Thematic Framing of the 2007 National Basketball Association Finals: An analysis of announcer discourse during a series of discrete, yet linked events

Abstract

Past research into sport event broadcasting suggests that broadcasters often exhibit bias in their reporting. Through broadcast discourse, networks attempt to create polysemic structures to provide viewers with multiple storylines to build and maintain audiences throughout an event. A content analysis was conducted on the 2007 National Basketball Association (NBA) finals series in order to analyse the discourse of the play-by-play and colour commentators of the American Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) telecasts of the finals. Results of this study found differences in announcer discourse surrounding the two competing teams: the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers.