Presenter(s): Brooklynn Loiselle—Journalism
Faculty Mentor(s): Lori Shontz, Henry Wear
Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation
The 2019 IAAF World Outdoor Track and Field Championships served as an opportunity for its host nation, Qatar, to showcase not only what it can do for sport but what sport can do for its country . Over the past decade, Qatar has used international sport as a way to define itself as a nation worthy of respect . The world championships were the largest sporting event to ever take place in the Middle East, but media coverage from the championships resulted in both positive and negative storylines that could impact how the world views Qatar . This qualitative content analysis of British and American written news coverage of the world championships examines how the news media framed Qatar and how it evaluated its performance as a host nation . This research is developing; all coding has yet to be completed . However, preliminary findings indicate that Qatar was far more likely to be framed negatively than positively, with themes of “poor event management” and being an “undesirable location” appearing the most frequently . This research raises questions about whether Qatar’s reasons for wanting to host the event was valid . Furthermore, this research contributes to the broader question of whether spending significant sums of money to host international sporting events is worth it if the events do not result in an economic gain or a better world image .