"Sport, in contemporary British society, is primarily a means of reinforcing national or local identity". Discuss with relation to one or more specific examples of its contemporary presentation in one or more media forms.

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Media and Popular Culture;        BAIMS        Katie Warren

LM253        

“Sport, in contemporary British society, is primarily a means of reinforcing national or local identity”. Discuss with relation to one or more specific examples of its contemporary presentation in one or more media forms.

Sport can be seen as a means of fitness and endurance, where athletes strive to win and is also continually being regarded as a typical means of nation building. It produces records for the nation and makes it possible to find one’s place in the International World of competition. This is just one reason for people forming a national identity. It is characterized by competition and result, and what comes out of this is an identity of production. By linking identification to results, the competitive encounter in sports stirs up feelings of connection and togetherness. Out-comes and records of sport are regarded as representative, and as collective results. It is also the media and their representation of sport that leads us to create our own national identities. After the England versus Germany match of September, 2001, the words "Five-one to us" could be heard nationwide, after they were mass printed in British tabloid papers. The result released strong emotions and a collective National identity.  

Sport makes people wave the national flag and sing the national anthem in the case of victory. Sport produces successful athletes who are then proclaimed as national heroes, that people can identify and worship. It means organizing national committees and building national stadiums. It involves people from all aspects of life and crosses all cultural borders. Sport events allow national unity to be displayed and encompass millions of followers who all assume one identity. It gives body and face to national identity and allows people to be themselves.
National identity in Britain has all but disappeared whereas English identity has increasingly become a brand that sport events allow us to display. This brand of ‘English National identity’ was most recently exercised in the World Cup 2002, where nations across the World joined forces to support their football teams. It did indeed seem like the millions of people that form a country, became completely represented by just those 11 men.

National identity within England should have always been hugely powerful due to our historical roots. As a country, we have had enormous Imperial and industrial power Worldwide and could even be said to be the Mother of the World. However, this contribution to National identity has slowly been eroded away and Sport and media representations have become the new factor in bringing our identities together. Our Institutional heritage, represented by the Monarchy is slowly falling apart at the seams and is no longer the strong leadership like that of the 1800s and Queen Victoria. Cases like the recent story of Paul Burrell simply help to reaffirm that our heritage in Britain is collapsing. Devolution and confusion of where power lies in Parliament fuels the idea Britain no longer has a National identity. With the assistance of media representation, national identities are reconstructed. “Media coverage of sport arguably plays a significant part in the construction of national identities” (Horne, Tomlinson & Whannel: 177).

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As an Empire, we have lost all significant commodities and only have the Commonwealth games to show for our Imperial achievements. This is a perfect example of where sport and it’s representation in our media, reaffirms our National identity but we are no longer a British nation, but an English one. We are no longer the World power we once were. There is no longer a demand for our industries as it is continually Japanese brands that are consumed but the media help to keep spirit alive and national identities constant, by comparing our support to that of “humourless East ...

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