Media and nation buy into positive coverage

A quick stopover in Toronto underlines the fact that much of Canada, and not just Vancouver, has been gripped by Winter Olympics fever and that there is little sign of the week-one Games hangover which experts were predicting.


Canadians took the opportunity to voice a variety of grievances in the run-up to the Games, harking back to the Tibetan protests which grabbed so much media attention in the lead-up to the Beijing Games two years ago. A lack of perceived progress on pre-Games promises, particularly around redevelopment of poorer areas, angered many, while cultural issues surrounding the link to Canada’s indigenous groups also caused some controversy.

But the protest has not been on the same scale, nor has it achieved such clarity of purpose as the Tibetan movement in 2008.

Canadians around the streets and bars of Toronto are much more eager to be seen as friendly, welcoming, and right behind Team Canada. It is interesting to note that the media and the public both reflect one clear idea – they’ve voiced their concerns, they’ve made it clear that they’re worried about the amount of money spent on the Games in trying times, but now that the action is underway it’s all about pulling together and focusing on the sport.

Call it a truce, call it an outpouring of national pride, but Canada, almost ubiquitously decked out in the red maple leaf and Olympic logo mittens that have become such a symbol of the Games, appears far more interested in sporting prowess than protest.

And it’s clear that Canadians are hungry for news about Team Canada’s progress, with mobile phones and the internet providing moment-by-moment updates while you’re never far from a big screen showing the latest action. Indeed, it would be easy to imagine that there’s nothing else available on television across the country right now. The traditional media, too, is buying into the dream, with medal news filling column inches and guaranteeing front page prominence.

Commercial channel CTV has pulled off a publicity coup and managed to get their logo everywhere by wresting main media rights away from the traditional players, and it is well worth speculating as to what Britain and Scotland’s commercial channels can learn from them in the run-up to 2012 and 2014.

In Canada’s media centre, the Toronto Sun, a picture-heavy tabloid into the wholesale and overwhelmingly positive coverage with the clear message that they’re getting right behind the team, with the clear message that anything else would be folly and turn off readers.

Indeed, an executive with the Sun told me: “It’s what people want to read about right now, That’s what they’re talking about and watching on TV, and our focus has to be on Canada’s sporting achievement.

“We’re a big sports paper, people know us for our sports coverage and we sponsor a team in Toronto so that’s always going to be our focus.”

However, there is an admission at the Sun that, despite the years of planning for the Olympics, they are not where they need to be when it comes to online and new media coverage: “If you trade on the stock market you absolutely know the one site that you’ll always go to for faithful, accurate and up-to-date information.

“That has to be the goal for us when it comes to sports coverage and it’s the thing we need to work on right now. We need to become the go-to site for sports coverage and we know that we’re not quite there yet.”