Sociological study on newspaper coverage of "Around the Kyushu Ekiden" : Contents of message and its interpretation process of the reader

本研究的目的是将体育作为叙事的媒体文本，并对其结构进行分析。为追求这一目标，对《日本新闻》于2002年11月1日至10日举行的九州环岛接力赛51号报道的文章进行了内容分析。结果表明，在《日本新闻》51号报道的九州环岛赛文章中，出现了各种主题，如：团队之间的竞争，个人之间的竞争，或英雄的成就，九州品格，家庭关系，复兴，复仇，家乡之爱，代际关系，“感恩队友”、“围绕九州Ekiden的传统”等。围绕九州Ekiden的媒体叙事的结构是这样的：中心主题“团队之间的竞争”与各种与竞争有关的主题，如“个人之间的竞争，或英雄的成就”，进一步确立了它作为其他主题的一部分的地位。

The objective of this research was to treat media texts regarding sports as narratives, and then analyze the structure. In order to pursue this objective, a content analysis was performed of articles appearing in The Nishinippon Shimbun that reported on the 51st Around the Kyushu Ekiden (long distance relay race) event held from November 1st to 10^<th> in 2002.It was confirmed that in the articles in The Nishinippon Shimbun reporting on the 51st Around the Kyushu Ekiden, various themes appear, such as "Competition Between Teams", "Competition Between Individuals, or Heroes' Achievements", "The Character' of Kyushu", "Family' Relationships", "Revival", "Revenge", "Love of Home Town", "The Relationship Between Generations", "Gratitude Toward One's Teammates", "The Tradition of Around the Kyushu Ekiden", and so on.The Around the Kyushu Ekiden narratives according to the media are structured such that the central theme "Competition Between Teams" is connected with various themes concerning competition, such as "Competition Between Individuals, or Heroes' Achievements", in this way further asserting its position as part of other themes.