Media Construction of Sport Celebrities as National Heroes

Abstract

Within the broader media-sport nexus framework, sport is known for providing not only engaging performances for the entertainment market, but also important symbolic capital in terms of national identity and public diplomacy. The present paper looks at how these dimensions overlap, focusing on the centrality of the media logic within the dynamics of the social field of sport and its corollary celebrization imagery. The aim of the paper is, thus, to identify the contextual aspects and the legitimation strategies mobilized through media discourses in the overlap of the star status and the national hero image of a sport actor. When and how does media crown an athlete with the national hero aura? What does this national hero status involve in terms of identity and identification mechanisms? Focusing on a corpus of 310 online articles and 12 Facebook highlights published by two main Romanian sport newspapers during the 2014 Roland Garros Tournament, the study discusses the media construction of the raising sport star, Simona Halep (i.e. first Romanian tennis player to enter Top 3 WTA), as national hero. The analysis examines not only the symbolic power of the sport performances as national identity resources and celebrity input, but also the engaging deliberative spaces that emerge along with the national hero frame and the hybrid form of civic celebrity practices involved in legitimizing it.

National or Global? Moderated Mediation Impact of Sports Celebrity Credibility on Consumer’s Purchase Intention

“…Contrary to attractiveness, trustworthiness was higher for the national sports celebrity than the global one as was noticed in a few previous studies (Dumitriu, 2018, Toncar, Reid & Anderson, 2007. Sports celebrities are often involved in scandals that could have some impact on his or her trustworthiness (Chang, 2018).…”

“…Therefore, national celebrities quite often have higher awareness in a specific market than in the global one. Moreover, national sports celebrities get the status of national heroes (Dumitriu, 2018) or simply can be perceived as more credible (Toncar, Reid & Anderson, 2007). Due to this, national celebrities could have a stronger impact on consumers' purchase intention than global celebrities (Kay, Mulcahy & Parkinson, 2020).…”

The Socialisation of Athlete Irrational Beliefs

“…The media, a communication tool which includes radio, television, magazines, and the internet also influences irrational beliefs (Stevens & Prinstein, 2005). As sport has become one of the greatest passions of the twenty-first century (Boyle & Haynes, 2009), the media are keen to cover an athlete's sporting pursuit as a national hero as well as their personal life as a sport celebrity adding a layer of exposure and scrutiny (Dumitriu, 2018). Ahead of a major sport event, the media highlight athletes who are in contention for a medal.…”

The New “Youth Fountain” of Romania: How Tennis Overtook Gymnastics as the Premier Juvenile Sport of the Country

“…In women"s tennis, the 70s and early 80s were dominated by Virginia Ruzici, alongside Mariana Simionescu and Florenţa Mihai. A winner at the French Open in 1978, when only 23 (Dumitriu, 2018), Ruzici played another final in Paris in 1980. Her former partner, Mariana Simionescu, better remembered as the ex-wife of the Swedish ace Bjorn Borg, was undoubtedly a fine player too.…”

“…As Simona Halep"s stature grew bigger and bigger in the Romanian public conscience, and media featured extensively both her wins/ financial gains and the sport of tennis, press stories were published with increased pace, fulfilling a public need for information. Due to the great level of interest dubbed the Halepmania phenomenon (Dumitriu, 2018), witnessed from 2014 onwards, coaches generally reported an increase in the number of children being enrolled in tennis, with probably more than 10.000 children playing in the mid 2010s.…”