Running Head: MEDIA FRAMING OF PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

Media Framing of Professional Athletes Using their Voice

Katherine Devine

John Carroll University


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Abstract

This research paper is designed to determine the level of media bias present

when dealing with instances of athletes using their platform to broadcast personal

beliefs. Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick were the main athletes studied as they are

two examples of athletes who used their position in the spotlight to voice a belief. The

research includes journal articles that address Tim Tebows controversial display of

faith, the idea of a sporting celebrity, media framing, and the relationship between

religion and sport. A content analysis of news articles for each athlete was conducted

that showed greater media coverage and an overall more positive attitude towards

Kaepernick, which showed our medias tendency to cover more stories that are

consistent with our societys overall progression.

As spectators, we watch professional athletes step onto the field each day,

expecting to see an impressive display of talent, showmanship, determination, and

drive, but are seemingly taken aback upon seeing an athlete reveal more of himself or

herself than mere athleticism. With our nation facing increasing polarity, more athletes

have begun to use their platform as a means to broadcast their personal beliefs. Many

of these athletes have become the objects of much criticism, and the question of

whether it is appropriate for athletes to express these types of beliefs has remained

controversial. However, the level of criticism one is subjected to seems to be dependent

on the topic. Athletes who exhibit traditional values seem to undergo more scrutiny than

those who demonstrate ideals consistent with our nations increasingly progressive

direction.

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This academic paper focuses on the topic of famous athletes using their platform

to broadcast their personal beliefs. More specifically, it focuses on how the media

reports these stories to determine if there is a level of bias involved. To further narrow

this topic, the controversial events surrounding Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick were

studied.

Former professional quarterback, Tim Tebow was scrutinized by many for

continually displaying his devout religious beliefs on and off the field. Since the start of

his college career and onward, Tebow became known for using eye black to display

Bible verses while playing. His lack of apprehension to continually express his strong

faith caused him to be the center of much controversy within the sports realm. Most

notably, he displayed the verse John 3:16 for the National Championship game on

January 8, 2009, which led a lot of people to Google the verse following the game.

Professional quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, Kaepernick received an

extreme amount of media attention after he expressed his support for the Black Lives

Matter Movement by refusing to stand during the National Anthem on August 26, 2016.

Despite both athletes acting in a way that reflected personal beliefs, the media coverage

seemed to be more positive towards Kaepernick, as stories often quoted people

praising him for sticking up for what he believes in. Therefore, a content analysis of

news articles following the events of each instance was conducted to determine if the

hypothesis is correct in that the expression of religious beliefs by athletes is viewed

more positively than the expression of political beliefs in the media. This, in turn, would

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provide support that the medias framing in these instances tends to be reflective of

societys current trends and popular opinion.


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Literature Review

Tim Tebow

Professional football player Tim Tebow quickly became as well known for his

devout faith as for his athletic ability (Parker & Watson, 2015). He first began gaining

notoriety upon using eye black to display Bible verses while playing. Since the inception

of his career, Tebow has continually been bold in expressing his strong faith. His

religious beliefs became framed as a public spectacle that created controversy on

whether using his high-profile platform to share these beliefs was appropriate (Feezell,

2013). Tebow underwent intense scrutiny from the public, which demonstrates the trend

of religion occupying less and less space in American public culture (Butterworth, 2013).

While admired by many for his humility and sense of morality, he is equally as criticized

for claims of self-promotion and the imposing of personal beliefs (Butterworth, 2013).

Krattenmaker (2010) holds the latter view, as he argues the infiltration of faith into

sports is completely inappropriate. He says imposing ones religious worldview on

others is insensitive and unappreciative of religious diversity. Feezell (2013) supports

Krattenmaker, as he believes professional athletes in the spotlight, such as Tebow,

have a moral responsibility to recognize the influential role they have and not use it to

their advantage by imposing their beliefs on the masses. Many individuals seek sports

as an escape from reality and do not wish for personal matters, such as religion, to be a

part of this escape (Feezell, 2013). Some critics even went on to say that Tebow only

gained popularity because of his off-the-field behavior, rather than from his on-field

performance (Watts, 2014).


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Vocalizing beliefs surrounding ones faith is often a controversial topic and the

frequent talk in the media regarding his faith spurred Vaughn Myers and Yang Lin

(2015) to determine what effect Tebows frequent public declaration of his faith had on

his image. The pair completed an analysis of the coverage of Tebow by three

newspapers in an effort to determine the type of characterization given to him. They

discovered that Tebow being framed as a devout Christian was one of the four major

characteristics given to him by the media (p. 55). They found that his faith was

frequently highlighted in a variety of articles that explained Tebow using his career as a

platform for his beliefs.They highlight the sensitivity of mixing sports and faith and use it

as reasoning for why Tebow was the subject of much criticism. Collectively, the

literature on Tebow shows a trend of mutual consensus that his frequent spectacle of

faith brings about a multitude of concerns and problems.

Colin Kaepernick

In August of 2016, professional football player Colin Kaepernick refused to stand

during the playing of the National Anthem as a form of protest, showing his discontent

with the recent treatment of African Americans. Some viewed it as unpatriotic and

wrong, while others viewed his decision as courageous and admirable. An article by

Thomas (2016) criticized any backlash Kaepernick received in saying he was simply

bringing attention to an issue that has continued to plague our country. He also

addressed the ripple effect Kapernicks actions had as other athletes began to remain

seated for the National Anthem and then began to speak out about the issue, as well.

Abdul-Jabbar (2015) recognizes the evolution of sport and believes athletes using their

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platform for activism can have a very positive impact. He addresses athletes in the past,

such as Muhammad Ali, who was condemned for his outspoken opposition to Vietnam

War. Abdul-Jabbar strongly believes athletes need to continue to speak out on topics,

such as racial disparity as they are in a position to ignite real change. Kaepernick is a

perfect example of an athlete using his platform as a means to broadcast personal

beliefs. Since the events of this instance are fairly recent, there is not any available

scholarly research that thoroughly analyzes this specific occurrence. While the selection

of news articles regarding Kaepernicks actions I found seem to demonstrate an overall

positive attitude towards his actions, more research would need to be conducted to lead

to a definitive conclusion.

Sporting Celebrity

Sports have evolved into a climate thats very conducive to achieving celebrity

status (Parker & Watson, 2015). The omnipresent nature of media has led to an

increased amount of coverage for athletes. Therefore, when an athlete reveals

something deeper than his mere athletic performance, that revelation immediately

becomes part of that athletes image and identity (Parker & Watson, 2015). When

viewing Tebow, many individuals began to identify him by his faith, rather than his

athletic performance. Our ubiquitous media cause professional athletes to gain more

attention from their behavior rather than their accomplishments (Myers & Lin, 2015).

Parker and Watson (2015) address the increasing relationship between sports and the

media and how the ubiquitous nature of the media has created the notion of a sporting

celebrity. They believe that the medias extreme prevalence and ability to create

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exposure has caused athletes to create a persona for themselves outside of their sport.

An athletes high-profile status and constant coverage by the media creates pressure for

athletes to behave in certain ways (McKinny, 2003). Athletes having a voice relates this

notion of transcending their role on the field to effect change off the field. As viewers, we

are accustomed to athletes voicing their thoughts on their game, their performance, or

their team, but we are not accustomed to the times athletes voice thoughts that near the

political and social realm. Athletes recognize the omnipresent role of media and the

opportunity they have to use that relationship to become even wider public figures.

Media Framing

A high profile athlete who takes advantage of this opportunity and chooses to

broadcast controversial personal beliefs will inevitably attract an abundance of media

coverage, each with its own framing of the story. Chong and Druckman (2007) support

the notion of media framing by arguing that the media play a critical role in the publics

attitude towards certain stories and hold the power to influence what people view as

important. Rather than just being spectators of the sport, the media have become a

judging platform as they interpret and evaluate the events that take place (Diana-Luiza,

2013). The way the media frame and spin a story influences how the public perceives it

(Myers & Lin, 2015). Therefore, each media outlet framed Tebows and Kaepernicks

actions in a different way and played a significant role in how the public viewed these

instances.

Religion and Sport


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Through looking at a variety of sources, I found numerous articles that addressed

the lack of research regarding the interplay between religion and sport. Andrew Parker

and Nick J. Watson (2013) studied the way the relationship between religion and sport

has changed over time. As weve evolved as a society, the idea of sport has reached

wider popularity than that of religion. They go onto say that the values of sport continue

to mesh less easily with religious beliefs. Furthermore, sport seems to work in tandem

with societys current cultural and historical practices. This information is consistent with

the Kaepernick example, as the Black Lives Matter Movement is currently an extremely

prevalent issue containing framework reflective of American societys progressive

direction.

The trend of our society defying tradition and moving in a more progressive

direction can be seen with the publics overwhelming acceptance of NFL player Michael

Sams revelation of his homosexuality. There has been an increase in the overall

acceptance of gays and lesbians in U.S. sport, which is indicative of a nation moving

away from its very traditional, conservative roots (Kian, 2015). This shift in sports is very

revealing as athletics are a cultural representation of our social relations (Miller, 2010).

In saying this, Tebows declaration of his devout faith was not consistent with our

societys direction or the majority of its practices. In contrast, Kaepernicks actions were

consistent, which could be the distinguishing factor that led to a seemingly different

media framing despite both instances being a broadcasting of ones beliefs.

H1. I hypothesize that the media framing of athletes is reflective of societys

current trends and popular opinion.


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RQ1. During the weeks immediately following the first incidents concerning each

athlete, did the news medias framing of stories about Colin Kaepernicks political

actions and statements differ from the framing of Tim Tebows expressions of his

religious beliefs?

Methods

In order try and confirm the hypothesis, a content analysis was conducted of the

news articles that followed after the initial incidents of Tebow and Kaepernick. The

library database, LexisNexis Academic was used to obtain the various news articles that

were analyzed. The phrase Tebow and eye black was searched to filter the articles

related to Tebow to only those dealing with his controversial act of using his eye black

as a way to share Bible verses. The starting date was set to January 9, 2009 as this

was the first time Tebow wore a Bible verse on his face and the end date was set to

January 9, 2010.

For Kaepernick, the phrase Kaepernick and National Anthem was searched to

obtain articles related to him sitting during the National Anthem. He first demonstrated

this behavior on August 26, 2016, so the starting date for the articles reflected that. The

end date as set to September 26, 2016 to allow for a weeks worth of news coverage.

The difference in the timespan between the two athletes is attributed to the significantly

lower number of articles received for Tebow. There had to be a much larger increment

set in order to match the 50 articles analyzed for Kaepernick. The articles received were

also filtered by limiting the articles to only United States newspapers, as the focus of

this research is media framing within the United States.


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Once all of the articles were collected, it was determined whether the valence of

the article was either positive, negative, or neutral. In order to determine this, the first 5

paragraphs of each article were read, which gave a good indication of whether the

attitude of the article should be assigned as positive, negative, or neutral. If there lacked

a good indication of valence following the first 5 paragraphs, further reading was

required to determine an overall attitude. A systematic analysis on the articles was

completed for each athlete, which determined what percent of the 50 articles were

positive, negative, or neutral. In order to determine this valence, the articles were read

in search for certain trigger words that indicated a positive or negative attitude. For

Kaepernick, the words brave, courageous, and daring indicated a positive valence,

whereas the words disrespectful, inappropriate, and rude indicated a negative

valence. For Tebow, the words respectable, admirable, and praiseworthy indicated

a positive valence, whereas the words inappropriate, pretentious, and insensitive

indicated a negative valence.

Results

After conducting a content analysis of 50 articles for each athlete, it became

apparent that the media found Kaepernicks story more worth telling. Out of the 50 Colin

Kaepernick articles collected, 26 showed a positive attitude, 7 showed a negative

attitude, and 17 remained neutral. This is equivalent to 52% positive, 14% negative, and

34% neutral. Out of the 50 Tim Tebow articles collected, 13 showed a positive attitude,

10 showed a negative attitude, and 27 displayed a neutral attitude. This equivalates to

26% positive, 20% negative, and 54% neutral.


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Many of the Tebow articles made subtle references to his display of faith. Very

few articles centered their article on the expression of his faith, specifically. Rather, the

majority of the articles focused on discussing him on a larger scale, while making a

reference to his use of religious expression. Since the majority of news writers didnt

form a substantial piece on Tebow and his religious expression, specifically, a lot of the

articles were identified as neutral.

Discussion

Through analyzing the Kaepernick articles, a clear attitude was displayed the

majority of the time. All of the articles within the set week were heavily centered on

Kaepernicks actions and gave a clear indication of their attitude towards his behavior.

In contrast, the content analysis for Tebow was much more challenging. Even when

filtering the search to lead to articles that directly talked about his use of eye black for

religious expression, the majority of articles were very brief and undetailed about this

subject. There is a commonly shared belief that theres bias within the media, which is

why its so interesting that this study of Tebow did not reflect that. Kaepernicks display

of expression revealed almost a thousand articles in a week, while Tebows display only

revealed a little over 50 articles over the period of a year. Although the majority of

articles displayed a neutral attitude towards him with no real comment about the role of

religion in sport, the severe lack of coverage for his actions is indicative in itself. In

addition, the majority of the headlines for Tebow werent centered around his actions.

Most of the titles were football related with subtle references to his use of eye black.

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However, very few articles went on to expand on his use of eye black, which made it

challenging to extract an apparent positive or negative attitude.

In both instances, each athlete was taking a stand for a strong conviction they

hold, but the media coverage for Tebow only reached surface level. Through conducting

the content analysis, it became evident that the media didn't really dig into his core

convictions when he was clearly making a strong stand for Christianity. The research

was conducted in an effort to uncover media bias in news articles against Christian

athletes, but the lack of coverage reflects bias, as well. Although only 10 articles were

outwardly negative towards Tebows declaration of his faith, not digging deeper to

explore his convictions is equally as telling. Meanwhile, they talked a lot about

Kaepernicks convictions, his right to express them and how admirable it was that he

was willing to take a position that was unpopular. The Kaepernick fascination definitely

reflects the growth in popularity for taking positions that are at odds with traditional

American values.

Limitations

A limitation of this research was that Tebows actions were continuous over time

whereas Kaepernicks was one major controversial action. Since Kaepernick acted out

at a time of much controversy with the Black Lives Matter Movement, it is expected that

his behavior would generate a significant amount of news coverage. However, even

expanding the timespan for the Tebow articles still didnt equal the magnitude of media

coverage Kaepernick received.


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Another factor that could have limited my research is my sample size. Given the

timeframe of this project, it would have been challenging to conduct a content analysis

of a large amount of articles, but a larger sample size would have ensured for more

accurate results. An additional limitation to consider is that oftentimes, it is considered

taboo to talk about religion in sports. The content analysis showed that a lot of

journalists remained neutral, which could be attributed to their apprehension to voice

their opinion on the interplay between religion and sport. At the same time, Kaepernick

took a stand in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement, which is a movement

reflective of our societys progressive values. The movement was at the height of its

prevalence at the time of this incident, so it probably would have been considered more

controversial to speak out against the movement.

An additional factor to consider is the search term that was used for Tebow. A

variety of search terms were experimented with such as, Tim Tebow and religion and

Tim Tebow and faith, but the phrase Tim Tebow and eye black was ultimately

chosen. Kaepernicks coverage was about one specific, controversial action, so eye

black was used in an attempt to narrow in on one controversial action for Tebow, as

well. None of these terms yielded an abundance of articles, but using a more general

search term could have made for a less challenging search.

Conclusion

Through this research, it can be concluded that the media is far less concerned

in reporting stories related to athletes expressing their faith. The research reflected a

clear apprehension and resistance towards writing about religion in sport. This could be

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a sign that religion is becoming less and less prevalent in our society as individuals are

increasingly abandoning traditional values. The research showed that overall, the media

had a mostly positive attitude towards Kaepernicks actions as many expressed

admiration for his display of courage in standing up for what he believes in. The positive

and negative articles were each very straightforward with their opinion, which made it

very easy to determine the overall attitude. In contrast, there was an extreme lack of

articles regarding Tebows frequent use of eye black to promote his devotion to

Christianity. Both athletes were displaying a strong conviction, but the two athletes were

covered very differently. Therefore, the research found that news medias framing of

stories about Kaepernicks political actions and statements did differ from the framing of

Tebows expressions of his religious beliefs. Furthermore, this research proved the

hypothesis that the media framing of athletes is reflective of societys current trends and

popular opinion.


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Appendix 1

Coding Sheet for Colin Kaepernick

Article Number Positive Negative Neutral

1 x

2 x

3 x

4 x

5 x

6 x

7 x

8 x

9 x

10 x

11 x

12 x

13 x

14 x

15 x

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22 x

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39 x

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42 x

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44 x

45 x

46 x

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47 x

48 x

49 x

50 x


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Appendix 2

Coding Sheet for Tim Tebow

Article Number Positive Negative Neutral

1 x

2 x

3 x

4 x

5 x

6 x

7 x

8 x

9 x

10 x

11 x

12 x

13 x

14 x

15 x

16 x

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MEDIA FRAMING OF PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES USING VOICE
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20 x

21 x

22 x

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24 x

25 x

26 x

27 x

28 x

29 x

30 x

31 x

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33 x

34 x

35 x

36 x

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39 x

40 x

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44 x

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45 x

46 x

47 x

48 x

49 x

50 x