One world one dream? Sports blogging at the Beijing Olympic Games.

AuthorWerkers, Evi

The 2008 Olympics are finished, world records have been broken, medals have been distributed and athletes have returned home. The Beijing Games were a much discussed event even before they took place. Not only was press freedom severely restricted by the Chinese government, hindering journalists from doing a decent job, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also decided to put a check on new media covering the Olympic Games. Although the IOC recognizes the freedom of the media, the organization seemed to deviate with ease from this fundamental principle in its own Internet Guidelines issued for the 2008 Olympics. This raises the question whether the restrictions included in these Guidelines can be justified, or whether the IOC yielded to the pressure of the Olympic host.

In the first two Parts of this article we take a closer look at the recent developments in the sports media landscape due to sociological and technological changes. In Part 3 the risks and opportunities of broadcasting the Beijing Olympics via the Internet and the internet and blogging guidelines adopted by the IOC in order to protect the exclusive rights of stakeholders, are examined. In Part 4 we take up the challenge to analyse the aforementioned guidelines in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights to finally draw conclusions in Part 5.

  1. The Olympic Games: anywhere, anytime

    In the past, sports fans could only follow the Olympic Games on a traditional television set. Due to technological developments, however, the media landscape has changed tremendously. The emergence of new communication technologies, such as the Internet and interactive digital television, the convergence of these technologies, and the multiplication of the number of viewing devices, has greatly affected how sports fans follow sports events. Fans can now be informed about the Games "24/7", consult highlights on sports websites, receive news alerts or pictures on their mobile phones, and watch extensive analysis on their television sets at home. In other words, sports news has become available and accessible at a place and time that suits the viewer. Whereas the Olympic Charter (1) states that the IOC will take all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media (traditional media as well as new media) and the widest possible audience in the world for the Olympic Games, (2) the IOC prohibited for a long time broadcasting images of the Olympic Games on the Internet and mobile phone. Although the IOC has acknowledged that television and new media are complementary instead of competing media, enriching the experience of the Olympic Games together, (3) the 2008 Games were the first for which a tender procedure was launched to sell Internet and mobile phone platform rights. When the Olympics took place in Athens in 2004, live Internet coverage was only available in a handful of territories. Beijing 2008, however, marked the first time that new media coverage (featuring live broadband Internet coverage and mobile phone clips) was available across the world. (4) Thanks to this initiative, the Olympic Games were apparently made accessible to more people than ever before ... But was that really the case?

    Beijing is a modern international city, but is the capital of a country where human rights violations still take place--we only have to recall the developments in Tibet, which almost caused a universal boycott of the Olympic Games--and where the concept of free media and freedom of speech is a controversial subject. Contrary to what journalists might have been accustomed to in their home countries or with previous Olympic Games reporting, the 2008 host is less likely to grant them full enjoyment of media freedom. The Chinese government has the most developed surveillance systems in the world, which, collectively, are also known as "The Great Firewall of China". (5) Thousands of "cybercops" are employed to monitor online content and activities and to censor online speech. Even the most powerful companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are put under severe political pressure to disclose information disclosing the identity of certain users. As a result, China's internet users are confronted with sophisticated filtering systems, registration of personal domestic websites and personal responsibility for all content. It goes without saying that this regime puts a serious burden on journalistic reporting. Premier Wen Jiabao, however, promised in his opening address to sport accord on 24 April 2007 that the freedom of foreign journalists in their news coverage would be ensured. As a consequence, temporary regulations on media freedom were adopted by the Chinese government; (6) designed to enable foreign journalists (7) to talk to any consenting interviewee, and to move freely within China. In practice, however, the new regulation remained idle and violations of media freedom (intimidation, harassment, imprisonment, Internet filtering etc.) were, and still are, a matter of course. Reporting on issues that went beyond the scope of the Olympic Games was strongly discouraged on various political as well as organizational levels. As a result, sports journalists were forced to report within the "glass bell" of the 2008 Olympic Games. The question is, however, whether such far reaching restrictions can be reconciled with the ethics of journalists and with their essential role as social "watchdogs", reporting on all matters of general interest. But not only traditional journalists are targeted. As stated by the IOC in the Olympic Charter, Article 51 forbids athletes from engaging in "any kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda ... in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas". Consequently, National Olympic Committees (NOC) have drafted guidelines for their national athletes to follow this obligation, with some going further than others (infra).

  2. Sports journalism: for everyone, by everyone?

    Over the past few years, journalism has been subject to several sociological as well as technological developments. The multitude of media platforms, the growing amount of content generated by the public, the speed and twenty-four hour availability of the Internet, the increasing convergence of media and of news coverage, etc. have not passed by without effect. It goes without saying that this evolution has had a serious impact on sports journalism as well. In the past, sports journalism in the different media has always caused a certain tension: print journalists had to cope with the fact that their reporting of a sports event was most probably already covered in a broadly television-mediated event. Yet, in some way or another, these two media have always been able to complement each other instead of replacing each other. The old battle seems, however to have reached another level, now that they are both facing the competition of online journalism, which has become the primordial source for breaking news and sports events. Hence traditional print, radio and television producers as well as journalists have been induced to step into the less familiar world of online journalism and production. As a consequence, both print and audiovisual sports media seem to have been put on the same footing, since they can both make use of the latest digital technologies and a greater degree of flexibility to update stories. In this sense, we can also observe a growing convergence of the media. The impact of digitization on mainstream media should therefore not be underestimated.

    The sports fanatic is no longer an easy customer who can be satisfied by the mere reporting and strategic analysis of the sports event itself. Such consumers now want camera shots from different angles, additional information on previous sporting achievements of athletes, comments by other members of the audience on a separate forum, a personal blog run by the athlete him or herself, etc. In other words, sports consumers no longer passively submit themselves to linear audiovisual broadcasts or fixed texts, but desire on-demand services enabling them to decide where, when and by what means (podcast, webcast, weblog, etc.) they are to experience the sports events and / or intervene in a more active way (by, for example, posting a comment or a link on the forum on the subject). The array of material available to sports fans in the digital era continues to grow every day.

    The digitization of sports reporting requires not only the implementation of new technological equipment, but also multi-skilled and multi-tasking journalists. The Internet has considerably lowered the threshold, and has made it possible for everyone to publish their own content worldwide, without having to count upon intermediaries providing the technological and financial support to do so, or to be subject to prior editorial control. Freedom of expression is flourishing more than ever before and content (8) is no longer the exclusive property of traditional media players who decide what should be displayed to fit in the context of their brand, what will attract their target audience, or what will increase their profit. You do not need a professional card or license to get access to, and be active on, the Internet. Bloggers reporting and expressing their personal opinion on sports events--sometimes illustrating their texts with pictures or videos taken at the scene--are a very interesting additional source of information for traditional journalists as well as an audience that seeks the most rapidly updated news sources. Though doubt can be cast on the quality and accuracy of the sport blogs, some claim that bloggers will take over the task of journalists. We doubt that bloggers will soon replace well-trained traditional journalists currently working for print publishers and broadcasters, but it can hardly be denied that their role in the knowledge information society is growing...

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