Beyond the Games: Media Visibility and Framing of the Paralympic Games in Greece (2016–2024)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69665/iss.v48i1.91Keywords:
media framing, media visibility, Paralympic Games, disability, Greek mediaAbstract
In recent years, the media visibility and framing of the Paralympic Games have received considerable attention because of their potential to raise awareness of disability and promote societal change. This study had two objectives: (i) to examine the media visibility of the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Paralympic Games in Greek media, and (ii) to analyse how the Games were framed in selected national newspapers and news websites. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses were employed. The quantitative analysis measured the total hours of coverage provided by ERT, Greece's official Paralympic media rights holder, and the number of articles published by nine selected national newspapers and news websites (N = 814: 203 in 2016, 210 in 2020, and 401 in 2024). The qualitative analysis examined the same 814 articles using nine coding units: Informative, Athlete First, National Success, Publicity, Supercrip/Superhuman, Multidimensional, Impact of the PG, Business, and Political/Legal. The visibility of the Paralympic Games in the selected newspapers and news websites increased by 3.45% from 2016 to 2020 and by 90.95% from 2020 to 2024. In contrast, ERT television coverage declined by 6.95% from 2016 to 2020 and by a further 9.35% from 2020 to 2024. In 2016, Athlete First and National Success were the dominant coding units, while Athlete First remained dominant in 2020 and 2024. The underrepresentation of foreign athletes' achievements, including world records, and the continued prominence of the National Success frame indicate a strong nationalistic focus and suggest that the broader significance of the Paralympic Games may be undervalued in Greek media. Although the low prevalence of the Supercrip/Superhuman frame is encouraging, the nationalistic focus may limit broader recognition of Paralympic accomplishments.
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