For team fandoms, a very popular topic of discussion online is how the national announcers are biased against their team.
To quote one person on this subreddit: “in national broadcasts they barely acknowledge we’re even playing in the game they’re talking about”.
I thought I would put this to the test by tracking how often the announcers discussed each team in the most recent ESPN telecast.
Date: 12/7/2023
Venue: Climate Pledge Arena
Announcers: Mike Monaco (pxp), Cassie Campbell-Pascall (Analyst), Leah Haxtall (Between the benches)
Kraken record going into the game: 8-12-6 (5 game losing streak)
Devils record going into the game: 12-10-1 (Won 4 of the last 5)
Methodology: Tally up which team is discussed each time a team is discussed in a non PxP context (mainly between the whistles). If the PxP person editorializes in their call (“GREAT save by Grubauer!”), count that as 1 as well. Categorize each discussion as flattering, unflattering, or neutral for the team being discussed as well. Talk about injuries or factual statements about upcoming schedule or where someone grew up etc I marked as neutral.
Results: https://imgur.com/a/ACALbkl
The Kraken were actually talked about more than the Devils 65-58. 23% of the Kraken’s discussions were unflattering, which is higher than the Devils’ 13%. I think this is to be expected given how the teams had recently looked going into the game.
by EwoksEwoksEwoks
1 Comment
Interesting