This project examines the relationship between football, the media and the constitution and reconstitution of cultural identities within Glasgow and Liverpool. It explores the extent to which a range of contemporary religious, political and national identities can be understood by focusing on the role that football and the support for particular clubs, play in their formation. Throughout, there is a concern with the relationship between supporters, the clubs, the media and identity-formation. There is also a realisation of the importance of placing this material within an histo rical framework, which emphasises how political, economic and social changes have all shaped the specific relationships in each city. This is achieved through the use of a number of case studies. The geographical areas used for the studies are the west of Scotland and the north-west of England, with specific attention focused on the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool and the football supporters within these cities. There has long been a strong connection between football and a range of social identities in these two cities. This study examines the theoretical debates regarding issues of the formation of identity in contemporary society, and argues for the need to have contextually grounded studies informing these broader theoretical discussions. This project, focusing on religious, political and cultural expressions of collective identity, emphasises the continual need to be wary of unproblematically allocating a central role to the media in any process of identity-formation. It suggests that in the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool today a range of more socially and historically grounded factors are crucial in understanding the configurations of collective expression which football support provides for many in these cities.

This study investigates Zambians’ construction of identities based on their following of the English soccer premier league. The study seeks to understand how Zambian supporters of this league construct their identities based on their encounter with foreign teams/players and how they appropriate the meanings obtained through such viewing in their daily lives. The study is informed by the theories of fandom. Using an ethnographic critique of the media imperialism thesis, the study attempts to explore the meanings that the fans of the English soccer league in urban Lusaka make of the mediated soccer games, while in and outside the viewing spaces – the bars – where the games are ritually watched in groups. Based on the qualitative methods of focus group discussions, individual in-depth interviews and observations, the study probes the phenomenon of the consumption of English premier league football in countries abroad, focusing specifically on the experiences of fans in Lusaka, Zambia. Observation of this phenomenon in Lusaka reveals that fans find pleasure in the tactics that the teams in the league display, the professionalism of the players, goal scoring and self-empowerment for the few women supporters. This study probes these issues in greater depth. The foremost conclusion of the research is that it neither completely rejects nor accepts the media imperialism thesis. Instead, meanings should be understood within the context of the lived experience and reality of the fans.

Public relations play an intricate role in communication development strategies within sport, especially netball. The objective of the research is to create a communication campaign incorporated in a public relations programme in aid of the development of netball in Port Elizabeth schools. The significance of the research is to create an understanding of the challenges faced by the learners to participate in netball and to develop the sport. The development of players at a young age is not up to standard when compared to countries where netball is already a professional sport. There is a lack of communication between the different stakeholders, namely the players, coaches and external publics. Qualitative research methods were implemented where primary and secondary data was used to conduct the research. Focus groups were utilised to gather primary data from netball players and coaches. These interviews proved that communication gaps do exist between the different stakeholders of school and netball. An introduction about netball will be discussed. Literature about public relations and communication will be presented. The research methodology will be presenting the research design and research methods used to conduct the research. Characteristics of the schools used in the interviews will be discussed. The research analysis, findings and discussions will present a guideline to be implemented by schools to enhance communication and therefore help develop netball. The research will then be concluded and summarised. Limitations to the study will be discussed as well as recommendations for further study on the topic. Communication plays an important role when trying to build mutual beneficial relationships between the various stakeholders. The results in this research bring to the conclusion that effective communication is needed to enhance and develop netball to ultimately become a professional sport.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The hosting of 2014 FIFA World CupTM was an ideal opportunity for Brazil to enhance its international image. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact on Brazil and on Rio de Janeiro (as a host city and major tourist destination) of mainstream media reporting on the hosting of the 2014 FIFA World CupTM. It provides a picture of how Brazil and Rio de Janeiro were reported in selected newspapers at different stages of the event: pre-, lead-up, during, and post- the 2014 World Cup. The study also seeks to ascertain whether the major objectives of the Brazil World Cup bid were met in the hosting of this mega-event. A media content analysis was conducted in four key tourism markets: Argentina, USA, Germany and Portugal. These countries were chosen because they represent Brazil’s main tourism markets and reported significant numbers of ticket sales for the event. The methodology used was qualitative analysis, including content sourcing, content identification and the use of Leximancer, an analytic tool for large amounts of textual data. The study examined online newspapers with the largest readership and circulation numbers in the selected markets. In total, 1961 online newspaper articles relevant to Brazil’s hosting of the 2014 FIFA World CupTM were analysed. The findings revealed both positive and negative sentiments associated with Brazil’s hosting of the event. A key finding from the analysis was that for all markets, there was a shift from relatively positive sentiment in the pre-World Cup period, to more negative sentiment in the lead-up, followed by a return to positive sentiment during and after the World Cup. Having shifted to a more negative view leading up to and during the event, the USA market was dominated by media attention to social unrest and corruption. The period immediately prior to the tournament recorded an increase in both positive and negative media coverage in the US, German and Portuguese markets, but became more positive in the Argentinian market. Thus, the lead-up period was particularly significant in all markets. Safety and security concerns expressed in the lead-up period decreased significantly during the hosting and post- periods, and a positive image of the country was noticeable in the international media. Therefore, while the positive sentiments emerging during the event should be capitalised on, Brazil should also address the lurking concerns and negative perceptions that continue despite its successful hosting of the mega-event. By doing this the nation can consolidate its brand’s position in a sustained and positive way. As different reporting tones were noticed in the different markets across the time periods, it becomes important to consider these changes in the future event marketing and positioning of Rio de Janeiro as the leading tourism destination and events capital for Brazil, especially in relation to Rio de Janeiro’s hosting of future events.

This research examines the U.S. media during the 1999 Women's World Cup from a feminist postcolonial standpoint. This research adds to current feminist scholarship on women and sports by de-centering the global North in its discourse. It reveals the bias of the media through the representation of the United States National Team as a universal "woman" athlete and the standard for international women's soccer. It further argues that, as a result, the Nigerian National Team was cast in simplistic stereotypes of race, class, ethnicity, and nation, which were often also appropriated and commodified. I emphasize that the Nigerian National Team resisted this construction and fought to secure their position in the global soccer landscape. I conclude that these biased representations, which did not fairly depict or value the contributions of diverse competing teams, were primarily employed to promote and sell the event to a predominantly white middle-class American audience. / by Michele Canning. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Sexy Sports: A reception study of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Olympics website coverage of women’s beach volleyball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics involves an examination of the sporting media and its reportage of the female athlete. The thesis will focus on the reception of the NBC Olympics website coverage of women’s beach volleyball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics by viewing groups constituted by the researcher. The reason for this is that it would be difficult to find naturally constituted audiences for this website, but its reception is never-the-less of research interest. My hypothesis is that the nature of the images and text on the website is overdetermined by the construction of women on other popular texts such as men’s magazines etc. In focusing on the meanings obtained from the content of the website (texts and images), the study will investigate how these meanings are naturalised in specific moments of production as well as through their intertextual relationships with similar texts involved in the glamorisation of female athletes. Specifically the study explores the meanings obtained from the content of the website (texts and images) and how in turn these meanings are naturalised by the consumers of the website. The study will utilise a qualitative research design to unpack the content of the website through the use of qualitative content analysis, focus group interviews and individual in-depth interviews. The research will be informed via a theoretical framework that draws from feminist theory, sport feminism, the concept of intertextuality between media texts, ideology and Stuart Hall’s model of preferred reading. Increasingly mainstream media uses the image of a woman’s body to sell almost anything from men’s razors to margarine and in so far as the reporting of women’s sports is concerned this holds true. Through the research I intend to account for the connotative power of other texts i.e. the men’s magazines and pornography, and how this is likely to be carried through into shaping the meanings that are read off the website. Arguably the production of the NBC texts and images are overdetermined by the existence of similar texts already in transmission in the circuit of culture.

This thesis looks at the subject of sports television programming in two European markets, the UK, one of the biggest and most developed in the continent, and the Greek, one of the smallest in Europe. With the help of case studies over a period of eight years and qualitative interviews of television executives and professionals who are involved in sports television rights agreements, it analyses and compares the strategies and decision making of television organisations, the factors that affect their decisions and their success within the chosen markets. A distinction will be made between public service, commercial and pay-TV and the reasons why different sports may suit different channels and at different points in their development. The findings should help to appreciate that there is not one strategy that works universally better than another. Its outcome depends on the value of the content, the particular characteristics of the organisation and the external environment where it operates. Most importantly, the thesis highlights the importance and limitations of the TV sports content, its crucial role in the decision making process and the necessity of more academic research into the area of sports television by people in content-driven disciplines, i.e. journalism and the media.