Hometown media in international sports

This post comes about because of three factors: 1) I like rugby league, 2) The Internet gives me access to news from the world over, and 3) I attended a seminar on words that cause bias in news stories at the SPJ convention in Las Vegas.

Right now in the sport of rugby league there is an international tournament going on called the Tri-Nations. As the name implies, it is a matchup of the three world powers in the game: Australia (called the Kangaroos), New Zealand (call the Kiwis) and Great Britain (called the Lions).

In case you're curious, the US national doormat--er, I mean team is called the Tomahawks.

In a match between New Zealand and Great Britain on Nov. 13, Great Britain's Paul Deacon was injured on a tackle by New Zealand's Nigel Vagana. Here's what caused this injury to garner such serious attention, this coming from a story on the site of the Australian-based National Rugby League:

The lower part of Deacon's face collapsed when he was caught by Vagana's forearm in Sunday morning's 38-12 British victory, with the injury at one stage described as life threatening after displaced bones burst blood vessels at the back of his throat.

Deacon suffered breathing difficulties due to blood pooling in his throat and was treated in the changing room for two hours by team doctor Chris Brookes before being transferred to hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair fractures to the central plate of his face.

Hope you weren't eating when you read that.

Vagana was put "on report" by the referee, which means he was referred to a judiciary board for a possible suspension. The judiciary decided to suspend Vagana for one game.

So, how was it reported in the New Zealand and British media? Let's look at the words. Here's New Zealand media:

Kiwis stand-off Nigel Vagana has been slapped with a one-week ban following a high tackle in last weekend's Tri Nations rugby league test against Great Britain.

The ban will see Vagana miss the Kiwis test against France on Saturday (NZ time), but he will be available if New Zealand reach the final on November 26.

Now, here's British media:

New Zealand stand-off Nigel Vagana has been handed a one-match ban for the tackle that left Great Britain scrum-half Paul Deacon with horrific facial injuries.

The 30-year-old Cronulla Sharks player was found guilty of a careless high tackle when he appeared in front of a specially-convened disciplinary panel at the Rugby Football League headquarters in Leeds.

Vagana was cited for a high tackle after his swinging arm hit Paul Deacon.

Notice a difference in word choice?

The New Zealand story simply called the play a "high tackle" and later described what Deacon's injuries were.

British media called Deacon's injuries "horrific" and used the term "careless high tackle" (which is an actually more accurate than the New Zealand story, because carless is a term for a type of illegal hit in rugby). It also made note that the juridiciary was "specially-convened." These words convey a lot of emotion that could turn into backlash against Vagana.

I see this as a little big of national favortism. Not that I'm excusing American media from this--I'm sure if an international sporting incident came up with the U.S. involved, there would likely be a bit of favortism in the word choice there, too.

It's just really interesting to note word choice in the press. Especially since the Internet allows you to see word choice from across the globe.