Framing the Olympic Elite Athlete Funding Issue: A Case Study of Canadian Newspaper Coverage

This article employs media framing theory to examine the debate over public funding to support elite athlete development. More specifically, it examines the discourse in Canadian newspaper coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games surrounding funding for elite athletes. The article first provides an overview of government funding support for elite athletes in Canada and then reviews relevant literature on media framing theory. Methods are discussed, followed by a summary of the frames found in the data analysis process, which examines frames across two distinct time periods—a period leading up to the Games where many stakeholders worried about the ability of Canadian athletes to perform for the host country and the period during and following the Games (where Canadian athletes achieved unprecedented success in winning medals). Several frames emerged from the media coverage regarding the issue of federal government funds for elite athletes over the periods before and during/after the 2010 Olympic Games. Through examining the frequencies of particular frames, we find that three frames—medal performance and national pride, diversified funding approaches, and sport participation and health benefits—were present in both pre-Olympics and during/post-Olympics periods examined, but the salience of the three frames varied between the time periods