International Sports Commentary Frame and Entertainment: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Commentary Differences in World Series Broadcasts

Abstract

Numerous studies examining the portrayals of gender, race, and nationality in sports commentary have been conducted through the years; however, comparative analyses of commentaries from different countries have been rare. This study examined commentary from 3 different countries (the U.S., Chinese Taipei, and South Korea) during a Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series. An entertainment theory schema was adopted and the 3 countries were categorized based on dispositional relativity (affiliation) with MLB. Findings indicate that South Korean broadcasts, which had the lowest affiliation with MLB, were biased toward the Boston Red Sox and presented the most evaluative commentaries; U.S. commentaries were generally positive and contained the largest portion of informative comments; and Chinese commentaries were unbiased and also provided a large number of informative comments. This implies that sports games using the same visual images can be framed differently by commentators based on the disposition (affiliation) level of audiences.