Paradigm of sports as a means of ethnonational identification in sports club media

Abstract

The article examines the mediated paradigm of sports as a means of ethno-national identification in the pages of Ukrainian sports club periodicals (on the example of the magazine of FC Shakhtar) through the application of synchronous, socio-cultural, and hermeneutic content analysis, reveals the interrelation between ethno-national identification, globalization, and glocalization through the prism of the sports environment. The transformation of the image of sports as a tool of ethno-national identification is outlined, and its typology in Ukrainian sports club media during the period of independence is parameterized. The general dominants of the representation of sport as an ethno-national identification in the sports mass media were identified and substantiated, the most representative materials of the conceptualization of sport as an ethno-national identification were analyzed on the example of the materials of the Shakhtar magazine from the 2010s as the most representative period in the history of FC Shakhtar sports club and its corporate press. The information vectors reflecting sports as ethno-national identification are determined: 1) coverage of folklore and traditional elements, in particular certain national dances, music of athletes of different countries; 2) coverage of rituals and rites of athletes of different countries; 3) coverage of the mentality, values, characteristics of the national culture of sportsmen of different countries. The leading features of the paradigm of sport as an ethno-national identification in the sports club press are outlined: 1) representation of sport as an element of cultural heritage; 2) emphasizing the national dignity of athletes through the prism of sports; 3) representation of sport as a cultural dialogue between nations. The significance of the concept of sports as a means of ethno-national identification in socio-cultural context is revealed, and its functional range is defined as an invariant for presenting the image of sports in mass media in various modifications to enhance the communication effects of the output on the recipient.