Level field? Sports, soft power and the liberal democratic bias

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing from an analysis of media coverage of the Olympics from 2012 to 2022, the study posits that international media outfits tend to underreport the performance of non-democratic states despite considerable medal success, and overreport the sporting activities of democracies even if they underperform. We argue that this is due to the international media’s normative bias towards a world order that privileges liberal democracy and its adjacent values. Our findings indicate strong support for our hypothesis that the media is not a level playing field in the coverage of sporting events, and that it pays to be a democracy when it comes to soft power gains. Overall, the study contributes to the growing body of literature examining sports as an arena of political contestation.