抄録
As seen from the growth in the scale of the event and the increase in the level of competition of its participants, interest in the Paralympics is catching up to that in the Olympics, and step by step, the way that the Paralympics are seen and how they are treated by the media have been changing.
There is a close relationship between sports and the media, and monitoring how the media reports on sports not only brings to light different issues related to the Paralympics, but is also useful for exploring the public's interest in and perspective
on the event.
In this article, four researchers have analyzed newspaper reports during the Rio Paralympics, systematically organizing them under fifteen different categories, and examining the contents and trends in the reports.
Reports on doping in the Paralympics were prominently about Russia, following the ban on Russian participation in the Games. The cyber-attack on WADA and the display of the Russian flag by the Belarus team were a glimpse of how what began as a doping issue developed into a political one.
Reports on the winning of medals focused on the increase in the international level of competition and the medal tallies of several countries. Reports on the advances made by the host nation Brazil noted institutional improvements which led tochanges in funding allocation and in training environments. However, little mention was made of measures to improve Brazil's level of competition in international sports, and reports focused more on lighter topics such as the friendly atmosphere among tourists and Games volunteers, and the open-mindedness of the Brazilian people. Overall, there was a tendency towards reporting to be favorable and positive.
During the second half of the Paralympic Games, there was less discussion of gold medal targets, and more mention of issues for improving Japan's level of competition in international sports. The general stance was not to criticize Japanese athletes for failing to win gold medals, but to report on the current situation of disability sports and the issues it faces. The prevailing view was that the Paralympics are not just about winning. There was concern expressed about evaluation based solely on the number of medals, and discussions on the value of the Paralympic Games itself.
