Created olympic image: The Rio Olympics 2016 from the perspective of international high-quality print media

The modern Olympic Games are more and more observed by the international media. The transported information flood of the media and the simultaneously increased dependence of the recipients on media communications in our modern times are certainly dangerous. Overloading and direct subjugation can arise opinions and views, which are based on misinterpreted and often deliberately externally driven representations. It is therefore even more important, to deal with the available information objectively. In this way, a true-faith creation of images can be approached. Print media is also given an influential role in the transmission of information and image formation. For this reason, the present study focused on examining different aspects of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the background reporting of four selected, international quality newspapers. Central questions were, whether Rio de Janeiro had organized good or bad Games, and whether Olympic principles were followed in accordance with the Olympic Charter as well as the Olympic values of Pierre de Coubertin and Hans Lenk. A differentiated examination grid was developed, detecting eleven formal content categories from all the individual articles, preliminary reports, reports during the Olympic Games and subsequently, over a fixed examination period of 127 days. The evaluation illustrates, that for instance, the Brazilian people as hosts, the host city, or the organization of the Olympic Games, rarely received positive reviews in the newspapers. Specific Olympic values, as represented by Coubertin and Lenk, appeared to be impaired in the media evaluations.