Running head: FRAME ALIGNMENT BETWEEN SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS AND THE MEDIA
FIFA: How Sports Organizations’ Communication Align with the News Media Frames University of Amsterdam
Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme in Communication Science
Corporate Communication
Master’s Thesis
Name: Emanuela Baccari Student Number: 11103191 Supervisor: Dhr. Dr. Pytrik Schafraad
Abstract
Sportive scandals and events are at the center of the media coverage, FIFA is one of the organizations that has been mostly present in the news. To talk about these scandals and events, the media and the organizations are the two sources designated to give information. In doing so, PR professionals and the media give meanings and interpretations to these
circumstances through their frames. What remains unclear from previous studies is if PRs can condition the frames used by the media, arranging a common story of the situation. For this reason, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether the frames provided in the press releases by the communication department align with the frames reported in the media, to the same extent during crisis situations as well as routine situations. By using a content analysis, this explorative study analyzed the occurrence of the frames present in press releases of FIFA and in newspaper’ articles. The findings showed that PR’s press releases and newspaper’ articles partially aligned in the frames provided to describe both crisis and routine situations. The results of this study are considered in the light of practical implications for other sportive organizations about the effective strategies applicable to communicate with the media.
Keywords: frames of attributes; frames of actions; frame alignment; PR professionals; news media; crisis situations; routine situations.
Introduction
Sports organizations are constantly under the watchful of the media since they are the creators of most of the biggest events and scandals all over the World. These large events and scandals are at the center of relevant media coverage since they are facts in which people are interested in. From this point of view, we can say that both organizations and the media have the role of giving information about these important events and critical situations (Carey, 2002), giving their own meanings to the facts.
Most of the previous studies focused on how journalism describes and gives salience to certain episodes influencing the public agenda (Carroll & McCombs, 2003), but remain unexplored how PR professionals can give specific directions to the frames used by the media. Frames as the selected aspects provided to promote a definition of an event (Entman, 1993). In this sense, one of the core aspects of public relation professionals is to transmit information to the media, to establish a communicative relationship with journalists and to promote positive coverage of issues regarding organizations (Verhoeven, 2016). The result of this is that the media and organizations in some way work together to present frames on situations. As Hallahan (1999) suggested, framing is an essential tool for public relations to strategically promote the meanings of situations, attributes, issues and actions in a favourable manner for their organizations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand if the
meanings contained in the frames provided by PRs, through the press releases, and journalists, with newspaper articles, align in the description and elaboration of routine situations as well as crisis situations. Alignment intended as the congruence and unity in providing the same definition of a situation between the different parties involved in the creation of the meaning, as organizations and newspapers (Snow, Rochford, Worden, & Benford, 1986).
Nowadays, football is considered as part of the cultural and social context of many European countries, such as Italy. Journalism is more and more focused on the affairs that
concern this sport, not only on the matches (Ledbrooke & Turner, 1955, cited in Tomlinson & Sugden, 2008). For instance, these affairs can include moral issues, namely the racism and violence in stadiums, news about the private life of football players and managers, and also unethical conducts of organizations, such as cases of corruption. In this sense, always being monitored, puts sportive organizations in a delicate position when they have to communicate about their events and crises. In the last year and a half, one of the sportive organization that has been mostly “under the cyclone” of the media is FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). In May 2015 one of the biggest scandals related to sports organizations occurred, the case of corruption of the former president Sepp Blatter. Moreover, it was not only a large crisis, it also involved one of the most powerful sports federations, who also deliberates new regulations for football and which organizes one of the biggest sportive events, the FIFA World Cup, the most prominent and followed football competition in the World. For this reason, I decided to take into examination this association, as being one of the most important, influential and worldwide sportive association, from which other
organizations can take a cue for their communications’ strategies to understand how to communicate during their routine situations as well as during crisis situations.
Additionally, this research examines newspapers from Italy, for the strong and solid culture of football present in this country. For instance, the pervasiveness of football in the Italian culture is clear from the greater amount of information and visibility that is dedicated to football during daily newscasts and press. People talk about what happen in football every day, they want to know how this world made of big events and famous people, works. Consequently, it is important to take into account routine events of FIFA as well as crisis situations. Both circumstances are present on news media regularly and attract considerable media attention.
provide an increased awareness for professionals of other sports organizations, analyzing how the FIFA frames and the newspapers’ frames align in giving meanings to routine and crisis events. In this sense, providing guidelines and understandings of the main strategies used by an important sports organization, as FIFA, to manage their relationships with media in their routine works and in crisis situations.
For all the aforementioned reasons, the research question of this study is: Does sports organizations’ communication align with the news media frames to the same extent during crisis situations and routine situations?
Theoretical Framework
This paper is an explorative study with the purpose of investigating and exploring whether PR department of a sportive organization, FIFA, directs and impacts the use of specific frames in the news to describe routine as well as crisis situations. Particularly, this study intends to analyze if the frames presented in the press releases of the PR professionals align with the frames presented in the newspapers to the same extent during routine situations and during crisis situations. Finally, this article aspires to understand whether the approaches that FIFA uses to communicate with the media differ during routine situations and crisis situations, trying to determine the different strategies adopted by the PR practitioners.
According to Avery (2010), a crisis is a critical situation that can provoke negative outcomes for organizations, such as cases of fraud. A crisis can be defined as an issue, that is a matter of discussion (Ihlen & Verhoeven, 2012). On the other hand, Avery (2010) defined routine situations as ongoing and day-to-day performances, in this sense it includes all the natural performances of organizations, as conferences and policies. The ways used to describe and the consideration given to these two situations can be different, the newsworthy of the two matters of discussion can diverge between PR practitioners and journalists. For instance the media attention can be greater for a short-term trend, as a crisis, then for a routine
situation (Koopmans & Olzak, 2004).The authors suggested that an event can present some aspects and characteristics that make it relevant and meaningful for the media. This concept is the core idea of news value which implies that an event becomes a story when it involves some features, called news factors, that make the event newsworthy (Lippmann, 1992, cited in Kepplinger & Ehmig, 2006). One of the aspects that can be used to define the
newsworthiness of an event is the reference to prestige parties involved (Galtung & Ruge, 1965, cited in Staab, 1990), as can be the most important federation of sports, FIFA.
As mentioned in the article of Ihlen and van Ruler (2007), the sociological approach of Ihlen (2004) stated that public relations and journalism have the same role in the society, both of them provide and create the flow of information and meanings of a situation, that is then disseminated in the minds of public. This idea is also underlined in the cultural approach to communication of Carey (1975), which declared that journalism and public relations overlap in their societal function, in addition to the relationship that practitioners have with journalists in influencing the media content. For this reason, we can assume that the
relationship between PRs and journalists is pivotal because journalists with their news articles and PRs with their press releases have the same role in the society and are closely related.
The role that PR practitioners and journalists have in the society can be also found in the idea of “public sphere” of Hollander (1988), that is defined as the place where
communication occurs and where situations can be discussed by all. In this scenario, public relations and journalism are two of the parties that participate in this public sphere and dynamically create the sense of certain situations. Particularly relevant is how the messages that organizations spread in the public sphere carry certain meanings and give their
interpretations to situations with their frames.
The fact that PR professionals try to disseminate specific frames in the public sphere with their press releases can lead to the idea that PRs are perceived as sponsors of particular
frames. This idea is explained by Van Gorp (2007), PR professionals are an interest group which attempts to strategically induce the media to report a specific situation, event or issue according with “their frame”. From this point of view, we can state that as sponsors, PRs suggest journalists to include or to exclude some aspects of an event, proposing a selection and an interpretation of the event. In this scenario, press releases are perceived not only as a tool to offer information but also as providers of frames with the aim to induce journalists to chose the one present in the press releases. Additionally, Van Gorp specifies that to accept or not accept the PR’s frame can mean also to report or not a statement, to give a particular prominence to a declaration and to decide to present or not the exact formulation of the statement proposed by PRs. In this sense, it is clear that journalists can also decide to ignore the suggested frame (Benford, 1993; Callaghan & Schnell, 2001; Gamson & Modigliani, 1989, cited in Van Gorp, 2007).
PR professionals have the possibility to propose their frames because, as illustrated in the article of Lewis, Williams, and Franklin (2008), the practice of news gathering and reporting of journalism is changed. Nowadays, journalists rely more on PRs as sources of information and PR’s materials, with their frames, are more likely to have space in the journalist agendas. As Gandy (1982) explained, organizations with their PR practitioners, through press releases, spokespersons and press conferences, are perceived as information subsidies. This means that PRs’ materials, that can include frames and interpretations of a situation, offer an important support for news organizations. An example that illustrates this phenomenon is the sports journalism, as Tomlinson and Sugden (2008) suggest, major sports organizations start to churn out an amount of information, official statement, press releases, press conferences, mixed-zone, to make easier the job of journalists that are looking for information and to manage the news about sports organizations.
than conflictual relationship between these two sources of information (Blumler & Gurevitch, 1995, cited in Lewis, Williams, & Franklin, 2008). As reported by Davis and Franklin (2008), the relationship between journalists and PR practitioners is a two-way exchange, journalists need PRs as sources of information and PRs need journalists to gain publicity and to promote their positive interpretation and exposition of a situation. As mentioned by Carroll, cited in Cornelissen, Carroll, and Elving (2009), encouraging positive information and interpretations about a circumstance allows organizations to gain support for the reputation of the
organization itself. In this sense, the interaction between PR professionals and journalists is essential for the livelihood of organizations. In the article of Cornelissen, Carroll, and Elving (2009), journalists and practitioners are perceived as interdependent. PRs with their comments and materials are sources for journalists and equally, journalists are instruments to promote and disseminate the appropriate coverage on the organizations’ professionals work for. The authors suggested also that this interdependence is possible because professionals, to maintain good relationships with journalists and to guarantee a positive coverage of their organizations, are compelled to control and verify that the information that supply are accurate.
Eventually, we can state that one of the crucial aspects of public relations is the creation of meanings about events and issues (Ihlen & Verhoeven, 2012). This idea is firmly associated with the notion of sense-making (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2005). With this concept we intend how organizations try to make sense and describe events and issues, giving an interpretation of these. In doing so, individuals within an organization, as PR professionals, provide a discursive narration to explain the phenomenon to others, such as journalists. From this point of view, PRs attempt to influence the interpretations and the frames of journalists to communicate the event and the issue according to the well-being of the organization. To force a precise interpretation with the consequent frame, public relations practitioners have to frame the situation in a way that can be acceptable and adopted by the journalists, because, as stated
by Ihlen and Verhoeven (2012), a plausible sense is made up by a two-way communication process in which the actors outside of the organization contribute to the definition of the situation. Therefore, meanings and interpretations regarding certain issues and events are discursively created and negotiated between journalists and PR practitioners (Fiss & Hirsch, 2005, cited in Cornelissen, et al., 2009). The authors interpreted the relationship between PR professionals and journalists as a negotiation, both parties construct and give significance to an event, creating a frame about it, and then negotiating the common details and relevance of the situation that will be published, producing a common understanding. In some cases, however, journalists can also decide to disagree with provided interpretations even after negotiation, because of different points of view about the issue or because they find some other aspects and meanings more noticeable and significant. For instance, journalists can find their meanings through alternative sources, such as specialized blogs or not-official sources inside the organization.
Framing
The idea of sense-making, that is how organizations decide to give meaning and sense about a certain situation (Weick, et al., 2005), is central for organizations to provide their frame to journalists. According to the definition of Entman (1993), to frame is to select some features and attributes of a situation and assign them salience, in doing so it is possible to promote a specific meaning, definition, interpretation and evaluation of a situation. As proposed in the article by Vliegenthart and van Zoonen (2011), who refer to the concept of frame of Goffman, frames are a selection, an emphasis and a presentation of an issue. Van Gorp (2007) considered frames as a specific way in which a story can be read, where an event is defined by an evaluation and is assimilated in a context. A specific situation can be framed in various ways, for example, Entman (1993) presents as if the journalists are in control in the
process of making some information more meaningful and accentuating certain particular aspects of the issue.
However, framing is a dynamic process in which the meaning and interpretation about a situation can be affected by the interactions with others (Christensen & Cornelissen, 2010). From this point of view, the journalistic interpretation can be partly shaped by external forces, such as by the frame sponsored by public relations practitioners (Van Gorp, 2007). As
suggested by Vliegenthart and van Zoonen (2011), the result of this process of interaction between PRs and journalists can be the proposition of meaning and interpretation particularly relevant for certain actors that promote a precise story and perspective of the issue. In a study of Verhoeven (2016), the author suggests that media, such as newspapers, usually support the frames of organizations, but they can also adopt different frames writing with their own discursive strategies what is mentioned in the press releases, introducing new frames to talk and think about a situation. Furthermore, Verhoeven argued how nowadays organizations adopt pro-active media policies providing frames that can meet the goals of the organization as well as the need of the news process.
As Hallahan (1999) states, framing is a constituent of the work of PRs, in this sense, the author suggested that the role of PR practitioners in organizations is to create and preserve reciprocally beneficial relationships between key publics, such as journalists, and an
organization, constructing meanings and definitions of issues. In this scenario, what makes PRs relevant is their ability to establish a prevalent frame about an issue that can effectively support and preserve this relationship. From this point of view, the author asserts that there are different frames that can be used to portray a situation, providing contextual cues to guide the interpretation of a situation. To analyze how information is presented, this study will focus on the frame of attributes and the frame of actions, which will be explained in the following paragraphs.
Frames of attributes.
The frame of attributes can be described as the aspects and the patterns that detail the content of a situation (Reese, Gandy, & Grant, 2001). Hallahan (1999) defined the frame of attributes as the features and the characteristics of a situation. From this point of view, when an issue is framed certain characteristics can be accentuated, whereas it is possible to pass over on others. What both journalists and PR professionals can do is to process the
information about a situation selectively focusing only on some aspects and attributes of the situation. Frame of attributes can be cognitive and affective. According to Reese, Gandy, and Grant (2001), the cognitive attributes of frames are the descriptions and definitions of a situation, in this sense are the factual aspects of the issue (e.g. responsibility, financial concerns, or actors involved,..). On the other hand, the affective attributes of frames are the evaluations and the interpretations of the situation, such as the tone of voice that can comment an issue in a positive, negative or neutral way. These can propose a provocative and illusory explanation of the situation or they can emphasize the proactive and concrete behaviours of the actors involved in the situation.
Some frames of attributes can be compelling, more resonant and more pertinent to describe a situation differently for journalists and PR practitioners. For example, public relations professionals routinely accentuate specific characteristics of the situation that better represent the issue. For this reason, the aim of this study is to explore the resulting sub-questions:
1a. Which are the predominant frames of attributes present in press releases and newspaper articles during crisis situations?
1b. Which are the predominant frames of attributes present in press releases and newspaper articles during routine situations?
Frames of actions.
The frames of actions concern the alternative ways in which the situation is reported (Hallahan, 1999). The author suggested that the situation can be portrayed maximizing the achievement of a positive result for the organization, but also focusing on the negative consequences that a situation has caused or the result of not taking a particular action. In this sense, PR practitioners and journalists can differ in the way in which the description of the situation accentuate negative or positive consequences because the same issue can be stated alternatively in positive or negative terms focusing on specific and particular assessments of the situation. The frame of actions can present the activities of an organization in a way that can raise the organization, using favourable aspects, or present critics for its action, presenting the organization in an unfavourable way (Carroll & McCombs, 2003). Hallahan explained that public relation professionals in their daily work try to maximize the positive intentions and actions of the organizational behaviors by portraying the situation in the most favourable way. On the other hand, journalists can also decide to take into account the negative aspects that the situation has provoked. For this reason, the following sub-questions will be analyzed:
2a. Which are the predominant frames of actions present in press releases and newspaper articles during crisis situations?
2b. Which are the predominant frames of actions present in press releases and newspaper articles during routine situations?
Frame alignment.
A situation can be interpreted and discussed in different ways, in this sense the PRs and journalists can present a situation with different frames based on their different
professions (van der Meer, Verhoeven, Beentjes, & Vliegenthart, 2014). However, as stated before, PRs practitioners are providers of information for journalists and this cause an
der Meer, et al., 2013). This idea presumes that the two parties involved in the creation of the meaning of a situation provide a congruent, unite and defined frame of the issue (Snow, Rochford, Worden, & Benford, 1986). The frame that arises is the result of the negotiation and interaction between journalists and PRs (Vliegenthart & van Zoonen, 2011). Snow, and et al. interpreted the alignment as a strategic process of an organization to connect its frames and concerns with the media. The authors suggested that two types of frame alignment exist, that are frame bridging and frame amplification. The former is intended as the connection between two or more domains that are ideologically equal but deriving from different structures and that can align regard a particular situation. This kind of alignment is the result of the
information diffusion through the interaction between journalists and PRs. The latter type of alignment refers to the clarification and the intensification of an interpretative frame regarding the situation. This concept is related to the frequency and the amount of articles in which the situation is covered and with the visibility that the situation receives, such as the number of newspapers that report the issue.
To understand how the frames of PRs align with the news frames in congruence and in incidence, in both routine and crisis situations, the consequent sub-questions will be
investigated:
3a. To what extent do press releases and newspaper articles align during crisis situations?
3b. To what extent do press releases and newspaper articles align during routine situations?
Fig. 1. Frame alignment between public relation professionals and journalists
Method Research Design
This study had the aim to compare and analyze two different media contents, in this sense this research has a relational design. Specifically, the two media contents examined were the press releases of FIFA and Italian newspaper articles from sportive and broadsheet news. So, this research had the purpose to investigate whether the frames of attributes and the frames of actions adopted in the press releases align with the frames used in the newspaper articles, during routine situations as well as during crisis situations. For this aim, a manual quantitative content analysis has been conducted.
Sampling
For the aim of this study, FIFA has been chosen for being one of the most powerful and important sportive organization in the World and, as such, constantly present in the news and continuously pro-active in providing information about its activities. The press releases of FIFA and the newspaper articles published between January 2015 and November 2016 have been analyzed. This news concerned routine situations, specifically the forthcoming World Cup 2018, the election of the new president of FIFA and the implementation of new rules for football governance, as well as crisis situations, that are, the case of corruption of the former
president of FIFA Blatter and the investigation concerning suspected violations of the new president Infantino.
As source of organizational communications about FIFA, we took into account the press releases published on the FIFA’s webpage in the aforementioned period concerning the routine and the crisis situations reported in the newspapers. Moreover, both sportive and broadsheet Italian newspaper articles published in the same period were analyzed. The sportive newspapers have been taken into account as they are specialist sources of information about sportive events and about crisis situations concerning the football
environment. The three main popular sportive newspapers have been used, these are Gazzetta dello Sport, TuttoSport and Il Corriere dello Sport. Broadsheet newspapers have been also utilized for this analysis, considering that in Italy football is one of the main topics in the news everyday, and the broadsheet newspapers are quality newspapers from which public obtain information also about sports events and crisis circumstances that affect football. Three quality newspapers have been selected, Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and La Stampa. The selected sportive and broadsheet newspapers have been chosen because of their
reputation for being authentic and credible sources of information in Italy (adsnotizie.it, 2016).
To achieve the goal of this research, a stratified sampling has been used to obtain the two specific newspapers subgroups. Since the vast overall population of newspapers present in Italy, this choice has been taken as being advantageous and useful to have a homogeneous and representative sample according to the typology of the newspapers. Then, all the
newspaper articles about FIFA concerning both routine and crisis situations, published on the webpage of the six Italian newspapers has been collected (N = 990). Afterward, to obtain a more balanced sample, a systematic sampling has been used to build up the finale sample. In this way, the sample was actually reflective of the amount of news about the two situations
published during the years under analysis. For the analysis, each sixth article has been selected from the overall amount of newspaper articles (N = 165). The sample has been obtained looking on the webpages of each single newspaper and searching all the news related to FIFA published between January 2015 and November 2016, including both web edition of the newspaper and the online archive paper edition. Finally, for the goal of this study, all the press releases published in the same period on the FIFA web page referring to the routine and crisis situations mentioned in the newspaper articles have been taken into account (N = 71). Measurements
For the purpose of this study, the articles and the press releases have been coded whether they referred to a crisis or to a routine situation and what the typology of the source was, if it was a sportive newspaper, a broadsheet newspaper or a press release.
Each article and press release have been coded according to the situation reported on it, to compare the two different media contents and to investigate whether the frames were aligned. First of all, we analyzed which were the relevant actors presented in the media content, such as the organization (FIFA), officials of the organization (such as, President of FIFA), policy bodies and others. Then, which were the frames of attributes and the frames of actions present in the media contents have been investigated (Hallahan, 2008), specifically three have been the main constructs measured for this study: the factual aspects, the affective attributes and the frames of actions. All of them have been coded on a dichotomous scale, where 0 meant that the aspect was not present, and 1 where the characteristic of the frame was present.
Frames of attributes. This item concerns the accentuated characteristics of the situation, such as the properties and the objects of the news. This construct is composed of two factors, the factual aspects and the affective attributes of the news.
Factual aspects. This constituent includes the definition and the description of the situation. To measure this variable, the codebook included fourteen questions regarding
whether the actors were blamed as responsible for the situation, whether the organization was blamed as responsible or promoter of the situation, if financial losses or gains have been mentioned, if organizational domains or policies have been affected, if the reasons for the situation has been present, whether the relevance for stakeholders has been taken into account, if the costs of the situation was included, whether plans for the solutions were mentioned, if evidence were named, whether the news referred to no taking actions, if there was the
presence of statements from the organization or from celebrities, whether the news mentioned the history of the organization and similar antecedents.
Affective attributes. This concept refers to the evaluation included in the news. This variable was measured using two questions regarding if the news was reported in negative or positive tone.
Frames of actions. The aspect concerns the consequences of the situation reported in the news. Twelve questions (Hallahan, 1999) have been used to measure this variable. The questions concerned the economic consequences, the reputational consequences, the presence of positive or negative consequences, the consequences of the situation for the organization or for the entire football system, the intentions of the organization to do something for the situation or the actions taken by the organizations, the mention of goal-directed behaviours or the unfavourable behaviours, the legitimacy or the justifications for the situation.
Coding and Reliability
The newspaper articles and the press releases have been coded for source, actors, situations, frames of attributes, both factual aspects and affective attributes, and frames of actions. For the overview of the codebook, see Appendix A. To improve the reliability of the variables present in the codebook, five newspaper articles and five press releases have been coded to test the codebook and to define the final version. Finally, to calculate the inter-coder reliability another coder has coded the 10% of the sample for a total of 25 items. The
inter-coder reliability was measured using Krippendorff’s Alpha, using the online test ReCal for 2 Coders. The results of the inter-reliability test ranged between .65 and 1 (for the complete overview of the variables, see Appendix B), values that can be considered acceptable according to Krippendorff (2004).
Data Analysis
To answer the first four sub-questions, crosstabs based on the percentage of presence of each frame of attributes and actions in sportive newspapers, broadsheet newspapers and press releases have been employed. This analysis is due to understanding the prevalent meaning that the media content gives to the situations.
To answer the last two sub-questions, Cramer’s V has been used as the measure of association to measure the alignment between the press releases published by FIFA and the newspaper articles in the frames utilized. This measure of association was selected because the variables were nominal and the relationship was symmetric.
Results Frames of Attributes
To discover the predominant frames present in both press releases and newspaper articles during crisis situations, a cross-tabulation has been used. The cross-tabulation (Table 1) for the sub-question 1a shows the predominant frames of attributes, namely factual aspects and affective attributes. The prevalent frame used in the press releases during crisis situations is the mention of organizational domains and policies affected (16.7%), the second most used are the naming of actors as responsible for the situation and the reasons behind the situation (16.7%), the third is the report of the evidence (8.3%). Concerning the newspaper articles, the predominant frame remains the reference to organizational domains and policies affected (49.1%), the second the mention of the responsible actors (48.1%), the third is the presence of organization’s statements (34.4%). These results show that the predominant frames used by
both contents do not differ in the first two positions, but there is a difference in the third predominant frame. This differentiation indicates that the newspaper articles are more inclined to recount the statements of the organizations instead of giving an account to the reasons behind the situation. What is interesting to underline is that there are frames, such as the presence of celebrities’ statements (16.7%) and the reference to the history of the
Table 1.
Association of the Frames of Attributes during Crisis Situations Frames of
Attributes – Factual aspects
Press Releases
Newspapers Total Cramer’s V n=27 n=81 n=108 Actors as responsible 13.9% (15) 48.1% (52) 62% (67) .08 Organization as responsible/promoter 0.9% (1) 15.7% (17) 16.7% (18) .20* Financial losses/gains 1.9% (2) 3.7% (4) 5.6% (6) .05 Organizational domains/policies affected 16.7% (18) 49.1% (53) 65.7% (71) .01 Reasons 13.9% (15) 29.6% (32) 43.5% (47) .14 Relevance for stakeholders 2.8% (3) 3.7% (4) 6.5% (7) .11 Costs involved 7.4% (8) 31.5% (34) 38.9% (42) .11 Plans for solution 2.8%
(3) 4.6% (5) 7.4% (8) .08 Evidence 8.3% (9) 24.1% (26) 32.4% (35) .01 “No taking action”/
”No comment” 0.9% (1) 1.9% (2) 2.8% (3) .03 Celebrities’ statements/evaluation 0% (0) 16.7% (18) 16.7% (18) .26* Organization’s statement 7.4% (8) 34.4% (37) 41.7% (45) .14 History of the organization 0% (0) 7.4% (8) 7.4% (8) .16 Similar antecedents 7.4% (8) 31.5% (34) 38.9% (42) .11 Frames of Attributes – Affective attributes Negative tone 1.9% (2) 17.6% (19) 19.4% (21) .18 Positive tone 0.9% (1) 4.6% (5) 5.6% (6) .05 Note. N= 128 * p < .05
The sub-question 1b was wondering which are the predominant frames of attributes used to talk about routine situations. Another cross-tabulation has been employed (Table 2). The results show that the most used frame of attributes in routine situations in the press releases is the mention of the organizational domains and policies affected (32%), followed by the mention of organization’s statements (23.4%) and by the relevance of the situation for the stakeholders (21.2%). In relation to the newspaper articles, the first two positionings do not change, the most used frame is the mention of the organizational domains and policies involved (60.2%) and the second the use of organization’s statements (37.5%). What is different in the results is the third dominant frame used by the newspaper that is the mention of the organization as responsible for or promoter of the situation (21.1%). Also in this situation, there are not differences in the first two placements, on the other hand, the
newspaper articles are more interested in reporting the responsibility of the organization for the situation instead of focusing on the relevance for the stakeholders. Additionally, an important difference concerns the fact that the newspaper articles introduce the economic consequences of the situation (8.6%), characteristic that is not mentioned in the press releases.
Table 2.
Association of the Frames of Attributes during Routine Situations
Note. N= 108 * p < .05 Frames of Attributes – Factual aspects Press Releases
Newspapers Total Cramer’s V n=44 n=84 n=128 Actors as responsible 0% (0) 8.6% (11) 8.6% (11) .22* Organization as responsible/promoter 16.4% (21) 21.1% (27) 37.5% (48) .15 Financial losses/gains 6.3% (8) 3.1% (4) 9.4% (12) .22* Organizational domains/policies affected 32% (41) 60.2% (77) 92.2% (118) .03 Reasons 13.3% (27) 14.1% (18) 27.3% (35) .18* Relevance for stakeholders 21.1% (27) 15.6% (20) 36.7% (47) .37* Costs involved 7% (9) 3.1% (4) 10.2% (13) .25* Plans for solution 17.2%
(22) 19.5% (25) 36.7% (47) .20* Evidence 1.6% (2) 0.8% (1) 2.3% (3) .10 “No taking action”/
”No comment” 0.8% (1) 3.1% (4) 3.9% (5) .06 Celebrities’ statements/evaluation 3.9% (5) 11.7% (15) 15.6% (20) .08 Organization’s statement 23.4% (30) 37.5% (48) 60.9% (78) .11 History of the organization 6.3% (8) 10.9% (14) 17.2% (22) .02 Similar antecedents 4.7% (6) 7% (9) 11.7% (15) .04 Frames of Attributes – Affective attributes Negative tone 0% (0) 5.5% (7) 5.5% (7) .17* Positive tone 9.4% (12) 10.9% (14) 20.3% (26) .12
Frames of Actions
The Table 3 presents the results of the cross-tabulation applied to explore the predominant frames of actions used in crisis situations, as required by the sub-questions 2a. The table shows that during crisis situations the predominant frame of actions in the press releases is the reference to the actions taken by the organization to solve the situation (21.3%), the second most used is the mention of the consequences for the organization
(15.7%) and the third is the citation of the unfavourable behaviors of the organization (9.3%). Regarding the newspaper articles, the predominant frames used do not differ, the first is the mention of the actions taken by the organization (55.6%), the second is the discussion of the consequences for the organization (50%), and the third is the reference to the unfavourable behaviors of the organization (48.1%). Differences can be found in how the newspaper articles refer to the reputational consequences (28.7%), to the consequences for the entire football system (16.7%), to the legitimacy of the organization (10.2%) and to the economic consequences (8.3%) more often than the press releases.
Table 3.
Association of the Frames of Actions during Crisis Situations Frames of
Actions
Press Releases
Newspapers Total Cramer’s V
n= 27 n= 81 n= 108 Economic consequences 0.9% (1) 8.3% (9) 9.3% (10) .11 Reputational consequences 2.8% (3) 28.7% (31) 31.5% (34) .25* Positive consequences 1.9% (2) 2.8% (3) 4.6% (5) .08 Negative consequences 7.4% (8) 37% (40) 44.4% (48) .17 Consequences for the organization 15.7% (17) 50% (54) 65.7% (71) .03 Consequences for the football system 1.9% (2) 16.7% (18) 18.5% (20) .16 Intentions 8.3% (9) 28.7% (31) 37% (40) .04 Actions 21.3% (23) 55.6% (60) 76.9% (83) .11 Goal-directed behaviours 8.3% (9) 7.4% (8) 15.7% (17) .28* Unfavourable behaviours 9.3% (10) 48.1% (52) 57.4% (62) .24* Legitimacy 1.9% (2) 10.2% (11) 12% (13) .08 Justifications 8.3% (9) 21.3% (23) 29.6% (32) .05 Note. N= 128 * p < .05
The sub-question 2b wants to analyze which are the prevalent frames of actions reported during routine situations. The results presented in Table 4 show that in the press releases the predominant frame is the mention of the actions taken by the organization (28.1%), followed by the reference to the goal-directed behaviours (25%) and by the discussion of the intentions of the organization (24.2%). On the other hand, the most used frame in the newspaper articles is the mention of the consequences for the organization
(50.8%), the second is the reference to the intention of the organization (41.1%), and the third is the citation of the goal-directed behaviours of the organization (35.2%). From this results emerge that the two sources of information differ in the meanings that prevailed to narrate the routine situations.
Table 4.
Association of the Frames of Actions during Routine Situations Frames of
Actions
Press Releases
Newspapers Total Cramer’s V
n= 44 n= 84 n= 128 Economic consequences 6.3% (8) 4.7% (6) 10.9% (14) .17 Reputational consequences 3.9% (5) 18% (23) 21.9% (28) .18* Positive consequences 18% (23) 20.3% (26) 38.3% (49) .21* Negative consequences 1.6% (2) 10.9% (14) 12.5% (16) .17* Consequences for the organization 18.8% (24) 50.8% (65) 69.5% (84) .24* Consequences for the football system 15.6% (20) 33.6% (43) 49.2% (63) .05 Intentions 24.2% (31) 41.4% (53) 65.6% (84) .07 Actions 28.1% (36) 33.6% (43) 61.7% (79) .30* Goal-directed behaviours 25% (32) 35.2% (45) 60.2% (77) .19* Unfavourable behaviours 0% (0) 7% (9) 7% (9) .20* Legitimacy 18% (23) 18.8% (24) 36.7% (47) .23* Justifications 3.9% (5) 5.5% (7) 9.4% (12) .05 Note. N= 108 * p < .05
Frame Alignment
The sub-question 3a concerns to what extent press releases and newspaper articles align during crisis situations. To test the alignment, the Cramer’s V has been measured. The analyses show that during crisis situations there is a significant, but weak, association between press releases and newspaper articles in frames of attributes (Table 1) such as the mention of the organization as responsible for or promoter of the situation (Cramer’s V = .20) and the presence of celebrities’ statements (Cramer’s V = .26). Concerning the frame of actions (Table 3) there is also a weak association between the frame used in the press releases and in the newspaper articles in the report of the reputational consequences (Cramer’s V = .25), the mention of the actions taken by the organization (Cramer’s V = .28), and the reference at the unfavourable behaviors of the organization (Cramer’s V = .24). These associations mean that there is limited alignment between the press releases and the newspaper articles in the use of these frames during crisis situations. In all the other
characteristics of both frames of attributes and frames of actions, no significant association has been found.
Concerning the sub-question 3b, the Cramer’s V has been measured to analyze the extent to which press releases and newspaper articles align during routine situations. The analyses show that with regards to the frames of attributes (Table 2) there is a weak association between press releases and newspaper articles when the frames concern the mention of the actor as responsible for the situation (Cramer’s V = .22), the reference to the financial losses or gains (Cramer’s V = .22), the discussion of the reasons (Cramer’s V = .18), the citation of the costs involved (Cramer’s V = .25), the mention of the plans for the solution (Cramer’s V = .20), and the use of a negative tone (Cramer’s V = .17). Moreover, there is a moderate association concerning the reference to the relevance for the stakeholders, as Cramer’s V = .37 reveals. As regards to the frame of actions (Table 4), a weak association
between the press releases and the newspaper articles has been discovered when the media contents include the reputational consequences (Cramer’s V = .18), the positive consequences (Cramer’s V = .21), the negative consequences (Cramer’s V = .17), the consequences for the organization (Cramer’s V = .24), the actions taken by the organization (Cramer’s V = .30), the goal-directed behaviours (Cramer’s V = .19), the unfavourable behaviours (Cramer’s V = .20), and the legitimacy (Cramer’s V = .23). These results suggest that the press releases and the newspaper articles partially align during routine situations in reporting these
characteristics of the frames. On the other hand, regarding the other features, there is no significant association, therefore no alignment between press releases and newspaper articles can be found.
Conclusion and Discussion
This study had the aim to explore whether the press releases, as information provided by the organization, and newspaper articles, as source of information, align in giving
meanings to crises and routine situations, with the use of specific frames of attributes and frames of actions. Therefore, the research question that has been answered is: Does sports organizations’ communication align with the news media frames to the same extent during crisis situations and routine situations? To investigate the alignment between the organization and the news, a content analysis has been performed on 71 FIFA press releases and 165 newspaper articles from both sportive and broadsheet Italian newspapers.
The findings of this explorative study reveal that sports organization’s
communication, with their press releases, partially align with the news media, in terms of newspaper articles, in providing the same frames during crisis as well as during routine situations. Accordingly, these results follow the new practice of news gathering previously described by Lewis, Williams, and Franklin (2008), journalists are inclined to accept PR professionals as sources, adopting their frames in the agenda of the media. These two sources
of information tend to overlap in their frames because they are closely related, as both of them have a similar societal role in providing information (Carey, 1975). In sports organizations, this practice and close relationship between PRs and journalists are evident in the huge amount of statements, press releases and press conferences provided by these organizations (Tomlinson & Sugden, 2008). Moreover, a previous study of Pincus, Rimmer, Rayfield, and Cropp (1993) shows that sports journalists see PR professionals as information-provider in a more favourable way than journalists from other fields.
From this point of view, we can state that they in part provide the same definition of both situations, reflecting the idea of frame bridging of Snow, Rochford, Worden, and Benford (1986). In this sense, the two different domains align in the definition of the
situations, probably because of the interaction between PRs and journalists. In regard to this idea, the corporate framing mediated-moderation model of Verhoeven (2016) confirms that analogies between the frames reported by the media and the frames recounted by PR
professionals can exist thanks to the relationship between these two parties. In particular, in the present study, during crisis situations, the results show that FIFA and the news media align when they employ in their press releases and newspaper articles the mention of the organization as responsible or promoter and the report of celebrities’ statements or
evaluations as frame of attributes, as well as the naming of reputational consequences, the discussion of the goal-directed behaviours taken by the organization and the unfavourable behaviours as frames of actions. Concerning the routine situations, the two media contents tend to align in some measure when the frame of attributes adopted concern the mention of the actors as responsible for the situation, the discussion of the financial losses or gains, the naming of the reasons, the mention of the relevance for the stakeholders, the reference to the costs involved, the explanation of the plans for the solution and the use of a negative tone. Similarly, FIFA and news media align when characteristics of the frame of actions such as the
mention of the reputational consequences, the discussion of the positive consequences, the reference to the negative consequences, the naming of the consequences for the organization, the mention of the actions as well as the intentions of the organization, the reference to the goal-directed behaviours, the naming of the unfavourable behaviours and the legitimacy are reported in the media contents. As Ihlen and Verhoeven (2012) declared in their work, the alignment can be also explained since PR professionals are oriented in providing frames of the situation that can be acceptable and embraced by the media. For instance, the alignment in the use of a negative tone of voice adopts the trend of the media to mainly employ a negative or neutral tone of voice when situations concern the involvement of actors (Nijkrake, Gosselt, & Gutteling, 2015). Even Hallahan (1999) suggested that framing is used by PRs to preserve the relationships with journalists, strategically promoting their meaning of the situation. As affirmed by Pincus, et. al. (1993), since journalists accept PRs as sources, maintaining a constant and advantageous relationship with them, journalists tend to embrace the frames proposed by PR professionals. However, it is interesting to notice how the two media contents do not align in the use of a negative tone of voice during crisis situations. Tone of voice, as affective attributes, is an evaluation of the situation (Hallahan, 1999). Since the evaluation can be a subjective perception of the situation, the lack of the alignment can be due to the
different interpretation presented by the two parties. The two media contents do not align because the situation under consideration is a crisis. Since a crisis presents a higher degree of uncertainty than routine situations (Nijkrake, Gosselt, & Gutteling, 2015), the perceptions and the interpretations are likely to be even more subjective resulting in the use of different tone of voice.
Besides the confirmed alignment between the two media contents, the results also show that PR professionals and journalists align on a greater number of frames during routine situations than in crisis situations. The numbers show that the two sources align on fifteen
frames, including both frames of attributes and frames of actions, during routine situations. During crisis circumstances, the media contents align on five frames. This results can confirm what Van der Meer, Verhoeven, Beentjes, and Vliegenthart (2015) stated in their study. In time of crisis, the authors suggest that the necessity of immediate information can challenge the favorable relationship that exists between PRs and journalists. In this sense, the time pressure can weaken the alignment in providing the same frames between the two sources. Additionally, the aforementioned study affirmed that a favourable relationship with the media, in this case with journalists, during routine situations can mediate and be crucial in the process of sense-making in times of crisis. These findings can explain why PR professionals and journalists tend to align also during crisis situations in the present study, although in a reduced number of frames.
Finally, to deeply comprehend whether alignment persists between the organization’s communication and the news media, the study investigated which were the prevalent frames reported in both press releases and newspaper articles. The results reveal that the media contents mostly present the same predominant frames of attributes and actions in both crisis and routine situations. Nevertheless, they give different priority in the aspects that they report in their texts. For instance, when the media contents discuss crisis situations, the press
releases tend to take into account the evidence, the plans for the solution and the relevance for the stakeholders, as well as the mention of the actions taken by the organization and the justifications as primary aspects. While the newspaper articles prefer to give more emphasis on aspects such as the presence of organization’s statements and the mention of the
reputational consequences of the organization. The trend of newspapers to report
organizations’ statements can be found also in previous studies (Park & Berger, 2004; Shields & Harvey, 2010, cited in Verhoeven, 2016), which declare that newspapers tend to mention more CEOs. Concerning routine situations, the media contents focus on the same frames of
attitudes, but they differ in the priority they assess to the frames of actions. To give an example, press releases firstly mention the actions taken by the organization, contrarily, at first newspaper articles name the consequences for the organization. All the aforementioned results show how different discursive strategies can be adopted by journalists writing about the situation present in the press releases (Verhoeven, 2016). In this sense, they discuss the situation from another point of view giving the priority to diverse frames. Moreover, PRs and journalists can report the same situation accentuating or ignoring some aspects (Hallahan, 1999).
Limitations and Future Propositions
The present study is not without limitations. Firstly, limitations can be related to the choice of the media contents analyzed. This study focused on the newspapers’ articles because they usually cover not only the match results but also the other affairs concerning football. In addition, differently than television, newspapers present a more detailed analysis of situations. However, the news is also spread through other media channels, such as television. For example, the videos present in television can imply different newsworthy values, focusing on other aspects of the stories. Likewise, organizations can dispose of various tools to communicate with their key actors, for example through their social media’s pages. Therefore, it would be interesting to test whether the results of the present study hold in a different context. Future researches could include different communicative means of the organization and different media, that can lead to different results in terms of frames
presented.
Secondly, as FIFA operates worldwide, the choice to analyze only Italian newspapers could cause the absence of some situations reported on the FIFA webpage, because they were not discussed in the Italian newspapers since too specific of other countries that were not
newsworthy in Italy. Interesting can be to compare the newspapers of different countries, a condition that could arise to more representative and generalized results.
Thirdly, as content analysis is essentially a descriptive method, in the sense that it mainly observes the patterns of the media contents, a limitation for this study could be that the relational analysis, in terms of alignment, can be subjective and interpretative.
Finally, the variables included in the codebook could be biased even though we
attempted to present a codebook as exhaustive as possible. As consequence, some aspects that may be meaningful for the analysis may have been excluded. An alternative method for future researches could be the use of an automated content analysis, which should allow to count and identify all the significant variables reported in the media contents. This could allow higher levels of reliability. Moreover, this different method would consent to analyze a greater amount of media contents comporting a higher external validity.
Practical Implications
A further aim of this study was to investigate the strategies of the FIFA
communication department to deal with the media. The findings propose that important for sports organizations is that their relationship with the media should be interpreted as a co-operation between the two sources of information (Lewis, Williams, & Franklin, 2008). In this sense, it is fundamental for organizations to continually provide information on both crisis and routine situations to better manage the flow of information in the media. With a continuous exchange of data between the communication professionals and the news media, it is plausible to negotiate the meanings given to the situations. As Cornelissen and colleagues (2009) stated, PR professionals and journalists can create a common frame about a situation, providing an aligned and prevalent interpretation.
In light of a brief interview concerning the communicative strategies adopted by FIFA, with professor Timothy Coombs, a specialist of corporate communication, and
according to the results of this study, we can state that sportive organizations should effectively use the public information strategy proposed by Grunig and Grunig (1992), Specifically, organizations in delivering their information should include their digital
channels in order to reach at least part of the target stakeholders with their desired messages, such as journalists. Important to create and maintain the co-operative relationship with the media, organizations need to be able to communicate during good and bad times, so during crisis situations as well as during routine situations. Being open and transparent should be at the basis of this relationship, and cutting communication during bad times, as a crisis, can reduce the trust that journalists have on PR professionals nowadays, hurting their
collaboration.
Moreover, what emerges from the findings of this research is that the frames present in FIFA’s communication align with the frames reported in the media, during crisis situations as well as during routine situations. This result reveals that sportive organizations need to communicate to the same extent in both circumstances, especially during crisis situation organization have to be able to fill the information vacuum that persists. A silence strategy is not an effective option, it is a strategy that does not allow organizations to shape the frames and the associated interpretations of the situation. A silence strategy can be partially
advantageous to have a low profile that can help in reducing the media coverage of a critical situation, but it is not beneficial for organizations. On the contrary, an effective response in both crisis and routine situations would suggest an involvement in framing the situation, telling their side of the story. What the media want to know is how the situations may be solved or obtains, organizations need to be prepared to report their plans to address or to organize specific patterns.
All the aforementioned results and conclusions lead to the idea that what is crucial in the communicative strategies adopted by sportive organizations is to think about the media
as their co-creator of meanings of the situations. In order to maintain a collaborative and beneficial relationship with the media, PR professionals need to be aware, pro-active and willing in providing frames and meanings in respect to the requirements of journalists, so to present a common and aligned version of the story.
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Appendix A Codebook
0. CODER ID
The coder should write the name of the coder
_______
1. SOURCE
The variable refers to the type of sources that reports the news. The variable presents three codes: 1 = Press release, 2= Sportive Newspaper, 3 = Broadsheet Newspaper. This item has a single answer so the coder should choose if the source is a Press release (1), a Sportive Newspaper (2) or a Broadsheet Newspaper (3).
- Press Release ___
- Sportive Newspaper (Gazzetta dello Sport, TuttoSport, Il Corriere dello Sport) ___ - Broadsheet Newspaper (Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa) ___
2. ID NUMBER ______
3. DATE
Add the date in which the article was published. Use the following format: DD-MM-YYYY (e.g. 30-01-2015).
4. ACTORS
The variable refers the parts presented in the news. The variable presents two codes: 0 = no, 1= yes. Mark as yes (1) if the actor is mentioned or no (0) if the actor is not mentioned. This item can have multiple answers.
- Organization (FIFA) ____
- Official of the organization (the source can address these actors by name, e.g. Blatter, Infantino; or by the role a person has in the organization, e.g. the president of FIFA, the former president ___
- Policy bodies ___ (e.g. FBI, police, courts, judges)
- Other football organizations ___ (e.g. UEFA, trade unions, football clubs) - Others (e.g. journalists, experts) ___
5. SITUATION
The variable refers to the event/topic reported in the news. The variable presents two codes: 0 = no, 1= yes. Mark as yes (1) when the situation is discussed in the news, or no (0) if the situation is not discussed. This item has a single answer, so to define which is the main topic of the article/press release take into account the topic of the headline and the subheading.
- Routine (performance of day-to-day behaviours, e.g. Football governance, World Cup, FIFA congress) ___
6. FRAMES (Hallahan, 1999)
The variables present two codes: 0 = no, 1= yes. The coder should type 1 in the case the aspect of the frame is present in the news. On the other hand, if the characteristic of the frame is not present the coder should type 0.
a. ATTRIBUTES
The characteristics of the event/issue that are accentuated, such as factual aspects (responsibility, financial reports) or affective attributes (the tone of the report)
a1. Factual aspects
- Does the news blame actors as being the responsible for the situation? ____
- Does the news blame the organization as being the responsible for or promoter of the situation? ____
- Does the news mention financial losses or gains now or in the future caused by the situation? ___
- Does the news mention organizational domains/policies affected by the situation? ___ - Does the news mention the reasons for the situations? ___
- Does the news refer to the relevance of the situation for stakeholders (e.g. employees, financial community, contenders)
- Does the story mention the costs involved in the situation? ____ - Does the news include plans for the solution of the situation? ___ - Does the news include evidence regarding the situation? ____
- Does the news refer to the “no taking actions”/”no responses for the situation” of the organization? ___
- Does the news include statements of the organization/officials of the organization? ___ - Does the news refer to the tradition and importance of the history of the organization
involved in the situation? ___
- Does the news refer to antecedents of the organization similar to the facts present in the situation? ___
a2. Affective attributes
For this topic, the coder should count the numbers of negative and positive remarks present in the article/press release. This topic requires a single answer, so mark 1 when the tone is present with the biggest amount of remarks or mark 0 when the tone is not present with the biggest amount of remarks or if neither positive or negative remarks are present in the news.
- Is the news reported in a negative tone (presence of critics and invalidating comments in the news, e.g. “It is a culture made by making and receiving favors, a culture very similar to the one of a criminal gang”)? ___
- Is the news reported in positive tone (presence of favorable expression in the news, such as expressions that can arise the reputation of FIFA, e.g. “the continued commitment to preserve the integrity of football ethics”)? ___
b. ACTIONS
The consequences of the event/issue that is reported in the news.
- Does the news refer to economic consequences of the situation? ___ - Does the news refer to reputational consequences of the situation? ___
- Does the news refer to negative consequences (financial or reputational loss)? ___ - Does the news discuss the consequences of the problem for the organization (e.g.
changes in the power structure of FIFA, payment of penalties)? ____
- Does the news present the consequences of the issue for the entire football system (e.g. changes in policies of financing big football events, such as the World Cup)? ___ - Does the news refer to intentions (e.g. thinking to do something) of the organization to
do something about the situation? ___
- Does the news refer to concerning actions (e.g. doing something) of the organization to do something about the situation? ___
- Does the news mention the goal-directed behaviors (e.g. improve transparency in the system) for the organization concerning the situation? ___
- Does the news mention the unfavourable behaviors (e.g. the organization is composed only of corrupt actors) for the organization concerning the situation? ___
- Does the news refer to the legitimacy (e.g. capability of the organization to act in a reliable way) of the organization in the situation? ___
- Does the news refer to the justifications (e.g. making up excuses for what happened) of the organization for the situation? ___
