Politicizing sports how western and asian newspapers frame the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Abstract

Olympics, as one of the most important international sporting events, have always been fused with politics. In communication research, a major question raised by scholars who examine media’s coverage of Olympics is whether the media are agents of politics when reporting Olympics or independent agents. This study, using media frames theory, analyses the news coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games, which were published from the day Beijing was awarded the honour to host the Games to the Tibet riot breakout, as an index to investigate how the Western and Asian newspapers present news about this international sporting event.