1. Investigación

The Paralympic Games are one of the world’s most important multisport events, maybe second only to the Olympic Games. However, research conducted to date shows that the media do not devote as much space to them as would accordingly be expected. This article proposes, through a case study, a new way of approaching this hypothetical discrimination by comparing the attention that the London Paralympic Games received from the Spanish print press with the attention that other sports received (football, basketball, tennis, cycling, motor sports and other minority sports) while those Games were being held. The main finding of our study is that, over the period analysed, the Spanish press devoted less space to the Paralympic Games than to any other sport.

This research will analyze the variables differentiating between the audiovisual television of the XIII edition of the Paralympic Games and the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, held in Beijing from the 7th of September to the 17th, 2008. This study will serve as a methodological basis for similar future research. By means of a qualitative and quantitative methodology, this study also focuses on determining if TV representations of Paralympic sportspersons favour their social integration or if, on the contrary, lead to higher stigmatization.

Este estudio, construido desde una orientación empírico-conceptual y bajo unas variables de interdependencia, tiene como objetivo el análisis de las posibles diferenciaciones en la narrativa audiovisual entre la realización televisiva de la XIII edición de los Juegos Paralímpicos y los Juegos de la XXIX Olimpiada, celebrados en Pekín en septiembre de 2008. También, pretende establecer, mediante una metodología cualitativa y cuantitativa, si los modos de representación televisiva de los deportistas paralímpicos pueden ayudar a favorecer su integración social, o si, por el contrario, revelan una mayor estigmatización. This empirically and conceptually oriented study (including some interdependent variables) is aimed at comparing the audiovisual narratives developed in the TV productions of the 13th Paralympic Games and the 29th Olympic Games, held in Beijing in September 2008. By means of a qualitative and quantitative methodology, this study also focuses on determining if TV representations of paralympic sportspersons favour their social integration or if, on the contrary, lead to higher stigmatization.