| Since the 1840 s,modern media,which was represented by newspapers,and modern sports,which set Western churches as the mainstays,have entered China firstly and gave a profound impact to Chinese society.In the early 20 th century,with the spread of modern sports in China(such as track and field,basketball and tennis,etc.),modern media,such as newspapers and periodicals gradually imagined and constructed various aspects of modern sports.In this process,how does media view the relationship between modern sports and city,as well as imagine and construct modern city by reporting sports have become an urgent problem.Therefore,this study takes The Young Companion as the research object.I choose urban modernity theory as the theoretical perspective,and use the literature method,the content analysis method and the case analysis method to probed that how the sports reports of The Young Companion imagine and construct urban modernity.Furthermore,this study will focus on how sports reports construct urban modernity in three levels,which are material,system and thoughts to have a better understanding of the relationship between sports,media and the city.The study finds that at the level of physical facilities,The Young Companion leads the public’s imagination of urban modernity by reporting foreign sports architecture.And the reports on domestic concessions,schools and public sports buildings construct urban modernity.At the level of institutional structure,The Young Companion attaches importance to the quantitative achievements and records in sports events,and views the modernity process of the city with the perspective of modern sports.At the level of ideological concepts,The Young Companion constructs urban citizen’s cultural identity by reporting modern sports.The higher status of athletes in society actually helps to construct the cultural identity of the modern athlete elite group.In addition,The Young Companion construct a new female cultural identity and "healthy beauty" of the modern body concept through depicting women’s sports.Finally,The Young Companion attempts to construct the national traditional cultural identity by displaying various activities of Chin Woo Athletic Association and the Martial Arts Museum.The three aspects in the sports reports of The Young Companion – artifact,system and concept – make the more diverse perspectives in the sports reports,and the more profound imagination and construction of urban modernity,which have some references on the reports of future sports and the exploration of the connotation of sports in modern cities. |
