| Founded in 1926, the Young Companion was led by five editors successively. Thanks to their efforts, the magazine is known for its fame of “Liangyou(literally means good friends) all over the world.” The Young Companion covers a variety of topics,among which its records of the sports events during the era of the Republic of China is impressive. Specifically, the magazine covers three Olympic Games, three Far Eastern Championship Games, and three National Games. In addition, a vast amount of coverage on female sports becomes an important tool for the Young Companion in leading the new image of females and emancipating female minds. Further, the coverage of scout sports and traditional ethnic sports also plays a critical role in the sports news on the Young Companion.This study investigates the sports news coverage in the Young Companion by collecting the sports news pictures and their bilingual articles(i.e. Chinese and English) in 172 issues. The author systematically analyzes its coverage on sports news by employing literature review, content analysis, and case study. The study aims at restoring the reality of sports news coverage and extending the research on sports photography during the era of the Republic of China.Based on the historical background and its own development, this study categorizes the Young Companion into different historical periods. In the second section, the author clarifies the content of sports news coverage in the Young Companion by focusing on its coverage of large-scale events, female sports, scout sports, and traditional ethnic sports. In the third section, given its bilingual coverage of sports news and epochal revolution in narrative, the author analyzes the texts from the perspective of narrative characteristics. In the fourth section, this study investigates the sports pictures in the Young Companion and its graphic design of sports news through the lens of photography.Finally, the author concludes that the Young Companion can be characterized as:1. an abundance of sports content and a salient division in time period;2. a comprehensive coverage of sports, focusing on large-scale events and female sports;3. a epochal revolution in narrative and bilingual news coverage;4. a consistent improvement in picture quality and a variety of photography techniques.This study further explores the implications for contemporary print media by analyzing the content, narrative, and pictures of sports news coverage on the Young Companion. First, coverage of female sports needs a reasonable increase; additionally,in terms of news narrative, the literary narrative can be an alternative to its hostile counterpart; finally, more art manifestations can be injected in news photography. |
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