Conducting content analysis of sports news when sports are on hold : a framing analysis of sports content during the Covid-19 pandemic /
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted global sports, reshaping sports media coverage as games ceased and athletes, leagues, and journalists navigated uncertainty. This sudden disruption to all competitive sport prompted a shift in sports journalism from traditional game reporting to b...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London :
SAGE Publications Ltd,
2025.
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| Series: | SAGE research methods cases.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted global sports, reshaping sports media coverage as games ceased and athletes, leagues, and journalists navigated uncertainty. This sudden disruption to all competitive sport prompted a shift in sports journalism from traditional game reporting to broader societal narratives (e.g., health and safety). Sports reporting when no sports occur became the basis of a content analysis that explored how sports news adapted by analyzing 800 articles from major US news outlets across four distinct time periods: spring 2019, March 2020, April 2020, and May 2020. This case study outlines the procedures of that content analysis, which was impacted significantly by the pandemic and the ways in which the researchers overcame those unique challenges.Framing theory guided the content analysis and was utilized to examine how news outlets framed sports topics without live events. Articles were coded for sport, topic, word count, COVID-19 mentions, sources cited, and the presence of specific news frames, including health, economic, political, and morality frames. By comparing prepandemic and pandemic-era coverage, the content analysis revealed how media reframed sports reporting to align with ongoing public concerns during a time of crisis and offered insights into sports journalism's adaptability. This case study outlines every phase of the project from conceptualizing the study topic to coding the articles to writing the manuscript. Aspiring researchers can apply these lessons to their own content analysis studies and gain a heightend understanding of content analysis research in the rapidly evolving sports journalism field. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource. |
| ISBN: | 9781036242824 103624282X |