Professionalism and Objectives in Olympics Coverage: A Survey of Chinese Television Professionals

Abstract

This article moves away from content-oriented studies on Olympics coverage by focusing on the producers of Olympic images. The study first explicates the concept of professionalism and the objectives of Olympics coverage. A survey questionnaire was designed accordingly to measure a sample of the Chinese professionals who were part of the production team of the international TV signal for the Beijing Olympics. Results indicated that the production professionals were well prepared and were in line with Olympic ideals. Less clear-cut were the concepts of motion and emotion in Olympic coverage. Implications are discussed.