England and France
Author's note
This investigation into the mediation of national identities in post-war football journalism is co-authored with Liz Crolley. It compares and contrasts the evolution of both the form and the content of press coverage of football in France and England during the period following the end of World War II.
First, the extent to which football has been reported in the 'quality' daily press on both sides of the English Channel is analysed. How have the rôle of commentaries on football and writing styles evolved in the French and English newspapers studied? Secondly, ways in which notions of identity have been mediated via football writing since the 1940s are also explored with a view to identifying the principal elements in the construction of French and English national identities in this section of the press. How has the mediation by football journalism of the problematic Anglo-French relationship evolved since the War? The study focuses upon both autotypification (French and English self-definition) and heterotypification (how the French typically view England and how the English view France).
This project presents the initial findings of a much broader study into the analysis of historical sports media text representations of football identities in Europe and it provides some insight into the nature of representations of national identity as communicated via the vector of football writing.
© The Web Journal of French Media Studies 2002
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