1
Multimedia Resources and Sporting Bias in MARCA.com and SPORT.es
Chapter Six
Multimedia Resources and SportingBias in MARCA.com and SPORT.es:
An Analysis of Matches
between Real Madrid C. F.
and F. C. Barcelona in 2010-11
Daniel Barredo Ibáñez
and Martín Oller Alonso
Introduction
This chapterwillanalyze and evaluate the multimedia resources of two of the most important Spanish online sports newspapers, MARCA.com andSPORT.es, in the coverage of the five games that were played between Real Madrid C. F. and F. C. Barcelona in the football season 2010-2011. In order to pursue this project a content analysis was developed: this evaluated 24 variables to detect the possibility of biased content, and also assesseddifferences between web-based journalism and paper-based journalisminthe two leading Spanish news outlets. The work seeks to analyze thecoverage given to each football team by these online newspapers. Results show that photography is still the most frequently used resource in both outlets. Moreover, in the analysis of the content, our conclusions suggest a degree of bias, in thatMARCA.com covered both football teams equally, while SPORT.es gave the majority of its space to stories associated with F. C. Barcelona.
In 2010-2011, Spain’s two largest and most successful football teams, Real Madrid C. F. and F. C. Barcelona, played against each other five times during a single football season. This unprecedented sequence of matches in the history of Spanish football was reflected in the special coverage by the biggest sport newspapers, MARCA.com and SPORT.es. The increased coverage led the authors to analyze the use of multimedia resources of both online newspapers. Internet media are usually defined by three main characteristics: multimediality, hypertextuality and interactivity (Dalhgren, 1996; Bardoel and Deuze, 2001; Salaverría, 2004; Palomo Torres, 2004; Steensen, 2009, 2011; Siapera and Veglis, 2012; Barredo, 2013).But multimediality is one of the most distinctive features, because it allows for a “combination of information” (Deuze, 2003, p. 12) in media content. Also, multimediality stimulates more flexible language in online media (Shyam, 2000).
In our opinion, the study of multimediality can help researchers come to a deeper understanding ofinformation provided to readers: it also clarifies the trends and the hidden ideologies of the media.This article selects two leading Spanish media outlets, which also represent differing editorial tendencies.
Objectives
1. To assess and quantify graphical resources (photos, sounds, infographics and videos)used in the coverage of matches between Real Madrid C. F. and F. C. Barcelona by SPORT.es and MARCA.com in the 2010-11 season.
2. To analyzethe extent to whichSPORT.es and MARCA.com have integrated multimedia resources into news coverage of matches between Real Madrid C. F. and F. C. Barcelona in the 2010-11 season.
3. To analyze the possible biasesthat exist within online sports journalism in Spain from the analysis of the coverage by MARCA.com and SPORT.es of matches between Real Madrid C. F. and F. C. Barcelona during the 2010-2011 season.
1. Methodology
This chapter revolves around an in-depth content analysis, selected because it is an ideal research technique in the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the content of communication (Berelson, 1952). Thus, it fits the purpose of this study based on the measurement of certain variables, and enables the authors to identify the characteristics of the message (Holsti, 1969). In recent decades, many works have used content analysis applied to different elements of online media (Schultz, 1999; Dimitrova and Neznanski, 2006; Tremayne, Schmitz and Calmon, 2007; Micó and Masip, 2008; Carpenter, 2010; Barredo and Oller, 2012b; Barredo, 2013). The flexibility of the technique and its ability to encode dynamic contentprovides an additional rationale. In the following pages we will explain the steps undertaken to prepare the analysis.
1.1 Localization of the archives in the media
Both media had accessible archives where the user is able to check the published news. Thanks to this transparency of access, we downloaded the units of analysis manually from librariesand from digital newspaper archives:
1.2 Search Dates
The location of the content was based on an algorithm of ± 7 days of the date of each match, because in a previous analysis (Barredo and Oller, 2013), we realised this gave the most meaningful results:
Fig. 1: Matches and search dates of the units of analysis
Matches / Competition / Results / Dates of matches / Search dates / YearsBarcelona – Real Madrid / Liga / 5 – 0 / 29. November / 22. November – 6. December / 2010
Real Madrid – Barcelona / Liga / 1 – 1 / 16. April / 9 April–
23. April / 2011
Barcelona – Real Madrid / Copa del Rey / 0 – 1 / 20. April / 13 April –
27. April / 2011
Real Madrid – Barcelona / Champion League / 0 – 2 / 27. April / 20 de April –
4. May / 2011
Barcelona – Real Madrid / Champion League / 1 - 1 / 3. May / 26 de April – 10. May / 2011
Source: Compiled by authors
The proposed algorithm of ± 7 days was intended to collect as many news items as possible. The study yielded the following results:
Fig. 2: Monthly distribution of content
MARCA.com / SPORT.esYears / Months / Numbers / % / Numbers / %
2010 / November / 238 / 23 / 190 / 18,2
2010 / December / 37 / 3,6 / 80 / 7,6
2011 / April / 604 / 58,4 / 590 / 56,4
2011 / May / 156 / 15,1 / 186 / 17,8
TOTAL / 1035 / 100 / 1046 / 100
Source: Compiled by authors
1.3 Analysis sheet
The analysis consists of 24 variables with two separate focuses:
1. Detection of multimedia resources: we quantified all media forms (sound, graphics, photographic and videographic) that determined or complemented the information.
2. Assigning the importance: we have quantified, in the measurement of each resource, the appearance of a bound protagonist (person, object, setting, etc.) associated with Real Madrid C. F. or with F. C. Barcelona -the joint appearance of both teams or prominence of other characters related to the agendas of the Classics (matches between the two teams).
Fig. 3: Analysis sheet
Units identificationV1. Date
V2. Number of references
V3. Matches
1. 29. November
2. 16. April
3. 20. April
4. 27. April
5. 3. May
V4. Protagonist. The matches:
1. Protagonist
2. Co-protagonist
3. Unintentional allusion
Graphic resources
V5. Photography
1. Yes
2. No
3. Gallery
V6. Protagonists of photography
1. Real Madrid C. F.
2. F. C. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V7. Photo caption
1. Only the name
2. Develop the content
3. There is not a photo caption
V.8 Protagonist of photo galleries
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V9. Photo caption of galleries of photographies
1. Only the name
2. Develop of content
3. There is not a photo caption
V10. Infography
1. Yes
2. No
3. Gallery
V11. Protagonist of infography
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V12. Textual mark
1. Only the name
2. Development the content
3. There is not a textual mark / V13. Protagonist of infographic galleries
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V14. Textual mark in infographic galleries
1. Only the name
2. Develop the content
3. There is not a photo caption
Resources of sound
V15. Cut of audio
1. Yes
2. No
3. Gallery
V16. Protagonist of cut of audio
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V17. Textual mark
1. Only the name
2. Develop of content
3. There is not a textual mark
V18. Protagonist of gallery of sound
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V19. Textual mark in gallery of sound
1. Only the name
2. Develop of content
3. There is not a textual mark
Multimedia resources
V20. Video
1. Yes
2. No
3. Gallery
V21. Protagonist of video
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V22. Textual mark
1. Only the name
2. Development of content
3. There is not a textual mark
V23. Protagonist of video graphic gallery
1. Real Madrid
2. Barcelona
3. Both
4. Other
V24. Textual mark in video galleries
1. Only the name
2. Development of content
3. There is not a textual mark
Source: Compiled by authors
2. Results
The integration of multimedia communications of online media expands the possibilities of traditionaljournalism. Therefore, the study of multimedia resources in both online newspapers allowed us to establish the “cybermediability” level[1], a term coined to describe the adaptation of the media to the possibilities of the Internet. For example, in the following results a low level of integration of resources will be equivalent to a high presence ofoffline influences.
2.1 Multimedia resources
From a broader perspective, the online newspaper SPORT.es generated an average of 0.96 (n = 1008) resources per unit, compared with 0.81 (n = 842) of MARCA.com. But a higher average does not mean a deeper adaptation to Internet routines: if we take a look at figure 4, it is clear that there is afar higher presence of photographic resources in SPORT.es. But MARCA.com had a higher variety of resources:
Fig. 4: Multimedia resources in coverage of matches (2010-11)
MARCA.COM / SPORT.ESResources / Nº / % / Nº / %
Cut of audio / 7 / 0,8 / 0 / 0
Cut of audio (gallery) / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Infography / 42 / 5 / 14 / 1,4
Infography (gallery) / 11 / 1,3 / 2 / 0,2
Photography / 421 / 50 / 890 / 88,3
Photography (gallery) / 115 / 13,7 / 32 / 3,2
Video / 244 / 29 / 68 / 6,7
Video (gallery) / 2 / 0,2 / 2 / 0,2
TOTAL / 842 / 100 / 1008 / 100
Source: Compiled by authors
In MARCA.com, seven of the eight resources were detected while in SPORT.es six were found. Besides having more diversity, the online newspaper MARCA.com showed a more homogeneous distribution of media forms, led significantly by photography - with 50% of total resources. The online newspaper SPORT.es, instead focused almost all their resources on pictures, with 88.3% of the total. The other items appeared at very low frequencies (except in the case of videos, with 6.7%).
Fig. 5: Average of main resources per unit in the coverage of matches (2010 - 11)
In the previous graph (fig. 5) it shows how photography, in both cases, still remains as the hegemonic resource – more so in SPORT.es. However MARCA.com has tended to incorporate more informative accessories – with levels tripling or quadrupling at times.
2.2 Identification of resources
The tags of these resources are identification marks of text characters used to contextualize the resource to which they are attached. The paper analysed these in two structural axes:
- Depending on whether they develop the action that they describe (descriptive tags).
- Depending on whether they reproduce the character that is named (nominal tags).
In the general study of identification labels, SPORT.es showed a greater tendency towards nominal labels with 20.7% compared to 17.4% of MARCA.com. The relative lack of resources in the online newspaper SPORT.es suggested a higher concentration of the labels on the photos than that in MARCA.es, whose distribution offered a more balanced character; especially in descriptive labels.
Fig. 6: Identification tags of resources during matches (2010 - 11)
MARCA.COM / SPORT.esDescriptive / Nominal / Descriptive / Nominal
Resources / Nº / % / Nº / % / Nº / % / Nº / %
Cut of audio / 7 / 1,1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Infography / 30 / 4,7 / 25 / 18,7 / 12 / 1,5 / 3 / 1,5
Photography / 360 / 56,5 / 107 / 79,9 / 720 / 91,5 / 200 / 97,6
Video / 240 / 37,7 / 2 / 1,5 / 55 / 7 / 2 / 1
TOTAL / 637 / 100 / 134 / 100 / 787 / 100 / 205 / 100
% GLOBAL / 82,6 / 17,4 / 79,3 / 20,7
Source: Compiled by authors
2.3 Prominence of resources
The analysis of prominence of resources revealed important findings to classify the values assumed by each trend:
Fig. 7: Prominence in the coverage of the matches (2010-11)
MARCA.comReal Madrid C. F. / F. C. Barcelona / Both / Other
Prominence / Nº / % / Nº / % / Nº / % / Nº / %
Cut of audio / 1 / 0,4 / 3 / 1,2 / 3 / 1,2 / 0 / 0
Cut of audio (gallery) / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Infography / 8 / 3 / 7 / 2,8 / 25 / 9,8 / 2 / 1
Infography (gallery) / 6 / 2,3 / 5 / 2 / 2 / 0,8 / 0 / 0
Photography / 112 / 42,1 / 105 / 42,7 / 106 / 41,7 / 89 / 43,6
Photography (gallery) / 74 / 27,8 / 62 / 25,2 / 54 / 21,3 / 59 / 28,9
Video / 65 / 24,4 / 63 / 25,6 / 63 / 24,8 / 53 / 53
Video (gallery) / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0.4 / 1 / 0,4 / 1 / 0,5
TOTAL Nº / 266 / 100 / 246 / 100 / 254 / 100 / 204 / 100
% GLOBAL / 27,4 / 25,4 / 26,2 / 21
In MARCA.com, coverage tended to show the balance between the protagonists of Real Madrid C. F. and F. C. Barcelona: virtually all the resources found exhibit little difference in percentages assigned to one or other team. However, the gap between the prominence given to both teams was revealing:
Fig. 8: Prominence in the coverage of the matches (2010-11)
SPORT.esR. Madrid C. F. / F. C. Barcelona / Both / Other
Prominence / Nº / % / Nº / % / Nº / % / Nº / %
Cut of audio / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Cut of audio (gallery) / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Infography / 1 / 0,5 / 6 / 1,4 / 7 / 4,1 / 0 / 0
Infography (gallery) / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Photography / 167 / 88,8 / 346 / 83 / 145 / 85,8 / 232 / 93,9
Photography (gallery) / 5 / 2,7 / 21 / 5 / 9 / 5,3 / 11 / 4,5
Video / 14 / 7,4 / 42 / 10,1 / 8 / 4,7 / 4 / 1,6
Video (gallery) / 1 / 0,5 / 2 / 0,5 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
TOTAL Nº / 188 / 100 / 417 / 100 / 169 / 100 / 247 / 100
% GLOBAL / 18,4 / 40,8 / 16,6 / 24,2
Source: Compiled by authors
SPORT.es emphasises Barça´s values: Overall F. C. Barcelona appears in double the number of resources than Real Madrid C. F. While in the item Other, both cybermedia keep levels relatively similar (slightly higher in SPORT.es). Regarding the prominence of resources shared by both teams, the study noticed a difference of almost ten percentage points between MARCA.com and SPORT.es. That is, SPORT.es tended to avoid representing Real Madrid C. F. individually or together with the protagonists of F. C. Barcelona.
3. Conclusions
Cybermedia embodies two possible forms of internet journalism, according to the levels and types of resources identified. MARCA.com approached the media model,while SPORT.es presented a model adapted from the printed version, as proposed by Cabrera González (2001). This general classification is illustrated by:
a) Photography: the resource most frequently used by both online newspapers. However in SPORT.es the high frequency of levels of photography causes it to appear as the main resource, as a by-product of print journalism, which is due to technical limitations that could not incorporate other visual elements.
b) Video. Enabling video appears as a second option, considerably more relevant in MARCA.com (with 29% of its global resources) than in SPORT.es (with 6.7%). MARCA.com’s video usewas relatively similar to the text values, although the emergence of video graphic resources and multimedia language features shows the patterns that can determine the evolution in this cybermedia.
c)Other Resources. During the coverage of matches, MARCA.com and SPORT.es use of infographics, for example, significantly exceeded the percentage found in a parallel investigation based on the International Day of Working Women (Barredo Ibáñez and Oller Alonso, 2012b), within Spanish cybermedia. The statistical data in sport events probably require more of an iconic representation because it is a way to manage without producing a quantity of unreadable information. Sound resources in both online newspapers were the least used. Therefore, the language of Internet journalism focuses on some representations identified by the textual and the visual.
Nominal tags, older elements of conventional journalism, represent descending choices according to the data obtained in these results. The space is a priori unlimited on the internet (Oller Alonso and Barredo Ibáñez, 2012), so the contextual explanation of representation occurs in a standardized way.
Finally, in the analysis of prominence, we find something also identified in previous work: two exclusive modes of organizing the sports information:
1.Media community. In the analysis of the matches,it was clear that football teams (Real Madrid, Barcelona, and other protagonists) had a similar volume of overall coverage. There was a slighttendency toward items representing Real Madrid C. F. and a representation of the protagonists as a whole. This compensation in the representation of items is linked with an integrative representation of a media community, whereby MARCA.com tries toremain balanced.
2.Sport Community. In the analysis of SPORT.es there is a bias towards peopleassociated with Barcelona. The second preferred choice in SPORT.es was the multimedia prevalence of ‘other protagonists’ associated with the matches before it began to cover protagonists associated with Real Madrid C. F. In other words SPORT.es creates anexclusionary sense of community, characterised by a pro-Barcelona bias.
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