologie et prospective [Sport and social science: History, sociology and futurology] . Paris, France: Editions Vigot .
78.
Poulton, E. ( 2004). Mediated patriot games: The construction and representation of national identities in the British television production of Euro ’96 . International Review for the Sociology of Sport , 39, 437-455.
79.
Poynton, B., & Hartley, J. ( 1990). Male-gazing: Australian rules, football, gender and television . In M. E. Brown (Ed.), Television and women’s culture (pp. 144-157). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
80.
Quinn, K. ( 1993). The encyclopedia of world rugby (Rev. ed.). Artamon, NSW, Australia: ABC.
81.
Rada, J.A. ( 1996). Color blind-sided: Racial bias in network television’s coverage of professional football games. The Howard Journal of Communications, 7, 231-240.
82.
Real, M. ( 1989). Super media: A cultural studies approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
83.
Richardson, L. ( 2000). New writing practices in qualitative research . Sociology of Sport Journal, 17, 5-20.
84.
Rothbart, M., & Park, B. ( 1986). On the confirmability and disconfirmability of trait concepts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 50, 131-142.
85.
Rowe, D. ( 1999). Sport, culture and the media: The unruly trinity . Buckingham, PA: Open University Press.
86.
Rowe, D. ( 2004). Sport, culture and the media (2nd ed.). Buckingham, PA: Open University Press.
87.
Ruhn, C. (Ed.). (2000). Le foot: The legends of French football. London , UK: Abacus.
88.
Scherer, J., & Jackson, S.J. ( 2007). Sports advertising, cultural production and corporate nationalism at the global-local nexus: Branding the New Zealand All Blacks . Sport in Society, 10, 268-284.
89.
Schneider, D.J. ( 1996). Modern stereotype research: Unfinished business . In C. N. Macrae, C. Stangor, & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping (pp. 419-453). New York, NY: Guilford.
90.
Semin, G.R., & Fiedler, K. ( 1988). The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social cognitions and language. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 558-568.
91.
Slatter, G. ( 1970). On the ball: The centennial book of New Zealand rugby . Christchurch, New Zealand: Whitcombe & Tombs.
92.
Snyder, M. ( 1981). On the self-perpetuating nature of social stereotypes . In D. L. Hamilton (Ed.), Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior (pp. 183-212). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
93.
Stangor, C., & Schaller, M. ( 1996). Stereotypes as individual and collective representations . In C. N. Macrae, C. Stangor, & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping (pp. 3-37). New York, NY: Guilford.
94.
Star, L. ( 1992). Undying love, resisting pleasures: Women watch telerugby . In P. Bunkle, K. Irwin, A. Laurie, & S. Middleton (Eds.), Feminist voices: Women’s studies texts for Aotearoa/New Zealand (pp. 124-140). Auckland, New Zealand: Oxford University Press.
95.
Sullivan, D.B. ( 1991). Commentary and viewer perception of player hostility: Adding punch to televised sport. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 35, 487-504.
96.
Tajfel, H. ( 1978). Social categorization, social identity and social comparison . In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 61-76). London, UK: Academic Press.
97.
Tajfel, H. ( 1981). Social stereotypes and social groups. In J. C. Turner & H. Giles (Eds.), Intergroup behavior (pp. 144-167). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
98.
Turner, G. ( 1997). Media texts and messages. In S. Cunningham & G. Turner (Eds.), The media in Australia: Industries, texts, audiences (2nd ed., pp. 293-347). St Leonards , NSW: Allen & Unwin.
99.
Van Dijk, T.A. ( 1988). News analysis. Case studies of international and national news in the press. Hilldale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
100.
Viallon, P. ( 1996). L’analyse du discours de la télévision [Analysis of television discourse]. Paris, France: PUF.
101.
Wanta, W., & Leggett, D. ( 1988). "Hitting paydirt": Capacity theory and sports announcers’ use of clichés, Journal of Communication , 38, 82-89.
102.
Weber, R., & Crocker, J. ( 1983). Cognitive processes in the revision of stereotypic beliefs . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 961-977.
103.
Wenner, L.A., & Gantz, W. ( 1989). The audience experience with sports on television . In L. A. Wenner (Ed.), Media, sports, & society (pp. 241-270). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
104.
Whannel, G. ( 1992). Fields of vision: Television, sport and cultural transformation . London, UK: Routledge .
105.
Zillmann, D., Bryant, J., & Sapolsky, B.S. (1979). The enjoyment of watching sport contests. In J. H. Goldstein (Ed.), Sport, games, and play (pp. 297-335). Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
