Sports Mediatization In China

The mediatization research that emerged in Europe has been a hot topic in the field of communication in recent years.Mediatization is combined and permeated with globalization,commodification,digitalization,and other trends of thought.Since the 21st century,there has been an increasing number of studies on mediatization in the world.The European broadcasting and communication circles are experiencing an obvious shift towards"mediatization".This kind of research not only includes the construction of mediatization theory at a macro level,but also the social impact of mediatization in politics,religion,and games etc.With the continuous development of mediatization research,scholars have becoming increasingly aware of the close relationship between sports and media,and academia have started studies on sports mediatization.The proposition of the theory of sports mediatization has not only made media and communication research increasingly an important content in the field of sports science,but also made sports increasingly become the core content of media and communication research.At present,there is a lot of room for improvement in the theoretical development and application paradigm of sports mediatization,and there is a lack of relevant investigations in the Chinese context.Existing studies abroad have explored and sorted out the concept and the meaning of sports mediatization,and the different forms of sports mediatization developed over time.Some scholars have started limited qualitative analysis of mediatization focusing on specific broadcasted sports events.The existing domestic research is currently only limited to the discussion of the relationship between sports and the media,and there has not been any study on the applicability of the sports mediatization theory in China,and neither is there any empirical research based on specific media sports events.Therefore,this research conducts specific analysis of a sports media event held in China and explores the development characteristics of sports mediatization in the Chinese context,as well as its cross-cultural issues.This research investigates China Open,an international professional tennis tournament with a 16-year history and second only to the four Grand Slams,and analyzes its mediatization development including the match/event itself(main body),media,commercialization and its cultural symbol construction.Our study is based on the existing sports mediatization theory and deploys multiple research methods including literature review and research,content analysis,field research,and comparative analysis among others.By comparing China Open to foreign tennis tournaments,we characterize its mediatization development as an unbalanced major event misrepresented(by media)therefor leading to its unique commercialization model and mixed cultural logic but with special historical opportunities.The reasons for these mediatization characteristics of China Open lie in the complexity of its rights and interests,the coexistence of administration and commerce in professional sports and our country’s unique media operation.Next,the study explores the common ground for Chinese sports mediatization development as reflected in the characteristics of the China Open mediatization.We specifically focus on the cross-cultural issues when conducting sports mediatization research in the Chinese context.Because China and western countries have significant differences in the management system,commercialization environment,and sports development status(including sports culture,operating mechanism,and operational goals,etc.),the existing analysis framework for sports mediatization is not completely applicable to China.We need to tailor our research to specific local conditions while referring to the universal characteristics of the mediatization concept.At the same time,the existence of international sports organizations and the quantification of key standards make the comparison possible among different countries and cultures.With the development of mediatization technology over time,the social and cultural values contained in broadcast sports events may evolve with new contents,which can be observed and accepted by different cultures as a result of"trans-culture".Finally,the paper reflects on the problems discovered in the exploration,briefly describes the learnings of the methodologies in researching mediatization,and points to possible future development in sports mediatization research.