Framing the Winter Olympic Games: A Content Analysis of Polish Newspapers Coverage of Female and Male Athletes

The aim of this paper is to analyse the media coverage provided by two Polish daily newspapers (Gazeta Wyborcza and Przegląd Sportowy) during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games according to the athletes’ gender. The paper makes reference to agenda setting theory and media framing and it is based on an analysis of photographs of the games on the front pages and the sporting articles’ main themes. The analysis reveals that the press focused mainly on the Polish medal winners and did not reveal significant differences between women’s and men’s press coverage. Results show that the discourse of nationalism overrode the discourse of gender, the newspapers’ coverage being mainly based on the success of the Polish athletes, regardless of their gender.