Introduction - Draft - Unfinished

Introduction
How do the commentators at a football game draw the audiences attention throughout?
How do they manage to create such a gloss on a world class sporting event?
And how has football commentary changed between the years 1994 and 2010?
This English Language Investigation will look at all 3 of these questions and answer them by first looking and analysing transcripts of a certain period in World Cup finals since 1994. It will also look at the theories that explain how the language used and the tone used affects such a wide range of a target audience. This investigation is based on a passion of the 'beautiful game' and a dream of being a sports journalist one day. Also an interest in the theory of language and power has developed over time.
Profession football has been around over 150 years and has evolved with many platforms arising such as the recent financial polarisation but one of, if not, the biggest influential happenings since it's creation in 1863 is the media and especially television media, there are now over one hundred Premier League matches live on tv every season. One of the biggest sporting events that happens ever four years is the World Cup, this is where these best nations compete for a much coveted trophy and the bragging rights to say you're the best. Now the British television media such as BBC and ITV has shown great interest in it over the past twenty years especially in the final of these competitions even though none of the home nations are participating in it.

Media Text - A Tribute to Martin Tyler

A Tribute to Martin Tyler

            Martin Tyler has been a Premier League commentator since its creation in 1992, after nearly 22 years he’s now the chief football broadcaster for Sky Sports. In his time with the media giants he has been named the F.A Premier League commentator of the decade. Also on his list of fantastic credentials is that he is the EA Sports FIFA official commentator alongside Andy Gray from 2006-2011 and then Alan Smith 2012-Present. His early days as a football broadcaster saw him doing print work for a book of football before moving into television with London Weekend Television, he became familiar to viewers of Southern TV, Yorkshire, Granada and ITV sports programmes in the 1970s and 1980s. He joined BSB's Sports Channel in 1990 and then Sky Sports at its launch in 1991.

            One moment that he will be remembered for is his fantastic commentary on the final day of the 2011/2012 season where Manchester City became champions of the Premier League in the most dramatic end to a season in its era. They looked down and out with just five minutes to go before goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero rescuing them to prize the title away from rivals Manchester United. It was a historic moment in not just domestically but also world football. Tyler’s commentary of the Aguero goal was one of the reasons why it was such a great moment, the drama he created by not only his tone of voice but how from being calm one second to a split second reaction that made the whole of the English media just stop and stare. He treats every game he commentates in like he’s a fan of the two teams and that is a reason how he brings in the audience brilliantly.

A2 INVESTIGATION

Comparison of Football Commentaries in World Cup Finals since USA 1994

For my English A2 coursework, my investigation is based on past World Cup Finals from the final between Brazil and Italy in 1994 to the most recent World Cup final in South Africa 2010 between Spain and Holland and how to commentaries have changed at each World Cup. BBC have had each World Cup final therefore have an archive of these, I will use the 15^th to the 20th minute of each game and transcribe this.

My Methodology:

Due to my previous investigation being about football commentaries on SkySports and how it has changed over the past twenty years. World Cup finals, data was re to collect. All of the five finals are accessible on the internet, mainly YouTube, therefore there are no issues of confidentiality and ethicality as it is already published material for anyone to use at their will. I collected the first ten minutes of each and transcribed them; this eliminates any issue to do with comparability as it is the same variables being used. Another comparison is that all are in English commentary, which is the main part of the investigation as if they weren’t speaking English I could not carry out my investigation. Another comparison is that the final happens every four years, a problem with this though is that in the space of these four years, many things can happen like the commentator may  not work for them anymore or even if they still work for them, it could be different commentators for the final.

What makes my investigation reliable is that they are all World Cup Finals therefore all of them are very big occasions and have a very strong atmosphere. A second thing that makes my investigation reliable is that all the data has been collected from YouTube and all are coverage from the BBC therefore makes it also comparable as well as reliable. A final reason why my investigation is reliable is that it is more than one World Cup final therefore patterns can be seen over time.  In my investigation there is no ethical issues as the data is already published, therefore no consent is needed. 

Data Analysis

1. My data is a representative sample of my investigation as I have collected transcripts from five consecutive World Cup finals, all in English commentary, over the stretch of 16 years.

I have selected the period of time to transcribe from the 15th to the 20th minute of the final. 

2. It offers enough data to analyse my hypothesis and to write 1500 words as i am analysing each final using transcription. 

3. I can quantify each time that a world event has come in to the content of discussion between the commentator and the co-commentator.