Sochi Olympics Storify: an issue of Representation and Identity?

I know that we have talked extensively about the Sochi Olympics in class, and even though the games are over, I wanted to share a "Storify" (a collection of different websites, tweets, social media posts on the same subject) with you all in relation to the Circuit of Culture model and Representation/Identities. I figured now would be a nice time to re-apply some of the concepts from the beginning of class now that we have it fresh in our mind from the final exam.

So please click here for the storify page... pretty much critical articles about the conditions of the Olympic Village, the city of Sochi and some of the other struggles that athletes and journalists ran into at the games. I know that Annetta mentioned that a consequence of the massive amounts of tweets like this made American journalists come of as disrespectful and amateur. While I don't disagree, I think what is most interesting about this issue is not how it makes journalists look but how new media is able to change the dynamics at play.

What I mean is, this is the first time I wasn't really all that into the Olympics. While I love sports and am an avid snowboarder, I felt that this February, the magic and almost the facade of the Olympics was cracked for me. I got a behind-the-scenes look of the games, and in this case, it wasn't pretty. Knowing that the broadcasts, images and stories could very well be fabrications or not real representations of reality (given the other, negative, behind-the-scenes images I had seen) made it hard for me to buy into the genuine authenticity of the whole thing. I don't know...

So what I really want to emphasize is that I guess there has been a change in power. A decade ago, whichever country hosted the Olympics had a chance to shine on a global stage -- really show the world what their country is all about, why they are special and how great their event was. The host country's culture was on full display, and it was almost as if it was a HUGE chance for worldwide, unquestionably positive PR. Now that countries (in this example) can no longer shape that message, as an audience, our understanding of one thing may differ from what the host country wants it to be.

Is that bad? Are disparaging identities and different meanings ascribed to the Sochi Olympics harmful? I would say that it definitely is discouraging to see that erosion of the illusion and the allure of the games. We think of the Olympic Games as a time where all countries of the world can compete on the same stage on behalf of their country. While that hasn't changed, I would say that the untouchable and magical feel of the games, at least in this case, has. With all the good that new media brings, it does also bring a level of more transparency and thus a larger chance for disillusionment and loss of excitement when we finally do see what is behind the curtain.