Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publication Title

Communication & Sport

First Page

428

Last Page

447

DOI

10.1177/2167479516636638

Additional Publication URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479516636638

Abstract

Drawing on the literature on American nationalism and the social identity perspective, this study examines the effects of mediasport on nationalized attitudes, using both rhetorical and experimental approaches. First, a rhetorical analysis examined the nationalistic themes featured in the game promotional ad of the United States versus Ghana soccer match in World Cup 2014, linking these themes to the republicanism/liberalism paradox in American political thought. Using the social identity perspective, we predicted the effects of these themes on U.S. participants’ nationalized attitudes and tested our hypotheses using an experiment. Experimental findings indicate that exposure to nationalistic rhetoric indirectly increases uncritical patriotism, critical patriotism, and support of militarism attitudes via self-enhancement gratifications. Additionally, exposure to nationalistic rhetoric also indirectly influences uncritical patriotism via social uncertainty reduction gratifications. Our study demonstrates the utility of a mixed-method approach and points out directions for future research on the (re)construction of social identities through mediasport.

Rights

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Sage Journals in Communication & Sport on March 16, 2016, available online: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479516636638.

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