James R. Angelini

Packaging the Games for Viewer Consumption: Gender, Ethnicity, and Nationality in NBC's Coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics

Analysis of 70 prime-time hours of host and reporter commentary in NBCs 2004 Athens Summer Olympic telecast located the degree and forms of gender, ethnic, and national biases hidden within the prime-time network telecasts. Gendered results indicate that male athletes were more likely to be depicted as courageous, lucky, and introverted, and received the majority of the clock-time and athlete mentions. Ethnic analyses revealed that more than two-thirds of the athlete mentions were white athletes, and that fourteen of the twenty most frequently mentioned athletes were white. Nationalistic differences were particularly significant, with eight noted differences in the types of descriptors employed about American and non-American athletes. Additionally, 85% of the most-mentioned athletes were Americans, and more American athletes than athletes from all other countries were mentioned.

Gendered Profiles of Olympic History: Sportscaster Dialogue in the 2008 Beijing Olympics

One of the few areas of sports media in which women athletes receive substantial exposure is within the Olympic telecast. This study explores gender differences within 74.5 hours of the NBCs 2008 prime time Olympic telecasts in terms of (a) raw exposure (clock-time devoted to each gender) and (b) sportscaster dialogue (descriptions of success, failure, personality, and personality ascribed to male and female athletes). Results indicate that the gap between men and womens sports clock-time is widening (an 8.4% differential compared to a 4.6% differential in the 2004 Athens Games). In addition, seven significant dialogue differences were detected between male and female athletes.

Psychophysiological and Memory Effects of Negative Political ADS: Aversive, Arousing, and Well Remembered

This study examines whether negative political advertisements elicit automatic activation in the aversive motivational system among viewers. A measure is introduced—the eyeblink startle reflex—that provides evidence that negative ads do activate the aversive motivational system. As these participants watched negative political ads, physiological responses indicated that their body was reflexively preparing to move away. Negative ads also elicited more physiological and self-reported arousal than moderate ads. Recognition data show that detailed information from negative ads is better recognized; however, participants were also more likely to incorrectly report that they recognized information from negative ads they did not see.

An Agenda That Sets the Frames: Gender, Language, and NBC’s Americanized Olympic Telecast

This study used theories of agenda setting and framing to examine NBC’s Americanized telecast in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Five sports (gymnastics, diving, swimming, track and field, and beach volleyball) received more than 90% of the prime-time coverage, which set an agenda about which sports were most relevant for Americans to watch. The limited scope within NBC’s televised agenda, in turn, facilitated the gendered framing of Olympians through sport commentator accounts. Gendered differences were statistically present in only four sports; diving had no significant differences, whereas beach volleyball contained the most differences. Implications and directions for future research are explored.

What's The Gendered Story? Vancouver's Prime Time Olympic Glory on NBC

Previous Olympic media studies have shown that NBCs Winter Olympic telecast is far more likely to promote and advance men athletes and sports than women athletes and sports (see Billings, 2008b), and this study of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic telecast again reveals gender divisions. Analysis of all 64 hours of NBCs prime time telecast revealed that (a) when excluding mixed-gender pair competitions, men received more than three-fifths of the remaining airtime, (b) 75% of the most-mentioned athletes were men, and (c) sportscasters again employed dialogue differences in key areas including that men were more likely than women to be portrayed as succeeding because of their experience, while women were more likely than men to be depicted as succeeding because of courage and failing because they lacked commitment. Contextualization is also offered related to intervening factors such as (a) Olympic participation rates and (b) U.S. medal successes by gender.

Diverging Discourses: Gender Differences in Televised Golf Announcing

Previous analyses of sports telecasts found disparities between the ways male and female athletes were portrayed by on-air commentators, but no previous analysis has examined gender differences within professional golf telecasts. Examination of 34,881 descriptors within 243.5 hours of televised PGA and LPGA golf located 2 dozen critical differences in the ways male and female golfers were portrayed. Most crucially, women were more likely than men to be described in terms of why they succeeded or failed, whereas men were more likely than women to be depicted with personality or physical attributes, a notable change from earlier research findings for other sports. Comparison with the findings in 9 seminal studies of sports announcing showed that golf commentary is distinctively different from other types of sports commentary. The results counter the previously identified female stereotype of implied physical weakness, while potentially exemplifying a newer stereotype of female golfers achieving because they are lucky.

(Re)Calling London The Gender Frame Agenda within NBC’s Primetime Broadcast of the 2012 Olympiad

All sixty-nine hours of National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC) 2012 primetime Summer Olympic telecast were analyzed, revealing significant gender trends. For the first time in any scholarly study of NBC’s coverage of the games, women athletes received the majority of the clock-time and on-air mentions. However, dialogues surrounding the attributions of success and failure of athletes, as well as depictions of physicality and personality, contained some divergences by gender.

Accounting for Athletic Performance: Race and Sportscaster Dialogue in NBC's 2008 Summer Olympic Telecast

The Olympic telecast is perhaps the most racially diverse in all of television, where athletes from many different racial backgrounds receive a substantial amount of airtime. This analysis explores racial differences within on-air dialogue in the 74.5 hours of NBCs 2008 primetime Olympic telecasts to determine whether depictions of athlete successes, failures, physical make-ups, and personalities alter significantly based on the race of the athlete being described. Results indicate that traditional dialogue divergences (such as White athletes being more hard working and Black athletes being innately skilled) were not prevalent, but that types of dialogue employed differed significantly in over a dozen taxonomical areas. Implications and directions for future research are explored.

Homosexual Imagery in Print Advertisements: Attended, Remembered, But Disliked

This study examines whether print advertisements featuring homosexual imagery elicit greater attention and recall while eliciting more negative responses than advertisements featuring heterosexual images. Data indicate that these advertisements were indeed better remembered and required more time to cognitively process, likely because of the advertisements imagery being inconsistent with existing gender schema. Other responses demonstrated that homosexual imagery negatively impacted opinions about the advertisement itself and the brand featured, and elicited more negative self-reported valence and arousal.

Telling Me Quickly: How Arousing Fast-Paced PSAs Decrease Self-Other Differences

This study found that increasing the pacing of antisubstance radio Public Service Announcements (PSAs) increased perceived effects on self and diminished perceived differences between effects on self and on others. This was more evident for messages with arousing content than for those with calm content. The study used a mixed multivariate design with arousing content (2), production pacing (3), and message (4) as within-subjects factors and order of presentation (4) as a between-subjects factor. The impact of increased pacing was greater for those who made third-person (3P) judgments (others more affected than self) than by those who made first-person (1P) judgments (self more affected than others). In addition to message features, behavior also influenced perceived message effects. Analysis of a subset of PSAs using antismoking messages found that smokers were more likely to make 3P judgments and nonsmokers 1P judgments about message effects. Implications for PSA design are discussed.