North Korea and the 'Peace Games': media representations of sport and politics at the 2018 winter olympics

The reopening of the border hotline between North and South Korea started the process for a unified nation marching in the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The event was described as the 'Peace Games', highlighting the intersection of sport and politics on a global stage. This article examines the representations in media reporting of North Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics in six regionally and internationally significant nations. There were 660 online articles from six English-language news websites from North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, the US, and UK dealing with North Korea's return to the global sporting arena. The results provide an understanding of the different narratives applied when reporting on North Korea in sporting contexts, which in this sample also include broader political elements. In this example, even though North Korea's participation in the Winter Olympics was part of a major sporting event, the importance of political concerns and issues was greater compared with sporting achievements in newsmedia representations of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

朝韩边境热线的重新开通开启了在2018年冬奥会开幕式上一个统一民族行进的进程。该届冬奥会被描述为“和平运动会”，凸显了体育与政治在全球舞台上的交集。本文研究了在六个具有地区和国际重要性的国家中媒体对朝鲜在2018年冬奥会报道的呈现情况。有来自朝鲜、韩国、日本、中国、美国和英国的六个英文新闻网站的660篇网络文章涉及朝鲜重返全球体育舞台这一事件。研究结果有助于理解在体育背景下报道朝鲜时所采用的不同叙事方式，在本样本中还包括更广泛的政治因素。在这个例子中，尽管朝鲜参加冬奥会是一项重大体育赛事的一部分，但在新闻媒体对2018年冬奥会的报道中，政治关切和问题的重要性相较于体育成就更为突出。