ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature of contestation and specifically symbolic contestation with respect to sports mega-events. It focuses on the mediated social construction of sports mega-events. The chapter considers what a decoding of sports mega-events might entail, utilizing the ideas of Stuart Hall and Stan Cohen. It also examines some examples of symbolic contestation at recent sports mega-events and indicates where further research and study of symbolic contestation could develop our understanding of the mediatization of sports mega-events. Media analysis has focused theoretically on production, messages, and reception, while empirically it has engaged with institutions, content, and audiences respectively. This has led to the recognition of the mediated social construction of sports mega-events. The shift of the two biggest sports events organizers, Federation Internationale de Football (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), toward holding mega-events in the global South, or developing market economies, in the past decade connects with recent attempts to link sport and social development.
