ABSTRACT
Globalization has added significant impetus to media coverage of major international sporting events such as the Olympic Games and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. More than half of the world’s population watches both these quadrennial international sporting events (Associated Press, 2008; FIFA, 2011). For the duration of the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, the symbiotic relationship between sport and the media intensifies as both traditional and new media compete to attract readers, viewers, and advertisers. This chapter provides insight into what Rowe, McKay and Miller (1998: 133) described as the “sport-nationalism-media troika,” or the intersection between elite national athletes and teams, mass media, and national media audiences. The sport-nationalism-media troika is an important arena where dominant cultural ideologies about national identities are (re)produced and challenged (Crolley and Hand, 2006).
