Media Representation Of Sports Celebrity During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Celebrities are an important symbol for contemporary sports,which has an important place in sports research.With political and economic waves on de-globalization and anti-globalization raging,it ignited various conflicts and confrontations which has become the main topic of the sports field(Wei Wei,2016).The public relations crisis events on sports celebrities continue to be on stage,among which Novak Djokovic was refused entry to Australia in 2022,and then the world’s top tennis player and the Australian government’s "Confrontation" has attracted the attention of media from all over the world,leading to a global sports celebrities media event in the pandemic era.Based on the frame theory,it explores the media’s shaping of Djokovic’s media image and the media’ characteristics,laws and tendencies,by the analysis of the similarities and differences in the number of reports,report frameworks,and report attitudes on Djokovic’s "entry" mega covered by the Associated Press,"The Sydney Morning Herald ",CCTV and The Paper.At the same time,it uses Edward Said’s media criticism thoughts to analyze deeper logic of the media’s reports and the shaping,gaining insight into the mechanism of ideology’s role in media reporting.First of all,it found that there are significant differences in the number of reports,report genre,report length,report frame,report source,report attitude and report word frequency among the four media.Western media Associated Press and Sydney Morning Herald covered the mega far more extensively and deeply than Eastern media CCTV and The Paper.Secondly,the Associated Press and the Sydney Morning Herald generally present Djokovic as:1.An idol of anti-vaccine organizations;2.An unruly villain;3.A stepping stone for politicians to restore public opinion;4.The mighty warrior.CCTV and The Paper portrayed Djokovic as 1.Australia’s public enemy;2.A world tennis superstar;3.A symbol of a weak country rebelling against the "hegemony" of a strong country.Then,combined with Said’s media criticism thoughts,it found that the four media have checked and selected the facts of this mega.Neither the Eastern media nor the Western media reflected the event like a mirror,which means the media constructed reality.The Western media concealed their deep intentions of criticizing the government in power and promoting Western capitalist thoughts through reports.In addition,the Western media also used labeling to actively construct the national image of Serbia as a "bad boy" behind Djokovic,deepening the stereotype and adhering to the Western political aims.The Eastern media sets the agenda to resist the Western representation instead of totally "copying" the Western reports.However,it lacked of enough international activeness for the Eastern media discussions on this mega.Faced with anti-globalization and the impact of the pandemic by the increasing conflicts and confrontations in the sports field,the domestic scholars mostly focus on the analysis of controversial incidents suffered by Chinese athletes,and pay less attention to the non-local athletes.Then this study will add empirical research for media reports on foreign athletes.Furthermore,it aims at suggestions for Chinese media to participate in the report of controversial events of world sports stars at home and abroad,which will benefit Chinese media in the competition for the right to speak in the international sports opinion field.