Nation and Football: Construction of Croatian national identity in the context of the Football World Cup in France 1998.

Radić, Ivo. (2015). Nation and Football: Construction of Croatian national identity in the context of the Football World Cup in France 1998.. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of History. [mentor Jakovina, Tvrtko and Paić, Hrvoje].

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Abstract

This dissertation was created in cooperation from the Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb and the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz. The main focus of the dissertation is to investigate if a Croatian national identity was constructed by the mass media during the 1998 FIFA World cup held in France, and if it was indeed created to investigate the means through which it happened. The second goal of the dissertation is to determine the actors that construct the concepts of nation and identity, as well as the discourses used in the political, economic and ideological context to construct and transform the current social relations. The method through which the research was carried out is critical discourse analysis, an interdisciplinary method whose goal is to analyse social problems such as manipulation and different forms of discrimination and the role which language (discourse) has in creating and reproducing inequalities and abuses of power. Sources used in the research are Croatian daily newspapers Sportske novosti, Vjesnik and Večernji list, and the standard researched level of text is a newspaper report. The results of the research show that the major role in creating the dominant discourse was that of then president Franjo Tuđman, as well as the national football team and the newspaper reporters that followed the World Cup. The research also displays a strong correlation between the statements made by the main actors and the main discursive formations that are present in the wider discourse, clearly expressing the significance that the participation in the World cup had in creating the Croatian national identity.

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