Olympic cities and communication

Olympic cities and communication Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett Centre d’Estudis Olímpics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona The Centre d’Estudis Olímpics publishes works aimed to facilitate their scientific discussion. The inclusion of this text in this series does no limit future publication by its author who reserves the integrity of his rights. This publication may not be reproduced, neither partially nor totally, without the author’s permission. This document was published in Greek in 2004 as an article of the special issue “The Olympic Games: the mega sports and media event” of the journal Communication Issues (no. 1, p. 24-37) published by the Faculty of Communication & Media Studies and the University Research Institute of Applied Communication at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Ref. WP085 Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 2 To refer to this document, you can use the following reference: Moragas Spà, Miquel de & Chris Kennett (2005): Olympic cities and communication [online article]. Barcelona: Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB. [Date of consulted: dd/mm/yy] Available from: http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp085_eng.pdf [Date of publication: 2005] Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 3 Introduction One of the main challenges for the Modern Olympic Games is the establishment of a model for City- Games relations. This requires the definition of an organisational, economic and urban model, as well as a cultural and communication model. The Olympic Games are a mega-event characterised by their periodicity (the quadrennial Olympiad), having a fixed place in time that enables extensive communication planning to take place. This has facilitated the establishment of the Olympic Games as a media event (Dayan & Katz 1992) and has created important opportunities and challenges for the cultural and communication policies of the organising city and country, as well as for the IOC. The Olympic Games communication stakeholders Communication planning begins at least six years prior to the opening ceremony, and can stretch back even further to the conceptualisation of the bid when the basic strategic elements of the image of the host city and country are defined. The pursuit of acceptable solutions for all stakeholders is a complex process, both professionally and politically. The Olympic Games provide significant communication opportunities for the host, particularly in terms of promotion through the extensive media coverage the event receives. In the cases of Barcelona’92 and Sydney 2000 billions of dollars of investment was made in urban improvements that contributed to the construction of a desired image for the Games and their hosts. In short, investment in the Games was high, and so were the risks. It comes as no surprise that it is in the interests of several stakeholders to attempt to control the communication process. These stakeholders have short, medium and long-term interests in the successful communication of the Games. Firstly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a long-term vested interest in the positive communication of several factors including its collective organisational image and the image of key individual representatives, the communication of Olympic values, and the protection of Olympic symbols. It is the combination of these factors that produces the Olympic brand. Secondly, the local Games organising committee (OCOG) has a short-term interest that focuses on the successful communication of the constructed desired image of the Games, involving balancing the interests of local stakeholders (local, regional, nation governments, interest groups, community groups etc). The management of this process is aimed at generating local public support, which is crucial for the successful organisation of the Games. In the medium and longer term, the communication process may be extended as the host becomes an ‘Olympic city’, the Olympics becoming part of its identity. Thirdly, the official rights holding broadcasters have developed a long-term interest in the successful communication of the Olympic Games. Many broadcasters have used the Games in the development of their own brand images, becoming the ‘Olympic channel’. As often happens when large amounts are paid Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 4 for exclusive rights, questions of journalistic objectivity arise and accusations of ‘embedded journalism’ made. This is compensated for to a limited extent by the non-rights holding broadcasters and the press. Finally, and similarly to the Olympic Broadcasters, the official sponsors of The Olympic Programme (TOP) have medium to long-term interests in the successful communication of the Games. While their agreements often span Olympiads, the biannual celebration of the Games provides a focus point for their promotional activities. Marketers from these organisations seek opportunities to add value to their brand image through their association with an Olympic Games, a process that can be facilitated by local organisers (as in the case of Sydney), and in the creation of a coherent image for the Games themselves. The same circumstances apply for local sponsors, but with shorter-term interests that focus on local target audiences rather than international. The hundreds of millions of dollars that are invested by the broadcast and sponsors as stakeholders, increases still further the risks involved in the communication process and also the need to protect the semiotic and semantic content of the Olympic Movement. Moreover, it comes as little surprise that attempts by stakeholders to control the communication process have increased. In the case of Sydney 2000 more effort that ever was made to control the communication process in order to ensure the accurate communication of the constructed image for the Games and the hosts. This could be interpreted as manipulation of the media on the part of the organisers, taking advantage of the fact that international journalists may have to rely on them due to difficulty in accessing primary sources of information themselves. This may be of particular relevance to sports journalists requiring additional information on host culture. Indeed, the final image decision of the Games is a product of a process characterised by tensions and consensus, by negotiation between the different actors involved. In the case of Barcelona’92, for example, the final image decision was a result of consensus between the governments of Spain and Catalonia (the Generalitat), the Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Hall), the IOC, the media, sponsors and social actors involved in the cultural reality of the country. Each new edition of the Games requires specific research into the political dimension and management of their image. The Olympic Games communication process In terms of the professional or advertising aspect, the first step in communication planning involves the definition of the basic semantic contents that should subsequently be communicated through the mass media. The debate over the basic semantic contents inspires the whole of the Games’ symbolic production, most notably in the design of symbols (logo, mascot), the selection of a cultural model for the ceremonies (opening, closing, torch relay, medal presentations), the basic information strategies for the mass media (books, brochures, guides, videos etc). Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 5 During this process, there is a tendency to reinforce dominant and widely accepted values that are of a non-conflictive nature, which are often ‘politically correct’ and to avoid controversial or divisive themes. These values are adapted to the Olympic rituals, as well as to the communication production routines of each period in time in which the Games take place. This adaptation to the Olympic rituals and to period-specific communication conditions implies the synthesis of a complex reality – the identity of the host – in a limited number of images and reference points. Taking this into account, and based on research undertaken on the Games of Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, it is possible to identify the following main categories and semantic processes:  Adaptation of the messages to an international audience, but also to the expectations of local public opinion;  Achievement of consensus and negotiation between the actors involved in the organisation of the Games regarding areas for promotion;  Resistance of publicly accepting the existence of conflicts, but when made obvious and public they are incorporated;  Semantic synthesis (reduction) of the host’s collective image and adaptation to the demands of visual languages;  International media interpretation of the culture and social reality of the host, encoded as part of their established journalistic patterns;  Integration of the host city image and the Olympic Movement into the history of that city (Moragas 1987; Moragas, Rivenburgh & Larson 1995; Moragas, Moreno & Kennett 2003). Consensus, criticism and self-criticism In order to understand ‘image creation’, it is also necessary to discuss ‘missing elements’, or perhaps we should say elements that are omitted from official promotional strategies. As with any promotional activity, negative aspects tend to be left out of image making and semantic processes (pollution, marginalisation, poverty, prostitution, noise, urban inequalities, congestion etc.). In the case of Barcelona, for example, a principle aim was to avoid outdated tourist stereotypes such as bullfighting, flamenco, sangria, sun, folklore etc. These notions did not fit with the new Catalan identity or the image of a modern Spain that were to be projected internationally. Despite this, the final image of the Games is a result of many other interventions and tensions that are not under the control of those that officially manage the image. Every four years the Olympic Games take place in different social context and the image of those Games is partly shaped by dissenting voices and alternative perspectives. Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 6 The phases of public opinion The popular euphoria that is produced by the nomination of a city to be the host of an Olympic Games, which is reproduced and reinforced by the local media, is the beginning of a lengthy period where public opinion passes through several different phases:  Expectation (6 to 4 years before);  Mistrust and general criticism from the local press (4 to 2 years before);  Consensus (1 year before);  Euphoria, local solidarity and limited criticism from the media (year of the Games);  Forgetting (the first few years after the Games);  Recovery: emblematic anniversaries (1st, 10th, 25th, 50th …) (Moragas, Moreno & Kennett 2003). The year of the Games is characterised by the containment of self-criticism. Certain studies of public opinion in Olympic cities explain this is a consequence of the effects of large scale promotional campaigns that take place (Rutheiser 1996; Jefferson 2000). Without questioning their influence, it is also necessary to consider the brake placed on criticism by strong collective feeling that is produced by the public’s consciousness of the fact that the world’s eyes are upon the city. This feeling (‘we’ll be watched by 3.5bn TV viewers’) facilitates political opportunism in the reaching of agreements and consensus for the achievement of commonly held objectives or for the resolution of historical problems. Examples such opportunism include the opening up of Korea to the world in 1988, the pact between the Catalan and Spanish governments in the creation of the symbols and use of national flags in the ceremonies at Barcelona’92, as well as the agreements struck with Aboriginal communities for Sydney 2000. Every host city, of course, has certain key themes as part of the everyday functioning of its political and social reality. For Barcelona’92, the key theme was the demand for representation of Catalan national identity in the symbology of the Games and for recognition of its own identity on a global scale. Increasingly the same key themes tend to be repeated, focusing on major problems in the global society: the economy and globalisation; sustainability and urban politics; social integration and multi-culturality. This places the Olympic Movement at the heart of current debate on society in general, not only in relation to sport. The image of the Games has become increasingly important in the communication of the host’s commitment to tackling such themes as peace and the protection of the environment. For example, both Lillehammer and Sydney promoted themselves as the ‘Green Games’. Twelve years later in Barcelona, when considering the current organisation of the Universal Forum of Cultures 2004 in the city, it is surprising how little criticism of there was of the commercialisation and involvement of multinationals in the organisation of the Games. In the context of accelerated globalisation, which the Games have simultaneously contributed to and been subject to, anti-globalisation critiques have Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 7 emerged that may form the focal point of new criticisms for the organisation of Games and the Olympic Movement in general. The main stages for symbolic production The ceremonies: international projection of the host The ceremonies are the main media for the symbolic production of the modern Olympic Games (Moragas, MacAloon & Llinés 1994). This has been demonstrated by various research studies, in particular on the opening and closing ceremonies at Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney (Moragas, Rivenburgh & Larson 1995). The results from these analyses have demonstrated the high level of similarity between the ‘ideasproposal’ of the message senders (the Organising Committee) and the diffusion of these ideas through the international television broadcasters. Contrary to this, these studies have also highlighted numerous contradictions and imbalances in the representation of Olympic values, especially multi-culturality, in the broadcasts of the ceremonies. These studies have also demonstrated that interest in the more general and universal aspects of the Games are compatible with interest in more local or specific aspects. Attention paid to the more local rituals and the representations of the ceremonies by the majority of international TV broadcasters shows a double condition - ‘local-global’ - in the media coverage of the Games (Tomlinson 1996). The ceremonies, in their totality, structure their discourse in reference to the dual concepts of ‘globalisation’ and ‘localisation’. In the case of Barcelona’92 understanding was achieved (between broadcasters and other interpreters) on a key issue: the Games presented the opportunity to change the international image of the three main geopolitical reference points: Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain. The international television and press interpreted these changes and communicated them to an unprecedented audience, estimated to be between 700m and 1bn television viewers (Moragas, Rivenburgh & Larson 1995a). The stadium becomes a TV studio In recent editions of the Games, and without doubt as a result of the impacts of television, the ceremonies have become one of the key projects of the Games’ organisation. The success of the Games is related to a limited extent on the success of the ceremonies, providing a window which opens into the athletic competition and sets the tone for the following days. Sixteen days later the window closes, providing a time for reflection on the Games in sporting and organisational terms, as well as the last chance to communicate key messages. The Games’ organisers have shown the ability to add the necessary dose of creativity to call attention to the originality of artistic and creative proposals. The ceremonies in Barcelona, for example, benefited from opting for a vanguard style and from their clear differentiation from folkloristic antecedents of previous ceremonies and from superficial mass gymnastic festivals, which for many Spaniards provoke memories of Francoist trade union celebrations. Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 8 This vanguard approach (which began in Albertville) and the achievement of political consensus concerning the images to be shown were without doubt two of the keys to the ceremonies’ success in Barcelona, as well as gaining popular support for them. After Seoul’88 the ceremonies have generally been structured in three main parts: introduction and presentation of the host country’s culture; a celebration of the Olympic rituals; and a final celebration expressed through the culture of the host. Barcelona brought something new to this structure: bringing together these rituals and spectacles onto one stage with the covering of the stadium in a carpet of blue Mediterranean colour. This formula was continued in Atlanta (again blue) and Sydney (brown) creating an enormous stage, a monumental television studio inside the stadium. The ceremonies of Barcelona, in continuation from those of Los Angeles’84 and Seoul’88 distanced themselves from the rather naïve format of the Moscow’80 ceremonies (including hundreds of dancing “Misha” bears). Important new developments also took place in the treatment of the Olympic rituals, making them more spectacular and more ‘televisual’. Three examples highlight this innovation: the archer lighting the cauldron with a flaming arrow; the covering of the athletes with a giant Olympic flag; and the parade of flags representing previous Olympic Games, which included flags with doves for the Games cancelled due to the world wars. With the new influence of television and modern cultural circumstances (global-local), the ceremonies have become established as the main symbolic and cultural act of the Olympic Games. In the cases of Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, the ceremonies were the focal point of the host city’s cultural policy relating to the Games. The ceremonies are an unrepeatable opportunity for the international projection of the host city image, but above all they should be understood as an opportunity to represent Olympic values. Therefore, the Athens 2004 Games constitute a unique opportunity, where host city cultural representation coincides with the historic tradition of the Olympism. The major communication challenge for the ceremonies involves the adaptation of this discourse to the media stage that the Olympic stadium becomes on the nights that open and close the Games. However, the control is not entirely in the hands of the organisers. The second part of the communication process lays with the international television broadcasters, in the phrases of the commentators, the selection of images and placement of commercial breaks. The interpretation and edition of the ceremonies, what and how the audience see and hear as they experience the ceremonies is in the hands of a small number of media professionals. The research undertaken on this coverage forms a fundamental part of the final study of the legacy of the Games. Miquel de Moragas Spà & Chris Kennett - Olympic cities and communication © 2005 Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB 9 The host city identity: symbol and mascot The image policy of the Olympics Games receives its first test in the selection of the mascot and the symbol (or logo). It is no surprise that these first design decisions are the centre of controversy and mark the future orientation of subsequent decisions relating to the cultural model of the Games. Cobi mascot For example, the Cobi mascot was the product of the initial tensions and the need for consensus in the symbolic production of Barcelona’92. Cobi broke radically from previous ‘Disneyfied’ mascots. The ambiguity of Cobi enabled its adaptation to a long process of consumption and manipulation, over time becoming recognised as a high quality design (especially in commercial terms) and at the same time vanguard in nature. The Olympic Collectors Association web site recognised the process of acceptance that took place, “the Spaniards did not immediately take to “Cobi”, the surreal dog from the Summer Olympic Games of Barcelona. “Cobi’s” popularity slowly grew and by the end of the Games he was loved universally by the Spanish and the rest of the world’ (International Olympic Memorabilia Federation 2004). Logo Barcelona’92 Logo Athens 2004 Following the tradition established by Otl Aicher for the Munich’72 Games, the official symbol of the Barcelona’92 Games was a basic element of overall identity of the Games. The red and yellow of the Spanish and Catalan national flags combined with the blue of the Mediterranean in a dynamic image that represents the sporting movement, but also a vibrant and passionate identity for the hosts. The Athens 2004 symbol employs similar design techniques. The olive wreath (kotinos) was the reward for victory in Ancient Greece and was the symbol of the Athenian city-state. The colour combinations are also specifically Greek, the blue representing the Greek sea and sky, and the white reflects the Aegean light. The free-hand drawing of the wreath also has symbolic value, communicating the human element of the Games. 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