棒球在台灣不只是一項運動賽事，它所代表是台灣多年來累積的巨大期待與情感寄託，甚至是集體認同的象徵意義。本研究採內容分析及新聞文本分析法，以2008北京奧運棒球資格賽及正式比賽爲內容分析對象，試圖瞭解台灣報紙在報導這兩項充滿高度社會期待的奧運棒球相關比賽時，國族主義意識型態如何被呈現於新聞報導文本之中。研究結果發現，勝負結果及交手國家對於具國族主義意識型態的報導在數量及陳述方式上皆有顯著關聯性。在文本論述部分，台灣媒體以輕佻的言語矮化「他者」；與中國代表隊賽前亦以貶抑其實力，賽後卻以極具國族意識的「國恥」、「國殤」稱呼該場比賽的失利，並將輸球與過往臺灣在外交及政治的挫敗作一記憶連結。

Baseball is not only a sport event in Taiwan; it carries the high expectations and emotional commitments of Taiwanese, as well as a symbolic of collective identification. Content analysis and discourse analysis were used to analyze news coverage of both Olympic baseball competitions (qualification games and regular games) in order to investigate the nationalism which had been represented. The results indicated that game outcomes and opponent countries were related to the amounts and declarations of the nationalism new coverage. Results of the in-depth discourse analysis showed that Taiwan media used 'frivolous' phrases to discriminate 'others'. Besides, after losing the game with China, 'the death of nation' and 'the shame of nation' were used to describe the breakdown, linking the failure of Taiwan in diplomacy and politics in the past.