The Construction of National Identity in British Media Coverage of Sport
Contents Page
I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………
II. British identity and mediation of sport………………………………………………..
The concept of national identity………………………………………………………
Sport, history and media……………………………………………………………….
Globalization and sport coverage…….………………………………………………...
III. British media coverage of sport……………………………………………………….
National identity and British media techniques………………………………………..
National stereotypes and media coverage of sport…………………………………….
IV. Conclusions………………………………………………………………………….
V. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..
The Construction of National Identity in British Media Coverage of Sport
Introduction
Sport is a very important and a very influential agent of forming and maintaining British cultural identity. Numerous researches conducted by such scholars as Andrews and Cole (2002), Cronin and Mayall (2005), Conboy and Steel (2014) and others demonstrate that sport played a very significant role in the historical construction of British national identity. In the contemporary life of the United Kingdom sport manifests its undisputable influence in such spheres as politics, economics, and popular culture. It has become an indispensible part of the media discourse and sport events are discussed not only by sport professionals but also by general public. It will not be an exaggeration to argue that sport is used in many spheres of social life because it reflects national stereotypes and many features of national character. The main task of this paper is to evaluate the role of media coverage of sport events in the construction of British national identity. This role will be evaluated through the analysis of scientific publications dedicated to the problem of national identity and through the analysis of newspaper articles, advertising campaigns, TV broadcastings and other ways of British media coverage of sport events. We argue that British media coverage of sport events is an important strategy of the construction of national identity because it creates new symbols uniting the nation, it demonstrates the power of Britain on the international level but at the same time it is imposed to the influence of national stereotypes.
The Concept of National Identity
National identity is a very complex concept. There are different approaches towards understanding this concept which include such notions as imagined communities, imaginary coherences, and invention of traditions. In a broad meaning, national identity can be defined as a sense of the nation as a whole which is represented by the distinctive traditions, culture, language and politics. National identity is also a sense of belonging to one country or one nation, regardless a legal citizenship of a person. Such scholars as Guibernau defined the concept of nation in the following way “it is a community, sharing a common culture, attached to a clearly demarcated territory, having a common past and a common project for the future, and claiming the right to rule itself” (23). Von der Lippe argues that national identity can be defined in accordance to the way “a citizenry sees and thinks about themselves in relation to others” (374). Parekh emphasizes that the concept of national identity cannot remain fixed for a very long time.
According to this …
