A Study On Gender Representation And Implication Of Chinese Weightlifting Coverage In Olympic Games

The Olympic Games continue to practice the concept of gender equality,which provide an opportunity for the media to break the traditional gender bias.In the context of the Olympic Games aimed at gender equality,has the Olympics coverage achieved a more gender-balanced representation? Chinese male and female Olympic weightlifters have performed well enough respectively in the sports field.However,does this mean that male and female athletes will get a more balanced position in the media coverage?Based on the review of Chinese and Western experiences in media and gender studies,as well as the study of gender representation in sports communication and Olympics reporting,this paper selects China’s Olympics weightlifting coverage since the 21 st century as the research object.Based on gender theory and discourse power theory,the following questions are discussed by using content analysis and textual analysis: What are the gender implications and discourse myths hidden in the text?How are these gender implications constructed by the power of media? What are the cultural motivations for such a gender representation picture? Are there any possible approaches to achieve gender balance in Olympics coverage?The research indicates that,China’s Olympic Games weightlifting coverage are still somehow gender-imbalanced.There is no significant gender difference in the quantity level of the coverage,but there are certain gender differences between the lines.In the gender implication construction part,the media constructs three gender myths including markedness myth,beauty myth and hero myth by three construction strategies including naming,classifying and attributing.Also,by applying the concepts of gender temperament and gender role,there are two cultural motivations found accounting for the gender-imbalanced coverage in Olympic weightlifting.One is the media’s preference and dependence on the hegemonic gender temperament,and the other is the enlargement and extension of traditional gender roles into the media field.This paper holds that the possible approaches of Olympic gender-balanced coverage could possibly be that media organizations try to keep the awareness of gender equality in Olympics reports,insisting on the expression of gender-inclusive language in the reporting text.And as for the government,it is necessary to constantly improve the supervision of gender equality in sports media.