British and Israeli newspaper coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics : a comparative analysis

This study is a comparative analysis of the build-up and coverage of the Barcelona Olympics in British and Israeli newspapers. It employs content analysis, supplemented by interviews conducted with journalists and the detailed analysis of front page items, to examine, comparatively, the build up and coverage in four newspapers (two from each country) over a period of five months, from April 1st to September 1st, 1992.;This thesis focuses on several theoretical approaches in order to analyse the Olympic coverage by newspapers. The approaches include the 'grand' theories of media events, news construction and globalisation as well as the concepts of national identity, heroes and gender. The theories and the literature engaged with them are discussed critically while applying them to sport in general and to the Olympics in particular, and guide the empirical study conducted.;The findings of empirical analysis, most significantly, show that despite the International Olympic Committee's declarations, which in essence go towards a united world, the factor which determined the newspaper build up and coverage of the Barcelona Olympics, in both Britain and Israel, was the interest in the performance of their own country. Put differently, the local - in this case national - perspective was found to be the prevailing one in the coverage of this global event.