A Portrait of 2014 Fifa World Cup Television Football Commentary as Narrative

Abstract

The role of television in human endeavours has significantly heightened in the recent past. Lately, the media has assumed the role of the traditional story teller. Narratologists readily acknowledge the narrative qualities of fairy tales, novels, epic poems and films. These narrative forms incorporate various thematic concerns, literary aspects and other narrative ingredients. What television football commentary shares with film and other narrative forms is the ability to present events to an audience. However, the genre differs from other filmic narrative forms owing to its narration of factual events happening in real time. Consequently, narratologists have often overlooked the narrative and other performance qualities of the genre. It was, therefore, necessary to examine television football commentary‘s application of literary and other performance features in the transformation of the real time proceedings of football matches into narrative. The aim of this study, therefore, was to create a portrait of the 2014 FIFA World Cup television football commentary as narrative. The specific objectives were to: investigate the discernible thematic concerns embedded in the utterances of commentators during the 2014 FIFA World Cup television football commentary; examine literary techniques inherent in these commentaries; explore the use of focalization to infuse a multiplicity of perspectives into narration; and examine the 2014 FIFA World Cup television football commentary‘s adoption of Aristotle‘s Arc to create a narrative structure. The study adopted the theoretical framework of postmodern narratology as propagated by Currie (1998). The study was restricted to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The suitability of Brazil 2014 was informed by the eminence of the football World Cup, the status of Brazil in world football and the coincidence of staging the event in the course of the research. The study drew on analytical research design. Using the design, research questions concerning the 2014 FIFA World Cup television commentary were formulated. It was from these questions that the objectives for the study were devised. The sixty four matches that were broadcast live defined the scope of this undertaking. Purposive sampling was utilised to select nine information-rich match commentaries for analysis. Primary data was collected from the SuperSport TV channel, and involved viewing pre-recorded commentaries and noting down the desired words and phrases. Secondary data was assembled from the Soccernet internet site. It encompassed reading selected commentary transcripts and documenting the required information. The data collected was codified according to the specific objectives and analysed using content analysis. The study concluded that the use of artistic devices and the presentation of discernible thematic concerns transform football commentary into narrative. The findings of the study may offer literary scholars and football viewers a springboard from which to appreciate the narrative elements inherent in the utterances of football commentators, and to examine the social, economic and political pre-occupations prevalent in these commentaries.