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Racial and nationality-based stereotypes of professional baseball players have been prominent in the U.S. media since the 1800s (Voigt, 1976). To determine the manner and extent to which such stereotypes exist in the media today, a qualitative document analysis was conducted on the nation’s top two general-interest sport magazines, Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine from 2000 to 2007. Based on framing theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what differences existed between the frames used to describe athletes of differing nationalities and races. The results revealed that stereotypes based on race and nationalities were maintained throughout the study in both publications, further perpetuating such stereotypes into the minds of readers. In addition, differences existed in portrayals of athletes of the same race but different nationalities. Implications for sport managers and suggestions for future research are addressed.

Traditional media coverage of the Olympic Games has been shown to exhibit biases in terms of gender, nationality, and the type of sports covered, which can contribute to negative societal consequences and inaccurate historical records of such events. Scholars have suggested that because of the Internet’s expanded spatial parameters, new media have the ability to provide more equitable coverage of events such as the Olympics. In this study, we used agenda setting theory to employ a content analysis methodology to determine whether different constructions of the 2012 London Olympics were presented to media consumers on news websites in Australia, Brazil, China, Great Britain, Kenya, and the United States. Findings indicated that very few gender, nationalistic, or sport biases existed in any of the countries’ coverage, lending credence to the notion that the Internet affords media managers with an opportunity to provide more equitable coverage and thus a more accurate depiction of events.

This case explores the complex multi-layered governance structure in the international Olympic sport of gymnastics, describing in detail the governance structures and operations of each layer – the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which is the international federation for gymnastics, and the national governing bodies (NGB) of gymnastics in the United States and Australia, USA Gymnastics and Gymnastics Australia. While both NGBs highlighted in this case are deemed to be successful on an international level, the case reveals many subtle differences between the two, which can be discussed in both governance and organizational behavior contexts. Finally, the timely issue of age fraud in gymnastics and the response from each level of governance are presented and provide an opportunity for further in-depth discussion.