Analysis of Newspaper Headlines from The Times and The New York Times: UEFA Euro 2024 and Paris Olympics 2024

Abstract

Sporting events have numerous positive impacts on individual communities, countries, and society in general. They transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, and contribute to societal well-being by connecting communities around the world. The Olympics and the Euro (UEFA European Football Championship) are among the most popular sporting events in the world. Mainstream media around the world have reported on these two major sporting events. Analysis of media language is an integral part of research into various contemporary aspects of social and cultural changes. Thus, analysis of media representation of important sporting events offers a valuable insight into linguistic and discoursal aspects of media power and the complex relationship between language and society. The aim of this study is to analyse media representation of the UEFA Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympic Games 2024 in The Times and The New York Times. The corpus is composed of headlines related to the UEFA Euro 2024 (published from 15 June to 16 July 2024) and headlines related to the Paris Olympics (published from 11 July to 12 August 2024). Headlines are analysed by using the theoretical and methodological framework of CDA, which is employed for describing, interpreting and explaining different aspects of discursive practices in newspaper discourse. The focus is on establishing correlations between particular examples of media language and societal, institutional and cultural contexts.