Media rhetoric as social drama: The Winter Olympics of 1984

Abstract

The unprecedented importance of commercial media in both the broadcasting and the sponsorship of the Olympic games has had critical implications for their significance as global events. This appraisal of the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo argues that it was the plurality of tensions among the commodified market economy and more traditional heroic norms of excellence that engendered “social dramas” in the presentation of Olympic games. In this case study, the concept of spectacle is approached through Victor Turner's narrative phases of social drama in order to appreciate the moments of rhetorical urgency and reflective possibility within the games.