Publication details
Narrative structures in online sports commentaries
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This contribution deals with the genre of online minute-by-minute match reports (MBMs) as a relatively new phenomenon of mass media communication. Using commentaries of recent international football matches, it describes their narrative structure from the perspective of discourse analysis and functional linguistics. The structure of sports commentaries has traditionally been described as developing on two levels: the level of description (i.e. the verbalization of events happening on the pitch) and the level of elaboration (i.e. everything else the commentators say). This presentation argues that online MBM go significantly beyond the traditional narrative structure of spoken commentaries. Thanks to the interactive nature of the medium, the audience can get involved by sending email messages to MBM commentators who can quote selected messages and react to them. As a result, MBMs are characterized by a pseudo-dialogic nature and a development of multiple parallel thematic lines, often quite unrelated to the game itself. The notion of the ‘level of elaboration’ may thus need to be extended to include: first, factual elaboration on issues connected with the game and second, interpersonal elaboration consisting of the interaction between the commentator and their audiences, resembling gossip and verbal contest. The actual sports match then provides a background against which all these mutually intertwined narrative levels are played out, with subjectivity, individuality and creativity being of crucial value. |
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