The Portrayal of Sports stars and National Identity. Represe
The world of sport is forever growing, and as sport grows so does the interest and attention of the media, whether this be television or newspapers, sport is everywhere. The interest of the media has led to multi million pound sponsorships of players clubs and major events. The attention that the media gives sport is not always in a positive light, it is the case that scandal receives far more attention that normality, and failure is often more interesting than success. Therefore sportsmen and women are often very wary of the media and what they might be writing about them. The media has become a powerful tool which can make brake heroes just as quickly as they produced them. During this essay I am going to examine the British media, concentrating on the tabloids, mid tabloids and the broadsheets. I am going to look at how they portray foreign sport stars and also the jingoistic tendencies of the media which is fueled by great national interest and national identity.When the media cover major events they often use nationalistic tendencies to increase the potential audience of viewers, this could be done through encouraging national identity and pride. The media often use jingoistic headlines to excite the reader of viewer. Nev
Such military links may seem harmless but they are further evidence of how foreign sportstars are displayed in the British press. The men’s final just provided more opportunity to continue with the jingoistic trends displayed earlier, Blain et al (1993) illustrates, “Indian hockey team were said to be on an bonus of 100 popadoms a man” (Whannel 1992, p 137). “Triple champ Boris throws in ze towel” er is this more apparent then when England meet Germany in the sporting arena. The two nations have always had a fierce rivalry dating back to the two world wars in the early 20th century. One clear example arose when during the 1990 World Cup in Italy the two met in the semi-finals, The Sun had a field day, running with headlines as follows, This quote combines triumphs both on the battleground as well as the English World Cup win in 1966 against the Germans. Other puns used in the report referred to the Germans as ‘The auld enemy’. In contrast when examining how the mainstream German press dealt with the game and occasion a different story is portrayed. Famous German publications such as ‘Bild’ and ‘Neu Presse’ had headlines of the following nature, The jingoistic tendencies of the British press do not only concentrate on the Germans as the main target for these nationalistic headlines. Another example occurs when examining the relationship between the press and the Argentineans. The obvious reason for the England Argentina conflict is the Falklands War, and the fact that the two countries were in direct conflict with each other. This war of words so to speak spilled over when England were eliminated from the World Cup of 1986 in Mexico, when the infamous ‘hand of god’ of Diego Maradona played it’s part in ending England’s World Cup dream. The press at the time dubbed the Argentines ‘Argies’ as they had during the Falklands War crisis. Again referring back to war times, and using military links.
Some topics in this essay:
,
British English,
Steffi Graf,
Damon Hill,
Cup Nazi,
World Cup,
Famous German,
Falklands War,
Cup Italy,
Guardian June,
et al,
et al 1993,
world cup,
al 1993,
blain et al,
british press,
blain et,
national identity,
jingoistic headlines,
whannel 1992,
jingoistic tendencies,
damon hill,
1990 world cup,
national identity pride,
world cup italy,
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Approximate Word count = 1393
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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