Assoc. Prof. Rogelio Alicor Panao and Adrian Justin L. Gache (alumnus, BA-MA Honors Political Science) published a journal article entitled, “Level field? Sports, soft power and the liberal democratic bias” in latest issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.
The abstract reads:
Drawing from an analysis of media coverage of the Olympics from 2012 to 2022, the study posits that international media outfits tend to underreport the performance of non-democratic states despite considerable medal success, and overreport the sporting activities of democracies even if they underperform. We argue that this is due to the international media’s normative bias towards a world order that privileges liberal democracy and its adjacent values. Our findings indicate strong support for our hypothesis that the media is not a level playing field in the coverage of sporting events, and that it pays to be a democracy when it comes to soft power gains. Overall, the study contributes to the growing body of literature examining sports as an arena of political contestation.
Access the article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19406940.2024.2356590