Constructing the national through sports news in Catalonia (2007–2009)

Abstract

The omnipresence of sport in the media and some of the characteristics associated with its presentation (constant presence, banality, emotional attachments … ) make it a prominent tool for the construction and reproduction of nationalism. In Catalonia, a territory in which two national identities coexist (Catalan and Spanish), sport plays a dominant role in the transmission of nationalizing messages. The present article analyses how the general press in Catalonia reproduce the nation through its treatment of sports information. We analyse the press coverage of sporting events in the period before the emergence of the recent pro-independence movement (2007–2009). The results reveal the presence of messages informed by the two nationalist persuasions (Catalan and Spanish), although with a clear prevalence of the latter in four of the six newspapers analysed.