“Things you Can See from there you Can’t See from Here”

Abstract

This article focuses on the theory of globalization and its relevance to the coverage of the Olympic games based both on a theoretical discussion and the author’s empirical study of the 1992 Barcelona games. Employing content analysis, supplemented with interviews with journalists, it examines, comparatively, the buildup and coverage in British and Israeli newspapers in the context of the theoretical discussion. The findings of the empirical analysis show that despite the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) declarations, which in essence go toward a united world, the local—in this case national—perspective was the prevailing one in the coverage of this global event.