L3.4. The Olympics becoming into a storytelling or the construction of the Olympic hero

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From the course by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The Olympic Games and the Media

41 ratings

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The Olympic Games and the Media

41 ratings

This course gives you a complete insight into the communication and managerial techniques put into practice in the creation of the most important sporting mega event in the world. You will learn about the essentials of television production, programming strategies and television rights management of the Olympic Games. At the same time, you will gain valuable knowledge about the fundamentals of communication via social media and of the Olympic culture which is so closely connected with classic culture and humanism. The Olympic Games are a precise reflector of advanced current societies as a whole. Many of the strategies and trends dealt with in this course are transferable to other fields beyond the world of sport. Este curso te ofrece un conocimiento completo de las técnicas de comunicación y gestión que se ponen en práctica en la creación del acontecimiento deportivo más importante del mundo. Aprenderás las claves de la producción y realización televisiva de los Juegos, su programación y la estrategia de gestión de los derechos audiovisuales de los Juegos Olímpicos. Al mismo tiempo, conseguirás un valioso conocimiento sobre los fundamentos de la comunicación en las redes sociales y la cultura Olímpica, que está estrechamente conectada con la cultura clásica y el humanismo. Los Juegos Olímpicos son un preciso reflector de las sociedades avanzadas modernas consideradas como un todo. Muchas de las estrategias y tendencias que abordamos en este curso pueden aplicarse a otros campos diferentes al mundo del deporte.

From the lesson

W3. THE MEDIA DURING THE GAMES

The course is reaching its meridian! We hope that the first two introductory weeks to the Olympics, and the media and their interrelation has been interesting for you. During this week you are going to learn about media activity during the event: the TV production, scheduling, media services in the Olympic Games, how heroes are constructed by media, and also about one of the most symbolic elements of the event: the Olympic ceremonies. // ¡Ya estamos llegando a la mitad del curso! Esperamos que las dos primeras semanas de introducción a los Juegos Olímpicos y su relación con los medios de comunicación os hayan parecido interesantes. Durante esta semana vamos a aprender sobre la actividad de los medios de comunicación durante los Juegos Olímpicos: la producción televisiva, la programación, los servicios de los medios, cómo se construyen los héroes olímpicos en los medios de comunicación, y también sobre uno de los elementos más emblemáticos del evento: las ceremonias olímpicas.

L3.1. Introduction1:18

L3.2. The television production of the Olympic Games7:34

L3.2.1. The working of a television production system6:42

L3.2.2. Planning the production8:10

L3.3. Programming the Olympics11:07

L3.4. The Olympics becoming into a storytelling or the construction of the Olympic hero5:56

L3.5. Olympic Broadcasting Services and the media during the Olympics12:00

L3.6. Symbols and Rituals of the Olympic Games10:43

L3.7. The Olympic Ceremonies, structure, protocol and symbols5:47

L3.8. The Olympic Ceremonies and the television8:03

Meet the Instructors

Emilio Fernández Peña
Professor Titular
Department of Audiovisual Communication

[MUSIC]

[BLANK_AUDIO].

Hello.

In the age of the spectacle and

postmodernity a key word acquires special importance: storytelling.

The concept of storytelling is closely linked to a society,

a postmodern society in which the media

dominate and construct the so-called public sphere.

Storytelling as a concept carries with it

one issue already mentioned during the previous week:

the like for the easy things,

not for the complexity, the deep philosophies.

Everything must be explained as a tale for children, based on simple stories,

easy to understand and full of anecdotes.

The storytelling is the language of the effective advertising and marketing,

which was transferred to the political

discourse and became into a dominant register in the discourse of the media.

[BLANK_AUDIO].

Traditionally films have been a form of storytelling.

However, what is more surprising and could be serious, is that TV news

have become fundamentally storytelling, because modern

audiences do not want complex intellectual arguments and reasoning,

but stories for children, easy to

understand, as I have previously mentioned.

Everybody is able to understand that this growing tendency constitutes a danger

for the essence of democracy, although this is not the subject of our course.

The Olympic heroes has to be constructed during the

time previous to the Olympics and during the actual event.

The Olympic hero is fundamentally constructed through storytelling.

It is true that the authentic track and field fan does not need storytelling:

he or she wants action. Even though, the great majority of

the public need stories about the athletes and the Olympics, because

the great cost of the Olympics is only justified if the

broadcaster gets mass audiences that are composed not only by fans.

Who will be the heroes of the next Olympics?

As Joe Gesue from NBC Olympics explained to Andrew Billings,

a group of media professionals travel around the world interviewing

athletes and coaches and officials to learn their stories

and help prepare the NBC production team for the Games

which is working hand in hand with the Olympics profiles department, which

produces the athlete stories that appear

in our coverage, according to Andrew Billings.

Once identified during the previous years to

the Olympics, the NBC creates profiles of

the athletes that are more likely to succeed,

or that will be the next Olympic stars.

However, there is a growing trend to limit the number of pre-reproduced stories of

athletes and substitute them for on-site

reporters who tell stories as the event unfolds.

The great Olympic heroes appeal to global audiences.

These are a number of global stars, whose

performance followed by vast audiences around the world.

This is the case of athletes such as

Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, among many others.

On the other hand, every broadcaster helps to create the national heroes,

the other successful formula for a TV rights

holder. The semi-finals or the finals in which

national athletes participate is another key issue to

guarantee the success when it comes to audiences.

[BLANK_AUDIO].

Anyway, the stories that the audiences really

like are the stories of self-improving.

According to Dick Ebersol, the vast majority of the audience

comes to the Olympics to hear stories of people overcoming obstacles.

In fact, the '96 Games had a lot of

athletes who'd been through really serious diseases, according to Andrew Billings.

[BLANK_AUDIO].

During the first week, we presented how

the Olympics are something more than mere sport.

They are a philosophy of life,

they feature a number of positive values with a great transformative capacity,

and therefore, they are much more than pure storytelling or entertaining.

There's a constant dialectic among the practical aim and the traditional one.

The practical approach tells that media have been

very positive for the Olympics, as they fund

them and have disseminated them around the globe,

turning them into the most important global sporting mega-event.

The other element of the dialectic is that storytelling centres on the anecdote,

the emotions and forget the philosophy that

lies within the essence of the modern Olympism.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

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