(Broad)casting a Wider Net: Clocking Men and Women in the Primetime and Non-Primetime Coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics

Abstract

This study analyzed the frequency with which the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic broadcasts featured men and women athletes. To understand these portrayals, all 557 hr and 15 min of National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC) 2018 Winter Olympic telecasts were recorded. This recorded content included the 62 hr and 30 min of NBC’s primetime program and, for the first time, all of the remaining non-NBC primetime coverage on NBC’s other networks. Women athletes received the majority of the clock time on the NBC primetime broadcast; however, men received significantly more clock time on the remaining Olympic telecasts. Additionally, for both sets of broadcasts, differences were found between the amount of coverage for men and women athletes by sport. Through the lens of agenda-setting theory, potential reasons and ramifications for the different trends of coverage by broadcast are discussed.

Keywords

agenda setting gender television broadcasting Olympics

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