A Study of Asahi Shinbun Articles Relating to Doping amongAthletes since World War II

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to search for the historical concerns of doping and the social recognition on it for the last 50 years by the contents analysis of articles in the Asahi Shinbun, one of the leading newspapers in Japan. The following results were obtained. 1. The first article on doping, concerning the death of a Danish cyclist in the Rome Olympic Games due to the use of roniacol of vasodilator as a stimulant, appeared in 1960. 2. The volume of the articles about doping increased from the beginning of the 1970s, reflecting increase of the social interest in doping, represented by the introduction of a doping control test in that time. 3. The marked increase in the volume of articles about doping was observed in 1988, when the scandal of Ben Johnson occurred; in this year, the volume reached 802.3 column ? centimeters and 88.1% of them treated his scandal. 4. The highest volume of the articles, i.e. 1, 352.1 column ? centimeters, among the 50 years was observed in 1994. This volume was equivalent to 5 pages of newspaper. Compared with the volume of articles about AIDS in the same newspaper in 1990 and 1991(Hirata et al., 1995), that of doping was 79.1% and 113.0% respectively, implying that doping was socially concerned to the same extent which AIDS was. 5. The comparison of the volume of articles of doping by the categorized pages revealed that 91.2% were treated in the sports pages. It is recommended that the newspapers deal with more articles about doping, focusing on the morals and the side-effects in other pages than sports pages.