Opinion
The Soapbox: Media representation at the Rio Olympics
By Grace Ward '17
September 1, 2016
Tags opinion
It should not come as a shock to anyone that the 2016 Rio Olympics were a mess. This year, I was too busy to watch the games as fanatically as I had in the past, so I just watched the post-midnight pro- gramming with Ryan Seacrest, instead. His program covered such titillating demonstrations of athleticism as table tennis and women’s archery. My brother kept me updated on all the big events like Simone Biles’ gymnastic perfection and Michael Phelps’ countless Gold medals. However, the unavoidable news cov- erage of the Olympics did not have anything to do with the events. Instead, it focused on how shock- ingly unprepared Rio was to host the games. Such stories were being published way before the games had even begun with the all-too-real fear of Zika and the State proclaiming a “state of public calamity” that might cause the city to collapse in funds and public security.
Many people—myself included—wondered if the Olympics would even happen in the midst of all these issues. But these issues grew exponentially as the games finally began. One of the most cringe- worthy Olympic moments this summer was when French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his leg during the vault. To add insult to injury, he was dropped by paramedics while being removed from the scene on a stretcher. Many online news sites focused on the embarrassment of the stretcher incident rather than
the leg injury itself.
This past summer I interned at a public relations
firm in New York City. The goal of PR is to secure media coverage for clients and hope it enhances their brand. Since we work so closely with different me- dia outlets, the firm would have weekly round table discussions of the biggest news stories of the week. The discussions were very informative and insightful for certain events, but when it came time to discuss the Olympics I just felt sad.
My coworkers proposed that there was no need to analyze the coverage because it is so unilateral: out- lets bash Rio to catch the audience’s attention, much like when you see a car crash on the side of the road and you cannot look away. Overall, this internship taught me to pay more attention to the news I read and how it relates to an outlet’s objective as well as how the story might have been compromised in order to appeal to audiences. There are immense amounts of subjectivity in the media and we should not take each story at face value. A source is just a resource, a tool from which you base your own opinions. All of these points were important to keep in mind as I continued to follow the Olympic coverage.
When I finished my internship and headed back to Hamilton to lead an Orientation trip, a new Rio scandal developed: Ryan Lochte was mugged at gunpoint. While we were all shocked, it seemed to fit within the beat of all the other stories about Rio. Nobody questioned that the story might not be true because the media narrative suggested that it would
make total sense that famous, visiting athletes would be treated so violently by anyone in Rio.
I was in the woods when the real scandal of his lying was revealed. I was welcomed back onto campus by people saying “Did you hear about Ryan Lochte?” to which I would respond “about him be- ing mugged at gunpoint? Yeah of course, old news.” Moments later when they showed me memes and clips of the real story, I felt foolish.
I was mad at Ryan Lochte and I am glad that the media held him accountable and that he is now stripped of honor for slandering Rio and trying to take advantage of the city. Were the outlets cover- ing the games as such because they pegged it as a failure from before they even started? What will be the lasting global effect of Rio being a laughably bad Olympic host?
Instead of highlighting athletic achievements, most news outlets highlighted Rio as a scandal-rid- den failure. I am not saying Rio 2016 was the best Olympics ever—it was certainly flawed—I just want to say I gained a soft spot for Rio given the way they were bullied by the media.