Critically analyzing any text requires some level of understanding about the purpose, structure, design, and meaning. Indeed, according to Hawkins and Silva (2018), textual analysis is helpful because “it is focused on ideas” (p. 27). The article titled “It’s O.K. not to be O.K.,” written by Naomi Osaka and published in Time magazine, will be evaluated in this paper. Naomi Osaka is a 24-years-old famous Japanese tennis player of dual Japanese-American citizenship ranked third by the World Tennis Association (Weilandt, 2021). Despite her young age, she already received extensive media attention and misrepresentation about her race and origin, especially after the 2018 match at the US Open, where she won an African-American tennis player Serena Williams (Razack & Joseph, 2021). However, Naomi’s article talks not about misogynoir but discusses mental health issues among professional athletes and the importance of being empathetic towards them during psychological crises. Although her text seems to be straightforward, there are essential features that indicate its broader implication. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the context, meaning, and effect on the audience of the article by Naomi Osaka.
The Text Structure, Design, and Context
This article is organized in a visually compelling way to attract the readers’ attention. It is arranged in short paragraphs, which simplifies representation, reading, and navigation. The text’s font, PT Serif, is probably chosen to represent the esthetics of the sport and to display the intricacy of the issue. Furthermore, most sentences and paragraphs are short, like famous Japanese three-lines poetry. Indeed, the article commences with four simple words with broad philosophical meaning: “Life is a journey” (Osaka, 2021). Afterward, every segment of the text presents events and experiences. Specifically, the two paragraphs discuss the athlete’s two lessons after being criticized for withdrawing from French Open and skipping the “press conference at Rolland Garros to exercise self-care and preservation of … mental health” (Osaka, 2021). However, before explaining the context for this article, Naomi highlights that she always wanted to maintain polite relationships with the press. However, she states that athletes are human beings that need to rest and take care of their mental health, considering the immense pressure in this profession. The article ends with thanking people who supported Osaka during these stressful times of media scrutiny.
The Photos and Video
The cover photo and the article image represent Osaka in her uniform for the games in white and black, giving the audience the sign that the issues beyond the press conference and tournament are involved. Indeed, according to Chandler (2007), reading such signs “helps us to take apart what is taken for granted, making our interpretive systems more explicit” (p. 8). Therefore, Time magazine invites its readers to look beyond Naomi’s request not to attend that press conference and French Open. Instead, these photos ask the audience to consider the hidden reasons for such criticism from tennis writers, like her race and ethnicity. The choice of the color for the image seems to have dual reasons. On the one hand, editors probably wanted to raise an issue of negative attitude toward Naomi’s mixed origin and race. On the other hand, the focus on Naomi’s eyes and lips seems to represent mental health issues among professional sportspeople; in fact, she does not smile, and her facial features display sadness.
At the end of the article, the short video is a two-minute interview with Naomi Osaka, who reveals her interest, skills, hopes, and role models. The background music’s tempo is relatively fast, which seems to be in accord with the speech pace of Naomi. Moreover, each answer is associated with the appropriate visuals to let viewers know what she is referring to at a specific moment. However, the video is not related to the context of the article. Still, it demonstrates Osaka as a friendly individual who is genuine during every conversation with media representatives. Indeed, it was something that she talked about in the text: “I have always enjoyed an amazing relationship with the media … I always try to answer genuinely and from the heart” (Osaka, 2021). Overall, Naomi’s gentle voice and kind attitude prove that she is not a spoiled celebrity who canceled an event to attract attention but a hard-working athlete with the need for breaks to preserve mental wellbeing.
The Meaning and Effects of the Text
Despite the relative straightforwardness of the author, the meaning of the text is complex. Osaka raises mental health issues among athletes caused by training intensity, competitions, and media attention. However, many of them do not talk about their problems publicly. For instance, Naomi writes that she “felt under a great amount of pressure to disclose … symptoms” because the tournament and the press did not want to believe her (Osaka, 2021). Moreover, it demonstrates an unfair attitude towards sportspeople who are expected to show continuous resilience because they are all humans with physical and mental limits. Thus, she suggests that every athlete should be allowed to have breaks from press conferences to practice self-care. Moreover, Osaka shared her thoughts with the readers, hoping that they would understand that “it’s O.K. not to be O.K.” sometimes and “it’s O.K. to talk about it” (Osaka, 2021). Hence, she thanked people who supported her during the challenging times, implying that belief and encouragement from others are the best fuel for a sportsperson.
This article likely produced a positive response from the readers because mental health issues are existing medical problems in sports and any stressful environment. Although the article’s transitions create the feeling that the author gives long answers at an interview instead of writing an essay, the authenticity of this revelation makes the audience sympathize with her decision. Indeed, Naomi admits how important this event is for tennis writers: “For most of them, the traditional press conference is sacred and not to be questioned” (Osaka, 2021). Still, journalists should also understand the pressure that competitive sport and media attention impose on athletes.
Conclusion
To summarize, the article by Naomi Osaka is the confession of psychological problems among athletes and the call for compassion. The athlete wrote this text in the context of media scrutiny after her decision not to participate in the French Open and refusal to attend the press conference. The cover and story photos were done black and white, depicting the dichotomous problem of racism and mental health. Furthermore, the video interview attached to the story showed the openness and genuineness of the athlete. The textual analysis revealed the simplicity of the article’s structure which is divided into short paragraphs and consists of three parts that talk about lessons learned, context, and acknowledgments to the supporters. Overall, Naomi’s story aimed to respond to public criticism and raise an important issue of immense pressure on athletes; thus, sportspeople require rest, understanding, and support.
References
Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics: The basics. Routledge.
Hawkins, K. A., & Silva, B. C. (2018). Textual analysis: Big data approaches. In K.A. Hawkins, R.E. Carlin, L. Littvay, & C.R. Kaltwasser (Eds.), The ideational approach to populism (pp. 27-48). Routledge.
Osaka, N. (2021). It’s O.K. not to be O.K.Time.
Razack, S., & Joseph, J. (2021). Misogynoir in women’s sport media: Race, nation, and diaspora in the representation of Naomi Osaka.Media, Culture & Society, 43(2), 291-308.
Weilandt, J. (2021). Naomi Osaka (Born October 16th, 1997). Women in the World Today. Comparative Studies-Canada and Japan. Pressbooks. Web.
Chosen text: “It’s O.K. not to be O.K.” (Naomi Osaka).