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Naming is also considering

a media case study of representations of minorities on French television

Arnaud RICHARD, Lecturer in Linguistics and Communication, French University Sport Federation

Introduction: Language: Sport and Diversity during the 1992 Winter Olympic games

correlation with language and socio-linguistic behaviors Sport has developed some terminological specicities but nonetheless it has grown as a massive theme in our everyday discourses and in some other important elds. The hypothesis is that the French media were not presenting the information in the same way, depending on the country it was about. I will highlight this difference thanks to the use and comparison of different linguistic categorizations.

Plan:

Introduction: Language: Sport and Diversity during the Winter Olympic games (in 1992) Methods / Methodology: Critical Discourse Analysis and Mass Media Results: French Television live comments and documentaries Discussion / Conclusion: Need of consideration for countries names in order to respect their citizens

Methods / Methodology: Critical Discourse Analysis and Mass Media

There is no meaning, there is only the production of meaning. In the same way, there is no identity (in the usual sense of describing ethnic identity by different idealizations of origins or races), there is only the incessant production of identity according to the dialectic of the Same and the Other.

There is a complex interplay of identications and differentiations: I dont have an identity, I have several identities that are actualized according to the Other, the type of contact we have, and the structure of our relationship. That which I pose as Same when the dialectic operates on a certain level becomes the Other when the identity production movement is narrowed, or changes levels: individual identity, sexual identity, ethnic identity, social identity, national identity....This list is not exhaustive; to conclude it would be to block the dialectical movement that, at every occasion, denes the Same and the Other. All discourse establishes a hierarchy of identities.

[Barberis et al., 2003: 97]

Methods / Methodology: Critical Discourse Analysis and Mass Media


[...] the media can teach norms and values by way of symbolic reward and punishment for different kinds of behaviour as represented in the media. An alternative view is that it is a learning process whereby we all learn how to behave in certain situations and the expectations which go with a given role or status in society. Thus the media are continually offering pictures of life and models of behaviour in advance of actual experience.

[McQuail, 2005: 494]

As part of the expansive relationship between popular culture and nationalism, sports provides a contradictory terrain upon which a multitude of questions and claims of identity race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality are constructed and contested, challenged and yet sustained. In particular while sport is not the only arena in which national self-denition, and questions of racial identity that go with it, plays out, it is one of the most central. The athlete serves as one of the most visible integrated racial subjects in modern society, seen in fall facets of media, cheered by millions of fans, teamed with white counterparts, and, at least on the surface, accepted.

[Bass, 2005: 3]

General History: First Winter O.G. in 1924 Albertville were the third ones in France (Chamonix, 1924; Grenoble, 1968). In February 1992, from the 8th until the 23th. 64 countries were represented with 1801 athletes (488 women and 1313 men)

Focus: TV rights Albertville (1992) = 292 millions (de dollars) Atlanta (1996) = 935 millions Turin Pkin (2006) = 832 millions (2008) = 1 715 millions

Comte Jean de Beaumont, in 1968 Athens 2004, 140 NOC and 939 grants 209 millions for 2001-2004 245 millions for 2005-2008 For Winter Olympiads, the rst individual helps are for Vancouver 2010

Extraction: INA (French National Institut of Audio-visual)

Transcription orthographic transcriptions with specic arangements of the voices (audio part) + consideration of the meaningful environment (like the music or the text incrustation)

Results: French Television live comments and documentaries


These very obvious manifestations of national identity overshadowing the Olympic ideal sometimes obscure the fact that all Olympic competition is covered by the media in a nationalistic way. Each nation follows most closely its own winners, with commentators using phrases like its gold for Britain as a way of linking the nation with the individuals success.

[Beard, 1998: 38]

If one of the reasons for having commentary is to add colour to a game, then it is likely that in an international match commentators will show a certain amount of support for the home team they can be condent that most of the viewers will agree. The word commentator, though, does suggest someone who is analytical, critical, neutral in stance. So commentators are not expected to be obviously biased as some newspapers were before this particular match. In domestic games between teams from say Manchester and Liverpool they have to be even more careful in case they alienate the supporters of one side.

[Beard, 1998: 73-74]

Results: French Television live comments and documentaries


Example:

1 : Ces touristes les voici avec par ordre dapparition lcran, les mexicains, champions du monde ex-quo de bobsleigh patins en lair avec les jamaquains et les portoricains

1: These tourists here they are, in order of appearance on screen, the Mexicans, world champions tied in bobsled skates in the air with the Jamaicans and the Porto-Ricans

Results: French Television live comments and documentaries


Example:

1 : Ces touristes les voici avec par ordre dapparition lcran, les mexicains, champions du monde ex-quo de bobsleigh patins en lair avec les jamaquains et les portoricains

1: These tourists here they are, in order of appearance on screen, the Mexicans, world champions tied in bobsled skates in the air with the Jamaicans and the Porto-Ricans

Announcement effect: like a circus speaker or the opening of a comedy (with the credits presentations)

Results: French Television live comments and documentaries


Example:

2: Les plus grands ne sont pas ne reste, ce touriste de lquipe dcidment dsunie, nest pourtant pas un dbutant.

2: The greatests are not in rest, this tourist from a denitively dis-unied team is not whereas a beginner.

The Same and the Other


The dialectic of the Same and the Other, and the manner in which it affects linguistic functions, constitutes a central point in praximatic reection (Lafont 1978b).

In this perspective, the production of meaning functions by the inclusion of identical traits common to the several units (Same), and the exclusion of non-pertinent traits (Other), the self being the result of this operation.

Results: French Television live comments and documentaries


Example:

2: Les plus grands ne sont pas ne reste, ce touriste de lquipe dcidment dsunie, nest pourtant pas un dbutant.

2: The greatests are not in rest, this tourist from a denitively dis-unied team is not whereas a beginner.

No direct naming (CEI not refered)

No sarcasm but a simple mitigation

Results: French Television live comments and documentaries


Example:

3: Rien ninterdit par exemple, ce concurrent marocain de nous offrir un programme personnalis de gures libres...

3: For example, nothing can forbid this Moroccan competitor to give us a customized free skate routine...

Clear mention of the exact country

Irony

Discussion / Conclusion: Need of consideration for countries names in order to respect its citizens
Names, as linguists have demonstrated, are critical in the construction of social reality. By assigning names to things, we impose a pattern and meaning that allows us to manipulate our experiences. Like language in general, naming is neither a neutral nor random process but is, rather, a linguistic operation that encodes biases and prejudices, and those who have the power to name and rename retain a powerful cultural prerogative. With regard to naming practices, the inferiorization of womens sport and womens athletic performances is accomplished through conventions whereby women athletes are subjected to a variety of trivializing forms of address, including the use of patronizing and demeaning terms such as girls, sweetie, princess, doll, and young ladies, informal use of rst names, and/or inappropriately girly names for teams.

[Seagrave, 2006: 32-33]

The sprinter Frankie Fredericks, who comes from Namibia in Southern Africa said before the Atlanta Olympics, Im not doing this sport to be famous. I look as it as an opportunity to put my country on the map.

[Beard, 1998: 39]

Discussion / Conclusion: Need of consideration for countries names in order to respect its citizens

Importance and impositions of genres

live broadcasts are more standardized

simultaneity of retransmission and comments makes the speech more descriptive and less stylized

Thank you Merci ...

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