A Media Frames Analysis of the Legacy Discourse for the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games

Abstract

The media play a particularly important role in shaping audiences’ perceptions and actively create the frames of reference that public readers and viewers use to interpret and discuss particular ideas, events, and politics (Entman, 2007). A frames analysis of local and national print media was utilized to examine the framing of “legacies” around the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympic Games. The analysis shows that despite the rhetoric from the host committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee about the increased media attention of these Paralympic Games, very little attention was given to legacy concepts despite an increasing discourse about its importance for all types of events. The framing of Paralympic legacy centered upon “othering” athletes with a disability through the supercrip narrative, highlighting potential opportunities for legacy and focusing on tangible economic developments. These issues do not represent a broadening of the scope of the legacy of the Paralympic Games and, in fact, the critical role of the media in reframing the discourse about disability and accessibility was largely absent from the media frames.

Keywords

legacy paralympic media frames vancouver disability

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