World Cup television

Abstract

In the last year of the first decade of the 21st century, in the verge of breaking into the era of digital television, it is important to know what kind of television model is available in Portugal. The analysis of the news coverage of the FIFA 2010 World Cup will certainly help in finding the answers. In this article, we present a study that centers its focus on news formats related to this great media event, broadcasted in both generalist as well as cable news networks between the 11th of June and the 11th of July 2010 (the opening and closing dates of the competition). That analysis, based upon 604 broadcasts, sought to discover the means for viewer integration in television broadcasts and who was summoned by the television studios to participate in the discussions that they promoted. The data collected clearly shows that this World Cup TV is still very much closed to public participation and circumscribed to a small group of guests, most of who come from the journalistic field. It seems impossible to mention a third stage in the audiovisual world in the face of this reality. Post-television can wait.