Mega-Sporting Events and the Media in Attention Economies. National and International Press Coverage of the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki 2005

摘要

The present article examines the IAAF World Championships as a commercialized mega-sporting event and an expression of the contemporary experience industry. The focus ofthe empirical analysis is on the national and international press coverage of the WorldChampionships in Helsinki, Finland, 2005. Eleven Finnish and six foreign newspapers wereanalysed. Finnish pre-Championship publicity saw the games mostly as a tool for achievinginternational media attention and economic profit. The coverage of the international presswas strikingly similar. The newspapers focussed mainly on the sporting events and theirperspective was strongly national – perfectly in line with traditional sports journalism. Thisfinding challenges the belief expressed in Finnish newspapers and by proponents of theattention economy that mega-events are powerful tools for urban marketing.