WATCHING THE WORLD CUP, AMERICAN STYLE: RACE, NATIONALITY, AND GENDER IN THE WORLD’S GAME by DANIEL T. BUFFINGTON (Under the Direction of Linda Grant) ABSTRACT This project explores the role of international sport and mass media in the processes of identity formation and the creation of symbolic boundaries between groups. Using qualitative content analysis I document the patterned ways in which media coverage of men’s World Cup soccer characterized national teams, their players, and fans as having a peculiar style of performing or celebrating sport based on national identity. I analyzed how style in this context acted as a form of cultural representation that drew upon the racial and economic history of the nation to conceptualize its imaginary core. In particular, I highlight the way U.S. nationality was constructed via its differentiation from other nationalities as understood through their relationship to soccer and the World Cup. I approach these mediated depictions as part of the social construction or framing of reality that contributes to an understanding of social identity rooted in separate, hierarchically-arranged categories. I supplemented this analysis of media content through ethnographic observation at two nationally-distinct fieldsites where fans gathered to watch live broadcasts of the World Cup. In this way, I was able to move beyond some of the limitations inherent to the study of media texts in isolation by specifying how the format (television broadcast) and context (the public space of the sports bar) of media text consumption impacted its reception. Patrons who gathered to watch these broadcasts experienced this act of consumption as a dialogical interplay between the personal act of viewing the televised broadcast and their collective engagement with a temporary community of fellow sport spectators. Analyses showed that while viewers shared a discourse about nationality and ability similar to that outlined in the analysis of media texts, the format of reception, in particular the public nature of the context, provided opportunities to construct meaning collectively and interactionally unavailable to the private viewer. Thus, I was able to show how media content became bound up in social relations that impacted how patron’s received information provided via the television broadcast. INDEX WORDS: Culture; Social inequality; Social identity; Mass media; Sport; Soccer; nationality; Race; Ethnicity; Gender; Masculinity WATCHING THE WORLD CUP, AMERICAN STYLE: SPORT AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL, GENDER, AND RACIAL IDENTITY IN THE WORLD’S GAME by DANIEL T. BUFFINGTON B.A., The University of New Mexico, 1999 M.A., The University of Georgia, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Athens, GA 2008 © 2008 Daniel T. Buffington All Rights Reserved WATCHING THE WORLD CUP, AMERICAN STYLE: SPORT AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL, GENDER, AND RACIAL IDENTITY IN THE WORLD’S GAME by DANIEL T. BUFFINGTON Major Professor: Linda Grant Committee: Jim Dowd Patricia Richards Electronic version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2008 iv DEDCATION There’s only one Sarah Daniels…. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Like all intellectual work, this project is product of the efforts of many people. The conceptualization of the dissertation owes much to the work of Hugh O’Donnell, Benedict Anderson, and Eduardo Archetti, among others. I would like to thank Linda Grant, Jim Dowd, Patricia Richards, and Todd Fraley for their advice and comments on this project. Linda deserves special recognition for her wonderful mentoring that always kept me looking forward. I would also like to thank mom, dad, Beth, Sarah, and the Shearer Creek gang for their nearly-eternal patience with me during the writing process. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………..…………………………………………….…….iv LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………………......ix LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………….....x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………...1 The Sport-Nationality Nexus…………………………………………...…………5 From the National to National Intersections………………………………………7 The Importance of Media Studies………………………………………………..11 Soccer in the USA?................................................................................................13 Outline of Study………………………………………………………………….14 Orientation…………………………………………………………………….....16 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THEORY……………………………………….19 Theorizing Nationalism in a Globalized World………………………………….20 National Sporting Styles…………………………………………………………23 From Sociology of the Media to Sport Fandom…………………………………38 3 METHODS……………………………………………………………………………45 Media Sample……………………………………………………………………46 Ethnography……………………………………………………………………...65 Summary…………………………………………………………………………72 4 SOCCER STYLE AS CULTURAL REPRESENTATION: REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL TEAM; IMAGINING THE NATION…………………………….78 vii Representing the National Team; Imagining the Nation………………………...79 Soccer Style as Cultural Representation…………………………………………93 Chapter Discussion……………………………………………………………..105 5 INDIVIDUAL POINTS OF INTERSECTION: RACE, GENDER, AND ETHNICITY THROUGH THE PRISM OF NATIONALITY………………………………113 Racailizing Nationality: Comparing Coverage of Brazil, France, and USA…...115 A South in the North: The American South and U.S. Nationalism…………….125 Chapter Discussion……………………………………………………………..139 6 U.S. AND THEM: U.S. AMBIVALENDE TOWARDS THE WORLD’S SPORT AS AMERICAN NATIONALISM………………………………………………...146 Differentiating Us from Them: The U.S. Versus the World……………………147 Sport Fandom as National Culture……………………………………………..170 Chapter Discussion……………………………………………………………..177 7 VIRTUAL FANDOM: WATHCING THE WORLD CUP IN PUBLIC SPACE…...181 Virtual Fandom: Watching Soccer as Mediated Social Event………………….183 Talking about Nationality Through Soccer: Interests and Claims……………...198 Chapter Discussion……………………………………………………………..207 8 SOCCER, NATIONALISM, AND HEIRARCHIES OF RACE, ETHNICTY AND GENDER……………………………………………………………….………213 Theoretical Considerations and Contributions………………………………….215 Thinking Socially……………………………………………………………….229 Limitations……………………………………………………………………...231 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………234 viii Academic Works Cited…………………………………………………………234 Newspaper Articles Cited………………………………………………………251 APPENDICIES…………………………………………………………………………286 A DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY OF NATIONAL TEAMS……………….…..286 Europe…………………………………………………………………..286 Latin America…………………………………………………………..295 Africa…………………………………………………………………...298 Southwest Asia and North Africa………………………………………300 East Asia………………………………………………………………..301 Australia………………………………………………………………...303 U.S.A…………………………………………………………………...303 ix LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1: Distribution of Newspaper Articles by Publication, Year, and Location…………….74 Table 3.2: Distribution of Authors by Publication and Year: Overseas-based…………………..75 Table 3.3: Distribution of Authors by Publication and year, U.S.-based………………………..76 Table 3.4: List of Televised Games Transcribed by Announcing Team………………………...77 Table 4.1: Distribution of Team Tendencies by Region………………………………………..107 Table 4.2: Distribution of Team Tendencies by Country………………………………………108 Table 4.3: Distribution of Offensive-Defensive Skills by Region……………………………...109 Table 4.4: Distribution of Offensive-Defensive Skills by Country…………………………….110 Table 4.5: Distribution of Physical and Mental Skills by Region……………………………...111 Table 4.6: Distribution of Physical and Mental Skills by Country……………………………..112 Table 5.1: Distribution of Selected Skills for Brazil, by Racial/Ethnic Grouping……………..144 Table 5.2: Distribution of Selected Skills for France, by Racial/Ethnic Grouping…………….144 Table 5.3: Distribution of Selected Skills for USA, by Race/Ethnicity………………………...145 Table 6.1: Temporal Distribution of Fan Tendency Comments for USA, by Media Source…..179 Table 6.2: Distribution of Fan Tendency Comments for Overseas, by Tournament…………..180 x LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 4.1: Offensive-Defensive Antinomy and Related Skills…………………………………85 Figure 4.2: Physical Antinomy and Related Skills………………………………………………87 Figure 4.3: Emotional Antinomy and Related Skills…………………………………………….89 Figure 4.4: Field of Soccer Representation………………………………………………………90 Figure 7.1: Fieldsite 1: The Soccer Pub………………………………………………………...211 Figure 7.2: Fieldsite 2: The Biergarten…………………………………………………………212 1 - Chapter 1 - Introduction In 1988, Pierre Bourdieu called for a more serious and engaged program for the sociological study of sport. At the time, this statement by such a prominent theorist seemed to offer much promise for future scholarly explorations. Yet, despite increasing recognition of its importance for society and daily life over the ensuing two decades, the most recent summary of the field in the Annual Review of Sociology indicated that sport remains “a relatively neglected and undertheorized area of sociological research” (Washington and Karen, 2001: 187) suggesting it is still, as it was then, a substantive area “scorned by sociologists” (Bourdieu, 1988: 153). In this project, I make a case for the centrality of sport for the study of society by showing how it is intimately bound up in the larger processes of identity formation and the creation of symbolic boundaries between groups by exploring media coverage of men’s World Cup soccer. In this sense, I ground this study within the broad turn (Friedland and Mohr, 2004) towards culture as a primary subject