ABSTRACT
Delays and infrastructure problems appeared as key issues in numerous media reports on the preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. This paper analyses to what extent the media coverage of this period helped to overshadow serious existent social issues, such as poverty and violence, and how this has meant the privilege of FIFA’s narratives over these issues. A frame analysis shows that while the FIFA is quoted as a major source of the news on the event, a stereotyped portrait of Brazil has been constantly offered. As far as as protests led by ordinary citizens and social movements have appeared as disruptors of the tournament’s safety. This case yet illustrates not only the priority given to commercial interests in the news, but the necessary debate around the media coverage of global events, in which the media are expected to side with international bodies, as local voices remain marginalized.
