The Olympics Are Coming to a Close Without Any Major Impactful Reporting

08/22/2016 - 14h30

The country came to a halt during August. Few relevant things superseded the sporting avalanche of Rio-2106. Never has so much sport been seen for such a long duration through such a diversity of forms.

On television, cell phones, computers or in the arenas, Brazilians went through the past two weeks immersed in the 42 medal-awarding categories: 136 female, 161 male and nine mixed. The Olympics itself is a common spectacle of two genres, multinational and multicultural.

Folha's site set a record on Monday, the 15th, for a sports audience. The number of unique visitors was more than twice the highest ever recorded before, reached on June 13, 2014, the second day of the World Cup Soccer tournament in Brazil.

A unique chance and immense challenge for Brazilian newspapers, coverage of Rio-2016, in general, was an opportunity lost for innovation, experimentation, pathfinding, and attracting new readers.

For financial motives, technological difficulties, absence of planning or lack of creativity, Folha, "Globo" and "Estado de S. Paulo", the three largest Brazilian newspapers, had timid performances against the challenge of covering the world's biggest sporting event, being held for the first time in Brazil, that could have potentially leveraged the journalism that they practiced and the product that they offered.

Those who followed the Olympics on Folha's digital versions were kept well informed, though not amazed, by the menu that they were offered. The newspaper was agile and strove to provide factual coverage with its usual standard of quality in addition to some novelties.

With the humorously titled column "fell asleep early?", for example, the reader was given a summary of important happenings during the previous night and early morning, a good example of a service orientation.

In the print edition, Folha launched its special section dedicated to Rio-2016 on the 31st of July, 5 days before the official opening and one week after its competitors, and always with a fewer average number of pages. This wasn't the problem.

The Olympics are coming to a close without any reporting of great impact, relevance or anything unprecedented.

The numerous possibilities offered by the use of data-centric journalism were practically ignored. Essential for a differentiated, technical coverage of sports, with the possibility of consolidation or the revelation of new tendencies, the presence of analytical texts based upon data aggregation didn't exist.

As a newspaper that has made info-graphics an important part of its history, Folha didn't stand out by offering illustrations or graphics with explanations about different categories or the analysis of results.

It fell to the "New York Times" to demonstrate that there were creative possibilities to be explored. The graphics, photos and videos it employed to break into sequences gymnast Simone Biles' presentations were demonstrations of excellence, editing capability and innovation.

If the Games are driven by a hyper-supply of images, Folha sinned in editing them. The front page on August the 16th, with a top-to-bottom photo of Thiago Braz in the pole vault was a rare example of good editing. And this, in addition to letting symbolic scenes like the Egyptian Judoka refusing to pay respect to an Israeli athlete escape publication.

Folha didn't stand out in the tortious cases of police involvement in the Games, like the detention of the alleged terrorism plotters and the rumor-mill case of the American swimmer who made up his armed robbery episode.

Little was shown of the festivities in the city outside of the arenas; in private homes and in the streets. At times, it seemed that the fact that the competition was taking place in Brazil had been forgotten.

Readers were bothered by the impression that the newspaper consistently opted for pessimism. In electronic messages and on social networks, readers complained about the negative and bitter tone of Folha's titles and articles.

The worst example of this was coverage of the medal won by gymnast Arthur Zanetti, illustrated by the subtitle (on 16/08): "After gold in London, Zanetti takes silver, but even so seems satisfied".

As if that weren't enough, the article said: "Even though he was expected to win a gold medal, the athlete seemed to be happy to have won his second Olympic medal in two consecutive Olympics". Having accomplished something unprecedented in Brazilian male gymnastics, he had plenty of motive to be happy.

Throughout the world, sexist references were evident in media coverage. In male competitions, coverage emphasized performance and achievement. In female events, there was a concentration on frivolities and an over-emphasis on appearance.

Even in Folha. It described Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu (three gold medals and one silver) like this: "A new phase brought forth a stronger Katinka, almost masculine, yet lethal".

The gender question is only one of many that the Olympic coverage raises. One of the most striking characteristics was to have been obvious. The Rio Olympics are coming to an end and won't leave any journalistic legacy either.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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