The Trends and Factors in the presentation of athletes' media images

Abstract

With the media explosion of Ailing Gu and other athletes at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the topic of the media image of gold medal athletes had attracted much academic attention again. The current study reviewed the media image of gold medalists from two aspects, the developing trends and the factors including communication medium, subjects, and audience. The results showed that the media image of athletes showed a trend of diversified and commercialized content, which was closely related to the more diverse communication platforms, rich communication subjects, and wide audience in the new media era. Communicators message filter, a strong sense of social responsibility for the athletes, and a better media literate of the audience were necessary to cope with the problems that appear during its development. These findings were critical for better understanding China's economic and social development and examining ideas and methods for improving public perception of sports culture.